The Wires (June 12, 2010)

John Maffei: You don't have to like soccer to get swept up in the World Cup

Jay Posner: American discovers heritage in South Africa

Radio-Info Dance Board: Lots of sad "smileys" on the Dance Board of Radio-Info.com, which dreads last night's sign-off of Wilmington, Delaware's non-commercial "Beat." The stations is WMPH at 91.7, owned by the Brandywine School District, and one Board poster says it sadly joins the retired corps of dance outlets in Phoenix, San Francisco and New York, not to mention the Internet-only iPartyRadio. There's some melancholy stuff on the Dance Board. From a poster: "I just posted the same message. This cant be happening to dance outlets. First Energy SF, then Pulse, then iPartyRadio, now Super? What's next, Mix2?"

415 Media: Is FM radio in San Francisco officially dead? No, but its damn near close. Statistically, FM still has an immensely larger listener base than does satellite radio; one, for the obvious reason: it's still free.

Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission has rejected the proposal, but we still think it's an intriguing idea. Let AM radio stations across the United States boost their signal power by a factor of ten. "The time to get the static out of AM radio is past due," wrote Richard F. Arsenault of New Jersey to the Commission in April - Up until 1978, half of all radio listening was done on the AM dial. Now that share has dropped to about 17 percent, according to the FCC

Who Da Guy Hawaii: 93 KHJ: Inside Boss Radio - Excerpt # 3: Local management, with money rolling in to KHJ-TV, let the radio arm languish. They were frozen in the 1950s. Tom O'Neil told Willet Brown of his irritation with KHJ's lackluster performance. Brown, pleased with the results of Drake-Chenault's efforts in San Diego, brought them to O'Neil's attention. A deal was made. You will find Bill Drake's play-by-play description of the negotiations as you turn the pages -- After the Program Director job was mine, I told just a few close friends that if KHJ couldn't win with all we had going for us, I should quit radio. It would be uncool to publicly appear as cocky as Robert W. Morgan and I felt about our chances. Working together in Fresno in 1962, we knew each other's moves. Each admired and respected the other's abilities. Football Analogy #1: With Morgan as the morning personality and me as PD, KHJ resembled an expansion team with an experienced coach and quarterback in place. We had paid our dues together and awaited our shot in the bigs.

Mel Phillips: Online advertising is still in its infancy - so much so that most radio stations are torn between selling the ads using CPM (cost per thousand), CPC (cost per click through), CPL (cost per lead) or CPS (cost per sale). The latter is commonly used for bloggers carrying ads. Whatever radio finally chooses to term it, they better be following the changes in ad pricing from quarter-to-quarter.

FMQB: FCC's Clyburn Addresses Using TV Channels For Radio Excerpt: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn gave credence to the idea of beefing up AM radio, non-commercial FM radio and low-power FM by using the spectrum of television channels 5 and 6, which have been notoriously difficult to use for that medium. Channel 5 runs from 76 MHz to 82 MHz, and Channel 6 picks up from there and carries on to the southern end of the FM dial at 88 MHz.

The Wires (June 11, 2010)

Gary Lycan: Dr. Demento leaves the airwaves after 40 years.

Inside Music Media: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is saying that it is the end of the world as the record industry knows it. Yorke is predicting the total collapse of the music industry and is warning young musicians to hold off signing record deals as he anticipates some big labels going belly up in the next few months.

The Wires (June 10, 2010)

Randy Dotinga: Take a number. Or a whole bunch.

Inside Music Media: Commercial Radio Australia and an affiliate of Radio Beijing are planning to develop a DAB+ digital radio application that will make it possible for podcasts to be sent via the broadcast band directly to a listener's radio without having to connect with the Internet. They call it "Push Radio" and it is an exciting new way to develop what I say is the next real radio - podcasting and make the content come out of regular radio speakers.

A DSC Update (June 9, 2010)

"If nobody objects, I'd like to give a portion of my side as to why we are not on KGB any longer. Many days ago Robert Padillo gave his "humbly submitted" thoughts on why we left. And he, like everyone else, got it wronnngggg. First of all, and this is critical, we didn't leave. We were flatly kicked out. You may remember that we very much wanted to stay.

"For all the armchair broadcasting experts, stop following the money trail. That is not it at all. As for our ability to bring in ratings, we were so far out in front and dominating that it was our most successful period in 20 years.

"Will you ever know the whole story from me? Yup, and very soon."

The Wires (June 9, 2010)

Who Da Guy Hawaii.com: 93 KHJ: Inside Boss Radio - Excerpt # 2: In 1965, L.A. radio was different than the radio I knew from hustling trips to Hollywood in 1959 just so I could cruise Hollywood listening to KFWB Channel Ninety-EIGHT. B. Mitchell Reed influenced me more than any disc jockey I had ever heard. KFWB's Program Director and my hero, Chuck Blore, was right up there with Babe Ruth, Elvis and John Wayne. In Hawaii, the Pidgin English phrase for "goose pimples" is "chicken skin." That was the reaction coming on in waves as I realized that this time, I had made it to Hollywood. All I had to do was perform and I would remain there. I was 27 years old. I had little doubt that I would succeed and be there for a while. It wasn't necessarily arrogance, which both Morgan and I could switch on instantly to mask our insecurities. It was that the situation seemed so logical.  KFWB. It was not the same station that first captivated the town with PD Blore's great format and crew on January 1, 1958. We would be competing against a shadow of the real KFWB. Their energy had withered. Blore was gone. I figured that, with a sufficient budget, either Bill Drake or I, singularly, could out-program them.  KRLA. Pasadena's KRLA felt hotter than 'WB. At first glance, KFWB and KRLA's combined ratings indicated that Top 40 radio was dead in the nation's second largest market. But I knew the listeners were there, just as they were all over America. These stations needed a grenade going off in their backyard - figuratively speaking - to grab their attention and, heh heh, make them wonder what was coming next

Radio Ink: GAO Report Raises Performance Royalty Fears. Estimates That Labels Could Make $19 Million Annually The Government Accountability Office has produced a preliminary report on the potential effects of the Performance Rights Act on the recording and radio industries, citing "broadcast-industry stakeholders" who say stations may "make adjustments, such as reducing staff levels, switching to a non-music format, and ceasing operations" if a performance royalty is imposed. Flat-rate royalties would add up to about $18.7 million, says the GAO, but the amount to be paid by stations that don't qualify for flat rates can't be determined.

Pulse 87 NY Relaunches Website.

The Wires (June 8, 2010)

Hit Parade Radio hits the wall with funding and goes silent. One of the first walls it smacked into was last year, over the rights to the name "Hit Parade Radio." Format creator John Rook and Marc Angell at Global Radio reached an agreement (July 31, 2009 TRI Newsletter) that left Rook with the right to go forward as Hit Parade Radio. But the legal tussle cost Rook some funding. Steve Humphries of Earthworks stepped in and satellite delivery began in 2010. Harris Broadcasting was reportedly ready to help out, and then was unable to. That led to a discontinuation of the format that had once featured Wink Martindale, Larry Lujack and Chuck Brinkman. Hit Parade Radio ops director Vic Thomas tell affiliates "It all comes down to money, and over the last couple of weeks, for various reasons, our major funding sources have gone away." Like legendary programmer John Rook, he's sad to see it go - "Call it the bad economy, the current state of the broadcasting industry, or just bad timing. Whatever the causes, we gave it our best shot." The plug got pulled early Sunday afternoon. Expect John Rook to put the oldies music he loves online, and the four-year-old Hit Parade Hall of Fame is a separate project. The Syndication Board of Radio-Info.com started talking about the situation over the weekend.

Motley Fool: Will Ford Kill Sirius XM? The ability to call up voice-activated tunes sitting on your iPod -- and have them play through your car's sound system -- was pretty cool at the time, but clearly that hasn't gotten in the way of Sirius XM's growth. Satellite radio has tacked on millions of subscribers since Sync's debut. However, the growing popularity of smartphones -- most notably Apple's app-running, Internet-surfing iPhone -- is taking on-the-go music where no iPod has gone before. Ford introduced MyFord Touch earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Hololulu Star Bulletin: As a news junkie, I love the principle of Internet radio. It's free, it's instantaneous and with newspapers evaporating, getting news via broadband has become an important option.

Darren Brown: Oklahoma City's newest radio station is rather unique. You can't get it on AM or FM, and it's broadcast out of a garage with a laptop computer. RadioOKC.com is the brainchild of Chris Torrick, a longtime radio veteran who's worked in on-air production and programming in multiple markets.

FMQB: RIAA Formally Asks For LimeWire Shutdown

Confirmed: Dr. Demento Leaves Terrestrial For Internet Only (June 7, 2010)

Here's more on that.

From drdemento.com posted by Mysterious Mose:

This weekend (June 5-6), the Dr. Demento Show will have its final broadcast on [his show's radio affilliates] KIYU, KLOO, WLVQ (QFM96), WRKH (The Rocket) and KOZT (The Coast).

This was a very painful decision for the Doctor...he really hates to let it go after almost 40 years...but he has come to agree with his manager and his family that it's necessary. The broadcast has been losing money for some time.

THE GOOD NEWS -- Dr. Demento intends to continue producing new shows every week for www.drdemento.com for the foreseeable future. A new one will be available Saturday morning, June 12, and more new shows will be posted every Saturday thereafter.

Also...if you live in or around Amarillo, TX, you're in luck...by special agreement and due to contractual considerations, a version of the internet show will be heard weekly on KACV-FM there, at least through the summer.

The Doctor wishes to express his grateful appreciation to everyone who's been listening in Alaska, Oregon, Ohio, Alabama and California, and hopes all of you will give the www.drdemento.com broadcast a try.

Stay deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemented!

Letters: Dr. Demento (June 7, 2010)

From Jason: Thanks for keeping us updated on the Dr. Demento news. It's sad that it had to end this way with fewer radio stations choosing to play his show than it ever had been 10 years ago. With the loss of his national advertisers, it was only a matter of time before Dr. Demento would have called it quits, but I didn't think that he would keep the show going for another five years since then. I've been listening to his show on various Internet stations since 1996 when the now dead local station cancelled his show until he told KOZT to stop streaming his show, then that was it for me. Haven't been demented from him since then. I can afford to pay $2 to stream his show, but the sound quality is so bad that it's of no use to me. I guess he couldn't make enough money on selling his streams to keep the show going. It was a good ride for Dr. Demento since 1974, but with radio playlists getting too tight for his show, the writing has been on the wall for some time.

From Daryl: WLUP was a last station to drop his show, but not the very last because six other stations still carried his show. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, but I'm guessing that novelty music seemed to vanish around 1996 and began sounding too much like filk or geek instead of true novelty that was familiar in the past. With that, the loss of novelty meant that the show itself had to stray from its focus on the kind of dementia that we were accustomed to hearing and got something that just wasn't on the same level as Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, Weird Al Yankovic, Cheech and Chong, Tom Lehrer, and Stan Freberg to name a few. The song parodies were better back then because the music the parodists were making fun of were better back then. I love the song by Elvis Presley "Heartbreak Hotel," but I laughed when Freberg made fun of it with his version as he said that he hated rock music. Today, what do we get for inspiration for parodies? Teenboppers like Justin Beaver and Miley Cynaide or whoever with songs so insipid that no parodist can do justice with it. I say that nobody can do a parody if the songs they're making fun of are bland and boring like they are today. This is what doomed Dr. Demento's show. It was a lack of inspired musicial material that killed musical parody as a chief source of novelty music. We'll have the great novelty artists of the past to live on until we die.

From Jen: As a longtime Los Angeles resident who grew up on his show until 1997, I'm still mad that no station in my area ever bothered to pick up his show. Not even KLOS, which could have carried his show. I had to depend on the Internet to listen to his show, as well as Captain Wayne's site when he once offered Dr. Demento there. I quit when Talonian forced Wayne to remove the Dr. Demento shows and they forced his stations to stop streaming the show. I began to think that it wasn't the radio station's fault that they didn't choose to carry the show from the way they were treated by the owner of the show. Thanks for the memories of dementia at least until 1997.