The Wires (July 10, 2010)

Yahoo Finance: 10 Brands That May Disappear in 2011. 24/7 Wall St. has created a new list of brands that may disappear, which includes Readers Digest, Kia Motors, Dollar Thrifty, Zale, Blockbuster, T-Mobile, BP Plc, RadioShack, Merrill Lynch, and Moody's.

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: Baseball's Midsummer Classic reigns over counterparts from other sports. ARTICLE: The NFL Pro Bowl is a joke, with the stars of the game trying their best not to get hurt.

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: Memories of shared history with Coryell. ARTICLE: When you work in a college sports information office, the phone rings constantly

Orange County Register: Nikki Sixx may not be a household name to everyone, but everyone knows the names Motley Crue and Tommy Lee. Sixx and Lee founded the group in 1981, and now Sixx (with co-host Kerri Kasem) is bringing his countdown, music and interview "Side Show" to 98.7 FM on Saturday mornings (8-10 a.m.).

Who Da Guy Hawaii: 93 KHJ: Inside Boss Radio - Excerpt # 9: Bill Watson 1 9 6 1 -- Finished four good years in Sacramento. Deejay/TV dance-show host. Back in hometown L.A. looking for a gig. Meet with Chuck Blore, KFWB, #1 radio station in town. No openings. No surprise. Hang around Hollywood. S Sunset & Vine. "The Gaiety" Deli restaurant. A stranger tracks me down. Whodaguy? Red-hair, well-tailored out-of-towner, green suit. Looks serious, talks hip. Ron Jacobs from Hawaii, KPOI Radio, VP Colgreene Broadcasting. Looking for talent for new Top 40 station in San Bernardino. Am I interested? No. Jacobs, "Let's have lunch." OK. The Gaiety. Full of radio, TV film people. Pastrami sandwiches. None better. Jacobs eats sandwich and kosher dills while checking me out. After two hours I thought he was Pancho Villa. Wanted to ride with him.

Inside Music Media: In the last few months every financial forecast for terrestrial radio's future projects growth only if new media is involved in their strategies. Look no further than the esteemed PwC and BIA Kelsey assessments for radio. What part of new media as radio's future don't radio CEOs get? To be fair, some get it. Unfortunately, too few.

Tom Taylor: Just call it "NPR", thanks. New CEO Vivian Schiller came from the NewYorkTimes.com and she's very open to new platforms for National Public Radio - enough to recommend that the Washington, D.C.-based program supplier refer to itself by its initials. No "radio." The pubcasters up in Minnesota are already "American Public Media", passing up the "radio" association, and now Schiller tells the Washington Post that using NPR is "more modern, streamlined." And in fact, the on-air personnel have been using just "NPR" for some time now. The lockouts for reports and programs are simply "This is NPR."

So...Will They or Won't They? (July 9, 2010)

But...back in 1997, Dave Smiley (while still under contract with Star 100.7) quit Star under protest when his morning shift was given to Jeff and Jer (who moved from Q106 that year when their contract with that station ended) and Smiley succeeded in joining competetor Q106 for mornings even though he was still under contract with Star that had a no compete clause.

So, with this precedent, could the DSC appear on KGB, or any other station like, I dunno, KPRI or 91X, sooner than possible? Those are my thoughts.

Some people close to the situation won't say any more. Their lips are sealed.

Here's the deal. We want to get this right. No bull. No teasers. So far, they're not on San Diego radio. That's a fact. The questions I have to ask.

1. Can the DSC do what Dave Smiley did in 1997 and appear on another station even though they're still under contract with a no-compete clause with KGB through some unknown date?

2. Can the DSC find a loophole that will not prevent them from doing a podcast version of their show?

3. Is the July 12 date meaningless if the DSC isn't going to return to the air, or will some legal miracle make it possible to pop up on another station?

4. What was the reason why the DSC were kicked out of KGB-FM if money isn't the issue?

5. Is the management at KGB regretting their decision to take the DSC off the air and are forcing themselves to reconsider putting them back on the air?

6. Where were the DSC going to appear on July 12 if not KGB?

Stay tuned.

The Wires (July 9, 2010)

Inside Music Media: There is nothing wrong with viewers older than 51 but advertisers want to reach younger money demos and broadcast TV is increasingly not the way. Best indicator that this was happening is to see how network prime time programming turned to cheap reality shows and other unremarkable programming that made television viewing suddenly not required. Kind of reminds you of radio where consolidators opted for cheap instead of live and local

AMERICAN TOP 40 continues to celebrate the 40th anniversary of by having comedian GEORGE LOPEZ guest-host the program for RYAN SEACREST this weekend.

Tom Taylor: "Magic Christian" Charles Christianson/Chris Charles dies of cancer at 66. Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown once told him he should write a book about his life, and he said "if I did, it would make Howard Stern's book and movie look like a warm-up act." Former colleague Bill Gardner tells TRI that Magic Christian "said even funnier things off the air" than on it, and says he once told a co-worker "I've been fired more times than a Civil War cannon." He wasn't always his own best friend in terms of work habits. But what incredible jobs he had. LARadio.com fills in some details about his life, from his fascination with early controversial talker Bill Balance at KFWB. By 14, he was calling stations in the phone book looking for a break, and KDWC in West Covina hired him for part-time work. He landed his first full-time gig at 17, at KLAS, Las Vegas. Soon he was shuttling around major-market stations in Riverside/San Bernardino (at KMEN), Chicago (WCFL), Fresno (legendary top 40 KYNO), Boston (WVBF and WMEX, replacing Larry Lujack), Los Angeles (KBLA, KGBS), Philadelphia (WIBG), Phoenix (KTAR) and San Diego (KCBQ). For a while in the early 1970s he worked in Toronto for George Johns at CFTR (where future acting star Rick Moranis ran his board). He also had U.S. gigs in San Diego (KLZZ), San Antonio (KLLS), Memphis (WHBQ, after Rick Dees left) and the Jones syndication operation in Colorado. Eventually he was in Santa Rosa, Amarillo, Sioux Falls and Iowa City. "Magic Christian" is the name of an influential black-humor novel by Terry Southern published in 1959, and there were other DJs who adopted the name. Chris/Charles gets dibs on being the first, though. He died last Friday in Iowa.

Someone Knows... (July 8, 2010)

With no sign of morning show firings in sight, unless its a last-minute change, there are no clues as to where The DSC will land.

The only possible suggestions via e-mail. 91X (has no morning show), KPRI (their morning show isn't doing anything in ratings), Jack-FM (where DSC would just prop up the ratings of the limited 70s and 80s oldies playlist), and to a lesser extent, or any Clear Channel radio station (95.7 if they decide to go country or if that station flips formats, KGB, which is unlikely, and KIOZ, which is not as unlikely but their morning show is boring).

It's four days away. Where will they land?

The Wires (July 8, 2010)

Randy Dotinga: Terry Gross' complex and other radio tales

All Comedy Radio: It'll be Spain versus Holland in Sunday's World Cup final. Notice the lack of exclamation points. The rest of the planet will be glued to the game. Say -- is there anybody we wanna sneak attack? Even just for fun?

Sirius XM: SIRIUS XM Radio added 583,249 net subscribers in the second quarter of 2010 . Improved car sales helped Sirius XM Radio add 583,249 net subscribers in the second quarter. That takes the satellite radio operator to a total of 19,527,448 users, which is up more than 1.1 million from one year ago. Sirius XM hasn't topped the 19 million-subscriber level since the end of 2008, before the recession led thousands of subscribers to cancel.

sdradio.net and ...

laradio.com report that Chris Charles, the original `Magic Christian," passed away July 2 from cancer. He had been living in a boarding house in Iowa. He was 66. In the 1960s, Chris worked as a Top 40 jock at KBLA and KGBS

Mel Phillips: Buying & Selling Radio In PPM Era -- Measuring radio has changed dramatically. It has gone from a memory challenge to reality with the advent and employment of Arbitron's Portable People Meter.

TV Land renews "Hot in Cleveland" for Second Season. TV Land's first original sitcom has been greenlit for a second season. The network will start production of 20 new episodes in October, with a launch tentatively scheduled for January 2011. Stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White will return as series regulars for all 20 episodes.

All Access: MySpace Music Mulling Music Subscription Service. Ad-Supported Model Not Paying Off. Executives of MYSPACE MUSIC are talking with the major labels about launching a subscription service, presumably by the end of the year. CNET NEWS reports that NEWS CORP, the parent company of MYSPACE, have soured on the current free ad-supported model because " it's burning through a lot of money each month."

All Access: Prince Declares The Internet 'Completely Over'

All Access: 'California Gurls' Sets Mediabase Top 40 Airplay Record

RAIN 7/7: Net connections, and Internet radio, becoming more common in mass appeal consumer electronics. It seems more and more consumer electronics now not only connect to the Internet but can stream web radio. We take a look at a few good examples in today's issue of RAIN. These devices -- from home theater receivers and Blu-ray disc players to VoIP telephones -- expand Internet radio's reach beyond the PC to consumers that may not necessarily be interested in stand-alone Internet radio devices. Also: Remember the Kerbango Internet radio? CNet explains why the device and its peers failed, and how a new generation of Internet appliances are now succeeding...

TV Tech: FCC/REGULATORY: Could `Voluntary' Surrender of Spectrum Clear Channels 31-51?

Bloomberg: Music Downloads Stall as Online Streaming Grows

Multichannel: Will Netflix Threaten HBO, Showtime and Starz?

The Wires (July 7, 2010)

415 Media: KNEW San Francisco nixes "John and Ken" and replaces time slot with Fox News Radio's John Gibson.

Tom Taylor: SoundExchange founding executive John Simson to leave by year-end. HeÆs fought to shape the future of digital rights for well over a decade, back to the Digital Performance Rights Act of 1995. He was the logical choice to run the new ôcollecting societyö named SoundExchange and was its first fulltime employee in 2000. Now SoundExchange says Simson is leaving "in order to return to his creative roots.ö John says ôafter ten years of working with digital services, weÆve achieved many of our important goals.ö He says the moneyÆs really starting to roll in the front door û $220 million distributed to artists and labels just in the past 10 months. SoundExchange is governed equally by the labels (9 board members) and artists (also 9). For all of SimsonÆs accomplishments, he hasnÆt yet gotten Congress to pass a radio performance royalty bill. H.R. 848 is still sitting in the House and its companion is in the Senate. He says ôIÆve told the board that I will be there to finish this task whenever required.ö The existence of SoundExchange has coincided with the launch of satellite radio (2001) and Internet radio, and those are among the drivers of its revenue.

Multichannel News: Bill Would Preempt Multiple Net Taxes.

A San Diego County Fair Update (July 6, 2010)

BBB: DSC to the "I"? (July 6, 2010)

Says the blogger, "It was being hinted that San Diego radio morning team Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw would be returning to their former home, 101.5 KGB. But NOW whispers are that not only are they NOT returning to KGB, but no Clear Channel station at all! And if my coven of BBB thinkers are right, the station may very well be San Diego North County's very own 102.1 KPRI! No word yet, but that's our guess. But we'll all just have to wait until July to find out."

Any Guesses To Where DSC Will Land? (July 6, 2010)

The DSC should e-mail me with the station, but tell me when I can release the information to the public so that people will know what stations to set their radios to once they wake up on July 12.

sdradio.net run by Chris Carmichael hints that it's an FM station with four letters for call letters.

Unless "space" counts as a letter, or KGB-FM changes its call letters to a four-character call-sign, it won't be on 101.5.

I'm not sure if the Mexican licensed radio stations would be in the works for a morning team whose comedy may not sit well with the Mexican government. Remember when Mexico forced Jacor to move Howard Stern from 91X to 105.3 in 1997? Remember when Dr. Demento disappearred from the Flash in 1996? Therefore, in my humble opinion, and I could be wrong, the DSC won't be on any station that starts with an "X" for call letters (XTRA-FM, XMOR-FM, XBCE-FM, etc.)

So, as far as commercial radio stations are concerned, here are the possibilities...

KHTS-FM (long shot since it skews teenagers), KUSS-FM (low-rated country may change formats), KFMB-FM (could Jack-FM's trademarked handle that plays mostly classic rock and old modern rock songs be their new home?), KPRI-FM (a low-rated AAA station that Dave picked on in the past), or KIOZ-FM (because I don't think their morning show without Mikey is worth a hill of beans).

What if Univision flipped 102.9 to an English-language rock and oldies format? Could that be the new home of the DSC?

I don't think DSC would appear on KSIQ 96.1 unless Dave bought the station outright.

What do you think?

The Wires (July 6, 2010)

TV Tech: Broadcasters Urge Genachowski to Protect Free TV. The top major broadcast TV associations urge FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to protect over the air television.

Radio World Online: FCC Tells Twin Cities Couple They're Pirates.

Gary Lycan: Ryan Seacrest's future is the topic of much speculation these days - will he leave morning radio for other opportunities? - but this weekend it's all about radio. He hosts "American Top 40" from 8 a.m. to noon Sundays on KIIS/102.7 FM and on July 4 he will pay tribute to the show's creator and original host Casey Kasem on the occasion of AT40's 40th anniversary.