The Wires (July 24, 2010)

All Access: Daniel Schorr Dies at 93. DANIEL SCHORR, the longtime Senior News Analyst for NPR and the last working member of EDWARD R. MURROW's CBS NEWS "MURROW'S BOYS," died TODAY (7/23) after a short illness at 93. SCHORR had been with NPR since 1995, contributing to "WEEKEND EDITION" and "ALL THINGS CONSIDERED."

Clear Channel's Mark Mays sent this e-mail to the CC staffs on Friday July 23, 2010

Gary Lycan: TMZ? RadarOnline.com? If you want the real scoop -- and the full story -- check out Lisa Stanley's entertainment reporting on K-Earth 101's top-rated weekday morning show (5 to 10 a.m.) with Gary Bryan + Pacifica-run KPFK/90.7 FM is taking a hard look at afternoon, evening and weekend programming.

John Maffei-TV/Radio Sports: National networks not exactly picking up on Padres' success. ARTICLE: The Padres and their run to the top of the standings in the National League West is the best-kept secret in baseball.

FMQB: CHR Listeners Want To Hear Latest Trends. Study of women shows that knowing what music is popular is more important than hearing one's favorite song.

All Access-Alan Burns: Alan Burns: Top 40 Needs More Ways To Expose New Music. Heavy Rotations Taking A Toll; Lady Gaga Format's Most-Liked Artist Lady Gaga, Black-Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Rihanna and Usher - the "five most-liked artists in CHR" by women listeners, in the new 2000-person study from Alan Burns & Associates. Alan says Ke$ha "is CHR's hottest new artist, almost reaching the top tier of most-liked artists", very early in her career. The study finds that Hip-hop "slid to fourth in popularity for CHR listeners. However, it still drives rhythmic CHR listening." Finally, here's a tough balancing act for morning shows on CHR radio - respondents say their two top needs are "play a lot of music" (66%) and "make me laugh" (58%). Burns just held the second of its free dmr-sponsored webinars based on findings from the research project.

SDRadio.net: Have you heard 96.1 KISQ? Neither have a majority if San Diego radio listeners. Not a blip in the latest PPM.

SpyShelter Premium 4.21 (Windows). The SpyShelter monitors vulnerable and weak spots in your computer system to ensure that even the most advanced keyloggers are shut down even before these can launch a single dangerous attack against your system..

MultiChannel News: AT&T Rolls Up 2.5 Million U-verse TV Subscribers Among strong second-quarter results, AT&T grew U-verse TV subscribers 59% year over year to stand at 2.5 million at the end of June.

Multichannel News: Senate Committee Passes Spectrum Bill.

Inside Radio Survey: No more consolidation. Many of the industry's largest radio operators would like to see FCC ownership limits relaxed - even to the point of allowing an owner 12 stations in a market. But a majority of Inside Radio readers believe bigger isn't better. More than half (52%) believe ownership diversity and competition are healthy for the industry. Another 14% think further consolidation will mean fewer jobs.

Radio World Online: AM Power Remains an Intriguing Issue. Richard Arsenault's dramatic AM power hike proposal didn't gain immediate traction at the FCC. But readers were keenly interested in it. Here's a roundup of their comments. Writes one: `Most important [would be] the FCC enforcing the switching power supply manufacturers, LED traffic signal boys, dimmers, and even pump motors to put the kaibosh on the RF noise generated on MW.'

HitzRadio.com expires after nine years online. No explanation from the site that plays "all the hits, 24/7 and commercial free." It simply says "it's been a fun journey, but it's time for us to say goodbye." The website is here - and there's no indication about whether money was the problem. But it's a pretty good guess. A nine-year life makes it Old Testament-vintage in Internet years. The Webcasting/Internet Streaming Board of Radio-Info sounded the alert about the signoff of HitzRadio.com

People: Valerie Bertinelli Planning a Very Small Wedding in Italy.

Personal Top 12 Sitcoms (July 23, 2010)

LPTV 7 Turns On (July 23, 2010)

The Wires (July 23, 2010)

Nielsen: Listeners age 25 to 54 continue to thrive as the "sweet spot" for radio, while consumers in cell phone only (CPO) households continue to listen at a higher rate than the 12+ population, according to an analysis of the spring 2010 ratings in 51 markets released today by Nielsen.

Mel Phillips: The Pew Internet study showed that more Americans get their news from the internet than from newspapers or radio and three-fourths say they hear of news via email or updates on social media sites. A majority of those surveyed, a full 61% said they get their news online. That's compared with 54% who said they listen to a radio news program and 50% who get the news from a local newspaper.

Inside Music Media: It's one thing to learn from the mistakes of consolidators in the music and radio industries and their predecessors in publishing and TV but the best way to see actionable growth ideas for the future is to study sociology along with the emerging technology now.

Study: Top 40 Needs To Expose More New Music

The Stream Ends For HitzRadio.com. Online radio station hitzradio.com has announced on its website that it's going dark after a nine-year run. "Yes, you've heard right. After today, hitzradio.com will be shutting down its operations,' Sunny wrote. "Special thanks to all the on-air staff and mixshow DJs we've had over the years. I wish you all the best. It's been a fun journey, but it's time for us to say goodbye. The station will be taking requests and dedications all day.

All Access reports that Cherry Creek Radio has filed for Silent STAs for KROP 1300 AM in Brawley, CA, which has been dark since March pending sale.

Multichannel: (editor's note: this may look like an implied advertisement, but we're interested in the technical aspect of the article. In this day and age, cable companies should think about upping their cable speeds in exchange of shutting down USENET access to trade bandwidth issues.) Charter Cranks Up DOCSIS To 75 Mbps For Businesses. Charter Communications' business services division is offering two ultra-fast broadband packages -- with up to 40 and 75 Megabits per second downstream, respectively -- in nine states

ESPN vs. Time Warner (July 22, 2010)

Laist: ABC and ESPN Say Don't Feel Stuck with Time Warner Cable, You Have Choices When it Comes to Providers

I Have Choices is a Disney-run propaganda website designed to convince the ESPN addicts to call Time Warner to renew the agreement with Disney, which wants to raise the cost of providing ESPN to all of its basic cable subscribers.

Roll Over or Get Tough is run by Time Warner, designed to educate the consumers on where the money goes when they pay their cable bills.

Learn More: TV Today. Broadcast TV stations and cable networks continue to demand higher and higher fees for their programming, threatening to pull-the-plug on popular shows if we don't pay up. Learn more about the issue, and how you can help protect consumers from higher TV prices.

Wall Street. Journal: Disney Battles Time Warner Cable with New Website.

CBS Replacing Soap With Talker (July 22, 2010)

Yahoo-AP: CBS to launch celebrity-hosted daytime talk show. It's an hour-long daily talk show with six co-hosts - all women (a knockoff of ABC's "The View"). Hosters tapped include Sharon Osbourne, Sara Gilbert, Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini, Julie Chen (who's married to Les Moonves, the CEO and president of CBS, you make the connection), and Marissa Jaret Winokur.

The Wrap: Opinion: The decision by CBS to select a female ensemble-hosted talk show to replace daytime soap opera "As The World Turns" beginning in September was the most logical decision the network could make from the selections it gave itself.

More: The talker will go up against a longtime soaper, "One Life to Live" on ABC weekdays at 2pm ET, and 1pm CT and PT. In some markets, "Days of Our Lives" airs opposite "OLTL" on NBC stations.

More: The alternatives included a cooking-type competition show starring Emeril Lagasse, a new version of "Pyramid" starring Andy Richter, a revival of game show "Password" and another talk show co-hosted by Valerie Bertinelli and Australian talk show host Rove McManus.

Tom Taylor: Clear Channel Thoughts (July 22, 2010)

L.A. owner Saul Levine says Clear Channel's proposal would be a "disaster." The Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters owner files his own comments with the FCC, and says "mere words alone cannot describe the disaster that will destroy what is left of the broadcast industry if Clear Channel is given the opportunity to carry out what it seeks from the FCC." You'll recall that Levine previously protested CBS Radio's importation of its Riverside-market country "K-Frog" KFRG to L.A. via an HD-2 channel. He believes that was also pushing the FCC limit. Of course Saul owns "Go Country" KKGO (105.1), and he views the CBS move as an attack. Now he's not only calling Clear Channel's proposal to raise ownership limits a disaster - he wants the FCC to lower the caps and "sub-caps" that keep you from owning eight stations in L.A. on the FM dial. LARadio.com reports the Saul Levine filing, and his proposal to roll back limits in L.A. from eight stations to five, with no more than three in the same service (AM or FM).

The Wires (July 22, 2010)

Randy Dotinga: Yes they can: Hosts to return to air.

Radio Ink: FCC Defends Its Right To Change Ownership Rules. The FCC today filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals defending the agency's authority to make changes to media ownership rules. The FCC's 2008 decision to allow newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership in large markets is at the core of the legal challenge. Activist groups were hoping chairman Julius Genachowski would have instead closed what they see as a policy full of loopholes.

All Access: Alan Burns: Radio In Jeopardy With A Generation.

Kurt Hanson: RAIN 7/21: Auto Magazine predicts "Wild West" of in-car radio

Pandora hits 60 million. Pandora president/CEO Joe Kennedy announced at the New Music Seminar in New York today that the online music service has crossed the 60 million registered users mark. Pandora says its music archive includes of hundreds of thousands of songs from 90,000 separate artists, 80% of which are played each month.

TV Tech: FCC Frees Up Mobile DTV With Analog Tuner Waiver. The Federal Communications Commission has released mobile DTV from a regulatory obstacle. The commission waived a requirement that mobile digital broadcast TV receivers include analog decoding technology. The mobile DTV standard, ATSC M/H or A/153, was adopted last October, just two-and-a-half years into development as broadcasters raced to get into the mobile video market.

Broadcasting and Cable: Broadband Not Being Deployed To All.

Inside Radio: No FM? No problem, say teenage girls. More than half (57%) of 15-24 year old females say they can foresee a day when they won't need to listen to music on the radio because they'll be able to get what they want on their cell phone, iPod or online. One quarter (24%) strongly agree. That's according to an Alan Burns and Associates survey of 2,057 female listeners to CHR and AC stations.

SF Gate: Seven More Dirty Words for the FCc List.

How To Listen To More Radio (Jul 21, 2010)

One of the common themes at the Conclave, held July 15-17 in Minneapolis, was the lack of listening that PDs do to their own radio stations-something bemoaned at both Friday morning's Group Heads panel and again that day at a similar Group PD session. To be fair, both sets of execs were willing to acknowledge how much harder it is to listen these days-especially if you're programming four stations. But there was still a moment of joint dismay when one of the group PDs noted that it was common to hear something while monitoring a station that the local PDs knew nothing about.

The assembled execs are right - the first task is to create an atmosphere where it's physically possible for programmers to hear what's going out over their own airwaves again. The next is creating one where attention to product detail is valued. Up until recently, the programmer who wanted to micromanage the details of what was going out over the air instead of being a salesperson or concert promoter in their spare time would have probably been told that the listeners could not care less about such petty issues. The relentless anti-tuneout paranoia of the PPM era can rarely be described as a positive, but it at least gives programmers an excuse to pay attention to their own airwaves again.

And, as somebody who listens to a lot of radio, a few pieces of advice for anybody who wants to do more listening:

Get Smart(phone): For all its challenges, being able to stream radio in the car has resulted in a lot of extra radio listening. Local radio was always there, of course, but the iPod sometimes trumped local radio. Now, the iPod rarely makes its way to the car. If you're not yet using your phone to listen to more radio, you finally have an excuse to tell management that you need to upgrade.

Listen On The Stream, Not Over The Air: For one thing, it's the way that your group head or group PD is hearing the station. Beyond that, listening to the stream will motivate you to fix some likely issues for most stations that stream-bad PSAs, repetition within stopsets, clunky transitions, bad fill songs, and, of course, poor stream quality itself.

Listen Before The Shift Change: Tune in for the half-hour before the shift-change and you get to hear two personalities. Similarly, tuning in at 11:30 a.m. gives you regular format and whatever your station may do at lunchtime. And if the bulk of your spotload is in the second half hour, it's important to listen there for the same reason it's important to hear the stream-to know how bearable the station is to listeners.

Listen When You're Jockless: This would probably be the last priority for most PDs, but it's the best chance to hear your part of the radio station, without the variable of jocks or daytime spotload. If the music and imaging are still exciting when the station is unhosted, it's good news.

Out Of Market Listening Helps, Too: Again, it's hard to make listening around the market, the country or the world a priority when you're not getting enough time to listen to your own stations. But the details of somebody else's radio station are less likely to become ambient noise, and more likely to get the creative juices flowing.

The Wires (Jul 21, 2010)

Who Da Guy Hawaii: 93 KHJ: Inside Boss Radio - Excerpt # 11: Charlie Tuna: The Real Don Steele was the rock star leader of the Boss Jocks. Very mysterious, said very little off the air, but when he did, people listened. Sam Riddle was the businessman, always had a million outside deals going on in addition to his KHJ-TV show. It all paid off down the road; one of Sam's productions was "Star Search" with Ed McMahon. Johnny Williams was the perfect all-night man, soothing voice, relaxed presentation and always right there with the quips and perfect feel for the format. No one could sound like he was having a ball during the really slow and lonely times any more than Williams + Sam Riddle: When the time came to get ready for the new Boss format, I'll never forget practicing on KHJ-FM so no one would hear me. Ron Jacobs said, "OK, you've got seven seconds to say what you used to say on KFWB and KRLA in forty-five seconds."

George Johns: I was thinking about the Clear Channel new plan of cutting the wages of Morning show folks who cost more than 30% of the income of their shows. Now of course if the show doesn't cost 30% they will all be getting raises right? Yeah -- Right! + The word I think best describes a great morning show is "Unpredictable" + My very socialist friends in Canada were asking me while I was on my recent bucket list tour -- What's up with Obama, he seems to be a little over the top.

Now and Then: You know the summer is flying by when radio advertisers get their 'back-to-school' campaigns ready. The latest Mediaguide AdMonitor review of radio advertising across the U.S. for the first two weeks of July shows that the top retail brands are, for the most part, tracking at lower levels than the same period in 2009. Macy's, Target, JC Penney and Kmart are down for the first 15 days of July 2010 versus the same period of 2009.

Inside Music Media: Prince recently told the Daily Mirror over in the UK that "The Internet's completely over". Thank God he finally shared that with us. I was under the false impression that Apple was selling mobile devices as fast as they could make them partially to access the Internet on the go. Now I'm going to have to make my iPhone and iPad into ash trays - and I don't even smoke!

FCC: Millions Have No Access To Broadband. The FCC's latest Broadband Deployment Report found that between 14 million and 24 million Americans have no access to broadband, and "the immediate prospect for deployment to them are weak." The agency said the report underscores the need for reform of the Universal Service Fund and "innovative approaches to unleashing new spectrum."

Slow start for John Lynch's second act. Even with millions of dollars in hand, building a radio group isn't as easy or quick as it once was. Just ask Local Media of America president/CEO John Lynch. He partnered with the private equity firm Thoma Bravo in January to build a radio group of 100 stations in large and mid-sized markets. But Lynch has yet to announce any deals.

Valerie Talk Show Put On Hold By Valerie. From NY Post: Valerie Bertinelli and Jenny McCarthy have both backed off plans to become talk-show queens because it's too much work -- "They thought it would be a few hours a day," said a source. "They didn't realize launching a talk show is 24/7 work for months"

The Wires (Jul 20, 2010)

Inside Radio: A call for royalty compromise. Bonneville CEO Bruce Reese becomes the latest radio group head says it's time to hammer out a compromise with the music industry on a performance royalty for terrestrial radio. But even as talks continue in Washington between the record labels and NAB, a settlement doesn't appear close

Multichannel News: Rainbow, AT&T U-verse Ink New Carriage Accord.

New York Times: Several people are devising devices and systems that consume so little power that it can be drawn from ambient radio waves, reducing or even eliminating the need for batteries. Their work has been funded in part by the National Science Foundation. Powercast, based in Pittsburgh, sells radio wave transmitters and receivers that use those waves to power wireless sensors and other devices.

Gary Lycan: Compelling content. Focused adult programming. Delivering more current and hot topics. That's the vision and game plan of Jack Silver, the "silver bullet" behind the once-popular KLSX/97.1 FM who has now moved over to KABC/790 AM as program director and operations manager. Silver rejoins long-time friend and colleague Bob Moore, also ex-KLSX, who is now the president and general manager at KABC.

Ars Technica: It's time once again for the Federal Communications Commission to consider its broadcast ownership rules. That means another huge petition from Clear Channel Communications calling for the elimination of any restrictions on the number of radio stations that the company can buy. Why? The Internet.

Who Da Guy Hawaii: 93 KHJ: Inside Boss Radio - Excerpt # 10: Casey Kasem: Ron Jacobs and I became friends when he had asked to have a meeting concerning the possibility of my moving from KRLA to KHJ. As a matter of fact I think there were two or three meetings. We had a mutual respect for one another's talent and hit it off. The only reason I didn't go to KHJ was because the money I was asking for was much more than the salaries of the KHJ air staff — at the time I was enjoying success and making big money with my daily TV show and weekly dances. Ron couldn't risk doing anything that might disrupt the great morale at KHJ or upset the DJs who were responsible for making his station #1. A few short years later, I called Ron and asked him if he would be interested in producing a countdown show, the Top 40 Hits in America. His immediate reply was, "Sounds great! Let's get together and do it!" And with our associates, we did. And I've been counting down the hits ever since.

Claude Hall: What a great radio station! KCBQ. Mostly, of course, because of the radio personalities who meandered through the door from time to time. I'm very pleased to be in this particular email loop, i.e., this note from Lee Baby Simms, San Francisco Bay, to a few of his buddies: "Good Morning, Lads. As you know, I have always been something of a ‘Stoner'. Now I am written in stone. An old friend of mine, Lee Marshall, sent this to me yesterday. Lee is the voice of Tony The Tiger. Hence the ‘You're Gr-r-r-r-reat' line. As far as I know, this monument is the only one of its kind in the world -- a granite monument with the names of a bunch of crazy people engraved upon it!" + e-mail from Charlie Tuna, Los Angeles: "Hi, Claude, thanks for the ink! A couple of radio friends sent me notes I was featured this week in your column, which I always appreciate. You were very supportive of me back in the day, and still are today".

Inside Music Media: Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius XM Radio, convinced the government to allow him to merge Sirius with XM - the only two competing satellite services - thus making them one monopoly. The Mel argument was that satellite radio wasn't just competing with satellite radio but with every form of media entertainment out there. He won. Now Clear Channel is back at the FCC again after four years and proposing ownership "tiers" exactly to their monopolistic liking.

Discussion: HD Radio (July 19, 2010)

Topic: The continued failure of HDRadio in San Diego

From Media Hack Chris - SDR: As an owner of three HDRadios, I am amazed on the lack of promotion by the stations. Sure, you'll hear those nifty, neat, and nice promos about HDRadio and how price has come down ... but I'm surprised on the lack of promotion by the web sites. If it is there, it is hidden or buried in the promotion for money making revenue for the station.

HDRadio is the 'loss leader' for the station. It takes a lot of $$$ to have two transmitters let alone the music fees on running two or three additional signals. Outside of the station's core transmitting area around the stick (in this case most likely around Mt Soledad, and San Miguel), HDRadio in a car -- in San Diego -- is a joke. Groove Salad on KPBS' HD3 signal is great -- but listen in the car and loose the signal you'll revert to the analog signal. Sound collusion, and consumers are not warned about that ear wreck. They think the radio is broken.

The only place I've heard sustained HDRadio reception is the LA Basin. The El Toro norte on the 5, reception is great. The 5 in San Diego county, it's hit and miss north of the 56 -- non existent in Poway -- and a crap shoot on the 78 corridor. The flat terrain is better suited there -- and most of the sticks on Mount Wilson supports the "view" or reception.

Highway 76 towards the ocean -- LA signals rule even in HD.

So, I'm still not convinced that the In Band On Channel (IBOC) standard by one company is the best way. Reminds me of AM stereo. Much to do about nothing.

From nocoradio: I think streaming has quickly passed HD radio. Operators have decided if they have to promote an "alternative" way of listening" there are a lot more fish in the streaming barrel. And there are. Every phone nowadays can stream. More and more stations are developing their own streaming apps and the like. HD radio requires special hardware, and here in SD, reception is crap. I think HD radio is a has-been before it even got off the ground...(and I own one!). Of course, reception is so poor, it's useless.

Continue reading here: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=172079.0

KCBQ Remembered (July 19, 2010)

A part of San Diego's radio history

Donating for the KCBQ Monument

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

DEADLINE NEARS FOR KCBQ MONUMENT NAMES

The committee in charge of erecting the KCBQ monument has announced a deadline of August 1st for any names to be included on the monument. The monument will be erected at the site of the old KCBQ AM 1170 transmitter location at 9416 Mission Gorge road in the San Diego suburb of Santee, California.

During the top 40 era KCBQ AM 1170 was one of the best known and most imitated stations in the country. The studios, transmitter and towers were torn down and replaced by a shopping center in 2003. The station now broadcasts from another location.

Engraved on the monument will be the names of the air personalities who worked at the station during its top forty days from 1958 to 1978. If you were one of those personalities or know of someone who should be included, please send that information to "Shotgun Tom" Kelly at shotgunt@aol.com

The KCBQ AM 1170 monument is scheduled to be unveiled on Saturday, August 28th at 11:70AM (12:10PM) at 9416 Mission Gorge Road in Santee.

People who want to see what the monument looks like can visit our web page at: KCBQRemembered.net Please feel free to make a donation in any amount you wish to help us meet our goal.

Visit our blog and keep up to date: blog.KCBQRemembered.net Please visit inside for more details!

Donation Update: Please mail to:

Linda Irwin
Attn: KCBQ Monument
2082 Estela Drive
El Cajon, CA 92020

Names: We have a hard date of August 1, 2010, for final design and so we can get the stone engraved and the monument finalized.