Wiremania (Sep 10, 2011)

Radio Wires

10 Years After The Terror Attacks, Radio Remembers 9/11

FCC Nixes Challenge To KFWB/Los Angeles Trust Assignment

KFMB Responds To Mass Power Outage

Sports Wires

Blackout lifted for Chargers-Vikings. The 1:15 p.m. game will be shown in San Diego County on the Fox affiliate, Channel 5/69, with announcers Ron Pitts and Jim Mora (the former Falcons and Seahawks coach).

ESPN's $14 Billion Eight-Year Extension With NFL Includes 3D

ESPN cuts new football deal as sports rights fees keep rising. ACA President Matt Polka slammed ESPN's $15-billion deal with the NFL on Friday saying it will push pay-TV costs "into the stratosphere," while Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said the impact of the deal will mean that ESPN and ESPN2 will account for almost 20% of the wholesale cost of pay-TV, while accounting for less than 2.5% of viewership.

TV Ratings: Packers-Saints Season Opener Scores for NBC

Tech Wires

Time Warner Cable rolls out Wi-Fi service in Los Angeles

The Worst Energy Hogs in Your Home. No. 1: Set-Top Box. Average Watts While Off: 28.286. Average Watts While On: 30.198. Average includes DVR, digital cable, digital cable with DVR, satellite, satellite with DVR. No. 6: Central Heating Furnace. Average Watts While Off: 4.21. Average Watts While On: 339.71.

Countywide Power Outage (Sep 9, 2011)

Thanks to the news staffs at KOGO, KFMB, KGTV, and KPBS-FM for keeping us all updated at a time where electricity-powered digital TV sets let us down when the power also goes down. Battery-powered analog radios just can't be beat.

Huge Power Outage Disrupts County. SDG&E said the outage affected more than 1.4 million customers Thursday shortly after 3:30pm and was blamed on an error by an Arizona utility company worker.

Wiremania (Sep 9, 2011)

Radio Wires

3 Reasons for Sirius XM to Worry About Streaming

Los Angeles Times: A year after the Laura Schlessinger on-air controversy caused KFWB-AM to rethink its programming, the station has moved on to an information-driven, hyper-local format.

SiriusXM kicks off its 2011 coverage of the NFL regular season LAST NIGHT, with live play-by-play broadcasts of every game via satellite radio, and for the first time, SiriusXM subscribers with online access will hear NFL game coverage as well. Sirius and XM Premier (formerly known as "The Best of Sirius") subscribers who have SiriusXM Internet Radio access in addition to their satellite radio subscription will now be able to listen to every NFL game from the preseason through the Super Bowl streamed online and through the SiriusXM App for smartphone and wireless devices. The NFL season kicks off tonight with the Green Bay Packers vs. the New Orleans Saints.

Misc Wires

NASA's Cassini orbiter snaps unbelievable picture of Saturn

Cars That Thieves Don't Want

Young, nearby supernova dazzles scientists

8 Diet Food Ripoffs

The fastest automobile in the world

Mutterings (Sep 8, 2011)

I've been going to four supermarkets and two mass merchandise stores during the Labor Day holiday. I was looking for the lowest prices for groceries. Walmart and Target are both of the mass merchandise stores. Sure enough, Walmart has the lowest prices on what little groceries it carries in its Santee store. The nearby Target is the second lowest, though some of the prices at Target are lower than some found at Walmart. Neither of these two have more than half as much space devoted for groceries as the supermarkets do. Food4Less was the lowest among the four supermarkets I surveyed. It was more expensive than the two mass merchandise stores. The most expensive are sure enough, Vons, Albertsons, and Ralphs, but note that unlike Walmart and Target, the supermarkets have what I consider real produce sections; there, you can buy each apple or other produce individually, whereas at the two mass merchandise stores, they try to sell you the apples or other produce in pre-packaged bags, which is what FedMart used to do back until it went out of business in 1982. Sorry Target and Walmart, the supermarkets beat you both in the produce department. Check out my new website to see the pricing dirt http://grocery.davesfunstuff.com/

NFL Kickoff is tonight. Get your beer and pretzels ready for the game between the Super Bowl champions of the past two years, the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers.

Wiremania (Sep 8, 2011)

Radio Wires

Hitman Haze Re-ups At Clear Channel/San Diego.

Tech Wires

"The first major league baseball broadcast in Surround Sound" will be the Atlanta Braves, thanks to the Dickey Broadcasting Company, Cumulus, and the Braves Radio Network. Licensee DaySequerra has constructed the DTS Neural Surround Sound infrastructure that makes it possible, both for the Braves home at Turner Stadium and for the mobile package that feeds the Braves Radio Network on the road. The Braves' collection of radio affiliates is the largest in Major League Baseball, and they'll be getting "a fully-immersive and engaging listening experience", from DTS technology.

TV Wires

Lifetime Wants 'America's Most Wanted'. The end of John Walsh's television run was short-lived, with Lifetime acquiring America's Most Wanted to debut with originals later this year, said Nancy Dubuc, president and general manager of Lifetime Networks. Fox cancelled the long-running series in May, but Lifetime has picked the show up and will start showing new episodes later this year. Why This Matters: The show's host, John Walsh, was disappointed but resigned when Fox ankled the show in its 24th season. At the same time, Lifetime, which has experienced success in the past with crime shows, hopes the show will draw big numbers.

Viewers 'disillusioned' with 3D films and TV.

NBC's NFL pre-game show, Kickoff, will be seen on NBCU-owned Versus, USA, SyFy and G4 as well as The NFL Network Thursday to make room on the schedule for President Obama's speech to Congress on jobs and the economy.

Why This Matters: NBC has spent a lot of money and time producing and promoting Kickoff and the Thursday night NFL game, so usurping the programming didn't make a lot of sense. However, when the president of the United States wants to talk to Congress and the country, it's pretty difficult to say, "No, thanks. Perhaps next time." NBC will join the preshow in progress after its coverage of Obama's speech. NFL Network will carry Kickoff in its entirety while the four NBCU cable channels will resume regular programming shortly after NBC picks up the show.

Only 12 more episodes of All My Children until the soap ceases on Sep 23, and there may not be a web version of the show resurrected in January if there is no Susan Lucci in the cast. Reportedly, Lucci turned down an offer from Prospect Park, which acquired production rights to continue the series. More info here.

Wiremania (Sep 7, 2011)

Radio Wires

Sirius XM Radio will be offering special 9-11 programming on Sunday including; SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S. (SiriusXM channel 124) + The Catholic Channel (SiriusXM channel 129) + Mad Dog Radio (SiriusXM channel 86) + 2011 World Police & Fire Games on SiriusXM Stars Too (SiriusXM channel 104) + SiriusXM OutQ News Reports: LGBT Stories of 9/11 (SiriusXM OutQ, channel 108)

Radio In Sights: Even if every car manufacturer makes HD Radio standard, the service will still succeed or fail based on the quality and variety of the programming buyers find on it. Unless broadcasters create compelling programming exclusively available on HD channels, the service is dead in the water.

The Worst Songs of the 90s.

TV Wires

New York Post: The next big thing in TV -- 3-D -- is proving such a bomb with consumers, the first victim may be ESPN's sports-in-3-D channel.

New ATSC 3.0 Technology Group Formed To Anticipate TV of the Future. The Advanced Television Systems Committee said today it formed a new technology group to develop a next-generation TV standard not likely to be compatible with the one in use today.

Regis Philbin's Last Day on 'Live!' to Be Nov. 18.

Mutterings (Sep 6, 2011)

The school preseason continues today as many schools begin classes. Expect students to hang out by the beach after classes because...altogether...IT'S STILL SUMMER! Take it easy on the students, teachers. The students aren't that ready for school yet. The regular school season begins Sep 12.

Remember when during the Labor Day weekend, K-Earth 101 from lala land used to play a chronology of #1 pop songs from the Los Angeles market from 1955-1979 or whatever year it ended? I can't remember the last time the radio station did that traditional programming feature. The only difference is that the songs it played in chronological order were the #1 singles from the Los Angeles area, not the chronological nationwide #1 singles according to Billboard. The weekend before Labor Day weekend, it played the #2 singles from the L.A. area (calling it the Runners Up of Rock Music Weekend) where the songs peaked at #2 (and did not ever hit #1).

Word to Daytime Confidential: here's what constitutes daytime television besides soap operas: game shows, talk shows, judge shows, morning news shows, and informational shows for the weekdays. For the weekends, so-called E/I shows aimed at children, news panel shows, morning news shows, sportsman shows, play by play sports such as baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, tennis, racing, etc. I suggest changing your name to Soap Opera Confidential since all you cover is soap operas, of which, there are just six in daytime, and who knows anymore how many in prime time. Besides, the only non-daytime item you cover is prime time soap operas.

How can Fox be a network if it programs just a measly 17 and a half hours a week? Now entering its 26th year come October, Fox is still programming barely more hours of network programming a week (outside of play-by-play sports) than one of the three big networks does in a day!

Even worse, since its creation of a merger between WB and UPN, the CW has lost progrmaming hours. Gone is the five-hour Sunday prime time block, and one hour of its daily daytime lineup. The CW programs 20 hours a week, surprisingly, 2 1/2 hours more than Fox, but the CW doesn't have live sports such as NFL football, which helped make Fox seem like a real network when it acquired the rights beginning with the 1994-95 season.

Hours a day a network programs (Mon-Fri): NBC: 13 1/2 (day beginning at 4am). CBS: 14 1/2 (day beginning at 2am). ABC: 14 (day beginning at 1:30am). Fox: 2. The CW: 3.

Hours a day a network programs (Sat, not counting live sports): NBC: 11 (day beginning at 5am). CBS: 8 1/2 (day beginning at 5am). ABC: 8 1/2 (day beginning at 5am). Fox: 3 1/2. The CW: 5.

Hours a day a network programs (Sun, not counting live sports): NBC: 8 1/2 (day beginning at 5am). CBS: 6 1/2 (day beginning at 5am). ABC: 6 1/2 (day beginning at 5am). Fox: 4. The CW: 0.

Wiremania (Sep 6, 2011)

Misc Wires

5 Nutrients You're Not Getting Enough Of

Confessions of a Car Dealership Service Manager

The Tilted Kilt $1 Million Hole-in-One Shootout

Attention golfers! The Tilted Kilt $1 Million Hole-in-One Shootout returns Sept. 5 - 16 to the Stadium Golf Center, located off I-15 at Aero Drive. Daily prizes are up for grabs, plus the top daily golfer advances to the finals for a shot at $1 million.

If nobody gets an ace at the final, the best shot earns a one-year lease on a car from Toyota of El Cajon. The event is a fund-raiser for the non-profit Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl. The event is closed during the weekend; hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For details, visit http://www.holidaybowl.com/