Wiremania (Nov 19, 2011)

Radio Wires

Tom Taylor radio-info.com: In San Diego's North County, the $2.75 million sale of a station and its real estate to Catholic broadcaster Immaculate Heart Radio. The station is business talk KCEO, Vista at 1000 KHz, and the owner is Art Astor's North County Broadcasting Corp. The station part of the deal is valued at $1.5 million. There's also the associated real estate, which is owned by Astor personally, and it's worth another $1.25 million. Not-for-profit buyer IHR is paying both amounts in cash (no seller notes on this one). KCEO is on the cusp of improving its signal, from the current 2,500 watts daytime/250 watts at night. It's holding a two-year-old construction permit to upgrade to 5,000 watts day/900 watts at night, adding a fourth tower. IHR owns other stations, including KSFB, San Francisco (1260) and Sacramento's KSMH (1620). Art Astor retains brokered-ethnic KFSD, Escondido (1450) and Riverside-market standards KSPA, Ontario (1510). Broker - John Pierce.

Gary Lycan: Remember Ted Williams, the man with the golden voice who kept sabotaging his own career comeback chances? + Lisa May, sidekick to KROQ/106.7 FM's Kevin & Bean in morning drive, is recovering from a recent car accident + Thanksgiving is days away, and the thought was to tell you about the gift that would keep on giving - Jim Ladd on The Sound. But, alas, at this writing that has not happened. The two sides have talked.

Gary Lycan: The smooth jazz station The Wave goes to an all-holiday music format, getting the jump on rival KOST

Sign On San Diego: John Lynch to run Union Tribune.

TV Wires

NY Daily News: Friday at 10 a.m., after hosting his last ever edition of "Live! with Regis & Kelly," Philbin walks away from that vibe -- and, after 281/2 years, daily morning television . Philbin is leaving "Live!," a nationally syndicated series that started as a local show on WABC 7, but doesn't know where he goes from here. for where, he does not know.

Sports Wires

The Wrap: Could the NFL & NBA Be Less Functional Than Baseball? Commissioner Bud Selig said on Thursday that, pending a final decision from the league's special committee for on-field issues, it will shuffle its playoff format to the benefit of teams and broadcasters everywhere. There will be an additional wild-card team in the playoffs, meaning an additional play-in game and a whole lot more television revenue.

Misc Wires

World's Lightest Solid Takes Inspiration From Eiffel Tower

Is the New Physics Here? Atom Smashers Get an Antimatter Surprise

Snapshots of the Week

Cable TV Turning Into a Bad Deal? (Nov 18, 2011)

I don't remember what the price was back then, but in 2011, the price for 67 analog channels has reached almost $60 a month.

At this price, cable television is no longer a bargain. It's a ripoff.

Blame it on retransmission rights by some local stations. I'm not sure how much KGTV is asking Cox to get retransmission fees from its customers for the right to carry it, but I have done without KGTV for some long time now. KGTV is nothing but news, talk shows, gossip shows, mediocre scripted and reality ABC programming, and worst of all, lack of Monday Night Football on ABC (it's on ESPN).

KUSI, KNSD, KFMB, KSWB, My13, and XETV? Are the rights fees the local stations are demanding from the cable companies (via higher customer cable bills) translating into better programming? No. I would rather see reruns of the classic sitcoms, good theatrical movies, major sports, and funny animated programming than what the locals are mostly offering. Most of that has gone to cable, which alone costs $38 a month extra on top of the $20 I spend on Cox's basic service.

Instead, the broadcast stations are offering, yes, even more talk shows, courtroom dramas, advice shows, news, celebrity gossip, and mediocre network programming. I hardly watch those local stations anymore, except for football and David Letterman, plus the Animation Domination lineup on Fox 6, er, Fox 5.

So broadcast stations, why aren't you entertaining us anymore? Why all of the talk and news shows? Why are you offering shows that just don't entertain? Never watch most of the local stations anymore except when they have good sports and comedy on it.

Now the cable channels. All they seem to do is to find excuses to raise the costs of retransmission consent, which ultimately leads to higher cable bills to the consumer because cable companies cannot absorb the ridiculous costs of carrying ESPN, Fox News Channel, TBS, and other popular cable channels.

My budget for cable is $30. I'm running $28 over budget each month. That $28 could have gotten me a cable box rental with DVR service plus HBO. Not that I care to spend money on something that costs money in electricity just to operate it. Those blasted converter boxes don't belong in an age where computers and Internet technology should have matured enough to eliminate them completely.

How many cable channels out of 40 do I watch? ESPN, Comedy Central, TV Land, and sometimes others like TBS, WGN, ESPN 2, and that's about it. Costs for carrying cable channels keep going up, yet the time to watch them seems to have decreased over time.

I still have an analog VHS VCR to tape some of the shows thanks to analog cable service, but if and when Cox decides to dump it and go all digital, I'll have to drop their TV service completely as I won't be able to tape the shows on them anymore. Forget about talking to me about renting a cable DVR service or TiVO. I spent a good $100 for a VCR back in 1998, and haven't paid one dollar more in its 13 years for it to tape my favorite TV shows I want to watch later. Five monthly TiVo payments would almost absorb the $100 I spent on a VHS VCR.

Don't bother talking to me about hooking up a cable box to a VHS VCR either. Simple wins, complex loses. In the case of complex, as in renting one cable box for each VHS VCR, it can get very expensive fast.

Cox and others going digital has been nothing but a new way to get consumers to part with more of their money faster for less service and mediocre technology that's not ready for prime time.

Why not make VHS VCRs that can tape digital TV signals? Pay a one time purchase price of $150 and you're done spending for it to work; it has no monthly fees, which is perfect.

Here's what Cox and other cable companies should do.

1. Make most of their basic and expanded cable channels progressively in the clear. Use filtering technology to filter out bands of channels people don't want to pay for, the same way Cox blocks out channels 28-66 for people who don't want to pay $38 for Expanded service.

2. For every channel in analog you're paying for, a corresponding HDTV channel will be made in the clear with no additional fee. Also, offer a digital SDTV version of the channel in the clear for no additional charge for VCRs to tape.

3. To video tape machine manufacturers, make a VCR that can tape digital cable channels on a VHS tape. Sure the resoultion has to be reduced to 640x480 for a VHS tape in order to be standard, but for most of us who tape, watch, then erase, it will do.

3a. Make a VCR that can also record programs to USB devices and SD cards.

4. Once VCRs that can tape digital signals on tape without a converter box rental become the standard as it should have by now, cable companies can then drop the analog service.

5. Offer bands of service: Basic for up to 30 local stations, Cable 1 for the lower cost cable channels, Cable 2 for the progressively higher cable channels, Cable 3 for the more expensive cable channels such as ESPN and TBS, Cable 4 for additional cable channels, and Cable 5 for the rest of the basic cable channels. Use broadband frequency filters to block out the channel bands the consumer doesn't care to pay for. Install the filters between the feed and drop lines. All of the channels outside of pay will be clear QAM, the industry standard.

6. Put the pay channels on SDV or keep them scrambled. TV set and VCR manufacturers should have succeeded in making sets that can allow viewers to pay for pay channels without a converter box.

Simple wins. Cable and technology should have made cable television simpler and cheaper, not harder and more expensive. Cox is doing cable wrong. $58 a month for mostly mediocre programming just isn't a bargain.

Wiremania (Nov 18, 2011)

Radio Wires

Sports Wires

We have liftoff: Astros officially on way to AL in 2013

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: Consider ESPN book for your Christmas list.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO men's basketball will be heard for the rest of the season on BCA Sports XEPE-A (ESPN 1700)/SAN DIEGO.

Tech Wires

ZDNet: SOPA: Why the 'broken web' should stay broken. The web may not be perfect, but SOPA is a reactionary bill to a broken copyright system. One thought alone: The 'broken web' is ironically what makes it work.

Boxee takes aim at cable companies with Live TV tuner. Boxes latest device is an overt jab at cable companies. But will cord cutters take notice?

Misc Wires

Meet Canada's new high-tech plastic currency

Sports on TV (Nov 18, 2011)

College football: Oklahoma State at Iowa State, ESPN, 5

College men's basketball: 2K Sports Classic, third place game, teams TBD, in New York, ESPN2, 1:30; championship game, ESPN2, 4; Puerto Rico Tip-Off, semifinal, teams TBD, in San Juan, ESPN2, 6

Golf:LPGA, CME Group Titleholders, second round, in Orlando, Golf Channel, 9:30am; PGA Tour, Presidents Cup, third round, at Melbourne, Golf Channel, 12

Mixed Martial Arts: Strikeforce Challengers, in Las Vegas, Showtime, 8

Saturday, Nov. 19

Boxing: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Peter Manfredo Jr., for WBC middleweight title, in Houston, HBO, 10:30

College football: Nebraska at Michigan, ESPN, 9am; Wisconsin at Illinois, ESPN2, 9am; Cincinnati at Rutgers, ESPNU, 9am; Kansas at Texas A&M, Fox Sports Net, 9am; Harvard at Yale, Versus, 9am; Florida A&M vs. Bethune-Cookman, in Orlando, ESPN Classic, 11:30am; Regional coverage, Penn State at Ohio State or Clemson at N.C. State, ABC or ESPN, 12:30; Regional coverage, Texas Tech at Missouri, ABC, 12:30; Mississippi State vs. Arkansas, in Little Rock, Ark., CBS, 12:30; Miami (Fla.) at South Florida, ESPNU, 12:30; Southern Methodist at Houston, Fox Sports Net, 12:30; Colorado State at TCU, Versus, 12:30; Boston College at Notre Dame, NBC, 1; LSU at Mississippi, ESPN, 4; Central Florida at East Carolina, Fox Sports Net, 4; Vanderbilt at Tennessee, ESPNU, 4; Virginia at Florida State, ESPN2, 4:30; Colorado at UCLA, Versus, 4:30; Oklahoma at Baylor or Southern California at Oregon, ABC, 5; Kansas State at Texas, FX, 5; California at Stanford, ESPN, 7:15; New Mexico State at Brigham Young, ESPNU, 7:15

Golf: PGA Tour, Presidents Cup, third round, same-day tape, NBC, 5 a.m.; PGA European Tour, Iskandar Johor Open, third round, in Johor, Malaysia, same-day tape, Golf Channel, 6:30 a.m.; LPGA, CME Group Titleholders, third round, Golf Channel, 10:30am; PGA Tour, Presidents Cup, final round, Golf Channel, 3:30

NHL: Detroit at Los Angeles, NHL Network, 1; New York Rangers at Montreal, NHL Network, 4

Soccer: Premier League, Arsenal at Norwich City, ESPN2, 4:30 a.m.

Sunday, Nov. 20

College men's basketball: Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off, Kentucky vs. Old Dominion/South Florida winner, in Uncasville, Conn., ESPNU, 9am; 5-Hour Energy Puerto Rico Tip-Off, in San Juan, fifth place game, ESPNU, 11am; third place game, ESPN2, 2:30; championship game, ESPN2, 4:30; DirecTV Charleston Classic, in Charleston, S.C., third place game, ESPNU, 3; championship, ESPNU, 5; Paradise Jam, semifinals, teams TBD, in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Fox Sports Net, 3 and 5:30

College women's volleyball: Big East championship match, Teams TBA, in Milwaukee, ESPNU, 1; Southwest Athletic Conference championship match, same-day tape, ESPNU, 7:30

Golf: PGA European Tour, Iskandar Johor Open, final round, same-day tape, Golf Channel, 6:30 a.m.; PGA Tour, Presidents Cup, final round, same-day tape, NBC, 9am; LPGA, CME Group Titleholders, final round, Golf Channel, 10:30am

NFL: Regional coverage, CBS and Fox, 10am; Regional coverage, Fox, 1; Regional coverage, CBS, 1:15; Philadelphia at New York Giants, NBC, 5

10am CBS 8: NFL on CBS: Oakland @ Minnesota
10am Fox 5: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Green Bay Packers from Lambeau Field. (Sports, 11/20/2011, TV-PG)
1:15pm CBS 8: NFL on CBS: San Diego @ Chicago

Soccer: Premier League, Liverpool at Chelsea, same-day tape, Fox, 11am (airs at 1:30 PT in early NFL markets); MLS Cup, Houston at Los Angeles, ESPN, 6

Wiremania (Nov 17, 2011)

Radio Wires

radiodailynews.com has been frozen since Monday.

Should we sequeue into a national radio news column instead of one that focuses on Southern California? We need you the reader to help make this possible by sending in radio story links on a daily basis. We also love sports media story links too.

KUSS is done swearing. It's now KOGO-FM as of Monday.

Tech Wires

Multichannel News: Unbelievably short-lived! Cox Pulls Plug On Wireless Service. MSO To Stop Selling 3G Service Immediately; Will End Service March 30, 2012. After three years of investment and development, Cox Communications is extricating itself from the wireless business, with the MSO announcing late Tuesday that it will stop selling mobile phone and data service effective immediately.

Biz Wires

Black Friday backlash: Early openings a mixed blessing

Sports Wires

Proposed new LA stadium is translucent and whimsical

TV Wires

Old ABC-TV logo screen shots. Also see logos for CBS and NBC.

Sony Mulling Internet Rival to Pay TV Operators. The service would deliver TV networks over the Internet via Sony devices including PlayStation gaming consoles, TV sets and Blu-Ray players. Why This Matters: Sony has been taking it on the chin financially in recent years and needs to give consumers another reason to buy its consumer electronic products. The company also has a studio but no networks to capitalize on its content.

Wiremania (Nov 16, 2011)

Radio Wires

Montreal Gazette: Is there a place for humour on the radio? It seems a crazy question to ask, but two Montreal radio veterans - Paul Zakaib - a.k.a. Tasso Patsikakis - and Patrick Henry Charles - whose specialty is being funny on the air say they no longer fit in corporate radio, which is why they've taken up jobs as afternoon hosts at low-rated ethnic station Mike FM

Gary Lycan: The smooth jazz station The Wave goes to an all-holiday music format, getting the jump on rival KOST

Centre Daily Times: In much of the Western world, the days of children gathering around radios, as Roger Taylor wrote in the hit Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" are long gone. In an age of iPods, iPhones and SiriusXM, antenna radio's once strong signal is fading rapidly - Staff Sgt. Brad Ruffin, 42, served in the Marines before joining the Army. This soldier is ready for battle. Yet while deployed to the Iraqi capital, one of his most important jobs has been entertaining U.S. troops and Iraqi citizens on American Forces Network-Iraq's Freedom Radio

Study: Radio Still #1 Source Of Music Discovery