Wiremania (Dec 10, 2011)

Radio Wires

Gary Lycan: Starting January 3 it will be "McIntyre in the Morning" with Doug McIntyre and Terri-Rae Elmer from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on KABC 790 AM, replacing the "Peter Tilden Morning Show"

Gary Lycan: The eye in "Red Eye Radio" had tears in it this month with the news Doug McIntyre is leaving the nationally syndicated program, aired locally in the overnight hours on KABC/790 AM, at the end of December + Terri-Rae Elmer has left KFI/640 AM + KFI/640 AM's Tim Conway Jr, heard 7-10 p.m. weeknights, has signed a new three-year contract.

Daily Breeze: KABC's time may have come and gone as a talk station. I would not be surprised if the former top-rated talker abandons the format much as KGO did and goes right after all-news KNX (1070 AM). And I wouldn't be surprised if it happens by the end of the year.

Clark Howard cuts third hour. Syndicated consumer advice talk show host Clark Howard is reducing the length of his show by one-third. Howard tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that between his television work and a book tour, he's been stretching himself too thin. Cox will still offer a third "best of" hour for affiliates that want to run a longer version of his show.

TV Wires

Alternate AMC ending exists, but will fans get to see it? All My Children fans may never get an answer to the question, "Who did JR shoot?" However, there are new rumblings that an alternate series ending exists. Whether or not those scenes will ever be shown remains to be seen.

The Most Awesome Music Videos of 2011

Biz Wires

Chevrolet Volt Catches Fire at NHTSA Facility, Sparks Investigation of Battery Packs. Could the Volt be the worst model since the Pinto? Who wants to buy this flop? The recent problems in NHSTA tests just show that the Volt is a failure. The fact that the alternator doesn't recharge the Volt's battery while you drive is another reason why you should skip this car.s

Jimmy Valentine's Radio Commentary (Dec 9, 2011)

Time to reclaim our airwaves?

**I am less of a fan of talk radio than I was when I was employed in talk radio. Still I check in periodically to see if anything or anyone can capture my attention for more than one endless commercial break. And I find myself laughing out loud in the car when I tune into John & Ken on KFI AM 640 out of LA. Comes into San Diego loud and clear.

These guys are funny as hell. You don't have to agree with them to crack up. They make fun of everything and politicos of all stripes are fair game. KFI newscaster Terri Rae Elmer is part of the cast and lends a female perspective to any topic and a touch of her humor as well.

The show isn't meant to be a comedy show but the outrage and off the edge comments they make prompt me to laugh out loud at stop lights and stay in the car at my destination until they have concluded a topic.

And unlike most tight underwear talkers John & Ken don't dwell on the same topic day in and day out (Obama, liberals, government, lamestream media). Fresh and refreshing radio and worth a listen either on the air or on line.try it, you'll like it..2pm - 6pm Monday - Friday.

**While on topic let me suggest there is an argument to be made to question the FCC license of KOGO radio and also it's designation as the Emergency Broadcast station in San Diego.

In evidence I present the failure of KOGO to provide even adequate information during the September SDG&E black out. The utility and local government bear blame as well but save this for another time.

KOGO has rid itself of a news department. The station was so lacking in competent personnel when the lights went out that Cliff Albert took the helm. I guess there is no news director and so the program director was on the air. His one reporter ended up stranded in traffic and was able to report only that he was stranded in traffic. With no paid resources at his disposal Albert relied on listeners to report. In one case a caller was put on the air to report that he was a short wave operator and had heard the blackout resulted from a terrorist attack. I'm told that Albert took the bait.

Lacking resources and having been bitten by listener reports Albert was reduced to taking calls from folks at private schools advising their school would be closed the next day. (it was obvious no schools would operate the next day given no assurance there would be electricity.hello).

The failure of KOGO was critical since TV newsrooms were out of business for the most part. Over the air and cable were gone. If you had access to a Wi-Fi battery operated computer you could access TV news web sites and streaming video but the vast majority of citizens were relegated to radio in autos and battery operated receivers at home. It was a time for local radio to shine and it was a debacle.

And yet KOGO did have resources beyond its payroll. KGTV is a partner and KPBS volunteered its reporting staff to KOGO, both realizing their own capability to broadcast was limited. But KOGO made little extensive use of these resources, Albert preferring to talk himself and take private school closing announcements. And there appeared to be no coordination of the KGTV and KPBS resources. There needed to be a producer, an assignment editor to utilize these resources and direct coverage and get it on the radio. If the only way out was radio then all of the various media in San Diego needed to join forces in an organized fashion. But somebody has to be in charge.

I'm guessing there will be a "next time," given the times we live in.and the next time might give integrity to the bogus short wave pronouncement.

When that next time comes we need lessons learned and we need a radio station with sufficient staff to serve the community to which it is licensed and do credit to the designation as the EBS station.

Clear Channel consolidation comes at a cost.not to Clear Channel but to those of us who own the public airwaves.

A couple other comments quickly..at the time of the black out The Roger Hedgecock Show was being broadcast on KOGO. Since his show is now a "national?" show he could not devote his broadcast to providing vital information to San Diego about the blackout. He stayed on the air but was preempted in San Diego. Had his show still been a local broadcast he would have immediately concentrated on reporting and gathering black out information. Additionally his show staff would have immediately begun to gather information. We often had better access to news makers and community leaders than the KOGO news department and would have been pro-active in getting their information on the radio. At least four more people would have been engaged (Roger, producer, phone screener and board op - all of whom can walk and chew gum at the same time).

As it was Hedgecock continued to talk but not about the crisis in his community. His experienced San Diego voice was muted. That left us with Cliff Albert and private school closings.

And finally as lessons are learned we need to understand that government and various agencies bear responsibility to report to the public. Reporters need to initiate calls to emergency agencies and the airport and first responding organizations etc. but personnel at those agencies must be pro-active as well to get on the radio on a regular and consistent basis. It is not enough to respond when a reporter calls, insufficient to call a news conference expecting reporters to show up at a specific location at a certain time when gridlock is the norm.

Some will say they utilized twitter and Facebook and web sites and that is all well and good, but the most expansive news outlet was radio..it was incumbent on all of the public protection, government & service agencies to be in constant contact with radio.

And finally much was made at Clear Channel that all of its local AM & FM stations were carrying the same KOGO black out coverage. The problem with his self- inflicted kudo is that the coverage was inadequate so broadening the dissemination did not benefit the public. Frankly there might have been more benefit listening to Smooth Jazz 98.1.

Wiremania (Dec 9, 2011)

Radio Wires

Tom Taylor: "Radio remains the king of in-car media" - but "TV and newer technologies are attacking the traffic-info position." Edison's Larry Rosin says "traffic information, long associated with radio" is being aggressively offered by competing mediums. The Infinite Dial study finds that 42% say that when they want traffic information, they go first to AM/FM radio. 31% said television, 13% said the Internet, 9% said the cellphone (that number was higher for younger Americans), 4% said GPS unit, and 1% said satellite radio. But Rosin says "a lot of companies want to displace radio" as the go-provider, including sources you wouldn't have thought of, such as Google Maps. It offers local-market traffic data in near real-time fashion. Rosin says "as new cars come out, they've got all this new technology, and the in-car landscape is becoming more complex." There's a bit of comfort in the knowledge that a complete turnover in the vehicle fleet takes eight to ten years - but radio isn't doing as well as it once did with traffic. And that's a utility that stations have made a whole lot of money on.

Sirius XM gets a potential class action suit tossed in California. But PaidContent.com says other legal challenges lie ahead - and not just the one filed by its most prominent asset, a disgruntled Howard Stern. In August a federal judge in New York "allowed the core" of a shareholder lawsuit to go forward, says PaidContent. And that one could be explosive. It alleges that when Sirius XM was facing a financial crisis in 2009, its management chose a white-knight offer from John Malone at Liberty Media, instead of a competing one from Charlie Ergen at Echostar. The suit claims that would've been better for shareholders, and the judge is listening. The Ergen deal would've required Karmazin and current management to leave. But the one from Liberty (according to the judge) gave significant benefits to Karmazin. As for the potential class action suit in California that was just dismissed - a federal judge in San Diego tossed the suit brought by Joel Broida with prejudice, meaning it can't be re-filed. He's a Colorado resident who was trying to use New York law to bring an action - and couldn't provide the allegedly misleading ad that supposedly led him to pay too much for a multi-year subscription.

TV Wires

Yahoo News: Nickelodeon's ratings fall!

Yahoo Launching Comedy Channel With Live Bill Maher Stand-Up

Sports Wires

The Charger game is blacked out in San Diego. Chargers fans can listen to Sunday's game on radio at 105.3 FM and 1360 AM in San Diego, 101.3 FM in Southwest Riverside County and 570 AM in Los Angeles. By NFL rule, San Diego loses the CBS morning game (Chiefs-Jets) and gets only one game in the morning: Saints-Titans on Fox. The Raiders-Packers game will replace the Chargers in the afternoon on CBS.

Dodgers' Television Contract Designed to Bind Team to Fox, Witness Says

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: Fox Sports San Diego is close to being reality.

Misc Wires

The Ultimate In-N-Out Secret Menu (and Super Secret Menu!) Survival Guide.

The In-N-Out Not-So-Secret Menu

Rapid retreat of Chile glacier captured in images

Sports on TV (Dec 9-11, 2011)

Friday, Dec. 9

College football:NCAA Division I, FCS, playoffs, quarterfinals, Northern Iowa at Montana, ESPN, 8

College men's basketball: Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth, ESPN2, 8

College men's soccer:College Cup, semifinals, in Hoover, Ala., Creighton vs. Charlotte, ESPNU, 6; North Carolina vs. UCLA, ESPNU, 8:30

Golf: Franklin Templeton Shootout, first round, in Naples, Fla., same-day tape, Golf Channel, 3; PGA European Tour, Dubai World Championship, third round, at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Golf Channel, 3 a.m.

Mixed Martial Arts: M-1 Challenge, in Costa Mesa, Calif., Showtime, 11

Saturday, Dec. 10

Boxing: Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson, for WBA/IBF super lightweight title; heavyweights, Seth Mitchell vs. Timur Ibragimov, in Washington, HBO, 9:45

College football:NCAA Division I, FCS, playoffs, quarterfinals, Montana State at Sam Houston State, ESPN, noon; SWAC championship, Grambling vs. Alabama A&M, in Birmingham, Ala., ESPNU, 1; Army vs. Navy, in Washington, CBS, 2:30; Heisman Trophy presentation, in New York, ESPN, 8

College men's basketball: Duke vs. Washington, in New York, CBS, noon; Cincinnati at Xavier, ESPN2, 12:30; Brigham Young at Utah, Fox Sports Net, 2; Oklahoma State vs. Pittsburgh, in New York, ESPN2, 2:30; Ohio State at Kansas, ESPN, 3:15; Clemson at Arizona, Fox Sports Net, 4; Villanova at Temple, ESPN2, 5; Kentucky at Indiana, ESPN, 5:15; Miami (Fla.) at West Virginia, ESPN2, 7; Michigan St. at Gonzaga, ESPN2, 9

College women's volleyball: NCAA tournament, regional finals, Penn State/UCLA winner vs. Texas/Kentucky winner, in Lexington, Ky., ESPNU, 4:30; Illinois/Ohio State winner vs. Florida/Michigan winner, in Gainesville, Fla., ESPNU, 7; Purdue/Florida State winner vs. Iowa State/Minnesota winner, in Minneapolis, ESPNU, 9:30; Southern California/Hawaii winner vs. Pepperdine/Kansas State winner, in Honolulu, ESPNU, midnight

Golf: Franklin Templeton Shootout, second round, NBC, 2:30; PGA European Tour, Dubai World Championship, final round, Golf Channel, 3 a.m.

Mixed Martial Arts: UFC 140 preliminaries, in Toronto, Ion, 7; UFC 140, Jon Jones vs. Lyota Machida, Pay-Per-View, 9

NHL: Montreal at New Jersey, NHL Network, 3; Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, NHL Network, 7

Soccer: Premier League, Wolverhampton at Manchester United, ESPN2, 9:55 a.m.

Sunday, Dec. 11

College men's basketball: Detroit at Alabama, ESPNU, 6; Coppin State at Illinois, ESPNU, 8

College men's soccer: College Cup, championship game, Creighton/Charlotte vs. North Carolina/UCLA, ESPNU, 4

College women's basketball: Maggie Dixon Classic, in New York, Baylor vs. St. John's, ESPNU, 11 a.m. and DePaul vs. Tennessee, ESPNU, 1

Figure skating: ISU, Grand Prix Final, in Quebec City, same-day tape, NBC, noon

Golf: Franklin Templeton Shootout, final round, NBC, 3

NFL: Regional coverage, CBS and Fox, 1; Regional coverage, Fox, 4; Regional coverage, doubleheader game, CBS, 4:15; N.Y. Giants at Dallas, NBC, 8

Wiremania (Dec 8, 2011)

Sports Wires

Yahoo News: CBS fighting NBC's NFL flex scheduling over Patriots/Broncos game. The Week 15 Sunday night NBC game is currently scheduled to be the Baltimore Ravens against the San Diego Chargers. NBC, despite the fact that the Chargers were so dazzlingly brilliant on Monday night, would like to exercise its flex scheduling option and show something else.

No "flex" for Chargers-Ravens game. After two days of wrangling between the NFL and two of its TV networks, the league announced Wednesday that the Chargers' Dec. 18 home game against the Baltimore Ravens will remain on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" with a kickoff time of 5:20 p.m.

Yahoo Sports: ESPN confuses new Jacksonville with old Jacksonville, and . Charlotte?

TV Wires

Variety Magazine: Prospect Park, the production company that licensed digital rights to the soaps from ABC, has continued to hold meetings with other parties exploring options for keeping them going online, according to sources familiar with discussions.

Advertising Age: Netflix Looks Toward Original Content, Competition With HBO Go. In Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' mind, it's not a matter of time, but when online viewing of entertainment programming eventually dominates over the TV screen. Right now, Hastings considers HBO his main competition, even though Netflix is buying content from the TV networks. But as Netflix, which is spending $1 billion a year on content, contemplates broadening into original programming, decisions will have to be made as to whether the paid subscription model is the only or best way to cover the hefty cost of doing original programming and mass streaming, or should it consider selling commercials for its programming.

Biz Wires

10 Best Cars for 2012

Tech Wires

Android tablets: Death by data plan. Summary: The need to commit to expensive data plans for Android tablets make competing with the iPad almost impossible.

Misc Wires

A Lunar Eclipse is Coming This Saturday

Wiremania (Dec 7, 2011)

70th Anniversary of the Day of Infamy Wires

Recalling a day of 'infamy'.

Soldiers look back on the Day of Infamy

Duncan felt impact of `day of infamy' . Sunday, December 7, 1941 ... it was, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, "a day of infamy." Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor accelerated the most expansive, most costly, most bloody conflagration it human history; a world war that changed the course of human history and continues its impact 70 years later.

Wikipedia: Attack on Pearl Harbor.

Radio Wires

Sports Wires

Cable-TV Honchos Cry Foul Over Soaring Cost of ESPN . ESPN charges the highest per-household subscription fee of any cable channel, according to SNL Kagan, which estimates its monthly per-subscriber fees for the flagship channel have risen 42% to $4.69 since 2006. The average cable channel fee rose 24% over that same period to 26 cents a month.

New York Post: Audible groans. Media execs calling NFL rights fees offensive.

Tech Wires

ZDNet: Is Firefox toast? Firefox's market-share is fading; the browser itself isn't that good anymore; and its money supply may be drying up. Is Firefox coming to the end of the road?

Misc Wires

8 Foods That Fight Heart Disease

Wiremania (Dec 6, 2011)

Radio Wires

LA Weekly: Jim Ladd Moves to Sirius XM.

Tom Taylor: "Last DJ" Jim Ladd leaves terrestrial radio for satellite. The L.A. radio community had hoped that Jim would land at a congenial place such as Bonneville's classic hits "Sound" KSWD (100.3) - but instead he's going national, and he has a few things to say about commercial terrestrial radio. Like - "Traditional FM has turned its back on the very thing that made rock radio the magical experience it was intended to be." Ladd was one of the casualties when Cumulus swept through the former Citadel operation at classic rock KLOS (95.5). No doubt his salary and perhaps his complete freedom to program his own nighttime show made him vulnerable. But he's a logical pickup for Sirius XM, who's got a readymade showcase for him at Deep Tracks, Channel 27. We haven't had many high-profile talent defections from terrestrial to satellite radio lately. But some of the past cases have been famous - Cousin Brucie (when WCBS-FM, New York went "Jack FM" in June 2005). Bob Edwards (released by NPR). And of course the most famous, Howard Stern. Jim Ladd was the radio artist Tom Petty referred to on his 2002 "Last DJ" album. The Los Angeles Board of Radio-Info.com notes a neat irony - "Jim Ladd ends up on the same station that has good friend Tom Petty's show. Small World."

TV Wires

Multichannel News: Going For Broke. How Poverty in America Is Changing the Cable Business. Pay television operators, faced with rising programming costs, regulation and fierce competition have another worry to add to that already formidable list: Their customers are running out of money.

Sports Wires

NHL approves 4-conference realignment, new playoff format

Broadcasting and Cable: NFL Close to Signing Broadcast Deals. The NFL is reportedly close to signing new carriage deals with ABC, CBS and NBC that would give the networks the rights to air NFL games through 2021. Why This Matters: The new deals call for the broadcasters to pay an annual average of at least $1 billion for the rights to carry NFL games and could net the league more than $24 billion over the next eight years. It couldn't come at a worse time for NBC, which is suffering from dismal ratings -- except for its NFL game coverage -- and is trying to restyle its reverse compensation deals with affiliates in an effort to pump revenue that would come in handy when it comes to paying for the NFL games after 2013.

Biz Wires

ATM Surcharges Could Be Waived With Commercials

12 Things Not to Buy During the Holidays

High Standard Misc Wires

Scientists find monster black holes, biggest yet

NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone