Wiremania (Dec 17, 2011)

Radio Wires

LA Daily News: With Doug McIntyre back at KABC, he'll leave "Red Eye Radio" in the hands of Gary McNamara and Eric Harley, who will take over the program the same day he returns to mornings

Gary Lycan: KABC 790 AM is rolling the dice and placing its bets on a new program line-up Jan. 3 that sources say includes moving Larry Elder to afternoon drive and Peter Tilden to late night. New to the schedule will be Geraldo Rivera, 10 a.m. to noon weekdays.

Sports Wires

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: Dykes hopes for lift from Poinsettia Bowl.

Multichannel News: ACA's Polka: NFL Rights Deal Could Be 'Calamity' for Consumers. Cable Group President Says Broadcasters Shouldn't Rely on 'Broken' Retrans/Cable Carriage Rules to Foot Bill

Tech Wires

Verizon to Buy Cox Spectrum for $315 Million. Cox Communications has joined its cable peers in the Verizon Wireless camp, announcing Friday that it has struck agreement to sell its 20-MHz Advanced Wireless Services spectrum licenses covering 28 million people in the U.S. to the wireless carrier for $315 million. Why This Matters: Cox, which abandoned its standalone cell service offering late last month, joins Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks as reseller of Verizon's wireless services on a wholesale basis. The deal doesn't include Cox's 700 MHz spectrum licenses, the company's existing Cox Wireless customer accounts -- which will be phased out by March 2012 -- or any other assets.

Bill Gates confirms he will not return to Microsoft full-time

Microsoft to begin automatic Internet Explorer upgrades in 2012

FTC issues refunds to scareware victims

New study claims that Chrome is the most secure browser

How Amazon has proven that iTunes is totally obsolete

Israeli changes his name to Mark Zuckerberg. Israeli entrepreneur legally changes his name to that of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Biggest tech and gadget stories of 2011

BlackBerry delay darkens RIM's future

TV Wires

TV Channel Squeeze Proposed to Pay for Tax Cuts. Congress is considering letting cellphone companies pay television stations to give up their frequencies so they can be put to better use for wireless broadband. The idea is to squeeze over-the-air television, which has few viewers, into a smaller slice of the airwaves. The government would be the broker in the deal and would use some proceeds to fund tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

Win a game show? That'll cost you. The people jumping up and down because they've just won a car or an all-expenses-paid vacation may not necessarily collect that prize, but a tax bill is certain.

Ratings: New Lows For DAYS & Y&R in Women 18-49 Viewers

Biz Wires

The Truth About the New Light Bulb Law

Science Wires

Comet Lovejoy Survives Fiery Plunge Through Sun, NASA Says

Russia's Mars probe will crash to Earth in January

High Standard Misc Wires

Funny top ten list about useless studies will give you a chuckle

Orange Juice's 'Secret Ingredient' Worries Some Health-Minded Moms

Rare glimpse at Arctic white rainbow

House with most spectacular holiday lights

6 Fad Diets That Don't Work

10 Diets That Don't Work Slideshow

Mutterings (Dec 16, 2011)

re: ListenerCare@xmradio.com given in yesterday's Mutterings. E-mail from Bryan: "I love your site. I visit it everyday. Regarding your Mutterings about XM 166 the e-mail address that you provided goes top an outsourced organization that reads them and just gives a response that makes not sense and will to tell you to refresh your radio with odd instructions. People need to be e-mailing the executives directly to haste them see anything. And thanks for providing a great site."

An unlicensed radio station is playing holiday music just east of Santee near the Drive-in theater. The frequency is at 101.1FM, the same frequency as K-Earth 101.1 in Los Angeles. During the evening rush time, commuters on 67 between 52 and Riverford will be getting holiday tunes instead of Shotgun Tom Kelly. I guess radio pirates are running out of frequencies to air their automated playlists on.

Wiremania (Dec 16, 2011)

Radio Wires

Geraldo Rivera's New York-based radio show to air in L.A. on KABC (790): Orange County Register. The Register has the lineup it believes KABC Jack Silver will announce December 23. It moves Larry Elder to PM drive and Peter Tilden to evenings, and installs Geraldo in the 10am-noon slot. No confirmation from Cumulus yet on the new talent lineup or the apparent quick syndication for WABC, New York-based Geraldo.

TV Wires

Howard Stern Signs on to America's Got Talent! Sirius XM host Howard Stern announced today he's signed a contract to join the NBC-TV talent competition show "America's Got Talent" as a judge. Stern said the show will move to his home base of New York City to accommodate his three-day work week on Sirius XM. It's a return to NBC for Stern, whose first radio job in New York was at WNBC. They're moving production of the show from L.A. to New York, to accommodate him. The Parents Television Council quickly blasts NBC for hiring "a performer who is synonymous with shock, profanity and obscenity", and says the network "risks losing millions in advertising dollars."

Sports Media Wires

NFL Extends TV Deals Through 2022. How Will NFL?s New Windfall TV Rights Deals With the Networks Affect Ad Pricing? The NFL has signed new long-term TV rights deals with its three broadcast TV networks. Under the new deals, Fox will pay an average $1 billion a year for its rights (up from $725 million), CBS will pay almost $1 billion a year (up from $625 million), and NBC will pay $950 million a year (up from $612 million). The NFL has also opened the door to expand NFL Network's current eight-game primetime slate. Also under the deal, NBC Sports gets the right to add a Sunday-morning pregame show on the soon-to-be NBC Sports Network (now Versus). NBC also gets to televise a Thanksgiving night game. Why This Matters: Someone is going to have to help the networks pay for these huge increases. A good portion of the money will come from retransmission fees the networks will collect down the road. But don?t think advertisers are not going to be asked to pay more for commercials. The NFL is one of the hottest programming properties on television and draws the largest number of viewers of any type of programming. Sports buyers and their clients have not kept it a secret that the NFL games are a highly desirable way to reach their customers. So the networks will ask, and media buyers on behalf of their advertisers will pay more for their commercial time going forward. Just how much will depend on how well the ratings hold up. Right now they are at record levels.

$28 Billion NFL Broadcast Deal Rankles Cable Lobby. Excerpt: That's precisely the irritant to American Cable Association chief Matt Polka, who called the fee increase "hyperinflationary" and said it was a "calamity for consumers" who will have to pay for the deal via subscriber fees, and who cannot opt out of sports channels.

College Football TV Viewership Down For National Broadcasters In '11

Biz Wires

IIHS rates the safest cars of 2012

High Standard Misc Wires

The World's Fastest Camera. Camera shoots a trillion frames per second.

Sports on TV Weekend (Dec 16, 2011)

Friday, Dec. 16

College football:NCAA, FCS, playoffs, semifinal, Montana vs. Sam Houston State, ESPN2, 8

Golf: Ladies European Tour, Dubai Ladies Masters, third round, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, same-day tape, Golf Channel, 3; PGA Tour Australasia, JBWere Masters, third round, in Cheltenham, Australia, Golf Channel, 8:30; Asian Tour, Thailand Championship, third round, in Bangkok, Golf Channel, 1:30 a.m

NBA: Preseason, Cleveland at Detroit, NBATV, 7:30

Saturday, Dec. 17

Boxing: WBA champion Andre Ward vs. WBC champion Carl Froch, for WBA/WBC super middleweight title, in Atlantic City, N.J., Showtime, 9

College football:NCAA Division II, championship game, Wayne State vs. Pittsburg State, in Florence, Ala., ESPN2, 11 a.m.; New Mexico Bowl, Temple vs. Wyoming, in Albuquerque, ESPN, 2; NCAA, FCS, playoffs, semifinal, Georgia Southern at North Dakota State, ESPNU, 2:30; Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Utah State vs. Ohio, in Boise, ESPN, 5:30; New Orleans Bowl, San Diego State vs. Louisiana.-Lafayette, ESPN, 9

College men's basketball: Ohio State at South Carolina, ESPN, noon; Miami (Fla.) vs. Florida Atlantic, in Sunrise, Fla., Fox Sports Net, noon; Butler vs. Purdue, in Indianapolis, CBS, 2; Temple at Texas, ESPN2, 2:30; Florida vs. Texas A&M, in Sunrise, Fla., Fox Sports Net, 2:30; Memphis at Louisville or Gonzaga vs. Arizona, at Seattle, CBS, 4; Notre Dame vs. Indiana, in Indianapolis, ESPN2, 4:30; Appalachian State at North Carolina, ESPNU, 6; Mississippi at Southern Missisippi, Fox Sports Net, 6:30; Syracuse at N.C. State, ESPN2, 6:30; Houston vs. Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City, ESPNU, 8; Georgia at Southern California, Fox Sports Net, 10; Alabama vs. Kansas State, in Kansas City, Mo., ESPNU, 10; New Mexico vs. Oklahoma St., in Oklahoma City, ESPN2, 10:30

College women's volleyball: NCAA, FCS, playoffs, championship match, UCLA/Florida State winner vs. Illinois/Southern California winner, in San Antonio, ESPN2, 8:30

Extreme sports:NBC, 4:30 Winter Dew Tour, Nike Open, at Breckenridge, Colo.

Golf: Ladies European Tour, Dubai Ladies Masters, final round, same-day tape, Golf Channel, 3; PGA Tour Australasia, JBWere Masters, final round, Golf Channel, 8:30; Asian Tour, Thailand Championship, final round, Golf Channel, 1:30 a.m.

Mixed Martial Arts: Strikeforce, in San Diego, Showtime, 10:30

NBA: Preseason, New York at New Jersey, NBATV, noon; San Antonio at Houston, NBATV, 8; Sacramento at Golden State, NBATV, 10:30

NFL: Dallas at Tampa Bay, NFL Network, 8

NHL: Boston at Philadelphia, NHL Network, 1; Los Angeles at Detroit, NHL Network, 7

Swimming: Team USA vs. European All-Stars, in Atlanta, NBC, 2:30

Sunday, Dec. 18

College men's basketball: Virginia at Oregon, Fox Sports Net, 5:30

College women's basketball: Southern California at Texas A&M, Fox Sports Net, 3; Connecticut at Baylor, ESPN, 8:30

Extreme sports: Winter Dew Tour, Nike Open, NBC, 2

NBA: Preseason, Oklahoma City at Dallas, NBATV, 7:30

NFL: Regional coverage, doubleheader, CBS and Fox, 1; Regional coverage, Fox, 4; Regional coverage, doubleheader game, CBS, 4:15; Baltimore at San Diego, NBC, 8

Mutterings (Dec 15, 2011)

94/9 recently performed a stunt. Too bad it didn't change from a format few people cared about into something else.

Will Ryan Seacrest bolt KIIS-FM and become a Today show co-host (the first two hours of it that is)? He can't do both.

ME-TV is now on KFMB 8.2 for over-the-air receipients, and on Cox cable channel 808.

Pandora's weekly cume tops one million in both New York and L.A. Are the radio stations beginning to quiver and quake over the findings? What can radio do to combat Pandora?

CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, Extend NFL Deals Through 2022 (Dec 15, 2011)

Why This Matters: Football has been very popular with TV viewers this season, but it hasn't been the league's best for ratings. ESPN's deal was very expensive and while media executives have been grousing about the high cost of sports programming, the broadcast nets have laid down new rights fees with average increases of 60% over their current contracts.

Here's the details.

The National Football League has agreed to nine-year extensions of its Sunday broadcast television packages with its existing networks CBS, FOX and NBC. The nine-year terms are the longest for NFL television agreements with over-the-air broadcast partners, surpassing the eight-year deals signed with CBS, FOX and ABC from 1998-2005.

The new agreements run through the 2022-23 season. The NFL's current television agreements end following the 2013-14 season.

The agreements also enable the NFL to expand its Thursday night package of games on NFL Network beginning next year. The number of additional Thursday night games has not been determined.

CBS has televised the American Football Conference package of Sunday afternoon games since 1998 when it was acquired from NBC. CBS first began televising NFL games in 1956 and carried the NFC package from 1970 through 1993 when the NFC package went to FOX for the 1994 season and beyond.

FOX continues to have the National Football Conference package of Sunday afternoon games.

NBC will continue to carry the package of Sunday night football games under the Sunday Night Football banner it began in 2006. It acquired the Sunday night games from ESPN, the same year ESPN got the Monday Night Football package from longtime holder ABC, who had it since the inception of MNF in 1970. NBC now airs 18 regular season games, up one from 17 when one was added in 2010.

NBC will still have the now traditional kickoff game that airs the Thursday before the weekend of the rest of the first week of regular season games. Beginning with the 2012-13 season, it will get back into broadcasting NFL games on Thanksgiving day when it acquires the Thursday night prime time games from the NFL Network.

Flexible scheduling, or flex-weeks or whatever it's called, ensures that quality matchups will air on all NFL Sunday time slots. In some cases, it can give some teams a chance to earn their way onto the Sunday night games on NBC, as well as onto the late-afternoon 4pm ET/1pm PT time slot on the CBS and FOX networks.

The late-afternoon games, not seen in all of the areas due to the fact that affilliates can't broadcast double-headers every week as per NFL contract (very complex rules involved), lead onto the FOX and CBS prime-time schedules that begin at 7pm ET. If the games run over on the Eastern and Central time zones, and in some rare cases, the Mountain time zone, the network's prime time lineups will be seen immediately following the game, except on the West coast where the prime time lineups will be seen at their regular times at 7pm.

Beginning with the 2014-15 season, the flex-scheduling will expand so that some games will move between the CBS and FOX networks in order to bring regional games to wider audiences. Further details on enhanced flexible scheduling will be developed with the networks. This will give CBS a chance to air some of the NFC games that normally air on Fox. Likewise, Fox will have a chance to air some of the AFC games that normally air on CBS.

CBS, FOX and NBC will each televise three Super Bowls during the term of the agreements, continuing the current rotation. NBC will have Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona in 2015, Super Bowl LII in 2018, and Super Bowl LV in 2021. CBS will broadcast Super Bowl L in 2016, Super Bowl LIII in 2019, and Super Bowl LVI in 2022. FOX will televise Super Bowl LI in 2017, Super Bowl LIV in 2020, and Super Bowl LVII in 2023. Dates of the Super Bowl games will be determined by the NFL.

Earlier this season, the NFL and ESPN reached an eight-year extension to keep Monday Night Football on ESPN through the 2021-22 season.

The post season will look a little different.

FOX will still have rights to NFC Wild Card games, NFC Divisional Playoff games, and the NFC Championship game.

CBS will still have rights to AFC Wild Card games, AFC Divisional Playoff games, and the AFC Championship game.

NBC, however, will get an upgrade to the playoff package, as it exchanges one of its current Wild Card games for a Divisional playoff game that airs on either CBS or Fox depending on the year.

NBC also gets Spanish language rights to broadcast the games on Telemundo, mun2 or with an SAP feed.

NBC's Sunday Night Football is preceded each week at 7 p.m. ET (4pm PT) by Football Night in America, which provides comprehensive highlights and analysis of the day's events in the NFL, along with a preview of that night's Sunday Night Football contest.

Wiremania (Dec 15, 2011)

Tech Wires

Biz Wires

Cars that can run for over 200,000 miles Among those: Ford Mustang, Honda CR-V, Honda Fit, Ford Fusion,

Full list of cars that can run over 200k miles

First Person: How I Got Myself $80,000 in Debt. My solution: socialize the university system.

High Standard Misc Wires

Alexander Graham Bell recordings played from 1880s

Intense daytime fireworks explode with brilliant color

Three Funny Holiday Channels Streaming (Dec 14, 2011)

Wiremania (Dec 14, 2011)

Wires

Sports Wires

Anheuser-Busch, ABC Brew Up Reality Show. Anheuser-Busch In Bev has signed a deal with ESPN Sports to do a reality show titled Bud United Presents: The Big Time on broadcast sibling ABC to air on Saturday afternoons at 3 p.m. beginning Jan. 21. On the show, three contestants each week, selected by Budweiser after they sent in videos to the Budweiser page on social media sites, will compete for the right to play in a real pro sports setting. The contestants are coached by professionals from each particular sport. The show will also be streamed online once it airs on ABC.
Why This Matters: The show is running on Saturday afternoon during a time period filled in the fall by college football telecasts, so the network has time to fill. At one point, ESPN also promised that because it was taking some live sports programming off of ABC and moving it to ESPN, which drew complaints by the ABC affiliates, that it would begin providing ABC with some replacement sports programming for its affiliates. It is sort of a throwback to the early days of television for an advertiser to be this involved in a show, not only having its name in the title but also participating in the creation of the content. We wonder if it will spawn more advertiser-involved shows like this.

Tech Wires

CNN: The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday called for a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving. The recommendation is the most far-reaching yet by the NTSB, which in the past 10 years has increasingly sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices. If adopted by states, the recommendation would outlaw nonemergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road. It would not apply to hands-free devices, or to passengers.

Intel: Hard drive shortages aren't leading to SSD pop

TV Wires

TV Shows That Signed Off in 2011: From Big Bombs to Graceful Goodbyes

Amanpour out, Stephanopoulos back in at ABC's `This Week'

FCC Turns Down Volume of TV Commercials

Misc Wires

7 Surprising Health Facts About Coffee

Snoopy Christmas display saved from foreclosure

Wiremania (Dec 13, 2011)

Radio Wires

Sure enough, Doug McIntyre takes over mornings at Cumulus' L.A. talker KABC (790). "McIntyre in the Morning", as speculated in last week's TRI, will feature Terri-Rae Elmer, who left the afternoon John & Ken show at Clear Channel's talk KFI. "T-Rae" had spent 22 years at KFI. We knew that Cumulus had reassigned Doug McIntyre from the late night "Red Eye Radio" to something else, and that "something else" is mornings on KABC. Starting in early January, McIntyre in the Morning replaces Peter Tilden. PD Jack Silver tells the Register's Gary Lycan they'll announce plans for Tilden "in the coming days." His last day on the alarm clock-shift will be December 23. As the Orange County Register recalls, Doug previously did wakeup duty at KABC from 2004 to 2009.

"Funny" business in California's wine country around Santa Rosa, where Sinclair Telecable has pulled its FM translator at 95.5 (K238AF) out of a simulcast with adult alternative "The Krush" and made it "Funny 95.5." The translator had previously been simulcasting Sinclair's KRSH, Healdsburg at 95.9. It's not clear which of Sinclair's local FMs is now feeding the "Funny" translator.

Sports Wires

Bob Uecker is Hall-of-Famer. Longtime Major League Baseball radio broadcaster and "the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers" Bob Uecker will be inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Uecker is entering his 42nd year calling play-by-play on the Brewers Radio Network and Journal Broadcast Group's "Newsradio620" WTMJ, Milwaukee. He'll be inducted during the NAB Show in April.

TV Wires

CBS's 'Face the Nation' Will Expand to One Hour to Rival 'Meet the Press,' 'This Week'

I Want My Multiscreen TV: Survey. A new study commissioned by Broadcom conducted by JZ Analytics shows that 62% of U.S. consumers say they would likely watch live TV on mobile devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones if their cable or satellite TV provider offered the service for no extra charge. Why This Matters: In recent months, pay-TV operators like Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevision, DirecTV and Dish Network have rolled out apps for iPads and other devices to let subscribers watch live TV channels. Nielsen doesn't currently measure usage on those devices, but it is working with pay-TV providers to come up with ways to incorporate multi-device viewing into traditional TV ratings data. As consumer acceptance of TV Everywhere viewing, including commercials, grows, and it can be measured, the platforms provide additional means for advertisers to reach customers and another revenue source for content providers and content distributors.

How the yule log became a video sensation

Tech Wires

Intel cuts sales outlook, blames hard drive shortage

Email fraud threatens even the savviest users: Don't get complacent

What Are Bandwidth Caps For?

Biz Wires

SF becomes first US city to top $10 minimum wage

Misc Wires

'Elvis' monkey, psychedelic gecko found in SE Asia