October 30, 2007

Collected and Edited by Rick Kaempfer





42 House Members 'Shocked' Over FCC Chief's Plan
(Radio Online) A group of 42 Democratic House members, led by led by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin "to express our grave shock and dismay over reports" that Commission chief will reportedly wrap up the agency's media ownership review by mid-December. "We understand that you intend to try to finalize these rules by the end of this calendar year," the letter said. "We believe that such actions are reminiscent of the bad behavior that resulted in an intervention by the Third Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals in your agency's efforts on media ownership three years ago. After all of the controversy that this proceeding has generated over the past four years, we believe that another round of public commentary is essential before a final vote," the letter continued. "We hope you will agree that the [FCC] must do everything it can to be able to honestly say that it is ending this proceeding after having considered every factor on behalf of the public whose airwaves it purports to represent." The letter concluded with the remark, "We cannot comprehend how your staff could possibly have fully analyzed the public comments submitted in Chicago before you began to circulate these new rules."
(Rick's note: Including these commments, officially submitted to the FCC)



CBS blows up WCKG
(Chicago Sun-Times) Robert Feder writes: "Monday marked the beginning of the end of WCKG's FM talk format, with Garry Meier signing off just seven months after his comeback as late-morning host, and the duo of Stan Lawrence and Terry Armour bidding their midday audience farewell too. Also gone are the syndicated morning duo of Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, as well as the evening team of Matt Dahl and Brendon Greeley. Bulls basketball, which aired last season on WCKG, will open the new season Wednesday on ESPN sports/talk WMVP-AM (1000), under a new five-year deal announced Monday. The move marks a return to the station that carried the team for 10 years. "This is a wonderful homecoming for both ESPN 1000 and the Bulls," said Jim Pastor, president and general manager of the station. CBS Radio also confirmed Monday what readers of the Sun-Times knew Friday: Steve Dahl is switching to mornings on adult hits WJMK-FM (104.3), the station known as "Jack FM." Starting next week, Dahl and newsman/sidekick Buzz Kilman will be heard from 5:30 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday.



Even death won't resolve Redstone's control issues
(Forbes) Registration required. Lenzer and Pendleton write: "Redstone has been thinking a lot about death and estate planning lately. He has a firm grip on his empire right now, and he wants to rule it from the grave, too. 'I'm in control now, and I'll be in control after I die,' he declares. He will, that is, if heirs, lawyers and corporate directors honor his wishes. They might not. If Redstone were to die tomorrow, a divisive and distracting legal fight could break out over the very control he so relishes...The Redstone family battle centers on a rift between Sumner and his 54-year-old daughter, Shari. Five years ago he saw her as the heir to his control position, and the two were each other's biggest supporters. Now they barely speak, choosing to communicate via faxes and lawyers. There's more to the Redstone family feud than this, however. The dysfunction stretches across three generations. This saga is a Shakespearean tragedy, involving unhappy childhoods, bitter accusations by Sumner's son and nephew that he cheated them out of their inheritances, and, on the periphery, untimely deaths, mental illness and drug abuse."


HOLLYWOOD HEAVY GETS BAR BOOT
(New York Post) Richard Johnson writes: "Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, was tossed out of the Four Seasons Hotel lounge after a dust-up with a staffer at the East 57th Street inn the other night, sources say. Witnesses say the Hollywood power player, who is Steven Spielberg and David Geffen's business partner, commandeered the bustling bar's tiny service area to better hear his cellphone conversation as the wait staff tried to maneuver around him. Katzenberg ignored bar manager Danny Cooper's repeated requests to move out of the way. Cooper then told Katzenberg he had to move immediately. That's when the diminutive mogul got heavy with 6-foot-plus Cooper. 'He started shaking his finger and yelling, 'Who the [bleep] are you? Do you know who I am?' and then got into a shoving match with [Cooper],' a witness told The Post's Braden Keil. Katzenberg was escorted out by hotel security in front of a stunned and amused crowd. A spokeswoman for Geffen downplayed the incident: 'There were some brief heated words. They both apologized and that was the end of it.' Hotel marketing director Brian Honan said, 'Both parties got overheated, but no one was escorted out.' Cooper had no comment."


An interview with Tony Snow
(Fishbowl NY) Rebecca writes: "For an out-of-work White House press secretary, Tony Snow remained remarkably on-message during an interview this evening by People managing editor Larry Hackett at the keynote session that opened the 2007 American Magazine Conference here in Boca Raton, Florida. In a conversation that lasted just under an hour, including a handful of audience queries that followed a rapidfire stream of questions from Hackett, Snow -- who also worked within President George H.W. Bush's administration as director of speechwriting -- held the conversational line just as strongly as he maintained it throughout his stint as press secretary."


Brian Williams to host SNL
(TV Newser) Gail Shister writes: "Wanna host "Saturday Night Live?" That's not funny. When SNL asked Brian Williams to guest host this Saturday, he thought it was a joke. 'I wasn't sure they were serious,' says the NBC anchor, who did a cameo last season on Weekend Update. 'These are funny people. When they said, 'We'd like you to host the show,' I said, 'Really?' Once Williams understood it was on the real, he polled his focus group, which includes his wife, Jane Stoddard Williams, their two kids, Tom Brokaw, Steve Capus, Jeff Zucker and assorted pals. 'Not a single soul' turned thumbs down, he says."


Colbert Nation quickly colonizes Facebook
(NY Times) Brian Stelter writes: "Stephen Colbert’s presidential candidacy may be phony, but his supporters are very real. Late on Oct. 16, immediately after the comedian declared his intentions on his satirical news show The Colbert Report, supportive groups began to form on the social networking site Facebook. One of them — a group created by Raj Vachhani and titled '1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T Colbert' — has grown to more than a million members in just over a week, making it the most popular political group on Facebook by far."


Writers have that flashback feeling
(LA Times) Smith & Gold write: "THE year was 1988 and Hollywood's writers were still smarting from concessions made in a 1985 strike that left them with only a small percentage of residuals for DVDs and other rebroadcasts of their material. It was a time of high stakes, passion and confusion -- in other words, a time not unlike the present. Many current members of the Writers Guild of America don't remember the last major strike by the writers. One reason is that it was 19 years ago; another is that two-thirds of the guild's 8,000 members have joined since then. So if current talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers end in a strike when the contract runs out Thursday, it may be their first experience with picket lines."


An interview with John Records Landecker
(Chicago Radio Spotlight) This past weekend I spoke with radio legend John Records Landecker. We talked about his departure from WZZN, his syndicated 70s show, some of his favorite memories from the past, and his hopes for the future.






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