Shock Jocks, The Media, Rush Limbaugh and to HELL with NOW December 18, 2007

Pulling the Plug on Electronic and Print News

Having spent a few years on this planet (just enough, not too many), I had the joy of growing up as television evolved in the 1960’s. I had a chance to watch some of the gods of television news during my youth: Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite and others. I don’t remember Edward R. Murrow, but I learned of him studying journalism in college.

Through the 1970’s and into the 1980’s, the forces that made television news reliable and balanced began to mutate. One memorable event was when Roone Arledge, the genius behind ABC’s Wide World of Sports, became the news guru for the network. This marked a progression from news as a public service to news as entertainment (and a profitable source for advertising revenues).

Another memorable moment (in the midst of tremendous sadness) was when the American Embassy in Tehran was stormed in 1979 and ABC began running an 11:30 PM review of the day’s events called America Held Hostage: Day xx with Ted Koppel. Although we were later spared the indignity of this ridiculous title when the program was renamed Nightline, we have since been subjected to a never-ending stream of ludicrous monikers for heart-breaking news events and boring news stories (doesn’t AMERICA DECIDES sound so wonderfully thrilling?).

The final event worth noting was the birth and expansion of cable/satellite TV and the swelling of available channels into the hundreds. As a kid growing up outside New York City, we were blessed with ABC, NBC and CBS along with three independents (WOR, WPIX, and WNEW) plus WNET, the PBS station. How the heck did we survive with so few choices?

Network news programs at 6:00 PM were soon preceded by local news. Local news programs expanded to an hour. Ted Turner launched CNN. Before we knew it, we had talking heads shouting news and fluff at us 24/7 on dozens of channels, each competing for advertising revenues and audience shares by shoving every conceivable story under our noses. Thus, the mutation of true news stories into “no-news” news, sound bytes, spin and every imaginable human interest story possible.

Imus Moves Forward December 13, 2007

WABC and the “New Imus” is Great Radio!

As the end of Imus’ 2nd week back on the radio approaches, the critics have drifted into the background and Imus is better than ever. Well, as least he is better based on today’s ridiculous expectations of political correctness.

WABC-AM and its management have provided Imus with the supervision and support that a high profile personality deserves. The 21-second delay built into the broadcast may seem oppressive by some, but it is a beautiful failsafe effort that makes people like Ryan Chiachiere, Media Matters for America, George Soros and Hillary Clinton impotent in their efforts to discredit Imus.

For those of you not familiar with Soros, he is a multi-billionaire who funds politically-oriented organizations under the guise of philanthropy. He has publically professed that he would use all his resources to end the Bush presidency. He has close ties to the Clintons and is the funding behind extreme political fronts like MoveOn.org and Media Matters for America.

In many ways, WABC-AM and Citadel Broadcasting have shown a tremendous amount of dedication and commitment to Imus. While some of their actions can be rationalized as a protection of their investment in Imus and the station’s ratings, there also seems to be a sincere effort to help make Imus even more successful. This type of loyalty is a rare commodity in radio (let alone the corporate world) where replacements are usually a dime a dozen. WABC and Citadel obvious see the unique potential of Imus.

Imus Return Scheduled for December 1 October 7, 2007

Imus Reportedly Ready to Sign with Citadel Broadcasting

According to the Washington Post, radio is about to get better again with the return of Don Imus to the airwaves. In a somewhat surprising move that was the subject of speculation in August, Citadel Broadcasting is close to a deal that will put Imus on WAB-AM radio in New York City. This will be a ratings coup for Citadel nationally and in the New York market.

The Washington Post article cites someone close to the negotiations in reporting that Imus will land the coveted morning spot currently held by the award-winning team of Curtis Sliwa, founder and leader of the Guardian Angels, and Ron Kuby, a high-powered attorney. The Imus show will reportedly be avilable for syndication and a TV outlet is also being sought.

The move comes less than six months following Imus’ termination by CBS Radio and MSNBC for the incident with the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Imus reached a settlement on his contract with CBS Radio in August. Kia Vaughn of the Rutgers team filed a lawsuit against Imus following the CBS settlement but withdrew it in September.

The Real Truth About Imus August 27, 2007

Imus needs to Swallow His Pride


A kind reader named Charles wrote a great response to my last Imus article. As I started to write a reply, I decided that his thoughts deserved much more than a snappy paragraph.

Until now, I have simply been reporting the news as it is reported on the A.P. wire, various news reports, my email and discussion boards. Where Imus will land is anybody’s guess at this point. Buckley Radio, like WABC-AM and Citadel, is just another educated guess. Conventional wisdom tells us that many radio operations executive are sitting and dreaming of a way to get Imus on board.

The reality of the situation is that Imus, all sides considered, is a ticking time bomb for many reasons. That is why Imus needs to swallow his pride and do whatever it takes to get back on the air.

CBS Doesn’t Know Jack about Radio July 16, 2007

The Oldies Return to WCBS-FM in New York, NY

The author is a former Oldies DJ for WDAQ-FM in Danbury, CT, and WCZX-FM in Poughkeepsie, NY. The former owner of Bluboo Radio, one of the Internet’s first on-demand radio programs, has a Master of Science in Education, a minor in Journalism and has studied the history of Rock and Roll and radio broadcasting.

On July 12, 2007, at 1:01 PM, WCBS Radio started its attempt to reverse the betrayal of its loyal listener base by canning Jack-FM, its voice-tracked, computer operated jukebox, and bringing back the successful Oldies format dumped unceremoniously on June 3, 2005, in favor of Jack-FM.

According to The Journal News, WCBS-FM will follow the trend of most oldies formats by playing hits from the 1960’s and the 1970’s, ignoring the 1950’s except through some special programming. While it will be good to hear Bob Shannon and Dan Taylor again, the old familiar voices of “Cousin Brucie” Morrow and his contemporaries will be sorely missed.

The cautious radio listener will avoid being dazzled by this blatant publicity move on the part of CBS Radio, which is still suffering the throes of ratings losses as a result of its mismanagement over the last two years. Besides the Jack-FM fiasco, CBS Radio took a major ratings plunge when it callously fired Don Imus. In short, they are likely to lose a major lawsuit that will require them to pay-off the remaining $30 million on Imus’ contract. In that light, this is a move by CBS Radio to garner radio ratings and advertising revenues, not to be penitent to the listeners it betrayed.

If you cannot forgive CBS Radio, and you really have no reason to forgive them, there are plenty of great oldies stations to choose from in the metro New York market, including: WVLT-FM (92.1, Vineland, NJ), WTKU (Cool 98.2, Ocean City, NJ), WJRZ-FM (100.1, Manahawkin), WMTR-AM (1250, Morristown, NJ), WMID-AM (1340, Atlantic City), WNNJ-AM (1360, Newton, NJ), WHTG-AM (1410, Eatontown, NJ), WGHT-AM (1500, Pompton Lakes), WRNJ-AM (1510, Hackettstown, NJ) and WREF-AM (850, Danbury, CT).

If you still don’t think this move is self-serving, you may ask yourself why the publicity department has already rewritten the Wikipedia article about “Oldies” to put WCBS-FM back at the forefront of Oldies Radio. This is not true yet and may not be true ever again.