CBS News Welcomes New Anchor

Bob Schieffer says Scott Pelley is tested in the field where it counts

From Bob Schieffer, CBS News

A little family news here:

Monday we turn a new page at CBS News. Scott Pelley becomes the anchor of the "CBS Evening News."

Not many people have had the job, and Scott is a good man for it.

I've sort of watched him grow up here - actually I've watched most of the people here grow up! No one who was in the Washington Bureau when I came here in 1969 is still here. So they're ALL newcomers to me.

But here's the part I like: Scott was telling somebody the other day that, since coming here in 1989, he has never had an anchor job, so he was a little nervous about taking this one.

Well, I think that makes him MORE qualified. Too many people in TV these days get their suntans from the studio lights.

Not Scott. He hasn't spent much time in the studio. He stayed out there where the news was, and still is.

Whether it was asking tough questions at the White House or in the trenches with the troops in Iraq or traveling to God-knows-where, if there was a news story, you would usually find Scott there.

Which is probably why, since he joined "60 Minutes" in 2004, half of all the awards won by that prestigious broadcast were stories that he reported.

So I won't be worrying about Scott handling an anchor job - I won't be worrying at all.

It's just nice to see someone get the job who deserves it. He'll do just fine.

NY Public Radio to Buy New Jersey Stations

New York Public Radio, the owner of WNYC, will acquire four stations from the NJN network, New Jersey’s public television and radio broadcaster: WNJY FM 89.3 Netcong, WNJP FM 88.5 Sussex, WNJT FM 88.1 Trenton and WNJO FM 90.3 Toms River, according to a story by Ilya Marritz at wnyc.org.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said New York Public Radio will create a new public radio station focused on New Jersey news, and with a bureau in the Garden State.

In addition, the state is turning over operations and programming of the NJN TV network to WNET/Channel Thirteen, which will rename it NJTV. Governor Christie said the goal is to end the state's role in public broadcasting.

Christie said WNET won the bidding for the valuable TV license by demonstrating "the ability to deliver Jersey-centric programming, including a nightly news program."

WHYY, a public radio station in Philadelphia, will buy the state's other five public radio licenses for stations in South Jersey.

Read More.

According to other reports, WNYC will pays $1.8 million for four North Jersey FMs. WHYY will pay $1 million for five FMs in South Jersey.

WAMO Is Back In The 'Burgh

It's not just urban radio that returns to Pittsburgh Monday. It's WAMO, that storied Uptown eminence that served the black community for nearly 50 years before falling silent in 2009.

According to a story by William Loeffler in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, WAMO100 officially return to the air today with program director Tim Steele anchoring the weekday morning DJ slot, followed by Mia at midday, Mike Jax in the afternoon and Jay Stylz on nights. Weekend programming has yet to be determined.

At a Friday news conference, the station's new management said they realized those call letters carried a significant responsibility beyond their ostensible commercial identity as "Pittsburgh's Home for Hip Hop and R&B."

Pittsburgh has lacked a full-time urban radio station for nearly two years since WAMO-FM and WAMO-AM were sold to St. Joseph Missions, a religious broadcasting entity.

The new incarnation will simulcast hip-hop and R&B as 660 AM WAMO (official calls WPYT), which will broadcast from sunrise to sunset with a reach of approximately 60 miles. The FM station is a translator W261AX -- WAMO 100.1 -- will broadcast 24 hours with a reach of 15 to 20 miles.

Both will broadcast from the former WPYT-AM in Wilkinsburg. Martz Communications Group of San Francisco purchased the station last year from the Langer Broadcasting Group in Framingham, Mass., for $290,000. Martz Communications operates five other stations in Michigan and New York.

Martz Communications Group president Tim Martz said it was obvious that the city needed an urban radio station.

General Manager Laura Varner Norman said WAMO100 eventually will add public service programming and community outreach, such as street fairs and neighborhood cleanups. She said the station will provide 12 new jobs by the end of the year. A Sunday morning gospel music show is planned. The station already has begun recruiting volunteers through their WAMO 2.0 Street Team on its website.

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Winning: Ron Brown and Radio Station Contests

Michigan man has won $100,000 in prizes

Ron Brown has been on the radio for more than 30 years, but he's never spun records, given an on-air weather report or hosted a talk show.

According to a story by Jef Rietsman at The Kalamazoo Gazette, the 45-year-old Otsego man estimates he's won about $100,000 worth of prizes through radio contests and other promotions since he was a teenager.

A Grand Rapids native, Brown said he scans about 25 different radio stations daily in hopes of landing his next prize.

A jovial, talkative individual, Brown said he grew up with an overly protective mother who limited his time outdoors and with friends. As a result, Brown said he found steady companionship with a transistor radio. At 14, he won a pair of movie tickets through a radio contest. Though Brown doesn't remember the movie he saw with the winning tickets, he said the moment of good fortunate would go on to become a lucrative hobby.

He has won tickets to concerts and sporting and entertainment events, as well as food and miscellaneous prizes. He has watched Lionel Ritchie, Cheap Trick, Ratt and Eddie Money perform live. He has cheered on the Kalamazoo Wings, Detroit Red Wings and West Michigan Whitecaps.

Brown keeps meticulous records of all his winnings, documenting the date, station and prize; his entries fill two notebooks. He has a shoebox full of audiocassette tapes that have recordings of his on-air successes, along with some trivia-question failures. Brown also has kept all correspondences, promotional photos and ticket stubs issued to him through the years.

"I'm very respectful of the 30-day rule, so even though I think some of the stations get tired of me calling all the time, they know I won't try again within 30 days after winning something."

Read More.

Solar To Help Power Clinton, TN Station

Rooftop panels will help power Clinton radio station WYSH 1380 AM

It's just as well a tepid economy and some bureaucratic red tape delayed his plans to become one of the first radio stations in the country to convert to solar power, Ron Meredith tells Bob Fowler at knoxnews.com.

During the months the project was put on hold, solar power technology advanced so much he'll now be able to generate another kilowatt of electricity, he said.

Workers this week are installing brackets for 36 solar panels that will go on the roof of the headquarters for Meredith's Radio Station WYSH 1380 AM.

When the system goes on line, the panels should produce 9 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power the station during the day.

Ron Meredith, owner of Radio Station WYSH 1380 AM in Clinton, is having solar panels installed on the roof of the station, which sits on a ridgetop. They should generate enough kilowatts of electricity to power the station during the day.

Overall, Meredith estimates he'll slice his power bills in half - perhaps more - once he goes solar.

"I'm excited about it," said Meredith, who purchased WYSH in 1990.

He also owns WGAP 1400 AM in Maryville and WMYL FM 96.7 in Halls. Programming for those sister stations originates in Clinton, he said.

The Clinton station is perched on a ridgetop more than 1,300 feet higher than the average surrounding terrain, and it gets sun all day, he said.

Meredith said his conversion to solar energy isn't because he's a tree-hugger. While it's the right thing to do for the environment, it also makes good business sense, he said.

"I've always been energy-conscious and I don't see a time when energy costs will go down," he said. "The more technology we use at the station, the more energy we use."

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WPAY AM Shuts Down In Ohio, KUDO Returns

WPAY-AM 1400 concluded nearly 80 years of radio broadcasting in the Portsmouth community Friday afternoon, according to a story from the Portsmouth, Ohio Daily Times.

The AM station was not included in the WNKU deal to purchase the WPAY-FM station's license and property earlier this year, but WPAY station President Doug Braden said they can't operate the AM-side without a staff — which was lost in the FM purchase.

Braden said the WPAY-AM radio station began in Mt. Orab. The station moved to Portsmouth in about 1936, and was instrumental in covering the historic 1937 flood. On Friday, however, the radio went silent as the AM station concluded its broadcasting and left the air at 2 p.m.

Braden said he has enjoyed being a part of the Portsmouth community, and explained that this move is an entirely financial decision.

Read More.

Meanwhile in Anchorage, Alaska 1080 AM KUDO returns to the air today as Sports Talk. Sports AM 1080 The Ticket is a Fox Sports Affiliate.

The new station will air the full FOX Sports Radio lineup, plus college football, the Dallas Cowboys and Anchorage Bucs baseball.

KUDO is owned by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547.  In December 2010 KUDO was taken silent.

Deters Worked For Free at WLW

Did attorney Eric Deters really do his 700 AM WLW talk shows for free, to promote his law practice?

Yes, for a while, according to a story posted at cincinnati.com.

Deters, who was fired by WLW-AM last Tuesday for remarks in a video blog on Facebook, said he took over the 9 p.m.-midnight slot last September for no pay, while continuing to do weekend shows.

"I got my foot in the door, and... it was very good for my law practice," said Deters, who has represented such high-profile clients as fired Dayton High School teacher Nicole Howell, who was found not guilty in 2009 of having sex with a student.

After working seven days a week, he said he emailed bosses asking: "Hey, aren't you going to start paying me?"

WLW-AM's response, he said, came in December, when he was told Marc Amazon would replace him, bumping Deters to weekends in January. The station paid him $10 an hour January-March, and nothing since, he said.

Read More.

Weiner and CNN: Video In How Not To Meet The Press

From David Zurawik, Z On TV Baltimore Sun

For the second video and to Read More, click here.

I have held back on the matter of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and the lewd underwear tweet. We still don't know the facts, and the press has been party to a lot of pain and misery when it reacts to images without the facts behind them. Can you say Shirley Sherrod, boys and girls?


This post, however, is not about the photo itself. It is about the ways in which Weiner has dug himself a deeper and deeper ditch of trouble with every utterance, wisecrack, smug smile and lecture on how he is "not going to allow" himself "to be "distracted" from doing the peoples' business by a picture of his crotch that is all over the media.


Check out these two videos from CNN. I guarantee you they will be used in college classrooms and by media consultants for years in showing how NOT to handle a situation like this. They are absolutely textbook -- in a bad way for Weiner. The first with CNN's Dana Bash is from Monday. The second with CNN's Wolf Blitzer is from Tuesday.

New Host at Atlanta's Rock 100.5 FM

WNNX Rock 100.5’s latest 10 to 3 p.m. DJ? Lyndsey Marie Cook from a Fort Myers, Fla. rock station.



Her twitter tag is LyndseyROCK1005. She already has more than 1,000 followers.

RIP: Andrew Gold Dies at 59

Known for 'Lonely Boy' hit and Golden Girl's theme

Singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Andrew Gold died of a heart attack June 3 in Los Angeles, according to a story by Christopher Morris at at variety.com. He was 59.

An early signing at David Geffen's Asylum Records, Gold was best known for a run of mid-'70s albums that spawned the pop hits "Lonely Boy" (No. 7, 1977) and "Thank You For Being a Friend" (No. 25, 1978); the latter song later became the theme of the sitcom "The Golden Girls."



Son of Ernest Gold, Oscar-winning composer of the "Exodus" soundtrack, and prominent soundtrack ghost singer Marni Nixon, Gold cut his musical teeth at West Hollywood's Troubadour. He first attracted attention as a member of Bryndle, a folk-rock act that also featured Wendy Waldman, Karla Bonoff and the late Kenny Edwards.

In 1973, Gold became the leader of Linda Ronstadt's band; his work was featured on Ronstadt's 1974 solo breakthrough "Heart Like a Wheel" and on her hits "You're No Good" and "When Will I Be Loved." He made his Asylum debut with a self-titled 1975 LP.

He is survived by his wife and three daughters.

Read More.

June 6, 1944 D-Day: How Radio Covered It

June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded.



Also Read:

                                          How Radio Covered D-Day

Hear first bulletins from WOR, CBS, NBC and much more.

The Sunday Funny

Taxi: Reverend Jim's driving test

From the sitcom "Taxi," Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd) takes a test for his driver's license. Also starring Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Tony Danza, and Marilu Henner.