As the battle over the future of college radio station KUSF continues, students at University of San Francisco (USF) expressed their displeasure over the proposed station sale by holding a wake on the lawn outside of a USF Board of Trustees meeting at noon today. Mourning students dressed in black held forth in front of […]
Archive | Consolidation
Spring Hill College to Sell WHIL to University of Alabama
In a familiar-sounding tale, University of Alabama is in talks to purchase public radio station WHIL from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama for $1.1 million. WHIL currently airs a public radio format, mainly comprised of classical music programming and syndicated NPR shows like “Weekend Edition” and “All Things Considered.” It is expected that the […]
Unusual turnabout: Connecticut commercial station flips to public
At least it’s not just college stations going the public radio route. In an unusual turnabout the commercial adult contemporary station WQQQ in Sharon, CT is flipping formats to pick up news, talk and classical music programming from public station WSHU based at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. WQQQ, which went on air in […]
Should NBC finally apologize to Mae West?
Everybody’s waiting for the United States government to decide whether to approve the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice have to bless the marriage, and it appears that the FCC is going to do so with some conditions. These include requirements that the new entity make […]
NAB “getting beat up” over their opposition to LPFM
Grassroots heat has been getting hotter this week as the Senate runs out of time to vote on the Local Community Radio Act, expanding low-power FM. There are some signs that the action is having some effect. Free Press campaign director Tim Karr tweeted on Thursday, NAB lobbyists overheard at DC event: “We’re getting beat […]
Clock is ticking on Howard Stern’s Sirius channel
Howard Stern may be the face that launched four satellites (now 9), but as he wraps up his fifth year on Sirius satellite radio both his listeners and stock analysts are wondering if the King of All Media will continue to broadcast from orbit come 2011. Stern’s current $500 million contract is set to run […]
What the Comcast – Level 3 conflict means for radio
In a textbook example of the abusive power of a near-monopoly, the ‘net was set ablaze yesterday upon the news that major internet backbone provider and content distribution network (CDN) company Level 3 called out cable-modem internet service provide Comcast for demanding additional fees for delivering video and other content to Comcast customers. Comcast’s demands […]
No massive severance for Randy Michaels
Once again I have to hand it to NY Times‘ media reporters David Carr and Tim Arano who–along with Vocalo.org’s Rober Feder–have consistently dug up important details and original reporting on Randy Michaels and Tribune. Thanks to Carr and Arano I learned that Michaels will not be walking away with an enormous severance as I […]
Randy Michaels may have left Tribune Tower, but something still stinks in there
Buried in the more sensational news that Randy Michaels resigned as Tribune CEO yesterday is the fact that a Delaware Judge is letting a group of creditors move forward with a lawsuit against chairman Sam Zell. This group of unsecured creditors contends that Zell’s Tribune buyout was a “fraudulent transfer” that primarily lined the pockets […]
It’s official, Randy’s gone
As anticipated, today Randy Michaels, CEO of Tribune Company, formerly of Clear Channel, one of the grand architects behind the current state of commercial radio, resigned from his post at Tribune. This is how his former company’s flagship paper put it: Having lost the support of many employees, his board and the creditors who will […]