"La Commissionaire" Becomes a Broadcaster

It looks like the ranks of my esteemed colleagues has grown larger recently. According to the news reports, NHL Commish Gary Bettman will host a radio show on XM to announce league news and answer questions from fans.

"This program sets the bar high. It marks the first time fans of a professional sports league will have direct access to the sport's top decision makers," said John Bitove, chairman and CEO of XM Canada.

An XM spokesman said the show was created when Bettman's appearance on the channel's NHL Hour received great response.

So, with that being said, I will offer Mr. Bettman my suggestions and tips on how to do great radio.

1. Don't take yourself seriously. A warm and approachable persona can help dispel a lot of critics. Also, you can take jabs at yourself by including the FAN 590's character of you in your show somehow. Talking to your audio doppelganger would be great radio.
2. Pick a better sidekick than Bill Clement. Versus kicked him out of the desk for a reason.
3. The show needs a real catchy swinging signature theme music. All the great radio shows have one.
4. Don't fall back on using street-wise lingo. Some guys do it to look hip, but only .5% of personalities can pull that off.
5. One word - trivia.

So, there you go, Mr. Bettman. All you really need to know about the inner workings of doing a radio show. And Mr. Bettman, if you ever really need somebody to help boost your audience cume even further, you can always give me a call!

Big Ten Network Met By Obfuscating Cable Providers

Nothing infuriates me more than when somebody or something is held down and oppressed. The short sighted and vindictive cable providers in America have been blocking a new network. I have a degree from a Big Ten school and would love to see more Big Ten athletics since I now live in Western, PA. The Big Ten Network is not only about NCAA Div-1 football. The main argument made by the Network opponents is that Comcast already covers a great number of football games as expressed by their enormous smear and propaganda campaign seen and heard locally in the Pittsburgh broadcast area. They also get basketball, baseball, hockey, as well as other non-television exposed sports.

The rookie Big Ten Network is, at the moment, being snubbed by cable distributors including Comcast, Time Warner and others. None of the top eight have struck a pact with the network, which is 49 percent owned by Fox. The battles have become public and nasty, with cable providers demanding that the games and other fare be placed on an optional sports tier, while Chicago-based BTN insists it deserves to be on basic cable at about $1.10 per subscriber (at least in the eight states that comprise Big Ten territory).

Okay, so a young network needs time to grow and prove themselves, so is there any hope of perhaps making a basic cable deal in the future?

Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman concedes no agreement is likely before football season ends but believes something can be worked out within a year. And he’s not surprised by the initial cold shoulder.

MSNBC thinks they have the problem identified.

"Many new nets come on the air and have distribution issues," he said. "Unfortunately, this one has played out very publicly."

And publicity, whether* positive or negative, is just what a new idea thrives on. People talk about it which is cheaper and more valuable than any kind of advertising.

But with the mistake of cable providers, satellite cable has picked up on cable's error and broadcasted the Big 10 on their dime.

Despite the rebuff from cable giants since the net debuted Aug. 30, there are plenty of bright spots. Silverman said BTN entered more than 30 million homes in its first month, which he describes as "the largest launch in TV history" in such a short time. The main key: Satellite has jumped in as DirectTV and Dish Network both offer the new network.

The Big Ten Network also threatens to shift recruiting abilities with many other NCAA colleges. Here, Western Pennsylvania, the Big East gets the benefit of the doubt as Pitt and WVU claim the region. I have a theory that the Big East and other cable channels are trying to strong arm Comcast to stamp out a network that will be their recruitment competition. Also, who else stands to lose thier iron grip on college football? the 4-letter network, CBS sports, and FOX. Could they be pressuring cable providers not to pick up the Big Ten Network?


*=Thank you anonymous for pointing out my error.

Partisian Radio Puts Broward County at Risk

Politics and partisianism is usually mundane to argue about it, but sometimes trading insults and harsh rhetoric can put innocent citizens in harms way. Consider the case of a Florida radio station who would lose their ability to air the dangerous weather alerts because the democrat controlled Broward County commissioners disagree with the WIOD station lineup consisting of conservative talk.

"If your roof gets blown off, do you really care if the radio station that is giving you the information that you need also carries Rush Limbaugh?" Jacobs remarked to the Sun-Sentinel. "I don't think so. I don't agree with that man's philosophy and I don't listen to him, but I'm not going to not choose WIOD because of it."

That sounds like a rational thought from the Sun-Sentinel. If only there were more people who held this view.

Under its deal with Broward County, WIOD broadcasts news conferences from the county Emergency Operations Center in Plantation, Fla., in their entirety.

And what would be so wrong as to reach the largest possible audience knowing that WIOD is #1 in their market. Petty jealousy is really ugly when you look at this through the mirror. The democrats have no leg to stand on this argument. Luckily, the voice of the people continues to shine and not accept blindly what a few bureaucrats think what people should have.

The Sun-Sentinel is running a poll on the matter on its Web site, asking, "Broward County commissioners may cancel a contract with radio station WIOD, which is the official source of emergency information, because it features the Rush Limbaugh show. Would you support this?" At press time, 44.9% of 11,204 respondents had answered yes, 52.8% said no, and 2.3% were not sure.

Lucky for us, the democrats don't get away with this kind of garbage. This story has been all over the cable news channels and debated many times. You can count on people like me to continue to shine the light of truth on these kinds of issues.
-- Additional reporting by Brida Connolly

Thorne Accuses Schilling of Fraud

Sometimes, media stories can really infuriate me. And this story is no different. Here was once-respected Gary Thorne, a veteran TV broadcaster, who should have known better than to go with a story that had a very dubious and shaky source.

Thorne, who broadcasts on the four-letter with baseball games, had inferred that World Series winning pitcher Curt Schilling had committed fraud by doctoring up the sock that he wore during a courageous game. Schilling, who injured his ankle, had emergency surgery and still pitched days later. However, the strain on his ankle began to pull at the stitches making for a really gruesome sight on live TV.

Fast-forward to today, Thorne said almost flippantly that another Red Sox player had confessed that the blood on Schilling's sock was a scam and that they got plenty of publicity.

Well, publicity was certainly the motive for this story, but it wasn't on Schilling. It was an attempt to release a story in the hopes that Thorne would get some "street cred". I hope that this doesn't work for Thorne, that this cheap publicity stunt makes him more of a household name.

Connoisseur Media Collecting

As the continual generation of drama flows through the crazy world of terrestrial radio, so goes the shake-up in the Erie, PA market as a fresh new entity housed in Westport, CT.

Connoisseur Media has thrown in a fresh new lineup for the radio dial as well as taken charge of former NextMedia properties that broadcast Erie sports teams. There, they created a clever 93.9 FM "The Wolf" as a pop country station.

These guys could be a major player in the radio industry as they buy up stations all accross the US as it reads on their bio page straight from their official website:

In addition to Wichita, the company owns or operates radio stations in Billings, MT, Bloomington, IL, Huntington, WV and Omaha, NE. It is also in the process of building stations in Omaha, NE, Rapid City, SD and Des Moines, IA.

In Memoriam: RKZ (1933-2007)

This week, I lost a hero, a teacher, a mentor, and a friend.

Mr. Zimmerman was a good man. I can't think of any basic way to say it. He was a radio mentor who taught me everything I know about the radio business. He loved his students at Penn State and respected his employees. He encouraged a true work ethic in his students and was able to reach young minds with energetic anecdotes. I will always remember his personality that commanded respect and to his rivals it was formidable intimidation.

He had a long list of broadcasting success stories ranging from radio station ownership, College of Communications Alumni Society Board, founder and co-chairman of the college's Dollars for Scholars Golf Classic, and secured a home for the Pennsylvania Broadcasting Hall of Fame at State College, PA.

My only regret is that he was not able to live long enough to be proud of me and see me ascend to broadcasting success.

On a visit to PSU last December, I had a chance meeting with him outside the new State Theatre on College Ave and told him how much he meant to me. Little did I know, that will be the last time I will ever see him.

The radio broadcasting world is all the poorer for his passing. My sincerest condolences to the family.

[Via: Vineyard Gazette]

Morning Show Promotion Tragedy

Rarely do local radio stations make national news, but Entercom's KDND in Sacramento, CA has caused a really big stir in the broadcasting world. Their alleged crime now puts the spotlight on shock-jocks like never before.

The Morning Rave, the stations radio morning show program, decided on a weird promotional contest where contestants who held back their urine the longest would be awarded a Nintendo Wii video game console. But the ill-advised stunt allegedly caused the death of a young mother bringing the unintended focus the wrong kind of attention/rating seeking stunt that radio jocks don't want.

After some reflection of my own, I wondered why a Top 40 station would green light a promotion so stupid and risky in the first place. Most Top 40 stations are bland and never deviate from the family-oriented entertaining content. "Holding Wee for a Wii" is clever but gross. Wouldn't a simple high score on a Wii game be more of a safer alternative?

I doubt it was worth the risk. It cost everyone involved with the Morning Rave program to be summarily dismissed. But the infection of a stunt gone wrong doesnt end there. The black cloud of this tragedy will seep upward to station management where they too will have to answer to justice.

EDIT:

The family of Jennifer Strange urged the FCC to shut down the station and punish the parent company Entercom. On January 24, 2007 The FCC announced that they will investigate the station to see if it violated the terms of its license. If KDND is found guilty the station will have their license stripped and be ordered off the air.

[Via: Wikipedia]