"It's been no secret that Genachowski may want to move on after a tenure characterized by nearly-constant acrimony and a few trips to Capitol Hill to take fire from House Republicans. Genachowski has tangled with Senate Democrats as well" - according to Sara Jerome of Hillicon Valley. Jessica Rosenworcel, a top telecom aide to Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) is widely cited as a likely pick to replace outgoing FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and could be in the running for FCC chair should Genachowski leaves. I'm sure we'll all find out shortly what kind of Chair, Rosenworcel would be...
As one FCC Chairman might be leaving, another one resurfaces. Newton Minnow, FCC Chairman during the Kennedy Administration and author of the infamous "TV is a vast wasteland" quote is back to reminisce and give us his view of today's media. Given that the median age in the U.S. is 36.8, more than half of the population neither remembers the quote or Newton Minnow...
10 Timeline Memories:
1.1862] What’s the tie-breaker?:During the Civil War, the ironclad Monitor and Virginia (formerly the Merrimac) fight to a draw in a 5-hour battle at Hampton Roads (VA)…
2.1954] TVs finest hour: On “See It Now” Edward R. Murrow takes a stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy and his communist witch hunt with a hard hitting interview of the Wisconsin Senator…
3.1954] Not TVs finest hour: WNBT (now WNBC) New York runs the first local color TV commercial for Castro Convertible as Bernadette Castro makes the couch into a bed for the first time. This is Dan Ingram doing the radio commercial...
4.1955] Debuted on this date: James Dean debuts in “East of Eden”. Dean will make two more movies: “Rebel Without A Cause” and “Giant” before his short life ends in an auto crash in September of ‘55…1959] Happy Birthday to the Barbie Doll, 52 years young today…1964] The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line…
5.1975] Pipe down: Work begins on the Alaskan oil pipeline...
6.1976] Cadettes join the Cadets: The first female cadets are accepted at the West Point Military Academy…
7.1981] Rather: Dan Rather makes his debut as principal anchorman on The CBS Evening News replacing Walter Cronkite…2005] Not: Rather signs off for the last time as principal anchorman of The CBS Evening News…
8.1992] “Happy Trails”: Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin who had a history of heart trouble, dies at 78 from natural causes…1996] Legendary comedian George Burns joins Gracie at age 100…2007] Boston lead singer Brad Delp is found dead in his New Hampshire home. Delp, 55, died from the smoke of two charcoal grills he lit inside his sealed bathroom. Found by his girlfriend, he had a suicide note pinned to his shirt…
9.2006] Dubai-out: Bowing to opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company relinquishes its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports...
10.2009] Stem Cells In: Barack Obama lifts limits on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research...
Music Memories:
- 1977] Number One On this date: "Evergreen" - Barbra Streisand...1987] "Livin' On A Prayer" - Bon Jovi...1997] "Wannabe" - Spice Girls...
"WRKO...The Launch": (Part 7) (March marks the 44th anniversary of WRKO Boston. All month long, I will be serializing the story behind the actual launch of what would become one of the country's legendary Top 40 radio stations and today continues to be a mainstay with a N/T format in New England)...
Our visit to Harris, Inc. in the summer of 1966 would yield dividends. Thanks to Eng. Dir. George Capalbo's expertise, we came back with state-of-the-art automation. We named him-she-it: "ARKO" after the first part of our corporate name, RKO-General. By clicking here and then clicking, "Miscellaneous" under "Gallery" you'll see the automation in the top right corner. Left to right in the photo are 3-10" reel-to-reel machines, which we put the music on. The third machine was used as a spare, the programming rack, which we used to program "ARKO" and then the "sandwich" machine. The latter was stacked with regulation size cartridges that were recorded in the production studio. They were the promos and spots we would run - although we were light on commercials in the beginning. The "sandwich" machine ran from top to bottom sucking in the programmed cart and then spitting it out once played. On occasion it would spit out a cart too far and the cart would be crushed when the machine searched for the next scheduled cart. This wasn't anyone's favorite machine. George wired the equipment for dead-air with a loud alarm that had technicians running down the hallway when "ARKO" became soundless...
Most of the time the equipment ran well and regular maintenance (head cleaning, re-cueing, etc.) saw to that. In addition to a new automation system, we had a great signal which covered 5 states. Taking a look at our coverage map, you can see that we reached the southern tip of Maine, half of New Hampshire, half of Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, all of Rhode Island and about half of Connecticut. WRKO-FM's reach was better than our AM...(Tomorrow: "WRKO...The Launch" (Part 8) (The events that colored 1967, followed by the actual launch on Friday)...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Brittany Snow (25), Emanuel Lewis (40), Jeffrey Osborne (63), Charlie Gibson (68), Mark Lindsay (69), Marty Ingels (75), Mickey Gilley (75), Lloyd Price (78) and Keely Smith (79)...
Timeline Countdown: 4 days until Daylight time, 11 days until the first day of spring, 22 days until MLB Opening Day, 41 days until Passover & 46 days until Easter...
