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• Thanks to Radio Ink Magazine

  https://radioink.com/2025/08/22/nbc-at-100-labf-to-honor-networks-radio-and-tv-legacy/

• "My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW"

  Mighty Sh-tty Nonsense, Only Worse

  • If only they would adopt that slogan.

• (From PDXradio.com)
  KXXO Olympia has filed paperwork with the feds. Bustos is buying the Class C for $1.5MM. One would think an LMA will soon be in the offing? WHich of his formats will get dropped into this one?

  Big signal that doesn’t cover a ton of people- runs from the S Seattle burbs down to about Longview.

  • There was a time that this type of news would really rattle some cages. There are so many choices for music, long-time KXXO listeners will reset their pre-sets or find a playlist/station online. Times have changed. In other towns, licenses have been turned in and owners walk away. $1.5 million is not a huge payday.

• There has been a fair amount of speculation on this website that the CBS affiliation for Seattle-Tacoma will eventually return to Channel 11 for a FOURTH time, particular since CBS currently owns KSTW. If so, it would bring CBS back to 11 for the first time since the 1990s. This speculation has increased because another CBS owned-and-operated station, WUPA-TV channel 69, today became the CBS affiliate for Atlanta.
  But I notice that most of the CBS O&Os that now are CBS network affiliates are branded only with their geographic locations -- for example, "CBS Los Angeles," or "CBS Baltimore." No channel numbers. Only four of the affiliates (Texas, Sacramento, Miami, Philadelphia) incorporate a channel number logo on their website.
  The new Atlanta affiliate doesn't mention the channel number on its website. I don't quite grasp why ANY of the stations would fail to promote the channel number. How is that smart branding?
  If KSTW does eventually get the CBS affiliation back (which I assume might happen when CBS's current contract with KIRO 7 expires) I wonder if it would simply be called "CBS Seattle" or whether it would include an identification as Channel 11. Or does it matter?

  • Yes, I doubt that we would hear KSTW Tacoma Channel 11, CBS for the great Northwest, as an identifier. It appears that all the network owned stations identify as network/city. Kind of a shame.

• National Television Ownership Cap: A single entity can own any number of television stations nationwide as long as the station group collectively reaches no more than 39% of the national TV audience. Nexstar currently has stations reaching 63% of U.S. households, with the UHF discount (which counts UHF stations at 50% of the actual reach for calculating the cap) bringing it down to a compliant level. It's uncertain how the combined company's reach would be calculated, especially with discussions around potentially eliminating or modifying the UHF discount, according to NewscastStudio.

  Local Television Ownership: Entities can own up to two television stations in the same market, provided certain conditions are met, such as one station not being among the top four rated or the service areas not overlapping. This rule has been subject to modifications and interpretations over the years, with recent court rulings overturning some restrictions like the "Top Four" rule, which prohibited owning two of the top four stations in a single market.

  Past Scrutiny and Future Outlook: The FCC, under Democratic control in 2023, effectively blocked Standard General's acquisition of Tegna due to concerns about potential layoffs and consumer pricing. However, a shift in the FCC's priorities under the current Republican leadership, particularly under Chairman Brendan Carr, suggests a potential move towards relaxing ownership rules.

  Arguments for and against consolidation
  Broadcaster Arguments: Consolidation allows for operational efficiencies, potentially enabling companies to invest more in local news and programming, according to TVREV. They also argue that the rise of Big Tech platforms like Netflix and YouTube necessitates consolidation to compete effectively in the evolving media landscape.

  Opponent Arguments: Critics, including public interest groups, express concerns that consolidation leads to reduced competition, diminished local news coverage, and homogenized content across markets. They worry that fewer owners controlling larger portions of the broadcast landscape could negatively impact the quality and variety of local programming.

  The potential Nexstar-Tegna merger is currently undergoing the regulatory approval process. The outcome will likely be influenced by the FCC's interpretation of existing regulations, the potential for further deregulation, and the broader debate about balancing economic realities with the public interest in a rapidly changing media landscape.

• There was a necessary change in coding to some files here at the blog that caused some, not all, pictures to become over-sized. It's a weird deal. Something to do with science and physics. Too complicated to explain here.
  I have tracked down quite a bit of it and re-sized the pics to be easy on the eyes. There will be some stragglers amongst the pages. If you see a photo that looks too large or out of focus, drop me an email. I will fix those individual pics.
  The quest for perfection continues.

• Was it just me, or did anyone else find Danny Kaye to be annoying? I couldn't watch his antics in movies or tv.

  • For me, there was one exception: "D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh, Really? No, O’Malley)", written by Herbert Baker and Danny's wife, Sylvia Fine. I loved this the first time I heard it and I still do! There's even a mention of Ron Fairly.

    https://youtu.be/l7yzmJ9Ls7Y?list=RDl7yzmJ9Ls7Y

    https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/danny-kaye-and-sylvia-fine/sylvia-fine-the-woman-behind-the-curtain.html

• I remember downloading albums from Usenet newsgroups, when a three minute song took twenty minutes or so. Start the download, go to bed, get up eight hours later, listen to new album through the same 1" speaker that provided the dial-up screech.

  I'm feeling nostalgic, also missing Campho-Phenique.

  • I just noticed that someone canceled my Prodigy account. I guess I haven't been paying the bill.

    • Things I did with my Prodigy account:

      Printed the original recipe for Caesar Salad from the Caesar Hotel in Tijuana
      Opened a Nieman-Marcus charge account and ordered a crystal cat sculpture
      Learned of Kurt Cobain's suicide less than an hour after his body was discovered
      Bought airline tickets which were delivered by messenger seven hours later

      Prodigy was great on my 300 baud Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 portable computer. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was the first paper online and every journalist in the country was suddenly packing a Model 100.

      I had worked at Radio Shack since 1977 and was managing the computer department at Alderwood Mall when the 100 was introduced, so I took one home to learn all about it. My wife thought it was a stupid toy. We always watched the TV news and when Brokaw or Rather or Jennings said something earth-shattering, I'd gleefully remind her that I'd told her the same thing a week or two before.

• https://www.thewrap.com/msnbc-new-hires-the-hill-bloomberg-nbc-news-reporters/

  • Splitting from NBC -- maybe call the cable news channel BSCN or something.

• https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/jane-morgan-fascination-singer-ed-210731124.html

  • Eva Marie Saint gave birth two days after picking up her 1955 Oscar for "On the Waterfront". First words of her acceptance speech: "I may have the baby right here!"

    • Aside from her Hollywood life, seems like a decent person, this Eva Marie Saint. Maybe good jeans have something to do with a long life.