Weiner calls the cops

One of the big uproars about Anthony's Weiner's wiener-gate scandal is that he didn't call the cops to investigate his account being hacked. Well, he finally called the cops yesterday, but not to investigate the hack.

He called the cops to get rid of a reporter.

This is not going well for him.

Another Tribune Lawsuit?

The amount of money that lawyers are making on this Tribune bankruptcy is setting all sorts of records, and will continue to do so.

Here's the latest twist.

Now Tribune retirees (who lost their retirement) are suing the shareholders that made the original deal with Sam Zell because they knew it was a fraud that would send the company into bankruptcy. On the surface it looks like they have a point. Those original shareholders walked away with millions, and all they did to earn that was to destroy the company to such a level that only someone like Sam Zell would take a shot at owning it.

Not sure how they stand legally. I guess we'll find out a few years from now. I wonder if universities will start offering a major in suing the Tribune. It seems like an actual industry.

Pandora's IPO

They're still projecting that they'll lose money in the short term, but it really looks like the Pandora IPO will be coming very soon, and will be priced in the $7-$9 range. According to this morning's Tom Taylor column, it will be the fourth biggest radio company in the country...

Kurt Hanson says “Pandora’s AQH audience is roughly equal in size to that of a 3.0-share FM station in every market” – and its audience is growing rapidly. He figures that “Pandora's market capitalization at this share price would equal the total of the market caps of such pureplay radio broadcast companies as Entercom ($330 million), Cumulus ($180 million), Saga ($150 million), Radio One ($120 million), Emmis ($40 million) and several others, combined.” So Pandora, valued by this IPO at around $1.3 billion, would come in at #4, behind Sirius XM, Clear Channel and CBS Radio – and not that far behind CBS.

A quick translation for non-radio folks: A 3.0 share FM station in Chicago, for instance, would be one of the biggest stations in town. In a smaller market with fewer stations, not so much, but still a legitimate player. On the other hand, they're still not making money--which makes me wonder.

Sky Daniels

I remember Sky Daniels well in Chicago from his time at the Loop (and met him a few times), so this notice today in Tom Taylor's column at Radio-Info.com caught my eye...

Sky Daniels circles back to Los Angeles to program, this time at Cal State-Northridge-based adult alternative non-com KCSN (88.5). Sky's worked extensively in major-market radio (San Francisco's KFOG, Seattle's KISW, Chicago's "Loop" WLUP), in the record biz (at Universal Music and Sony Music), and been National VP/Entertainment at Best Buy and GM of Radio & Records. Sky comes in talking about the potential reach of KCSN (three million people) and the opportunity of working "several media platforms."

When you play it, say it

Sometime back in the 1980s radio station disc jockeys were told to stop identifying the names of artists and titles of songs, because programmers became obsessed with ending "DJ Chatter." (I remember it well--I was a DJ at the time)

Of course it was a terrible idea, because people actually like to know the name of the song they're hearing and/or the artist that is performing it. CBS Radio is taking steps now to correct that twenty year mistake. Dan Mason, the head of CBS Radio, had a chat with the New York Times to explain it.

I realize he's only doing it to soothe relations with the music industry because they're trying to get more money in royalties, but I don't care that the motivation isn't pure. It's still the right thing to do. Every now and then radio lucks into a good decision because the economics call for it, and this is one of those moments.

The Tribune Soap Opera

I've been reading all about the shakeup at the top of the Tribune company, and the ridiculously long bankruptcy case, but without knowing the people involved it's sometimes difficult to connect the dots.

Robert Feder did a great job of that this morning in his Time Out Chicago blog.

Rob is never better than when he calls out the powers that be.

DC Comics to revamp classic characters

The details are in USA Today.

Basically they are renumbering the comics (to create all new #1s), and are trying to make their classic characters like Superman and Batman more relevant for the 21st century.

How will they be more relevant? Here's what the writer says: "What's the human aspect behind all these costumes? That's what I wanted to explore."

Sounds like he's got the finger on the pulse of today's youth. Less action. More character study.

Olbermann announces his staff

I know that Keith Olbermann has a reputation of being a bit of a jerk, but when I read this piece about the staff he hired for his new show, it made me wonder whether or not that is true. Most of these people have worked with him before, and many of them have worked with him for many years.

Take it from someone who was part of a show staff. You may work with a jerk once, but there's no way you'd do it again unless you were absolutely desperate or they were offering you a TON of money. These people were already employed, and Current isn't paying anyone a ton of money.

Stop Following Her

Sarah Palin is driving reporters crazy because she is not allowing any questions and she isn't giving them any information about her bus tour across the country.

Note to reporters: Stop following her.

Right now she's just a Fox employee, not a candidate. If she becomes a candidate, she will have to answer questions, and if she's still too gutless to answer, the American public gives you permission to absolutely hammer her. You can't run for office without answering questions from the press. It's the reason we have the press. Otherwise an election is a pointless PR exercise.

But until she announces, she's under contract not to answer your questions. You're just giving her free publicity for no reason at all. Pictures without substance. It's exactly what she wants.

Roger Ailes

Rolling Stone does a profile of Roger Ailes.

Judging by the title of the piece ("How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory") and the subtitle of the piece ("The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America's Unfair and Imbalanced Network"), I'm guessing he's not going to like it.

Viacom defends executive pay

I always get a kick out of stories like this one. After the news got out that the three highest paid executives in entertainment all work for Viacom, they had to come out with a reason why.

The pay: CEO Phillipe Dauman--$85 million (149% pay raise)
COO Thomas Dooley--$64.7 million (139% pay raise)
Chairman of the board Sumner Redstone--$35.3 million

Dooley's pay, by the way, is 6-times higher than a typical CEO--and he's only the COO.

Read the article and judge for yourself whether or not that is reasonable compensation. I think you know where I stand.

Pandora

They plan to offer an IPO very soon, and expect it to go through the roof, but I keep looking at statements like this from their CEO: "We expect to continue to incur operating losses on an annual basis at least through fiscal 2012," and I wonder why in the world people are going crazy for it.

I guess I just don't understand high finance. (Although I suspect I know why they call it "high" finance.)

Weinergate

If you weren't paying attention to the news this weekend (like me), you may have missed the incredibly strange story of Weinergate.

The full story is here.

It involves a hacked twitter account, a photo of a man's fully aroused underwear, a college coed, Representative Anthony Weiner, and a conservative blogosphere that took the story and ran with it long before any facts were revealed.

Howard versus Mel

Get me some popcorn, I'm loving this.

Howard Stern is going to war against his boss Mel Karmazin.

He's even taking shots at him on the air. Turns out, Mel is not living up to his financial promises. As one person in the article mentions, "Mel has always been better at taking care of Mel."

Harry & Jay

Two of my former Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews were in the news this week.

Some good news first. Harry Teinowitz avoided jail this week when he pleaded guilty to the DUI charge. He told the judge that this was probably the best thing that ever happened to him because it's forcing him to clean up his act. That's great to hear. I honestly wish him the best.

Then the frightening news out of Colorado. Former WLS talk show host Jay Marvin is recovering from a suicide attempt. He's been going through some rough times and medical problems, and those were on top of his already diagnosed bipolar disorder. Read his blog. It's heartbreaking. He's in a lot of pain right now.

(If you'd like to read my original Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews with either man, I interviewed them both in 2007: Harry Teinowitz, Jay Marvin)

Fired for Tweeting

Here's a tip to journalists out there: Remember to always be careful what you say on Twitter.

Here are four high profile journalists that were fired for something they tweeted, and here are four more.

You may only get 140 characters, but it's apparently not that hard to say something that can get you fired in 140 characters.

Ed Schultz suspended

From this morning's Radio Ink...

"Radio talker and MSNBC host Ed Schulz started serving his one week suspension last night after appearing on his 10PM show for 4 minutes. Schultz started his show with a major apology and a request for forgiveness for the remarks he leveled at Laura Ingraham. He was quickly replaced after the networks' first commercial break. Schultz called his remarks the "lowest of the low for me" adding I used vile and inappropriate language." Schultz apologized to his staff for embarrassing them and said he tried to call Ingraham to apologize but no contact was made. Schultz was suspended by MSNBC for a week after calling Laura Ingraham a "right wing slut" on his radio program."

Laura Ingraham certainly isn't a saint (google some of her famous slams, including her comments about Megan McCain and Michelle Obama), but I think it's nice that MSNBC takes the high road.

Soccer on the radio?

Yes, it's true. From this morning's Radio Online...

"Fox Sports Radio, in conjunction with Fox Sports TV, will air the UEFA Champions League Final live on Saturday, May 28. The game, which is considered by many to be the single biggest game in the sport, is between two of the most famous soccer clubs in the world: Manchester United and Barcelona. The broadcasting team will include Curt Menefee, Eric Wynalda and Kyle Martino."

That is a huge game. Sean has a soccer tournament that day, so I'm hoping the game falls somewhere in between his games.

You're New American Idol

I didn't watch one second of the show this season, but they did crown a new American Idol this week. His name is Scotty McCreery, and he's 17 years old.

I have a rule about watching American Idol. I'll only watch if a kid that used to work at a paint store three blocks away from my house is on it.

You'd be surprised how often that happens.

The story behind the story

Sometimes the origin of a leaked story is just as fascinating as the story itself. That's the case with the latest Sarah Palin leaked e-mail story.

Media Bistro has the story behind that story.