KUSI's translator station K12PO in Temecula has been granted its application to go digital. K12PO-DT (Ch12) will replace existing analog Ch12. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Applica tion_id=1218183

Recently KUSI also applied for new low power stations in Banning (ch26)... http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=181405

El Centro (ch 40)... http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=181407

and Santa Barbara (ch 44) http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=181406

Chargers-Raiders Blackout Lifted (Oct 31, 2009)

New York's "Pulse" to go dark. Mega Media Group CEO Alex Shvarts delivered the news this afternoon to listeners -- the financially-struggling two-year old dance-formatted "Pulse 87" WNYZ-LP will go off the air at 5pm. Mega filed Chapter 11 in August. Using a low power Channel 6 signal, the station attracted 831,000 listeners in the latest New York ratings.

Mel Phillips: A new report from eMarketer predicts "steep declines" for terrestrial radio for the rest of this year and into 2010. Not so for Internet radio which can take advantage of marketing dollars that are moving online. "Even in this tough economy Internet radio is one of the fastest-growing online media categories

Jacobs Media: As many of us in rock radio remember all too well, the release of a new album from a major group back in the '70s was an event. The audience was jazzed, radio was excited, retail readied itself for the onslaught, and everyone had a great time (except for the station that somehow didn't get the record until it was already on the air at the competition). Today, the release of new music is rarely anticipated, much less embraced, by a populace too busy and distracted to even notice

John Maffei: TUBE TALK: Almost weekly, Chargers flirt with local TV blackout of home games

Jay Posner: NFL's policy is no friend to Favre fans. Also: The AM half of the ESPN Radio San Diego simulcast -- MEC Sports XESPN-A and XHMORE/TIJUANA-SAN DIEGO -- is splitting off and will carry Snaosh Sports using ESPN Deportes as of midnight Saturday.

All Access: New York Losing Its Pulse. MEGA MEDIA GROUP Top 40/Dance WNYZ-LP (PULSE 87.7)/NEW YORK is shutting down operations as of 5p (ET) TODAY (10/30).

The Wires (Oct 30, 2009)

SDNN: Did Arnold Schwartzenegger say the F bomb?

Radio-info.com: Entercom hit with $16.57 million water-death verdict. The jury in the wrongful death trial of 28-year-old mom Jennifer Lea Strange holds both Entercom's Sacramento subsidiary and the Philadelphia-based parent Entercom Communications liable. The Sacramento Bee says the 7-man, 5-woman jury awarded damages of about half what widower Billy Strange was asking for - at least $34 million. His wife Jennifer died January 12, 2007 of water intoxication, hours after participating in a morning show contest named "Hold your wee for a Wii." No statement yet from Entercom - which could appeal the large award.

Ross on Radio (radio-info.com): Fresh Listen---XHDFM (Mix 106.5) Mexico City (Mix 106.5) Mexico City.

Mexico's English-language radio has always been a pretty reliable source of "oh wow" oldies that have disappeared from (or never made it to) American radio. So Grupo Radio Acir's XHDFM (Mix 106.5) Mexico City didn't disappoint when I heard them Tuesday night. But for all its eclecticism, Mix 106.5 had long stretches where it sounded like a successful execution of the `90s-based formats that are only starting to shake out in the U.S. as well.

Here's Mix 106.5 at 10:15 on Oct. 27:

• R.E.M., "Losing My Religion"
• Coolio, "Gangsta's Paradise"
• Blondie, "Maria"
• Sandra, "Maria Magdalena" (`80s synth-dance from the team that later brought us Enigma; sounds like an edgier version of Laura Branigan's "Self Control")
• Cure, "Boys Don't Cry"
• Era, "Ameno"
• Daft Punk, "Around The World"
• Shania Twain, "Man! I Feel Like A Woman"
• Toto, "Africa"
• Aerosmith, "Crying"
• Radiohead, "Creep"
• Culture Club, "Karma Chameleon"
• The Flirts, "Danger"
• Paul McCartney, "Hope of Deliverance"
• Al Corley, "Square Rooms" (yes, the "Dynasty" actor with his Europop venture)

ZDNET: With Motorola Droid, Verizon puts doubts about Google Android platform to rest [review]

Tom Taylor radio-info: Crackdown on pirates - the FCC orders shutdowns in Florida, New York City, Massachusetts and Georgia. A T-R-I reader alerts me to the existence of a whole stack of Enforcement Bureau "Notice of unlicensed operation" letters in the New York area - and it turns out the field agents have been pirate-spotting in Florida, too. That's probably the most fertile ground for radio outlaws. Around the Big Apple, there are new cease-and-desist letters about a 92.7 in Brooklyn, two different 99.9's in Brooklyn, a 107.9 in Brooklyn, another 107.9 operating in East Orange, NJ, a 90.9 in Paterson, NJ, two different 92.1's in Elmont, NY and an 89.7 in Queens Village. In Florida, the FCC detected an illegal 89.5 in Lauderdale Lakes, an 88.7 in Lauderhill and a 97.7 in Oakland Park. That's not all - up in Massachusetts, there's a suspicious 99.7 in Mattapan, and down in Georgia, there's a 98.9 in Decatur. The pirate situation in some areas - New York, South Florida - is probably out of control. It costs only a couple of grand to buy the transmitting equipment and these days you can run a whole station off a cheap laptop. What drives pirates? They fall into a couple of broad categories. There are the ones who really want to hear their favorite kind of music and can't locate it on the radio (a lot of the Brooklyn and Queens pirates favor Caribbean music). Some just like being on the radio. There are also the lone independent voices who want their own talkshow pulpit. And there are the feisty power-to-the people types who resent conglomerates controlling the radio dial.

Inside Music Media: Somehow you just get the feeling that record industry executives who haven't been able to shoot straight for the last ten years are getting ready to reload and fire. Duck. They are set to go beyond the obvious cockamamie ideas, like Interscope/Geffen/A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine's brainstorm to come up with a $2,300 laptop computer basically for playing music

Tom Taylor Newsletter Excerpts (Oct 29, 2009)

Net neutrality soars to the top of the FCC's agenda, with a new rulemaking. All five Commissioners voted to launch it during Thursday's meeting and we've already got the fleshed-out public notice - proof again that "a free and open Internet" is Chairman Julius Genachowski's #1 priority. Radio should care about this, a lot. If a Comcast or a Verizon or a cell phone carrier can give some rich clients priority (faster page-loading, etc.) over small guys, radio stations who stream and otherwise distribute content through new media could be at a disadvantage. Genachowski cited past instances where he said broadband providers had "degraded the data streams of some popular lawful services and blocked consumer access to lawful applications." He says the country faces "the dangerous combination of an uncertain legal framework with ongoing as well as emerging challenges to a free and open Internet." He's proud that he got the other four Commission members, including Republicans Rob McDowell and Meredith Baker, to join him in the question-asking process. McDowell cautiously says "No irreversible decisions have been made." Expect major lobbying by the wealthy broadband carriers. Read more from the FCC here.

Don't give AM stations the spectrum of Channel 5 and 6 television. That's the position of the Association for Maximum Service Television, opposing the creation of an "AM Transition Federal Advisory Committee" which would re-purpose the spectrum just below the current FM band (below 88.1 MHz) as a safe haven for AM operators. The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council contends those new green pastures would also let the FCC address the issue of diversity by authorizing new stations there, not just AM move-overs. But the TV association doesn't buy it and says it would "seriously disrupt the public's TV service." It also says the spectrum isn't empty, anyhow. It contains "hundreds of television stations, including full-power stations and Class A low power station television stations and translator stations." The filing by the Covington and Burling law firm also says the Council's propose would jeopardize the hard-won gains of the conversion to digital TV - claiming that they might interfere with digital stations on Channel 7-13. That's also the position of the National Association of Broadcasters, which otherwise mostly supports the MMTC "radio rescue" bullet points. I'd toss in the fact that incoming NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith joined the Covington & Burling law firm in March, after he ended two terms as a U.S. Senator from Oregon. Though I don't see that he was involved with this particular filing. To see the latest comments on "radio rescue", go here and type in the Rulemaking - RM-11565.

Dementia Music on Top 40 (Oct 29, 2009)

Excerpts: Rock and pop music have a long history of songs about violence. Some are jolly ditties, such as "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," a rollicking Beatles tune about a serial killer. Then there are the moving tunes: blink-182's "Adam's Song," an ode to a teen who commits suicide, and Bobbie Gentry's timeless "Ode to Billie Joe," about a deadly bridge that leads to the death of at least one person. You can put Rihanna's popular new tune "Russian Roulette," about suicide, in that latter category. Stations that cater to teens are playing it. But should they?

Maroon 5's "Wake Up Call" is about shooting the man you catch with your girlfriend, Ross said, and the Dixie Chicks' "Goodbye Earl" is a "revenge fantasy" that made country radio programmers nervous.

But country stations didn't mind Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead" as much, he said. That song is about domestic violence and revenge delivered via weaponry: "His fist is big but my gun's bigger/ He'll find out when I pull the trigger."

Read the whole article at the link above.

The Wires (Oct 29, 2009)

ZD Net: Firefox hit by multiple drive-by download flaws!

Daily Kos: American journalism is in the middle of a great transition. Older models of journalism based on local newspaper monopolies and a small number of broadcast news sources have given way to a wide abundance of sources for journalism. This has occurred over the last thirty years; the Internet is the most salient cause, but in fact, as Fox News and Rush Limbaugh demonstrate, the prime movers were cable television and talk radio, respectively

Inside Music Media: Clear Channel is the biggest radio group in the world and if you want to see the future of the industry, just look closely at what is going to happen within the next few months: 1. Lee & Bain, Clear Channel's owners, will stop playing radio and start playing a very long game of Monopoly. Except they may turn a Park Place company into Broadway in Camden, New Jersey, one of the most blighted cities in the U.S. What a comparison. Camden's city government was taken over by the state of New Jersey and Clear Channel's fine stations were taken over by the state of Lee & Bain. Camden is ruled with authoritarian power and Clear Channel is . well, you get it. 2. It will be all about "real estate" for radio companies controlled by investment banks and by "real estate" I mean radio stations and what they could be worth when the economy gets better

Just In: Team Melarky Booted Off DWTS (Oct 28, 2009)

Actress Melissa Joan Hart and her partner Mark Ballas were eliminated after a low score and lack of votes on Monday's airing of "Dancing With The Stars."

I guess Hart's leftover magic from her "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" days ran out, and on all days, the 27th of the Month, which happens to be the monthly "Weird Al" Yankovic day.

"That's the game," said Hart, who starred on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch." "It's tough. I was hoping to make it one more week."

The Wires (Oct 27, 2009)

Businessweek: FCC Chair Worries About Spectrum For iPhone And Other Gadgets

Inside Music Media: I've got bad news for the big radio consolidators. Once the economy comes back and their money problems ease, many of their best employees will quit. These loyal workers have been waiting to leave abusive radio groups for a long time now

Investors Business Daily: Radio and television broadcasters are decidedly old media. But the sector could soon get an assist from new media and mobile technologies. Faced with a slow decline in listeners and viewers, terrestrial broadcasters hope increased adoption of radio tuners in portable media players and the emergence of mobile digital television will give them a much-needed boos

All Access: Levine Complains! CBS Violating FCC Rules With KFRG Simulcast. MOUNT WILSON FM BROADCASTERS owner SAUL LEVINE has complained to the FCC about what he considers a violation of the FCC's rules by CBS RADIO.

KSDX Makes The Move to Digital (Oct 25, 2009)

KSDX-LD (virtual 29.1) signed on channel 9 just Saturday at a blazing 275 watts of power. It transmits from San Miguel Mountain. I can barely pick it up. Its a bit confusing that I can get 29.1 and 29.2 at the same time.

To make things more confusing, K09YL-D broadcasts on channel 9 from its studio at 4645 Ruffner Street somewhere near beautiful downtown Kearny Mesa. It's strange that we now have two channel 9's in San Diego.

Many people's reception of KHJ digital channel 9, however, remains unreceivable just in time for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball season. You can't get it because KHJ's signal is weak, and I can't pick it up at all even before KSDX's digital signal signed on channel 9. Why can't XETV pick up the Laker games? They're not doing anything except showing stupid CW chick dramas.

Didja Hear? (Oct 25, 2009)

Also, Saturday's game was a rainout, otherwise, XSPN 800/98.9 would have carried the Angels at Yankees game from the Angels Baseball Network feed. It could have carried the USC game instead because of the rainout.

XSPN will have the game (6) barring another rain delay at 5:20pm Sunday, and if necessary, game 7 on Monday at 4:57pm. Fox 6, er, I mean Fox 5 is carrying the ACLS and the World Series.

Speaking of Fox 6, er, I mean CW 6, its pesky alternate frequency neighbor KSDS 88.3 just went into HD according to Chris Carmichael of sdradio.net, obliterating my reception of KKJZ 88.1 in Long Beach. When I checked at Midnight Sunday, it wasn't in HD.

Wonder how reception of XETV analog channel 6 is in the Mesa College area is today.

103.7-HD2 is no longer running House of Sophie. It's now airing KROQ 106.7 simulcast from Los Angeles.