Front Page - Mailbag - News - Rants 2010 - Dave TV - Daveland - Support DCRTV By Dave Hughes dcrtv@dcrtv.com 5/1 - In April, DCRTV first tipped you that the Washington Post, which still charges no fees to visit washingtonpost.com, is now charging a fee for non-print subscribers to view the eReplica online version of the print paper via its website. "It's a little tiny opening of a door to a pay wall for an electronic version of the printed Post," writes Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton at washingtonpost.com..... 5/1 - Lauren Cook is the new morning traffic reporter for Scripps' ABC affiliate Channel 2/WMAR in Baltimore. She jumps over from Sinclair's Charm City Fox affiliate, Channel 45/WBFF, where she's worked since 2007. Before that, Cook worked for Fox's NYC station, WNYW-TV..... 5/1 - The Washington Post's print circulation is down yet again, falling another 7.84% for the weekday edition from March 2011 to March 2012. With the Post's Sunday edition down 15.66%. According to the latest stats from the Audit Bureau Of Circulations at accessabc.wordpress.com..... 5/1 - The Washington Business Journal looks at how American University public radio news talker WAMU has topped Hubbard's commercial newser WTOP in the latest batches of radio ratings. And, the WBJ also looks at whether new CBS newser WNEW is affecting the ratings of WTOP. Steve Swenson, DC market manager of CBS Radio, says things are going according to plan, despite the station's general lack of ratings traction since its January launch. WNEW has launched its first marketing campaign, running television advertisements on most local broadcast outlets and cable. "We're actually very pleased with where we are, and we're meeting all the expectations on all the different fronts for where we hope to be at," Swenson tells the WBJ..... 5/1 - Last month, DCRTV told you that Channel 9/WUSA anchor and reporter Bruce Johnson's book, "Heart To Heart," got released in China (right). Now, DCRTV hears from Johnson: "I'm back from Beijing and Shanghi for 'Heart To Heart' book signings. In a word it was 'incredible,' and took 10 visits to the embassy here to convince the Chinese government to give me a visa for a vacation (and) book signing eight day trip and (that) I would not be covering any stories as a journalist from Washington." In the book, which was first published in 2009, the veteran WUSAer talks about his own heart attack, focusing on the emotional and human side of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Johnson (left) interviewed dozens of heart attack survivors and their struggles to overcome the disease. More about the book is at barnesandnoble.com..... 4/29 - DCRTV hears that Rob Carson, who usually hosts WRQX, Mix 107.3's afternoon music-oriented show, did the 4 PM to 7 PM shift on Cumulus sister news talker WMAL Saturday..... 4/28 - DC radio veteran Bruce Kelly heads to the sunny and warm Phoenix area to thaw out after management and on-air radio gigs in cold Fargo, to do mornings on the Goldmine, a non-commercial hit music station owned by the East Valley Institute Of Technology. Kelly, who spent many years around here working at XM Satellite Radio, tells DCRTV that his new show will feature both talk and music, with lots of political and celebrity guests, including Mitt Romney, Jan Brewer, Seth McFarland, Charles Barkley, Alice Cooper and Michael Jordan's mom in his first week, starting May 1st. More at evit.com..... 4/26 - Clear Channel names DC radio veteran Mark O'Brien manager of its Jacksonville radio cluster. He got his radio career start as director of ad sales at WTOP, and then served as vice president and general manager of WASH, DC101, and the old Z104. He also worked for ZGS, which owns Spanish language stations in DC and elsewhere. More recently, O'Brien has been vice president of Southeast regional sales for Westwood One..... 4/26 - Conservative web mogul Matt Drudge and his drudgereport.com website has been pumping traffic to the like-leaning Washington Times, where two of his editors - Joseph Curl and Charlie Hunt - write columns. According to Salon, for the past year, Drudge has provided the Times with 46% of its monthly traffic. In November 2011, the Drudge Report sent 4.7 million visitors to washingtontimes.com, or 57% of all the Times' traffic that month. By comparison, just 820,000 visitors actually accessed the Times through its homepage that November..... 4/25 - Channel 7/WJLA anchor Alison Starling married NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander Saturday in Washington. The ceremony was conducted on the roof of the Newseum with the US Capitol in the background (left). The couple met while they were both reporters in Seattle. They stayed friends for years, getting engaged last year in Paris. Wedding guests included Alison's co-anchor Leon Harris and WJLA sports anchor Tim Brant. More at wjla.com..... 4/25 - Kirk Litton (right) will be leaving Radio One in May "to begin a new and exciting chapter in his career," so says DC radio veteran Alan Leinwand, who heads advertising sales for Radio One's DC cluster. Litton will become owner and operator of a newly-created radio station group, with outlets in Columbia SC. Litton has been with Radio One DC since 2007, in account executive and regional sales director roles. Before that, he spent 14 years at Infinity/CBS, rising from an intern to general sales manager at WPGC. Locally, Radio One owns WKYS, WMMJ, WOL, WPRS, and WYCB..... 4/25 - The Washington Post has bragged about how it, unlike many other newspapers like the Baltimore Sun, will keep its washingtonpost.com website free of a paywall, even to non-subscribers of the print edition. However, we're now told that non-print subscribers have to pay to see the daily e-Replica online copy of the paper's print edition. From DCRTV's Wednesday Mailbag: "Has anyone seen the online print edition of today's Washington Post? When you click on 'today's paper,' it brings you to 'The Washington Post e-Replica.' You have to register to get access. It is free to subscribers of the print edition. However, if you only subscribe Monday through Friday, you have to pay for the weekends and vice versa if you only subscribe on weekends"..... 4/16 - DCRTV hears that ABC's "This Week" will have a reduced need for NABET union studio engineers in Washington, as the Sunday political talker often now originates from a studio in NYC. And that will cost two or three union jobs in DC. Also, starting April 29th, the program will no longer regularly use the studio at DC's Newseum. That will eliminate seven NABET positions, including five camera people..... 4/15 - Channel 9/WUSA anchor and reporter Bruce Johnson's book, "Heart To Heart," gets released in China (right). In the book, which was first published in 2009, the veteran WUSAer talks about his own heart attack, focusing on the emotional and human side of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Johnson (left) interviewed dozens of heart attack survivors and their struggles to overcome the disease. More about the book is at barnesandnoble.com..... 4/14 - Baltimore Police are upset at Channel 45/WBFF for not informing them that their news personnel were interviewing a man wanted in connection a video that went viral in March of a man who was stripped and beaten. While the 20-year-old Rosedale man did turn himself in Friday evening, police were angered that the TV station, which it partners with for a weekly segment airing information about fugitives, didn't communicate with them that the suspect was on their premises that afternoon and said they would be terminating the segment, according to the Baltimore Sun. Mike Tomko, WBFF's news director, said the wanted man's attorney told WBFF that he had been in contact with the state's attorney's office to coordinate his surrender. Tomko said a termination of the segment would be "a shame," and that he is "hopeful that when things cool down, we can sit down with police leadership and renew our commitment to helping Baltimore Police keep the city safe"..... 4/13 - Lots of rumblings that local sports media veteran Tony Kornheiser (right) is mouthing off on his ESPN 980, WTEM late morning show that he's having a dispute with the Red Zebra sports talker's management and might be experiencing contract renewal difficulties. We're told that he closed his Friday show this way: "I'm off Monday, I hope to be here Tuesday." However, management types at WTEM don't seem too concerned. We're told: "Tony does this every year. He enjoys making his 'littles' feel like his vacation is mandated by management, which is extremely humorous... ESPN 980 is a stronger station with Tony's show on our air and there are no plans to end his show." Kornheiser's deal with WTEM does not end in June, as he's been hinting on the air, and, after his traditional summer extended vacation, he'll be back on ESPN 980's airwaves in September, we hear from a top WTEMer..... 4/12 - Channel 7/WJLA and NewsChannel 8 sports reporter Britt McHenry (right), who headed to San Diego in March to be sideline reporter for Fox Sports San Diego's coverage of the Padres, is headed back to 7 and 8. According to the laichitis.blogspot.com blog, "Britt did confirm... that she had an opportunity to come back with (DC's) ABC 7 and that she really... loved DC. She loves the in-depth reporting and anchoring." McHenry, who also hosted NC8's "High School Sports Final," started her career in Washington as a community reporter for NC8, where she anchored weekend morning shows..... 4/13 - Yesterday, DCRTV first reported that Hubbard all-newser WTOP billed a record $64 million in ad revenue last year, making it the top-billing radio station in the nation for the second year in a row. But, according to Friday's TRI radio biz newsletter, the total ad revenue billing number for all stations in the Washington radio market was $255 million last year. That mean that one single station, WTOP, is responsible for 25% of all radio ad revenue billing in the market. Leaving the other 20-ish major commercial DC area radio stations to account for the remaining 75%. In 2010, it took the combined ad revenue billing of Clear Channel's five major DC FMers - DC101, Hot 99.5, WASH, WMZQ, and WBIG - to even come close to the 25% mark..... 4/11 - DCRTV hears that bi-market radio great Albie Dee (right) is filling-in for DJ Free on CBS Radio DC's urban contemporary 95.5 WPGC's morning show through the end of the week. As well as doing his regular afternoon shift on Shamrock's Baltimore classic rocker WZBA, 100.7, The Bay..... 4/11 - DCRTV hears that Salem has fired up the transmitter of WKDL in Warrenton on 1250 AM with a relay of DC talker WWRC on neighboring 1260 AM. Salem recently bought the Warrenton station, which used to relay Metro Radio talker WTNT, so that it could tweak the signal and hike the daytime power of adjacent channel WWRC. Since Salem bought 1250 AM in February, the signal has remained dark..... 4/10 - Longtime DC radio personality Olivia Fox got released from the University Of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore today after a successful kidney transplant on April 6, which she has dubbed her "second birthday." She has suffered from genetic renal disease since 1996 and had endured dialysis for three times a week for the past four years. Fox, who has been heard on WMMJ and WKYS, got the kidney from a friend, Mike Green, of Brooklyn NY..... 4/10 - DCRTV hears that Susie Mudd, who was editor-in-chief and owner of local publication Music Monthly, died on April 5th in Baltimore. More soon..... 4/10 - CBS Radio is selling its West Palm Beach, Florida cluster. That's where the firm has "parked" the legendary WHFS call letters, which used to grace progressive and alternative rockers on 102.3, 99.1, and 105.7, respectively, in the DC-Baltimore area. CBS still operates alt rock "HFS975" in Baltimore on 97.5, but that low-power signal doesn't use the official WHFS calls. More at fmqb.com..... 4/10 - DCRTV hears that Baltimore sports radio veteran Tom Davis has joined news talker WBAL-AM's Orioles coverage this season. He's a veteran of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and CBS's sports talker WJZ-AM..... 3/30 - Paul Duckworth, former news talk WMAL program director, un-retires and moves to Seattle to program news talk KOMO. Lately, he's been relaxing in St. Petersburg, Florida. After his WMAL employment ended, Duckworth headed to Dallas in 2010 to program news talker KLIF. Actually, it's a return to Seattle for Duckworth, where he had programmed KOMO and news talker KVI in the past..... 3/30 - It looks like Al Jazeera is downsizing the DC-based news operations of Al Jazeera English, with nine reported cuts, so far. "Many employees of AJ English now fear layoffs will decimate their operation. And all this after Al Jazeera just did a deal to move their highly cramped operations to a new building in DC," writes Steve Clemons at theatlantic.com..... 3/30 - DCRTV hears that Channel 9/WUSA executive producer Matt King heads to Atlanta to be assistant news director at Gannett sister WXIA-TV. King started as a sports and special projects producer at WTSP-TV in Tampa, then moved to WUSA as a sports executive producer, and on to dayside news executive producer. His last day at WUSA will be May 18th..... 3/30 - The Air Florida crash, the Reagan assassination attempt, 9/11, Washington area snipers. Those are among the top stories he's covered, says Joe Krebs (left), the Channel 4/WRC reporter and anchor who is officially retiring today. For the past 18 years, Krebs has anchored WRC's morning newscast. "Being a news broadcaster is what I always wanted to be," he says. Also, he has served as president of the Washington-Baltimore local of the American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists. Krebs joined WRC in 1980 from Channel 11/ WBAL. WRC has been doing daily tributes to Krebs this week..... 3/30 - DCRTV hears that three are being cut from Clear Channel's Total Traffic in the DC area. Mainly office personnel and not on-air folks..... 3/30 - Baltimore's 98 Rock celebrates its 35th anniversary this week. It was on March 28, 1977 that Hearst flipped WIYY, 97.9 FM, from NBC's news talk format to rock. A DCRTVer tells us: "In this day and age of corporately trained radio executives who change the formats of the stations they manage more often then they change their underwear, a privately owned radio station remaining with the same call letters and the same format for 35 years is almost unheard of. For a rock station to remain on the air for that long deserves a mention. Congratulations to the owners, managers, directors, staff, crew, and everyone who was ever associated with WIYY Baltimore, 98 Rock for sticking with it for 35 years. A special mention to Sarah Fleischer, who was there from the beginning, being the DJ who played the first song (the Who's 'Baba O'Reiey') when 98 Rock launched"..... 3/29 - A batch of cuts today from radio giant Clear Channel around the country, but we haven't heard about any in the DC-Baltimore area, where the firm owns/operates more than a dozen stations. However, some local radio gurus predict some local pink slips soon at Clear Channel traffic operation, Total Traffic. Total, which used to be Metro Traffic, lost Hubbard all-newser WTOP last year, and stands to lose Cumulus's stations this spring, including news talk WMAL and hot adult contemporary WRQX..... 3/28 - DCRTV hears that area radio legend "Big Don" O'Brien is out of his morning show gig at country WINX, 94.3 FM, on the Eastern Shore, near Annapolis. Last year, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy..... 3/28 - Jack Limpert, 78, editor-at-large of Washingtonian magazine, steps down after 43 years at the monthly. He joined the then-fledgling publication in 1969 and served as its editor until 2009, when he handed the top job to Garrett Graff..... 3/27 - DC area sports radio veteran Tod Castleberry has been named program director at Miami sports talker WAXY, 790 The Ticket. He helped launch and, for many years, managed DC sports talker WTEM (originally on 570 AM and later on 980 AM), back when it was owned by Clear Channel. One of Castleberry's most recent gigs was producing Redskins great John Riggins' show on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. That program ended its run in late 2011..... 3/26 - Baltimore radio veteran Rob Douglas tells us that his "Cari And Rob Show" will come to an end Friday, almost two years after he and Cari Hermacinski began the fulltime edition of the Colorado-based talker. "For the past three years, it has been a labor of love on my part to make the show a success," the former WBAL radio personality says. The show was picked up by 12 stations across Colorado, Utah, and Kansas, "a phenomenal rate of growth for a self-syndicated, political talk show. Still, due to an inability to maintain all the elements needed to make the concept of the show an ongoing success, the show is being terminated. For now, I have no idea what I will do next - other than to take my first few days off in three years," Douglas writes on his Facebook page..... 3/26 - "Detour Dave" Sandler is back doing morning traffic on Baltimore news talker WBAL, 1090 AM. He'd been off several months due to surgery. And there was talk-o-plenty that Sandler would not be coming back to the Hearst station. But, apparently, that's not the case. "He was never gone," WBAL-AM Program Director Dave Hill tells DCRTV. "He has been recovering from surgery for the last three months"...... 3/26 - DC radio veteran John Hairston (left), who has been heard on WMMJ, WHUR, and the old WDJY, has started an online radio station at 1067thebridge.com. It features classic and new R&B and soul music, smooth jazz, and gospel. "Looking at R&B music, there's still a lot of activity going on in the R&B music scene," Hairston tells eurweb.com. "A lot of new artists and even some of the older artists have actually found some difficulty getting airplay on certain stations that now focus more on the younger crowd. Some of the hip-hop stations and rap stations won't play some of the older, well-known R&B artists. So to try and bridge that gap was kind of how the Bridge came about"..... 3/25 - Producers of Netflix's DC-set "House Of Cards," which is shooting in the Baltimore suburb of Joppa, are looking for extras. And 2,000 local hopefuls showed up for Saturday's casting call, including Lutherville's own Dude Walker, the legendary area voiceman who is honing his acting chops. More at baltimoresun.com..... 3/23 - It looks like CBS sports talker WJFK, 106.7 The Fan, is making some schedule changes come Monday. Mike Wise will solo host the noon to 2 PM slot, with his until-now partner Holden Kushner teaming up with Danny Rouhier in the 10 AM to noon slot. For the past two years, Wise and Kushner had been hosting the 10 AM to 2 PM slot. Writes Wise on Facebook: "Four hours with a fulltime column at the Washington Post and burgeoning family was getting to be a lot. This is a godsend for everyone involved"..... 3/23 - From today's Inside Radio newsletter: Patience is the headline for CBS Radio's new Washington FM. The Washington all-news battle between CBS Radio's upstart "News 99.1" WNEW and Hubbard incumbent WTOP-FM, 103.5, has only just begun. So far WNEW's ratings have been small for the five-week old format, but CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason isn't worried. "The thing about news radio is it's not like a music format where you see immediate gains and results within 90 days," he says. "News products take a long time to build." In the February ratings WTOP was Washington's top-rated station with a 7.5 share (age 6+) and a monthly cume of 1,173,000. In contrast, Arbitron says WNEW was tied for 32nd with a 0.3 share a 130,700 cume. At yesterday's Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference in New York, Mason said CBS is still building WNEW's air product and he believes the station's partnership with Gannett Broadcasting's WUSA-TV will help. Mason had kind words for WTOP which flipped to all-news in 1969. He calls it an "outstanding radio station" and rates WTOP's website as "one of the finest in the country for a news station." He says CBS Radio will muster its digital forces to do more with WNEW digitally. "We have a long way to go," he said. "We're going to put resources and money into the digital side once the over-the-air side gets running a little more consistently"..... 3/23 - Hubbard's WFED, 1500/820 AM, Federal News Radio, names Emily Kopp as morning co-anchor on "The Federal Drive" with Tom Temlin. Kopp joined FNR in 2011 as a federal workplace reporter. Before that, she was based in the Netherlands, where she reported on a freelance basis for radio network and print outlets..... 3/22 - The Scripps group has announced a restructuring in TV station leadership. With Sam Rosenwasser, general manager of WEWS-TV in Cleveland, adding a layer of oversight over Channel 2/WMAR in Baltimore, plus a TVer in Tulsa. WMAR General Manager Bill Hooper will remain in place..... 3/22 - Silver Spring-based urban radio giant Radio One announces that CEO/President Alfred Liggins will personally assume the duties of Barry Mayo, who exited earlier this week, as head of its radio programming division. Mayo had headed Radio One's radio division since 2007. Radio One recently reported that its fourth quarter 2011 radio division revenues were down 9%. Locally, Radio One owns WKYS, WMMJ, WERQ, WWIN-FM/AM, WOL, WOLB, WYCB, and WPRS..... 3/21 - DCRTV hears that veteran former NYC news anchor Jim Rosenfield will be joining Channel 4/WRC soon. He could possibly be a 5 PM anchor, although sources say that NBC 4 management is still debating what slot he'll take. Is WRC thinking about breaking up the Jim Handley/Wendy Rieger anchor team? Rosenfield spent three decades in the Big Apple, at NBC's WNBC-TV and later CBS's WCBS-TV, where he got cut in 2008. He's been "on the beach" four years, NewsBlues tells us. More soon..... 3/21 - Blackburg VA's Positive Alternative Radio, which runs Christian contemporary "Virginia's Positive Hits" WPER, 89.9 FM, in Culpeper/Warrenton/Manassas and WJYJ, 90.5 FM, in Fredericksburg, sells its FM translators in Front Royal and Williamsburg to Lynchburg's Liberty University for $2,000..... 3/20 - Audrey Barnes returns to Fox-owned Channel 5/WTTG as a general assignment reporter, where she recently worked in a freelance reporting capacity. Barnes is a veteran of Channel 9/WUSA and Channel 11/WBAL. She starts at DC's Fox 5 on March 26th and her reports will be seen in all newscasts..... 3/19 - NBC-owned Channel 4/WRC names Richard Jordan (right) as a weekend morning news anchor. He comes from WSVN-TV, the Sunbeam-owned Fox affiliate in Miami. He'll co-anchor with Angie Goff..... 3/19 - Last week, DCRTV reported that a very reliable source told us that Scott Jackson and Brian Mitchell will join Rick "Doc" Walker on his new 2 PM to 4 PM show on WTEM, ESPN 980. And while WTEM wouldn't say for sure until Monday, just about everyone else we've talked to said it's a done deal. Over the weekend, Jackson and Mitchell weren't heard on CBS sports talker WJFK, 106.7 The Fan, and a source there tells us that a staff announcement was made Friday that they've left the station. Walker's new show launches March 26th. More: Three days after DCRTV broke the news, Dan Steinberg at washingtonpost.com gets it..... 3/19 - More rumblings that Mike Huckabee will replace Rush Limbaugh on Cumulus's radio stations, including news talker WMAL in DC. The April 9 launch of "The Mike Huckabee Show" in the noon to 3 PM time slot comes amid an exodus of advertisers from Limbaugh's program, reports Reuters. Cumulus is syndicating Huckabee, while Clear Channel's Premiere syndicates Limbaugh. However, Cumulus head John Dickey tells Reuters that Cumulus has "no plans to drop Rush" from any of its stations at this time and will "honor its contracts." But TRI's Tom Taylor says that some radio gurus predict that Cumulus will drop Limbaugh when its station contracts near expiration. If Limbaugh gets dropped from WMAL, where would he go in the DC market? Clear Channel owns five FM stations in the market, but all are music-based. More: Monday's Washington Post looks at the changing climate of talk radio, which may result in fewer stations carrying incendiary talent like Limbaugh..... 3/17 - Yesterday, March 16th, the Washington Post ran a correction saying it has misidentified a woman named Barbara Johnson in a March 15th photo caption as another women named Barbara Johnson. Both women looked somewhat similar and wore the same type of eyewear, which, apparently, caused confusion among Post editors. Then, today, March 17th, the Post ran a correction to its earlier correction claiming that the misidentified woman is actually named Sarah Reece, and not named Barbara Johnson. Reece is director of a gay rights group and she was photographed shaking hands with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley..... 3/17 - The National Press Photographers Association has named Baltimore's Channel 45/WBFF as "Large Market Station Of The Year" in its 2012 Best Of Photojournalism Television contest. Honoring photographers David Larson, Jason Fisher, James Searls, Bryan Barr, and Chris Mullen. More at nppa.org..... 3/16 - DCRTV hears a reliable rumor that Scott Jackson and Brian Mitchell will join Rick "Doc" Walker on his new 2 PM to 4 PM show on WTEM, ESPN 980. More: WTEM Program Director Chuck Sapienza tells DCRTV: "We hope to have an announcement about our new show early next week." More as we hear it..... 3/14 - Days ago, DCRTV reported rumors that the Atalaya hedge fund that owns the Washington City Paper might soon be putting it up for sale. Now, the paper's publisher, Amy Austin, announces that most employees will receive 5% pay cuts in order to "stabilize" the company. Additionally, some employees' hours have been cut to parttime. While the DC freebie weekly escaped personnel cuts, not so for City Paper's sister rags in Chicago and Atlanta. More at washingtoncitypaper.com..... 3/14 - A DCRTVer tells us that Channel 7/WJLA has made changes to its Weather Now channel on broadcast 7.2 (Comcast 204/Verizon 462). Not only has it yanked Doug Hill's name off the local weather channel's title, it has shrunk the size of the weather map to allow room for an ad banner along the top of the screen. WJLA has also dropped Accuweather video reports from the channel, we're told..... 3/13 - Even though Ken Weinman has been removed from his hosting duties at CBS Radio sports talker 105.7 The Fan, WJZ-FM, he will be doing occasional fill-in, parttime work for the Baltimore station, we hear. Weinman's last fulltime day with Vinny Cerrato was Friday, when he announced on Twitter that he'd be leaving his midday show gig, giving the impression that he was leaving the station. Still no announced permament replacement for Weinman on the 10 AM to 1 PM show, although Baltimore sports radio veteran Rob Long has been filling-in with Cerrato. Stay tuned..... 3/13 - DCRTV hears that Rick "Doc" Walker has signed a three-year contract extension with Red Zebra Broadcasting and the Redskins Radio Network. Walker hosts the 2 PM to 4 PM slot on Red Zebra's ESPN 980, WTEM, following the recent retirement of John Thompson, his co-host. A station vet of 15 years, Walker will now be part of a new 2 PM show, starting March 26. He'll also continue as a part of the Washington Redskins broadcasting team..... 3/12 - The hedge fund owner of the Washington City Paper has put its sister Chicago alternative weekly, the Chicago Reader, on the sales block. Is Atalaya Capital Management preparing to sell the DC freebie weekly, too? Atalaya took over the papers after their parent, Creative Loafing, filed for bankruptcy in 2009. More at chicagobusiness.com..... 3/12 - Michael Eric Dyson has left his NPR show that's produced at Morgan State University's WEAA, 88.9 FM, in Baltimore. The show will go off the air at the end March. For the next few weeks, guest hosts will fill in on "The Michael Eric Dyson Show," according to Richard Prince's "Journal-isms" blog at mjie.org..... 3/12 - Salem talker WWRC, 1260 AM, has received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to upgrade its daytime signal from 5,000-watts to 25,000-watts. The night signal of 5,000-watts will remain the same. Salem recently purchased Warrenton's WKDL, on the adjacent AM band channel of 1250, in order to hike the power of DC's 1260. The 1250 signal remains off the air. For good? Stay tuned..... 3/12 - Lane Michaelsen, former Channel 9/WUSA news director, has landed a like gig at Cincinnati's WCPO-TV. Since leaving WUSA in 2009, Michaelsen has been news director at Miami's WTVJ-TV, where he was axed last month..... 3/12 - Want to be a DC area morning radio star? Got a pile of cash or know someone who does? You might want to give Metro Radio talker WTNT, 730 AM/102.9 FM, a call. According to station owner Bruce Houston, WTNT "is a broker time station now." And it's looking to replace the TRN-syndicated "America's Morning News" show with someone who'll pay them - and keep their own ad revenue. "WTNT would sell the 6 AM to 9 AM time slot to a personality who would produce his own show and do the selling," Houston tells DCRTV. Interested? Contact Houston at BruceAHouston@aol.com..... 3/12 - DCRTV hears that Chuck Sapienza, who heads programming for sports talker ESPN 980, WTEM, has been promoted to the position of programming head for WTEM's parent, Red Zebra Broadcasting. And he will now oversee RZ's sports talkers in Richmond and Norfolk, in addition to DC, where the firm also owns sports talker WSPZ, 570 AM..... 3/12 - Clear Channel's classic hits WQSR, 102.7 Jack FM, in Baltimore has been touting a big change coming this morning. And what was it? They've got a morning "Music Monkey" as the jockless station's only "jock." Ooookay..... 3/12 - A DCRTVer tells us that former Channel 5/WTTG morning weatherman Tom Sater (right) is being now seen on Atlanta-based CNN doing weather. As DCRTV has told you, Sater got canned from Fox-owned WTTG several years ago. He's married to Gurvir Dhindsa, a WTTG morning news anchor who left for Atlanta's Fox station last year. After leaving WTTG, Sater had been spotted in Warrenton, working at a tractor supply company..... 3/12 - JP Flaim, of WJFK, 106.7 The Fan's "Sports Junkies, is doing interviews for radio stations around the country, including Ohio's "Dan And Mike" show, about his new book about his alternate career as a professional boxer (right). "Chasing Rocky," according to a press release, "presents an inside look at the brutal training boxers endure, from facing fears to the dealing with the pain of getting punched." "Chasing Rocky" is available at Authorhouse.com, Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and for iBooks, Nook, Kindle, and Kobo. And there's a Facebook page..... 3/11 - Reporter Roz Plater was seen on Allbritton's Channel 7/WJLA Saturday. Doing the lead story on the 11 PM newscast. And on sister NewsChannel 8. DCRTV recently told you that she was among a batch of reporters and photogs that were pink-slipped by Fox's Channel 5/WTTG..... 3/11 - Ken Weinman is gone from his on-air gig at Baltimore CBS-owned sports talker 105.7 The Fan, WJZ-FM. He's posted this on his Facebook page: "Just wanted to let everyone know that, yes, Friday was my last day at the Fan. Station decided to go in different direction... I will let you know when I have news"..... 3/9 - OK, so the ratings for the Sports Junkies on CBS sports talker WJFK, 106.7 The Fan, haven't been the greatest of late. So, was an on-air dispute Thursday morning between Eric Bickel and JP Flaim real? Or just a publicity stunt. We get this from a listener: "WJFK went silent immediately after Bickel said he could just kill JP Flaim ('JP, JP!') and then on Friday morning it's only Cakes and JP! No EB, no Pappa Lurch: could Bickel be in Suburban Hospital with a broken arm and Pappa sitting by his bedside telling him what a donkey he is this morning? No real explanation was offered by the surviving Junks: maybe they will alternate having only two Junks hosting at a time or maybe JP's next ring fight is with EB! My money is on JP as EB is a pussy." An image of the "fight" is at the right..... 3/7 - Channel 9/WUSA anchor and reporter Bruce Johnson (left) has released his first e-book. "All Or Nothing, The Victor Page Story" is an account of the rise and fall of one of the DC area's legendary basketball figures. "Page was born in the tough Barry Farm housing project, became Washington Post high school player of the year, after leading Mckinley high to the city championship. John Thompson gave Victor a basketball scholarship to Georgetown University, but the hall of fame coach couldn't keep Page from destroying a promising NBA career and he couldn't keep him out of DC's mean streets which had claimed his late mother and father," Johnson tells us. The e-book is available beginning this week at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and via Sony's Istores..... 3/6 - DCRTV hears that Matt "Drab T-Shirt" Cahill will be taking over as producer of the morning "Sports Junkies" on CBS sports talker WJFK, 106.7 The Fan. He was previously the executive producer of WJFK's Lavar Arrington and Chad Dukes' afternoon show, and has most recently been producting Dukes' "Big O And Dukes" podcast, which features former WJFKer Oscar Santana. Cahill was the producer of the "BO&D" show when it was on WJFK's middays a few years back..... 3/6 - DCRTV hears that Nestor Aparicio (left), who owns Baltimore sports talker WNST, 1570 AM, and sports news website wnst.net, had a growth on his head removed last Thursday. The lipoma was diagnosed as benign, he tells us. "As much as [Orioles owner Peter] Angelos would like me to be dead, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon," Aparicio jests. "I just have a gash on my skull and it's healing. A few days in bed and I'm up and running now"..... 3/5 - DCRTV tipped you last week. And now we hear that WMAL and WRQX owner Culumus will form its own traffic news provider - Right Now Traffic. It debuts in April with a base of all Cumulus stations in the top 75 markets, including Washington. Currently, Cumulus-DC gets its traffic from Total Traffic, which employs personalities like Dan Alpher and Jamie Whitten. More from insideradio.com..... 3/5 - Vickie Burns, who used to be news director at NBC-owned Channel 4/WRC, has announced that she's leaving her news director gig at NBC's KNBC-TV in Los Angeles a little more than a year-and-a-half after leaving DC's NBC4. More at latimes.com..... 3/1 - DCRTV hears that Jonell White has joined the ad sales department of Radio One's Washington cluster, based in Silver Spring. She worked for Radio One's Baltimore cluster from 2005 to 2010. And, before that, at CBS's WPGC and WHFS. Most recently, she was general sales manager for CBS's WIAD, Fresh FM. In her new job, she'll be handling ad sales for Radio One's five DC area stations - WKYS, WMMJ, WOL, WYCB, and WPRS..... 3/1 - Jerry Del Colliano at trade pub Inside Music Media says that Cumulus is looking to cut costs in way that could see its DC news talker WMAL end its traffic and news relationship with Clear Channel-owned Total Traffic, which employs morning traffic reporter Jamie Whitten. Cumulus, he says, is starting its own radio traffic provider. Del Colliano also says that Cumulus is "actively searching for cheaper alternatives to Associated Press," including at WMAL..... 2/29 - Baltimore's Channel 45/WBFF will move its 5:30 PM half-hour newscast to 5 PM starting April 9. Jeff Barnd and Jennifer Gilbert will continue to anchor. Currently, the Sinclair-owned station runs "Judge Judy" at 5 PM, with a 5:30 PM half-hour newscast. The new schedule calls for "Judge Judy" to air at 4:30 PM and 5:30 PM, with the half-hour newscast sandwiched in between her two airings..... 2/28 - CBS Radio does a three-year renewal deal with Virginia Tech for continued carriage of football and men's basketball on 106.7 The Fan, WJFK. The Lanham-based sports talker will also continue to carry weekly shows with football coach Frank Beamer and basketball coach Seth Greenberg..... 2/28 - Baltimore's MyTV Channel 24/WUTB plans its first digital subchannel. African American-oriented Bounce TV will launch on the Fox-owned station later this year, we're told. DC's Channel 9/WUSA added the network, which runs reruns of "Soul Train," via one of its digital subchannels in late 2011..... 2/28 - DCRTV hears that WBAL-AM's Jay Cottrell and ESPN 980, WTEM's Marc Sterne are doing a sports radio show, "The Mod Squad," for blis.fm on Saturdays from 10 AM to noon. With India Sweet..... 2/27 - All-newser WTOP is running a warning about the sound of sirens in a political ad it's running from Montgomery County politico Robin Ficker, who is campaigning to be the Republican candidate for Maryland's 6th district seat in the US Congress. Ficker's ad starts with the sound of sirens. Many broadcasting organizations have urged advertisers and stations not to use sirens in radio spots since they could confuse drivers that a police or fire vehicle is approaching them when it isn't..... 2/27 - Unconfirmed. But, a source tells DCRTV: "CBS Radio has decided to bring in another non-DC person for the morning show on PGC. Chunky from (CBS's contemporary hit WXRK) 92.3 in New York will be joining Free very soon. (WPGC sister WJFK's) Kevin and Rock were actually being considered for the morning position but (PGC program director) Jason Kidd really wanted a radio person." DJ Free has been unofficially hosting PGC's mornings since Big Tigger got the boot in December. More as we hear it..... 2/27 - DCRTV hears that DC area radio legend Pat Murphy is battling prostate cancer. Murphy, who's retired and resides in the the Outer Banks of North Carolina, was heard in the 1970s on "top 40" WEEL (1310 AM) and oldies WMOD (98.7 FM) doing his "Murphy In The Morning Show," in addition to gigs at a batch of Norfolk area radio stations..... 2/25 - DCRTV hears that area radio veteran Albie Dee (right) will be doing weekend work at CBS's DC rhythmic contemporary WPGC, 95.5 FM, starting Saturday morning. He will continue doing his weekday afternoon shift on Shamrock's classic rock WZBA, 100.7 FM, in the Baltimore market. Albie worked at WPGC from 1987 to 1997 and again from 2006 to 2007..... 2/24 - DCRTV hears that reporter Roz Plater, who has worked at Fox-owned Channel 5/WTTG for eight years, has been pink-slipped, along with fellow reporters Stacy Cohen and Audrey Barnes, plus six photographers. More soon..... 2/24 - A few weeks ago, when political commentator Mark Plotkin got the ax from WTOP, new Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple broke the story. But longtime Post media columnist/reporter Paul Farhi got to write up the formal piece for the website and the next day's print edition. Farhi has been penning national and international media pieces for the Post since legendary media writer and commentator Howard Kurtz bolted for the Daily Beast. But, on Friday, the Post's front page Style print piece on the dangers reporters face in Syria got penned by former Washington City Paper top editor Wemple, not Farhi. Will Wemple be the next "Kurtz" for the Post, not Farhi? Stay tuned..... 2/24 - DC is now the 7th largest radio market, jumping ahead of Philadelphia. That's according to radio ratings firm Arbitron. "As a result of the new population update," we hear. And DC's up from 8th place in 2011 and 9th place in 2010. Baltimore remains 21st..... 2/23 - WAMU Communications Manager Benae Mosby discusses the ouster of the public radio news talker's news directior, Jim Asendio, who claims that he was forced to attend a meeting with donors. Mosby tells washingtonpost.com that his station "maintains a firewall between journalists and funders. Journalists may not - and do not - discuss coverage planning with grant-making officials or individual donors. It is senior management's responsibility to manage contacts for their respective divisions with funders. Any one-on-one, private contact between a non-management journalist and a funder has high potential for putting that journalist in an awkward position and communicating the wrong message to the funder, and there is no situation where this should be allowed to occur." Mosby adds that Asendio was asked to attend a breakfast meeting with 30 donors to give them "an understanding of how the work is performed. Approximately nine of our reporters and producers spoke on a panel discussion moderated by Program Director Mark McDonald"..... 2/22 - The Washington Post reports on its KidsPost page today in Style that Carolyn Reeder, who wrote Civil War pieces for the childrens' section, died in January. She was 74. The Glen Echo resident penned several books for children. Her last column for the Post appeared today..... 2/22 - TRI's Tom Taylor has more on the news DCRTV broke last week: "Salem pays $10,000 for a west-of-DC station at 1250 AM. The significance may lay in the fact that Salem already owns a station one click away, at 1260. That's WWRC Washington, DC. Salem's holding a construction permit to hike 1260's daytime power from 5,000-watts to 25,000-watts, while remaining at 5,000-watts at night. Warrenton, VA-licensed WKDL at 1250 has a CP to drop daytime power from 5,000-watts to 3,000. Nighttime power would rise a bit, from 32 watts to 125 watts. DCRTV.com has been following the sale of 1250, and here it is, at the Commission. Metro Radio (broker/station owner Bruce Houston) is selling WKDL to Salem Communications for what amounts to $10,000. It's not quite that simple – Salem's actually buying the right to acquire WKDL from Christopher Roth. In the end, Salem helps itself with the closer-in 1260 signal of flagship WWRC, which carries the conservative talk lineup of Salem Radio Network. Until now, 1250-Warrenton has been simulcasting the talk lineup of WTNT, Alexandria, 730. This isn't the first time Salem has purchased a station for re-engineering purposes - it once bought WAMD, Aberdeen MD to improve its New York-market WNYM, also at 970. Don't be surprised if its Virginia 1250 eventually goes away completely." DCRTV adds: DC radio veteran Roth currently does overnight traffic for WTOP and weekend hosting at Frederick's country WFRE..... 2/20 - It looks like Cumulus-owned news-talker WMAL, 105.9 FM/630 AM, will be yanking the nationally-syndicated "Coast To Coast" overnight show hosted by George Noory. DCRTV hears that, starting February 27, the other-worldly program will be moving to Metro Radio talker WTNT, 102.9 FM/730 AM, which will air it from 10 PM to 6 AM. WMAL has been running "CTC" weeknights from 1 AM to 3 AM, cutting off its last two live hours. It's been reported that Cumulus stations that carry "CTC" will be replacing it with the newly-revamped "Red Eye Radio" show, formerly the "Midnight Radio Network," which has more political talk than "CTC." WMAL has been carrying Cumulus-syndicated "RER" from 3 AM to 5 AM. Look for that to expand to a 1 AM start time..... 2/20 - Nannette Hobson is the new news director for Comcast-owned Boston-based New England Cable News. She spent 20 years in two different stints at Channel 4/WRC, where she was known as Nannette Wilson. Hobson also worked for TVers in Baltimore, Raleigh, and Norfolk..... 2/20 - Last week, DCRTV told you that Salem bought Warrenton's WKDL, 1250 AM. Now, we're hearing that the firm is using the purchase of the station about 50 miles southwest of DC to increase the power of its adjacent channel WWRC in DC on 1260 AM, which airs a talk format. We're told that Salem has asked the FCC for a daytime power reduction for WKDL from 5,000 to 3,000-watts, while proposing a daytime power hike for WWRC from 5,000 to 25,000-watts..... 2/20 - James Barron looks back 50 years at astronaut John Glenn first orbiting the Earth. And how Barron, then 7, saw "Bozo The Clown" on Channel 4/WRC interrupted by NBC's coverage of the space milestone. And, of course, Bozo was played by DC radio and TV legend Willard Scott (right). "In the very beginning, I enjoyed it," Scott says about his Bozo character. "Later on, it got to be a thing I couldn't handle. I almost had a nervous breakdown, between the show and the appearances." More at nytimes.com..... 2/17 - DCRTV hears that Channel 4/WRC will be carrying the new Steve Harvey afternoon TV talk show when it debuts this fall. It will run in the 2 PM slot, currently occupied by Nate Burkus. Harvey's nationally syndicated morning radio show is carried by WHUR, 96.3 FM..... 2/17 - After 14 years of carrying local lacrosse, Baltimore's Channel 2/WMAR will no longer be offering the sport this spring. But, there are plenty of other channels up and down the cable TV dial to catch local lacrosse. At PressBoxOnline.com..... 2/17 - Lane Michaelson gets pink-slipped from his news director gig at Miami's NBC-owned station, WTVJ-TV. That's where he's been since he left his news director gig at Gannett's Channel 9/WUSA in August 2009..... 2/16 - DC radio veteran Stacy Lyn, who recently got booted from the morning show at Nassau's hot adult contemporary Key 103.1, WAFY, in Frederick, jumps to CBS's new all-news WNEW, 99.1, for parttime fill-in anchor duties..... 2/16 - DCRTV hears that they're passing around cupcakes this morning in the "glass-enclosed nerve center" of Hubbard all-newser WTOP to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Joel Oxley (right) as senior vice president and general manager of WTOP (and sister federal news talker WFED) and Hubbard's DC radio market manager..... 2/16 - DCRTV hears rumblings about some photographer cuts at Fox-owned Channel 5/WTTG. We're told that a group of freelance photogs will be laid off due to the "centralization of master control." And that "master control personnel are going to be trained to edit and shoot," with the later-hired personnel getting pink-slipped. There may be some freelance reporters cut soon, too, at WTTG. More as we hear it..... 2/15 - DCRTV hears that Jeannie Jones has posted on Twitter that she has exited her longtime midday slot at Radio One's urban contemporary WKYS, 93.9 FM. Also, she's gone missing from the WKYS DJs page at kysdc.com. More soon..... 2/14 - DCRTV hears of an engineering staff shake-up at CBS-DC's radio cluster. We're hearing rumblings that Jeff Loughridge has been removed from his chief engineer position, although he's still be employed by CBS. Based in Lanham, CBS-DC runs WPGC, WJFK, WIAD, WLZL, and WNEW-FM/AM. More soon..... 2/14 - CBS's new all-newser, WNEW, has switched its 99.1 signal from stereo to mono mode. A mono FM signal has a greater coverage area and will improve reception of WNEW's Anne Arundel County-based signal in Northern Virginia, along with central and western Montgomery County. Longtime top-rated DC all-newser, Hubbard's WTOP, has long run its 103.5, 103.9 and 107.7 signals in mono. Citadel news talker WMAL also runs its 105.9 signal in mono, along with CBS sports talker WJFK at 106.7. American University public radio news talker WAMU still runs its 88.5 signal in stereo, though..... 2/13 - DCRTV has been reporting rumors since mid-December that CBS Radio, which just launched all-news WNEW on 99.1 FM, is also planning to launch a federal government and Capitol Hill-oriented news and talk format on low-rated talker 1580 AM, which also sports the WNEW call. Now, radioinsight.com is reporting that CBS has reserved several web addresses, including 1580gov.com, which suggests that a fed-targeted outlet will be launched on 1580 to compete with Hubbard's Federal News Radio, WFED, on 1500/820 AM. Hubbard also owns WNEW's top-rated all-news target, WTOP. More as we hear it..... 2/11 - Russ Ptacek, an investigative reporter at Kansas City's KSHB-TV, heads to Channel 9/WUSA. "I'll be helping WUSA build a new investigative unit. They already have great people in place and we're in the middle of hiring other key players," he tells bottomline.com..... 2/9 - Cumulus, which owns DC news talker WMAL, 105.9 FM/630 AM, signs former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for a new national radio talk show that will air in the noon to 3 PM slot, up against righty talk titan Rush Limbaugh. No word about whether WMAL will carry Huckabee's new show. The station does carry Huckabee's five-minute "Huckabee Report" daily commentary piece in its "Morning Majority" show. One scenario: WMAL could replace Limbaugh with Huckabee at noon, while Clear Channel puts Limbaugh on one of its DC area stations. Limbaugh is syndicated by Clear Channel-owned Premiere. Clear Channel could flip one of its five music-based DC area FMers to talk, maybe classic rock WBIG, 100.3 FM, or the firm could put Limbaugh on Baltimore's WQSR, 102.7 FM, which would flip from classic hits to talk. The station could be repositioned as a talker serving both Baltimore and Washington, as some radio gurus have speculated..... 2/8 - WBAL radio longtime talker Ron Smith, who died in December, is being honored with a special beer. Reason Saison is the creation of Jay Lampart, the brewer at Johansson's Dining House in Westminster. "Ron has been part of my ride home since 9-11, which was also the time I moved to Maryland. I learned a lot about Maryland politics and critical thinking from Ron," Lampart told wbal.com. Lampart said it took him about four weeks to produce the beer which will go on sale Thursday night in a keg tapping ceremony at the restaurant..... 2/7 - Ann Wog (right), a former WMAL producer who lives in DC's Cleveland Park, has received 11 speeding notices in the mail from the Metropolitan Police Department for infractions from a single camera that began late last year. Her first warning arrived 28 days after her first violation. So far, Wog has received a total of four warnings and seven tickets, at $125 each, for speeding in a 30 MPH zone on Porter Street. Wog says she was initially unaware of the new speeding camera because it looks like an ordinary utility box. WMAL has been running the story on its airwaves without mentioning that Wog is a former station employee. She now produces former WMALer Andy Parks' Washington Times afternoon radio show, which is heard on WTNT..... 2/6 - Baltimore classical music outlet WBJC, 91.5 FM, unveils a newly-designed website at wbjc.com..... 2/6 - DC and Baltimore radio veteran Walter "Buddy" Rizer gets promoted by Loudoun County to be assistant director of its economic development department. He's worked there since 2007, previously holding the title of business development officer. Before that, Rizer was a personality on DC rocker DC101 and Baltimore rocker 98 Rock. He also had an ownership stake in and was a personality on Brunswick MD's WTRI, 1520 AM, back when it had classic country and nostalgic standards formats..... 2/6 - For years, Channel 11/WBAL and Channel 13/ WJZ have battling neck-and-neck for the top news rating position in Baltimore. But, with the latest batch of numbers, WBAL has dropped and WJZ has moved into the clear lead? Could WBAL's slump be because it has dropped top anchor talent like Marianne Banister? Or because some of its news lead-in programming is slumping, like NBC's primetime ratings. Along with the loss of "Oprah" at 4 PM? More at baltimoresun.com..... 2/5 - Bret Oliverio, a producer for WJFK, 106.7 The Fan's morning Sports Junkies, is leaving the CBS Radio sports talker to help run his family's business, Sup Dogs Bar And Grille in Greenville NC. Bret, 30, who's been with the Junkies since 2004, was recently promoted to assistant program director of WJFK. But his younger brother, Derek, who ran the eatery, died in a fire this past fall. And Bret tells the Washington Post's Dan Steinberg that the move south "feels right for me to do"..... 2/2 - CBS-owned Channel 13/WJZ took the Baltimore TV news ratings crown for January with first place finishes at 5 AM, 6 AM, noon, 5 PM, 6 PM, and 11 PM. Hearst's Channel 11/WBAL has suffered from the loss of 4 PM's "Oprah," which delivered a large female audience for its 5 PM newscast, along with NBC's sagging primetime ratings, which have been a poor lead-in to its 11 PM newscast..... 2/2 - Comcast has added African American network Bounce TV to channel 207 of its basic service in the DC area. It's received over the air via the 9.2 subchannel of Gannett's Channel 9/WUSA, which added it late last year. Comcast continues to carry WUSA's 9.3 Live Doppler 9000 HD radar weather on 203. Bounce TV on 207 replaces Universal Sports, which was discontinued on January 1 as a broadcast subchannel of NBC's Channel 4/WRC..... 2/1 - DCRTV hears that Jamillah Muhammad, the program director at Radio One's Majic 102.3, WMMJ, was fired today. She's been at the adult urban contemporary station only about a year from Chicago. "Hired a few of her on air crew from Chi Town when she got here. Guess they are not safe now," a source tells us. More soon..... 2/1 - It sounds like WMAL is phasing out mentions of "AM 630" on its airwaves. The on-air moniker is now "105.9 WMAL." The Cumulus news talker added the FM relay in September, with the demise of classic rocker WVRX, 105.9 The Edge. But WMAL hasn't seen much of a ratings spike since simulcasting on FM, placing just 16th with its combined signals in the latest weekly radio ratings for the DC market. The station was frequently ranked higher when it was only on AM. No word if Cumulus is planning to make WMAL "FM only" later this year and do something new with the AMer..... 1/31 - What got WTOP political commentator Mark Plotkin fired last week? According to Erik Wemple at washingtonpost.com, Plotkin chewed out the small crew of Latino workers who perform cleaning services at WTOP's office building. When he arrived at the Idaho Avenue facility, Plotkin found that a door to the stairwell wasn't opening, so he then walked into an open elevator, only to find that it was out of service. And he raged at a cleaning crew. The following day, Plotkin again yelled at a cleaning crew member. Adds Wemple: "When Plotkin took to screaming at the people who pick up after him, the radio station apparently decided that a line had been crossed"..... 1/31 - The error-plagued Washington Post runs a correction in its Tuesday edition apologizing for running a front page article yesterday that referred incorrectly to the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal, the correction adds. DCRTV's take: An embarrassing blunder for a once great newspaper that broke Watergate almost 40 years ago..... 1/31 - JP Flaim, of WJFK, 106.7 The Fan's "Sports Junkies, pens a book about his alternate career as a professional boxer (right). "Chasing Rocky," according to a press release, "presents an inside look at the brutal training boxers endure, from facing fears to the dealing with the pain of getting punched." "Chasing Rocky" is available at Authorhouse.com, Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and for iBooks, Nook, Kindle, and Kobo. And there's a Facebook page..... 1/30 - DCRTV hears that there's been a shake-up at Nassau's Key 103.1, WAFY in Frederick. Stacy Lyn was let go from the "Stace And Tommy" morning team Friday, leaving Tommy Jordon on his own - for now. And there's a new program director for the hot adult contemporary station, who's been brought in from Nassau's Philadelphia cluster, we're told. We hear that Stacy's looking for a new area gig - stacylynvoiceovers.com..... 1/30 - DC radio legend Donnie Simpson (right) reflects on his life two years after leaving the morning gig at CBS's urban contemporary WPGC, 95.5 FM, on January 29, 2010. While he says that he enjoyed 40 years in radio, including many at WKYS before WPGC, Simpson reveals that his 41st year - the final one at PGC - was miserable. And, regarding the recurring rumors that he'll someday return to local radio, he writes on his Facebook page: "On my last show I was so careful to say this is not a retirement, just a break and you will hear from me again. Two years and several offers later, I cannot say with conviction that it's still just a break, but I can say with conviction that I can only come back it if it's fun again. I'm just not sure it would be"..... 1/30 - Earlier this month, DCRTV told you that the Washington Post quietly raised its weekday newsstand price from 75-cents to $1. With the Sunday edition jumping from $1.50 to $2. Now, we hear that the paper is raising rates for subscribers, too. Full-week delivery for the paper's eight-week billing period goes from about $48 to about $53. Subscribers pay 75-cents for weekday editions. Ombudsman Patrick Pexton says his paper should have better notified readers that it's raising prices. At washingtonpost.com..... 1/27 - A source tells DCRTV that the Washington Post-owned Gazette newspaper, which covers the suburban Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George's, saw about a dozen employees take buyouts this week. Some who had worked for the weekly for more than 18 years, we're told. More as we hear it..... 1/27 - DCRTV hears that some programming gurus from Cumulus were in town this week eyeballing the operations of news talker WMAL and hot adult contemporary WRQX, Mix 107.3. Back in December, we reported rumblings of more cuts at Cumulus's DC radio cluster coming in January. But, so far, nothing. Might they instead be happening in February? Stay tuned..... 1/27 - Why is it that, while Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple broke the story Thursday at noon at washingtonpost.com that political columnist Mark Plotkin had been fired by WTOP, fellow Postie and media writer Paul Farhi does the official write-up for the Friday print edition at washingtonpost.com without even crediting or linking to Wemple's scoop? Why couldn't Wemple have penned the Friday print edition piece, too? He does have a long writing/reporting history with his many years at Washington City Paper. Hmmm. More. Wemple Tweets us: "Thanks for paying close attention to the coverage. It's a quirky system, for sure, but I have no issue with fairness at all"..... 1/26 - DCRTV told you that Lisa Baden is the official morning traffic reporter for CBS's new all-news WNEW, 99.1 FM. And now we hear that Julie Wright is officially the afternoon traffic reporter at the CBS station. Wright, who works for Total Traffic, continues her morning traffic reports for Fox's Channel 5/WTTG..... 1/25 - Nationals reporter Debbi Taylor will not be returning to MASN broadcasts for the 2012 season, so reports Adam Kilgore at washingtonpost.com. He adds that Taylor confirmed the news in an email. She wrote: "It seems they are eliminating the reporter position, unfortunately. It was great run"..... 1/25 - TC (left), the DC radio morning personality last heard daily on Donnie Simpson's morning show on CBS's WPGC, but perhaps best known as a personality on "The Real DC Morning Show" on Howard U's WHUR, has a new book out. "TC's Real Talk And Real Meals - Smoothies" features more than 150 recipes "blended in" with her brand of "real talk womens' empowerment, anecdotes, and writings," TC tells us. The book is available now at TC's website, realtalkwithtc.com, and through her publisher, booklogix.com. The book will soon be available nationwide at Barnes And Noble stores. TC, who describes herself as a "foodie" and a photographer, took all the photos in the book..... 1/25 - CBS Radio announces that it has closed the deal for 107.9 FM in Annapolis, acquiring the station from Family Radio. CBS had been leasing the station, which became Spanish El Zol, WLZL, which was moved from 99.1 FM to 107.9 on December 1, freeing-up 99.1 for new all-newser WNEW, which launched Sunday. CBS reportedly paid $8.5 million for the 107.9 signal. WLZL's studio remains at CBS Radio's DC area broadcast complex in Lanham. The four-decade WFSI religious format, previously heard on 107.9, can now be heard on Family Radio's 860 AM in Baltimore, which now sports the WFSI call..... 1/24 - Hot 99.5, WIHT morning man Kane will also be heard in mornings on Tampa's WFLZ, starting February 20th. His WFLZ show will not be a direct simulcast of his Hot 99.5 show, we hear. Both are Clear Channel contemporary hit stations. Kane, who has been hosting the top-rated "Kane Show" on Hot 99.5 for the past six years, worked at WFLZ before coming to Washington. He's been voicetracking afternoons for WFLZ for the past eight years..... 1/24 - Channel 5/WTTG has officially acknowledged that those Comcast Xfinity ads that ran during the pro football action of the Giants-49ers game were a result of technical problems at DC's Fox-owned TVer. A station statement released Tuesday: "Sunday night, Fox 5 experienced technical problems that affected the airing of Comcast Xfinity commercials during the NFC championship game. We apologize for the impact these technical issues had on the viewing experience of Comcast subscribers and have taken additional steps to ensure that these problems do not happen again"..... 1/24 - Departing Washington Post Managing Editor Raju Narisetti recently caused an uproar at his paper when he told a journalism confab that the Post will likely eliminate about 100 positions in the next two years. The cuts do not necessarily mean layoffs and could come from buyouts like ones the Post has done in the past. Last week, Narisetti anounced that he'd be leaving the Post for a gig at the Wall Street Journal. Romenesko has more..... 1/23 - DCRTV hears from a Comcast spokesperson who says that the mysterious insertion of several Xfinity promotional spots, which interrupted coverage of last night's Giants-49ers game, was actually the fault of Channel 5/ WTTG. Apparently, the DC TV station sends out a feed of its programming to area cable systems, including Comcast. And the error occurred on WTTG's end, we're told..... 1/23 - DCRTV hears that Comcast in the DC area ran ads for its Xfinity service at least four times during football plays of Sunday's Giants-49ers game. The ads were seen during Channel 5/WTTG's Fox coverage of the NFC championship game, a possible violation of FCC rules, which prohibit cable systems from running their content "on top" of local broadcast signals. "One aired during actual play, an OT punt, not just the time between plays," we're told by a viewer. More as we hear it..... 1/22 - CBS Radio launched new DC area all-newser WNEW, 99.1 FM, at noon Sunday. And we have live video/audio of the first few minutes of the new station at DCRTV's Dave TV page. The station was originally slated to launch last Thursday, but the date was later pushed to Monday. However, CBS pulled a surprise and launched it today. CBS announced that it would be starting DC's second all-newser, to compete with top-rated WTOP, back in November..... 1/22 - The Washington Post finds the need to correct a story about its own managing editor joining the Wall Street Journal..... 1/22 - Former Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich plans to write a weekly op-ed column for the Baltimore Sun, a newspaper with which he clashed while in office. The Sun reported that Ehrlich, a Republican who served as governor from 2003 to 2007, will focus on national politics. The Sunday column will debut January 29. Ehrlich had a strained relationship with the newspaper as governor, banning state employees in 2004 from speaking with two Sun reporters after a series of articles about a state plan to sell preserved forestland to a construction company owner. The Sun sued to lift the ban but lost in federal court. More: DCRTV hears that Ehrlich's wife, Kendel, may host a talk show for WBAL radio. She and her husband hosted a Saturday morning talk show for the station before his unsuccessful re-run for governor in 2010..... 1/20 - Raju Narisetti leaves his managing editor gig at the Washington Post to become managing editor for the Wall Street Journal's digital properties, including WSJ.com, SmartMoney.com, and MarketWatch.com. Before joining the Post, Narisetti worked at the WSJ, including a gig as editor of its European edition..... 1/19 - Steve Kolbe, who spent 14 seasons as the radio play-by-play voice of the Washington Capitals, joins the Jacksonville Suns as its radio play-by-play announcer. The Suns are the AA affiliate of the Miami Marlins. "I'm excited to join the Jacksonville Suns, a great organization with a tremendous fan base, a rich history and a beautiful ballpark," says Kolbe, who was replaced by the Capitals in August with John Walton..... 1/19 - DCRTV hears that longtime DC traffic diva Lisa Baden will continue to be seen in mornings on Channel 7/WJLA now that she'll also be heard doing morning traffic "on the 1s" for CBS's new radio all-newser, WNEW, which launches Monday. "For now, we will be sharing Lisa with the radio station," says WJLA General Manager Bill Lord. "We are still weighing options for the long term." Baden, who is employed by Total Traffic, had been doing morning radio duties for Cumulus radio news talker WMAL since June, in addition to her WJLA TV appearances. In December, Allbritton's WJLA took out a help wanted ad in a TV trade pub looking for a new morning traffic reporter..... 1/19 - DC radio veteran Steve Ray leaves his board op/producer gig at Cumulus news talker WMAL to be an anchor at TRN's DC area-based America's Radio News Network..... 1/18 - DCRTV hears that Westminster MD's Carroll County Times recently cut about 20 staffers. "Those people had to sign something saying they won't talk or they lose their severance," we're told. "Those who stay have been told not to talk - or else." Morale is "in the pits," we hear from a still-employed employee..... 1/17 - DCRTV hears that John Matthews is once again officially news director at Cumulus news talker WMAL, 105.9 FM/630 AM. He'd been news director before and had come back to the Jenifer Street station in an unofficial, fill-in capacity. As of Monday, however, Matthews is back as a fulltimer at WMAL, we're told. More: We hear that he's technically not the new news director. But has the title of something like director of web services and news anchor. "He is acting like ND, but does not have that title," a source tells us..... 1/17 - DCRTV hears that Channel 4/WRC reporter, news anchor, and occasional sports anchor John Schirffen has departed the NBC-owned station. He has not been on-air since November. DCRTV has reported rumblings about some sort of dispute between Schriffen and WRC management..... 1/17 - Philip Stewart leaves his reporting job at Allbritton's NewsChannel 8 and Channel 7/WJLA to be a public information officer for the DC area's Metro transit system. Also, Caroline Lukas leaves the DC bureau of Canada's CBC to be Metro's media relations manager. So reports "Dr. Gridlock" at washingtonpost.com..... 1/16 - Today, the Washington Post raises its weekday newsstand price from 75-cents to $1. The Sunday edition jumps from $1.50 to $2. At the start of the year, the New York Times, which is widely available in the Washington area, raised its weekday newsstand price from $2 to $2.50..... 1/16 - No more Lisa Baden doing the morning traffic on Cumulus news talker WMAL as of today. Jamee Whitten is handling MAL's "Morning Majority" traffic solo, like she did before Baden joined the station in June. Since then, Baden and Whitten have be co-hosting traffic reports, with Baden doing DC and Maryland and Whitten doing Virginia. As you DCRTV told you, Baden will be doing morning traffic for CBS's new all-newser WNEW, which launches Thursday. Up until early 2010, Baden did morning traffic for Hubbard's WTOP. At last week's WNEW launch presentation for advertisers at the Newseum, CBS Radio DC czar Steve Swenson jested that some of the WNEW staff weren't present because they got stuck in traffic after listening to traffic reports on rival all-newser WTOP..... 1/14 - DCRTV hears that Prince George's County has declared Thursday, January 19, to be "WNEW Day." The new CBS all-newser on 99.1 FM launches at 5 AM on that day with studios at CBS Radio's DC broadcast complex in PG's Lanham. Also, we hear DC area radio great Paul Anthony will be voicing the station's top of the hour slogan: "All News All The Time. This is 99.1 WNEW, Washington's news radio." For many years, Anthony, who has hosted many jazz radio shows on radio stations in the DC area along with Sirius XM, has been voicing the slogan for CBS NYC all-newser WINS..... 1/13 - DCRTV hears that former Maryland Terapin basketball coach Gary Williams joins ESPN 980, WTEM, as its official college hoops insider. He'll be heard on "The Sports Fix" and "The Sports Reporters"..... 1/13 - Fans of Baltimore traffic reporter "Detour Dave" Sandler have started a Facebook page called "Keep Detour Dave On The Air." Saying: "Dave's been dealing with heart related health issues and WBAL/98Rock are considering not renewing his contract because of it. Dave is such a committed hard working guy. Just seems like a crappy way to treat a loyal guy after 25+ years." DCRTV recently reported that Sandler, who has been off the air for several weeks, had a new round of surgery..... 1/12 - DCRTV has already tipped you. And now we get confirmation that Gannett-owned Channel 9/WUSA, including its top weatherman Topper Shutt, will be providing weather forecasts for CBS's new all-newser, WNEW, 99.1..... 1/12 - Jen Royle (right) has landed a job with Comcast SportsNet in Boston. She will be part of a new show at the New England sports network after the Baltimore Ravens' season ends, we're told by Washington Examiner sports columnist Jim Williams. Last month, Royle announced that, after this season, she'd no longer be covering the Ravens for CBS's Baltimore sports talker, 105.7 The Fan, WJZ-FM. Before that, Royle worked for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network..... 1/12 - American University picks up two 93.5 FM low-power translator stations from Family Radio, which used to relay religious WFSI from Annapolis. The Frederick and Hagerstown outlets will now relay AU-owned WAMU's Bluegrass Country, which is currently heard on Bethesda's 105.5 FM, WAMU's 88.5 HD2, and via bluegrasscountry.org. Purchase price: $100,000. Family Radio sold WFSI's 107.9 FM signal in Annapolis to CBS in late 2011. Family now broadcasts WFSI on 860 AM in Baltimore. The 107.9 signal now carries CBS's WLZL, El Zol..... 1/12 - Another hire for new CBS all-newser WNEW, 99.1, which launches a week from today. Reporter Kevin Patrick joins the station from Merlin's new FM all-newser WIQI in Chicago. By the way, DCRTV got a peek at WNEW's "media kit" and noticed a few glitches. Alexandria is called a "county" when it's actually a "city" independent of any county - one of those Virginia things that even Washington Post sometimes gets wrong. And WNEW calls Loudoun County "Loudon"..... 1/12 - Tom Taylor's TRI radio biz newsletter confirms what DCRTV already tipped you. That newswoman Rachel Crowson, who had been heard on WMAL, ABC Radio, and the Voice Of America, has joined TRN's DC-based America's Radio News Network as a co-anchor. ARNN is up to 15 hours a day of original programming in three-hour blocks, beginning with the Washington Times co-production of "America's Morning News," heard locally on WTNT, 102.9 FM/730 AM..... 1/11 - DCRTV hears that all-newser WTOP is taking down its 103.5 FM digital HD Radio channels for a week or two starting Friday so that engineers can install a new transmitter that will improve coverage of the station's three HD channels: the main WTOP signal, the feed of Federal News Radio WFED, and the new Gamut progressive rock service..... 1/11 - DCRTV hears about yet another local media personality jumping to CBS's new all-newser WNEW. Frank Hanrahan will do sports updates for the new 99.1, which launches on January 19. Hanrahan used to be heard on Hubbard all-newser WTOP..... 1/11 - Oh, that Paul Farhi-penned obit in the Washington Post about WMAL veteran Bill Trumbull says that his former WMAL partner Chris Core now works at "WTOP (1050 AM)." DC's 1050 is WBQH, which airs a Mexican Spanish format..... 1/10 - DCRTV has received a number requests wondering where Baltimore TV and radio traffic veteran "Detour Dave" Sandler (right) has been the past few weeks, since he's been missing from the airwaves. We hear that Sandler, who is heard mornings on Channel 11/WBAL and Hearst sister news talker WBAL-AM, 1090, recently had surgery. No other details are available. Several years ago, Sandler had heart surgery after collapsing while playing softball. More as we hear it..... 1/10 - DCRTV hears a rumbling that new CBS news talker WNEW will be getting weather forecasts from DC's CBS TV affiliate, Gannett-owned Channel 9/WUSA, which features Topper Shutt and Howard Bernstein. More soon..... 1/10 - More about Lisa Baden! Qe're hearing more rumblings that she soon may no longer be seen doing traffic on Channel 7/WJLA's "Good Morning Washington." And what/who will replace her? Maybe reports from WTOP's traffic center from a personality to be announced. Stay tuned..... 1/9 - Bethesda's Comcast SportsNet will launch "SportsTalk Live," hosted by Brian Mitchell and Ivan Carter, on January 23rd. The live half-hour local sports show, which is modeled after "NBC SportsTalk" on Comcast/NBC's sister NBC SportsNet (formerly Versus), will air weeknights at 10:30 PM, with an encore at 12:30 AM. Former Redskin Mitchell is a frequent CSN contributor. Carter spent more than two years as host of CSN's "Washington Post Live," which concluded its run in December..... 1/9 - Allbritton's Channel 7/WJLA is running an ad on its wjla.com website looking for an on-air traffic reporter to anchor morning traffic segments for "Good Morning Washington" and the morning news on sister NewsChannel 8. Currently, WJLA uses Metro Traffic and its Lisa Baden for morning traffic reports. More as we hear it..... 1/8 - A former Sirius XM Radio administrator has been convicted in a scheme to pilfer nearly $1 million from the DC office of the satellite radio company. Brenda Jones, 46, of Lothian MD, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the theft of more than $900,000. She faces up to two-and-a-half years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. According to the Washington Examiner, Jones began working at XM in 2005 as an administrator in the accounts payable department. Jones and another XM employee began to embezzle large payments that were supposed to be paid to XM vendors, but instead were paid from to Jones' personal bank accounts, according to the Examiner. Jones resigned from XM Radio in July 2006, but the checks continued to go to Jones long after her leaving, prosecutors said..... 1/6 - WIHT, Hot 99.5's Toby Knapp, afternoon drive host and assistant program director, adds an area radio gig. He'll be voicetracking nights on Lancaster PA contemporary hit outlet WLAN, 96.9 FM, starting January 9th. Knapp hosted WLAN's morning show from 1998 to 2001. Both WIHT and WLAN are owned by Clear Channel..... 1/6 - DCRTV hears that Justin Udo, the afternoon producer for "In Depth With Francis Rose" at federal news talker WFED, sister station to Hubbard all-newser WTOP, heads to CBS's new all-newser WNEW, where he will be evening managing news editor. Udo had been at WFED only eight months..... 1/6 - DCRTV hears that WTOP political commentator Mark Plotkin (right) and DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown had to be separated following an appearance on Fox 5's 10 PM news yesterday. A source tells us that Brown was being interviewed about the resignation of Harry Thomas Jr. from the DC Council, regarding a major scandal within the District's goverment, which is drawing in other top city leaders, including the mayor. That was followed by Plotkin appearing with Channel 5/WTTG news anchor Brian Bolter. As soon as Plotkin was off camera, "Brown charged back into the studio and got into Plotkin's face, using all kinds of language," we're told. "They were finally separated by Fox employees and Brown started to leave, (but) then returned for another round of shouting at each other about an inch from each other's face. It will be interesting to see if news of this makes onto WTOP or Fox 5 later today," we hear. Update: DCRTV hears that WTOP has asked Fox 5 for video, but the station has refused. We're told that Plotkin will discuss the incident during his "Politics Program" on WTOP at 10 AM today..... 1/5 - Allbritton filed an emergency petition with the Federal Communications Commission today, charging a rural Virginia cable operation of "bad faith" negotiations. Allbritton, owner of DC's ABC affiliate, Channel 7/WJLA, says Shentel Communications of Shenandoah County VA dropped the station's signal on New Year's Eve "with insufficient notice." It's asking the FCC to order Shentel, which has 8,200 subscribers, to reinstate WJLA's signal. The dust-up started in September, with both sides haggling over monthly, per-subscriber fees..... 1/5 - DCRTV tipped you earlier. Now, area cable TV biggie Comcast has rolled out Allbritton's NewsChannel 8 in high-def, on cable channel 808. Moving the HD feed of Home Shopping Network from 808 to 811 in the DC area. Up until now, WJLA's sister cable-only news channel had been available in standard-def via cable channel 8 on most of Comcast's DC area systems. More: Verizon FIOS adds NC8-HD on channel 508 of its DC area systems..... 1/5 - DCRTV hears that former MSNBCer David Shuster will be heard on a new lefty talk radio format via Prince William County's WPWC, 1480 AM. We Act Radio has a website at weactradio.com. And Shuster will be hosting a Saturday afternoon show on the station. It'll be related to his new journalism venture called Take Action News. He'll be continuing his duties at Current TV as backup for Keith Olbermann..... 1/5 - Some more news about CBS's new all-newser WNEW, 99.1, which launches on January 19. DC-based ABC newsman Steven Portnoy, a former WMALer, has been posting on Twitter that WNEW will use ABC News content and that it won't be exclusive to WNEW. Cumulus DC news talker WMAL also carries ABC's newscasts and content. Even though it's owned by CBS, WNEW won't be able to use CBS News product until 2013 because of a contact CBS has with Hubbard all-newser WTOP. And more WNEW news: Pittsburgh's PBRTV reports that reporter Matt DelSignore is leaving that city's CBS news talk KDKA-AM for WNEW..... 1/5 - Is CBS planning a federal news talker on 1580, now WNEW-AM, to be co-marketed with its new news talker, WNEW-FM, 99.1, which launches on January 19? We've reported rumors, and now a local radio guru tells us that WNEW owner CBS is engaged in "background" talks with "a news organization that supplies federal news." If CBS flips low-rated talker WNEW-AM to federal news and talk, it would directly compete with WFED, Federal News Radio, which is owned by Hubbard, which owns all-newser WTOP. While WFED doesn't get big ratings, it does generate a lot of ad revenue from Capitol Hill lobbying firms and defense contractors. "It's a lucrative niche market," we're told. More as we hear it..... 1/4 - DCRTV hears that the Washington Times is re-establishing its State Department desk and has hired Guy Taylor to be its top State Department reporter. Taylor has been reporting on international stories around the world on a freelance basis for the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting, the Stanley Foundation, and the North American Congress On Latin America. He has also worked at World Politics Review and for Agence France-Presse..... 1/4 - DCRTV hears that Steve Houk, Gannett-owned Channel 9/ WUSA's director of marketing, "was quietly let go yesterday morning." More as we hear it..... 1/4 - Jeremy Settle will be joining Fox News Channel later this month as a senior producer at its DC bureau. Most recently news director for WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre PA, Settle used to be Gannett-owned Channel 9/WUSA's assistant news manager. He had also been news director at Allbritton's NewsChannel 8..... 1/3 - As the new CBS DC all-newser WNEW, 99.1 FM, continues to staff-up, we're hearing rumblings that Baltimore news talker WBAL, 1090 AM, is losing Jenny Glick to the new station. The rumor is that she'll be anchoring middays..... 1/1 - DCRTV hears rumblings that Baltimore radio veteran Bill Rehkopf is the latest to join CBS's new all-newser WNEW, 99.1, which debuts later this month. He comes from CBS sister news talker KDKA-AM in Pittsburgh..... Rants 2011 Rants July To December 2010 Rants January To June 2010 Rants July To December 2009 Rants January To June 2009 Rants July To December 2008 Rants January To June 2008 Rants 2007 Rants 2006 Rants 2005 Rants 2004 All original material on this website is copyright by Dave Hughes/DCRTV.