Headlines

From superstar speakers to informative panelists to keynoter Daymond John from ABC's Shark Tank, Radio Ink's Forecast 2018 event in New York City this week was a smashing success. We had a great mix of radio's power, analysts, brokers, vendors, advertisers, and  radio managers looking to take home their unfair share of advertising dollars next year.

On a 3-2 party-line vote, the FCC eliminated its cross-ownership rules for newspaper and broadcast media and for radio and TV, respectively. The order eliminates the radio/television cross-ownership rule and newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, while on the TV side, the "Eight-Voices Test" for independent media sources is going away, along with other changes.

Following the FCC's ruling to eliminate the cross-ownership rule, NAB CEO Gordon Smith thanked the Commission. "These rules are not only irrational in today’s media environment, but they have also weakened the newspaper industry, cost journalism jobs, and forced local broadcast stations onto unequal footing with our national pay-TV and radio competitors."

Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw called the FCC's embedded rule dumb and said it needed fixing...so the FCC fixed it. The embedded rule only affects New York and Washington, DC, however it’s important enough to Warshaw that he’s been providing the FCC with data and meeting with staff to get the rule changed. And, he operates on Long Island. The embedded market rule lumps stations in a market like Long Island in with New York City.

KABC morning news anchor Leann Tweeden said in a post on KABC-AM's website that she felt "disgusted and violated" after Al Franken, back in 2006, forced a kiss on her as they prepared for an appearance on a USO tour. She writes that Franken, then a comedian and now a U.S. senator, insisted on rehearsing a kiss he'd written into a skit for Tweeden and himself.

After spending the morning saying goodbye, Classic Rock KSWD (The Sound)/Los Angeles left the airwaves at 1 p.m. PT Thursday. The station was sold to Educational Media Foundation in the runup to the Entercom/CBS Radio merger, and has flipped to EMF's Christian Contemporary programming as K-Love 100.3 FM.

Continuous Christmas music starts Friday at 9:00 a.m. on Today’s 101.1 MORE-FM/WBEB, "Philadelphia’s Official Christmas Station." The station is the highest-rated Christmas music station in the nation’s major media markets, owning the top four slots. This the 14th consecutive year WBEB has aired holiday music.

Starting Friday, Seattle's STAR 101.5 flips to Christmas music for the holiday seasn. The station will play 20 Christmas songs in a row every weekday from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., plus afternoon show hosts Curt & Corine will feature the top five Christmas songs of the day at 5 o’clock every weeknight.

iHeart San Antonio's Q 101.9 has caught the Christmas bug and begun broadcasting around-the-clock festive music from artists including Wham!, Nat King Cole, and Mariah Carey, leading into the holiday season.

ABC Radio is kicking off the holiday season with a three-hour country music special, My Kind of Christmas Countdown, hosted by Grammy Award-winning country superstar Reba McEntire, and a three-hour special titled America Gives Thanks. Both specials will be available over the Thanksgiving weekend.