TV Tech: VHF Stations Seek Solutions for Reception Problems. Low-band VHF stations face special challenges, as their signal has to be strong enough to overcome interference.

TV Tech: Possible Vizio DTV Tuner Problem Reported. It seems very odd to me that a popular DTV set manufacturer like Vizio would limit their QAM tuning range to such a narrow band

ZD Net: CrashPlan is a handy backup tool that facilitates local and friend-based remote, encrypted backups. License: Free. OS: Windows. Also available for Mac

Inside Music Media: Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson died Thursday. And radio died right along with him. Most radio stations just kept John Tesh rolling, Ryan Seacrest babbling and voice tracking mindlessly ploughing through the playlist. By comparison Elvis died way before consolidation and within ten minutes most stations were broadcasting on-air tributes, news accounts and playing wall-to-wall Elvis. Not so easy when your local program is coming from national headquarters. People not only remembered where they were when The King died, but which station they were listening to. Not yesterday.

The Wires (June 26, 2009)

Clear Channel Given Last Rites? Radio consolidators are lining up for their long goodbye. Clear Channel is teetering on the brink with lenders who are standing up to The Evil Empire’s demands for more favorable loan repayment terms. In the end the lenders will probably relent, but not before putting a scare into the entire radio industry. To lose the number one radio group to bankruptcy would be terminal for the industry. Citadel is the next best candidate for bankruptcy

FMQB: The National Radio Hall Of Fame has announced its 2009 nominees. In the "Local Or Regional - Pioneer" category: Gary Burbank, Art Laboe, Van Miller and Ed Walker. In the "National - Pioneer" category: Dr. Demento, Dick Orkin, Suspense and WLS Barn Dance. In the "Local or Regional - Active" category: Terri Hemmert, Tom Moffatt, Neil Rogers and Wendy Williams. In the "National - Active" category: Neal Boortz, Bob Brinker, Joey Reynolds and This American Life.

The Wires (June 25, 2009)

Inside Radio: Anti-royalty roster grows. NAB's Capitol Hill headcounters report 237 House lawmakers have now signed a resolution opposing a performance royalty for radio. That's ten more than a year ago. Sponsors say they'd like to get more than 240 names to help convince Democratic leadership not to bother calling a vote on a bill that would create a fee.

Tom Taylor radio-info.com: Casey Kasem’s last new countdown will be the July 4th weekend – hard to imagine. Premiere will continue circulating his popular American Top 40 shows from the 1970s and the 1980s (two different series, depending on the station). But the current Adult Contemporary American Top 20 will wind up over the July 4th holiday weekend – a meaningful anniversary for Casey. His quintessentially “American” show debuted on a July 4, back when he created the franchise in 1970. L.A.-based Eric Weiss has repped Casey for years and he tells me that “Casey and Premiere agree” that this is the time to end the AC show. That gives Casey time to do his other work – voiceovers, cartoons, you name it. Eric says “Casey has turned down a lot of stuff over the last few years” that he can now look at. From Premiere’s side, it can re-deploy the fairly large production staff behind AT-20 into other gigs – and save a few bucks. Weiss says Kasem has maintained his high standards up to the end of production – “He’s worked as hard doing this week’s countdown as he did 29 years ago.” I just wanted to pay tribute to one of the great radio pros ever, and a guy who inspired countless people to think “Gee, maybe I could be on the radio, too.” Thanks, Casey.

WSAZ: When you turn on a radio, you expect music to be there, but a bill before Congress might change that. Opponents argue it's just fair business, but folks at one local said it's the end of radio as we know it.

UPS/Fedex Virus (June 24, 2009)

This one is for real… check it out !

UPS Fedex virus important!!!!

The newest virus circulating is the UPS/Fed Ex Delivery Failure. You will receive an email from UPS/Fed Ex Service along with a packet number.. It will say that they were unable to deliver a package sent to you on such-and-such a date. It then asks you to print out the invoice copy attached. DON’T TRY TO PRINT THIS. IT LAUNCHES THE VIRUS! Pass this warning on to all your PC operators at work and home. This virus has caused Millions of dollars in damage in the past few days.

Snopes confirms that it is real.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/ups.asp

It Was 20 Years Ago Today.... (June 24, 2009)

Inside Music Media: If you think the media business doesn’t make big consumer mistakes, just look at Sirius XM passing along RIAA licensing increases with the blessing of federal regulators so they can help those poor starving musicians - right! The reason we have poor starving musicians is because of the record labels not radio stations. Sirius XM with one of the biggest attractions it has to get new subscriptions, refuses to make Howard Stern available on its new Apple app. Eight million new subscribers since Stern came to Sirius and some genius decides to offer an app without their star franchise. Oh, and what makes them think anyone will pay several dollars a month to turn their nice, cool, useful Apple phone into a satellite radio receiver? Then there is the concept of burying commercials in six or eight-minute clusters as if anyone really listens to them. Yet we call that a business model that endears us to advertisers

Jacobs Media: At work, computers are far more ubiquitous than radios. At home, there's no shortage of gadgets and media, from the Internet, games, and television. And in the car - the former bastion of AM/FM radio - iPod connectivity is becoming more common, and the Internet is not far behind. But the competitive issues facing radio go well beyond technology

To KFMB and KGTV (June 23, 2009)

Kurt Hanson: Veteran Chicago air talent Steve Dahl has announced via his blog that he's working with CBS to launch a daily podcast . Dahl has been off the air since CBS bought him out of his contract at the company's Jack FM outlet in Chicago. He gives few details, but promises the show will begin by summer's end .

Fake Leykis Broadcast: Former CBS RADIO Talk KLSX (now Top 40 AMP RADIO)/LOS ANGELES host BRIAN WHITMAN is keeping busy these days as morning man on RICK DEES' ALLNUMBER1HITS.COM and providing voices and material to GLENN BECK's PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS and FOX NEWS CHANNEL shows, but he's also finding time to do his TOM LEYKIS impersonation on a new podcast, FAKELEYKISPODCAST.COM. The fake-LEYKIS show includes the fake-"Professor" doing monologues and interviews in the manner of WHITMAN's former KLSX coworker, "all meant in the spirit of parody and good fun."

Editor's note: how long will it take for the real Tom Leykis's lawyers to serve him a cease and desist order. Can't this fake impersonator launch a website without riding on the coattails of a famous person?

2009 DTV Transition: Analog TV Shutoffs as They Happened (on June 13, 2009)

From One True Patroit:

This is a compilation of videos of broadcast stations in Los Angeles making the switch as it happened. I tried to get as many stations as possible but that became an impossible task. I shot, produced, edited, and created this entire video so sit back and enjoy watching all the former analog TV signals going out one by one. All copyrights respected and acknowledged.

The following stations are featured:

KABC
KCAL
KLCS
KTLA
KOCE
KCOP
KTTV
KMEX