As the turkey thaws...

Okay, so we've been slacking a bit here...

Well, quite simply, news has been a bit slow post-election. Aside from that new progressive talk station in Boston, there really isn't much to talk about.

In addition, I've been preparing a rather juicy Thanksgiving feast for all of ya. Yes, it's the return of the "Turkey of the Year," 2008 edition. Kinda like last year, but there's enough turkey around to bring Zimbabwe out of famine. Well okay, it's pretty close. There are so many Turkey candidates this time around that much of the time has been spent cutting the article down to a manageable length. It's almost complete, and you can look for it here sometime Wednesday.

In the meantime, the news...

Mr. KGO?

Listeners of KTLK in Los Angeles may remember Marc Germain, a.k.a. Mr. KFI and Mr. KABC at previous gigs. He was cut loose at the end of last year, along with many other Clear Channel personalities across the country (or what they call "overhead").

But Germain is keeping busy, and this past weekend, he filled in for Dr. Bill Wattenburg at ABC/Citadel talk station KGO in San Francisco.

For those of you needing a further Germain fix, he is currently online, hosting a weekday evening show from 11P-1A ET (8-10P PT) at TalkRadioOne.com. Podcasts of his shows are also available.

Chinese Bureaucracy?

Okay, Guns n' Roses has virtually nothing to do with the typical fare discusses around these parts. But really, what does?

Besides, I have long been trying to find a way to incorporate the title of their new, long-awaited album "Chinese Democracy," into a blog entry, or even as a headline. And this is the best way I've been able to do it. Sorry.

But since this is a holiday week, why not some rather silly news. This one concerns The Axl Rose Band, er, Guns n' Roses, which finally released his their new album at Best Buy stores across the land yesterday, 16 years since GNR's last release, more than a decade since recording on it began and at least 2-3 years after everyone even remotely interested in it had already heard it illegally on the internet. Believe it or not, this 'lost album' has been released, and there is actually photographic proof of its existence. I'm still not convinced, but I'm just a natural skeptic, I guess.

And people can actually hear it legally online too, via the band's Myspace page.

The album, curiously, has been getting some decent reviews. However, the Chinese government is giving it a thumbs down. At least the title, anyway. A newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party is blasting the new album as an attack on their country.

How dare they call it a democracy, dammit!

In an article headlined "American band releases album venomously attacking China," the Glocal Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the west to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn."

The album "turns its spear point on CHINA," the article said.

The Global Times article referred only to the title of the album and not to specific song lyrics. The record's title track makes a reference to the Falun Gong meditation movement that was banned by China as an "evil cult" and warns "if your Great Wall rocks blame yourself," in an apparent message to the country's authoritarian government.

In a 1999(!!!) interview on the making of the album, Axl Rose gave his reason for the title. "Well, there's a lot of Chinese democracy movements, and it's something that there's a lot of talk about, and it's something that will be nice to see. It could also just be like an ironic statement. I don't know, I just like the sound of it."

Whatever that means.

And don't expect to hear or be able to buy "Chinese Democracy" in China, since national censors maintain tight control over films, music and publications. They also maintain an iron grip over the internet, so good luck there, Chinese readers. But it's likely Chinese street vendors have been selling bootleg copies for the past five years or so anyway, so there.

Another day, another Rachel

Finally, we've had a bit of a dry spell of these lately, but for all Rachel Maddow fanatics, there is a new article up, this one from NBC rival CBS. You can find it here.

Post-holiday soundbytes

UPDATED 1/4/08

Here it is, the year 2008, and it's time to do a little post-holiday cleaning of some stories that have been missed. I didn't get a chance to write about any of this stuff,

1. Mr. K is Mr. Gone

In anticipation of their sale (again, it isn't to Mitt Romney), Clear Channel has been cleaning house at stations nationwide, slashing overhead and staff. Funny, I thought that usually happened after he corporate raiders took over. The sole progressive talk victim is at KTLK in Los Angeles, where Marc Germain, a.k.a. Mr. K, gets his walking papers. In the interim, weekenders such as Johnny Wendell are filling in. No permanent replacement has been named.

2. Stacy Taylor starts new gig today

Down the coast in San Diego, as previously reported, Stacy Taylor starts his new job today, doing the afternoon shift at XEPE (1700AM). You can hear him from 4-7PM PT (that's 7-10PM ET). Thankfully, "San Diego 1700" streams, so you can check out Taylor's show here. Like taylor's former home, KLSD, XEPE offers podcasting. Whether Taylor's show will be archived in whole, in parts or at all is unknown. And you can read a really good article about Taylor in San Diego CityBeat.

3. Apple bets on HD Radio

Earlier last year, I claimed that HD Radio would at least have a chance of surviving if two things were to happen. First, a portable device (i.e. one that runs on batteries) needs to be introduced. Second, Apple would have to get involved. Well lo and behold, Ibiquity, the bumbling company behind HD Radio, has indeed teamed up with Steve Jobs and company as Apple is getting ready to roll out HD Radio-compatible boomboxes and iPod docks at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco later this month. The new receivers will have tagging capability, which enables songs played on HD-equipped radio stations to be 'tagged' and pulled up on iTunes later, for preview and/or purchase. So far, many of the big radio station owners are working at encoding the music at their end to make it iTunes compliant.

Ibiquity has stumbled badly with HD Radio over the past few years, with product rollouts being mostly mediocre, unwieldy or overpriced. It seemed the company was more concerned about intellectual property than with putting product in peoples' hands, which has slowed down the rollout of HD Radio and gotten them some horrible press. HD Radio does have some technological issues, but all new innovations do. Those get ironed out. HD Radio in itself is not a bad idea. I've heard it and think that, with some simplification of the product, that it could work, even if Ibiquity does their best to shoot themselves in the foot. Apple knows how to create and move products that people don't realize they want. The iPod wasn't the first high-capacity MP3 player, but they soon dominated the market. Last year, they got people to pay $500 for a cell phone! Needless to say, Apple knows how to do what Ibiquity obviously doesn't. And that's pushing new technology. Ibiquity should stop being so overprotective, step back and see how it's done.

4. Goin' digital

There's only a little over a year to go until our TV dial goes completely digital. Come midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations are required to turn off their analog signals and broadcast in digital-only. if you've got an older set with rabbit ear antennas pulling in signals from the air (imagine that!), you'll get a lot of static. However, if you go out and buy a special converter box, you'll get all your local channels and then some, in crystal-clear digital (depending on where you live in proximity to the stations). January 1 was the first day that the public was able to apply for $40 vouchers good toward purchase of these converter boxes (slated to run $50-70). So, where are the converter boxes? Look for them in your favorite electronics store next month. In the past two days, the government has gotten over half a million requests for vouchers.

So, are you all confused by this? Don't feel bad, you're not alone. To boil it all down, if you already have cable or satellite service, do nothing. You won't notice anything. If you bought a new set within the past year, it's probably already DTV-compliant.

Why is the government switching off analog? The analog spectrum takes up a ton of space in comparison to DTV (not to be confused with HDTV, which is only a part of this whole technology). The rest of the world is currently in the process of doing this upgrade, and much of Europe is moving quickly to change over as well. The advantages are many, with clearer pictures and sound, multiple channels (many NBC affiliates are already carrying local "Weather Plus" side channels and public television stations already have a wide array of subchannels as well. In the near future, expect to see other stations adding more channels as well.

If you are going out to buy a new television (and the prices for DTV-compliant sets are dropping like mad), be aware. All new sets manufactured since last March are required to be compatible, but there may still be a few older units that aren't. They'll be tagged as such, but ask a sales associate to be sure. If you see older sets at too-good-to-be-true prices (like those portable $10 B&W jobs at Walgreens), chances are you'll need that converter box by next February lest it become a paper weight. See the government's site, DTV2009.gov, for more information and to apply for a voucher, or call their hotline, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-800-388-2009). You can see an earlier article I wrote here that describes the digital switchover in more detail.

Oh, and if you have one of those portable radios that pick up VHF TV feeds, they won't pick them up at all come next year. So far, there are no similar radios being made that will have that same function for DTV channels.

5. DeFede's got a brand new gig

Jim DeFede, former columnist with the Miami Herald and Miami New Times and former morning host at WINZ in Miami is back on the radio. AllAccess says that DeFede has been hired to do 4-7PM ET at WFTL in Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach. The new show starts January 7.

"I’m thrilled to be back with my own show and to be working for WFTL," said DeFde. "I came here because no other station in South Floida is as committed to local talk as WFTL. And let’s face it, living in South Floida, we all should be committed."

6. Open up the pipes

And finally, some good news for readers who would like to leave comments here but don't want to sign up for Google accounts. As part of a reconfiguration by Blogger, OpenID is now configured for LTR. Meaning that you can sign in and leave comments via OpenID-enabled services such as WordPress.com, LiveJournal, and AOL Journals, or even with an AOL/AIM account. You can read more about OpenID here.

KTLK: Harrison out, "Mr. KTLK" in

Los Angeles' KTLK shakes up its lineup starting next week as the station hires Marc Germain, the talker formerly known in previous incarnations as Mr. KABC and Mr. KFI. As a result of this, Cary Harrison's brilliant local evening show "Harrison on the Edge" has been dropped.

In addition, a few other changes have been made, including the arrival of Bill Press and Alan Colmes, the departure of Lionel, The Young Turks and Mark Riley, and delayed broadcasts of Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow. While some media outlets, including LARadio.com claim that the station is shedding its Air America Radio branding, the station will still carry Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes live, in addition to Maddow. Furthermore, KTLK, like many of Air America's other affiliates, hasn't really relied heavily on the network's name for quite a while.

The new lineup will look like this:

Stephanie Miller 6-9AM live
Thom Hartmann 9-Noon live
Randi Rhodes Noon-3PM live
Marc "Mr K" Germain 3-7PM live
Ed Schultz 7-10PM
Rachel Maddow 10-Midnight
Alan Colmes Midnight - 3AM
Bill Press 3-6AM live

So far, no word on whether Germain, who in the past has used his station's call letters as his radio moniker, will adopt the 'Mr. KTLK' personna. As of now, he's just 'Mr. K', but that could change. He recently left his previous employer, KABC, when the station buckled under pressure from their corporate parent to clear more space for Mark Levin's ABC Radio-syndicated show. As a result, Mr. KABC would be banished to the post-midnight hours. Seeing as this would take valuable time away from his family, and feeling that this is a crummy way to treat a highly-rated local show, Germain decided to resign from the station and seek a new radio home. With the move to KTLK, he will be in the same building as his former station, co-owned KFI.

Germain, who describes himself as a moderate-to-liberal Democrat, takes a rather light approach toward his radio show, which consists heavily of random questions from callers. His motto is "no guests, no topics, no screeners," though he does occasionally welcome guests, mostly from the entertainment industry. This approach has helped Germain obtain very good ratings, often winning his time slot since he entered Los Angeles talk radio in the early 1990s at KFI.

As for Harrison, up until now the station's only locally-oriented weekday host (though Miller does her show from KTLK's studios), he and his crew were informed of the show's cancellation yesterday. No word on any future opportunities, but we here at LTR, being big fans of "Harrison on the Edge" will keep you posted on his whereabouts. It is likely that Clear Channel felt that it would be easier to preempt syndicated hosts such as Schultz with sports programming (KTLK is the flagship for the NHL's Los Angeles Kings) than it would be to bump a local show. According to AllAccess, Harrison is currently soliciting fill-in and fulltime gigs covering politics and pop culture.

The station's heavy weekend slate of local programming remains the same.

UPDATE 3/8: According to L.A. CityBeat, we may not have heard the last of Harrison. KTLK's program director may bring him back for weekends at some point. The article also points out a few complaints from listenters who want Harrison back, which is not surprising. Obvously, the wingnut bloggers are making serious hay and claiming that listeners are doing everything short of burning down the station. Most of the reaction I've seen has been positive, aside from Harrison's departure. They understand that Germain is a pretty big acquisition for the station, and seem cool with it.