Stations stay tuned for changes after Powell's exit from FCC
When Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced last Friday that he would step down next month, speculation about the agency's future focused first on the world of television, with its wardrobe malfunctions and desperate housewives. But radio has come under the increased scrutiny of the five-person commission as well, and Powell's move raises the question of whether this will change.
Powell's four-year tenure didn't actually make the FCC rules more strict. But under him, the agency interpreted them more conservatively and enforced them more stringently. The result was heavy fines levied on station owners, fines that on-air talents such as Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony say were key in their decisions to leave broadcast radio for the as-yet-unregulated world of satellite radio. (Because satellite radio -- like cable television -- is a subscriber service, it does not fall under the same guidelines as free radio or television.)
It would seem logical, then, that Powell's departure might relax things, right? Think again. "We're not going to do anything different," says Keith Hastings, program director of rock station WAAF-FM (107.3). He cites a climate that has become "ever more careful."
"If I were a guessing man, I'd say that nothing much is going to change," says Hastings. "The administration is the same; the climate is the same."
"At Greater Media we never push the envelope when it comes to decency, so Powell's resignation should have no effect on us," says Don Kelley, vice president and director of programming for Greater Media, which includes WMJX-FM (106.7), WROR-FM (105.7), WKLB-FM (99.5), WTKK-FM (96.9), and WBOS-FM (92.9). Although it won't influence his stations, he adds: "I don't expect things to loosen up for radio."
Just to make sure the group avoids fines, says Kelley, the Greater Media talk station, WTKK, is constantly on a slight delay, and the music stations delay broadcasting their callers, "so there's no risk of airing things we deem inappropriate," he says.
Such delays -- which allow stations to "bleep" callers or DJs who might bring down the FCC's wrath -- have become increasingly common. At rock station WFNX-FM (101.7), for example, general manager Andy Kingston, says: "Since the Janet Jackson 'nipplegate' incident, we have put the station in delay so that any inappropriate live calls or slip-ups can be dumped and not aired." He adds he doesn't foresee any changes in this policy.
The increased caution of station managers goes deep. Several station program directors declined to speculate on what changes a new FCC lineup might bring.
Infinity-owned stations -- including WBMX-FM (98.5) and WBCN-FM (104.1) -- referred questions to corporate headquarters in New York, where spokeswoman Karen Mateo responded, "We would decline to comment [on] the Boston market."
As Tom Taylor, the editor of Inside Radio, says, "Powell swung over the
four years of his chairmanship from a relatively loose application of the
indecency provisions on content to being a zealot." His resignation, notes
Taylor, leaves the agency politically balanced temporarily -- two Democrats, two
Republicans -- on some contentious issues. "Stay tuned," he says.
|
| Anthony Cumia: "[O&A] Replacing Stern Is A No-Brainer" Jan. 10, 2005 By Bram Teitelman billboardradiomonitor.com |
| Where’s Stern? Updated: 1/4/2005 2:16 PM By: Jim Lokay, News 10 Now Web Staff The protesters are back outside Citadel studios.
After pulling him for the holidays, Howard Stern fans expected him to
return Monday to WAQX. But as soon as they tuned in, they tuned out.
"I can hear people click-click-click changing the
channel," said Stern fan Rich Hatherill. 95X had been embroiled in a feud with Stern, cutting his
show short in retaliation for plugging his future employer, Sirius
Satellite Radio. The station had been airing the Opie and Anthony show as
a temporary replacement, but instead, is keeping the duo on board
indefinitely. "Who are you punishing? You're not punishing me, I'm
leaving in a year," said during a radio broadcast Stern.
"Isn't that funny? I don't know, I think they're
grasping at straws in trying to find something to replace Howard, when in
the meantime, nothing's gonna replace Howard," Hatherill said. In the meantime, Stern says 95X owes an explanation to
his fans. "It's the thing you're not supposed to do, your
audience, you're supposed to treat them like you know, they're God,"
Stern commented during a radio broadcast. |
MORE OFF AIR NOTES FROM RAW
by Dave Scherer @ 10:35:00 AM on
1/4/2005
Random Thoughts/Happenings:
- Security removed signs from two guys on the floor. They had a couple of XM radio “Opie and Anthony” signs, and I guess the sponsors didn’t like it. It just sucks when something like taking the signs away happens, and the crowd let security know they didn’t like it a bit.
| Digital MyFi is
broadcasters' bane, listeners' gain By Dean Johnson Saturday, January 1, 2005 It has been
called the iPod/TiVo love child. It also has been called ``just another
nail in the coffin'' of broadcast radio.
It's MyFi, and it just might displace the
iPod as the ``must-have'' gizmo next Christmas.
What's a MyFi? Think Elton John, who has
been shamelessly shilling the device on network television. Then think a
combination of Walkman and TiVo.
It's all wrapped up in a unit about the
size of an iPod. But here's the catch: The $350 device only receives the
XM satellite network's 100-plus channels.
``When you see that Elton John ad, you
just get seduced by it all,'' said Holland Cooke, a veteran radio
consultant. ``All these gizmos that are the `new' transistor radios do not
include AM or FM receivers because people more and more want menu-driven
devices.''
What sets MyFi apart from so many similar
devices is its ability to record up to five hours of XM's programming at
the whim of the listener. It's all digital, so no tapes or discs are
needed. Just set the time and day and then listen at your leisure.
For Opie and Anthony fans, for example,
the MyFi is a dream come true. The shock jocks recently moved their
operation to XM where they host a daily 6-10 a.m. show. Instead of waking
up at what must be, for them, unearthly hours of the morning, the young
male listeners who make up most of O & A's crowd can set their MyFi's
to record each show.
Other talkers, such as Rush Limbaugh,
make their shows available online or as downloads. But with the MyFi,
there's no need to hang around your laptop or desktop computer to listen
or download. It's strictly music or talk to go.
The rival Sirius satellite radio service
is expected to offer a similar toy next year. But XM has combined
portability and on-demand listening into a device that Mike Harrison, the
editor of the radio industry magazine ``Talkers'' termed ``a loud and
jarring wake-up call'' for traditional (now called ``terrestrial'') radio.
``The silver lining to all this is that
things like MyFi have started to hold radio's feet to the fire about
content, especially local content,'' Cooke said. ``Radio has been trying
to mail it in for the last couple of years, and they've left the door wide
open for new technology like this.
``People are catching on to what radio
has been doing. Who wants to listen to 18 straight minutes of
commercials?''
-BostonHerald.com |
| From stem to Stern, a year of big changes |
|
News/talk WABC (770 AM) rode a contentious election to its strongest ratings in a decade even as the anti-WABC, newly launched progressive talk network Air America, was putting itself on the map. A series of moves by the city's four urban music stations - WRKS (98.7 FM), WBLS (107.5 FM), WQHT (97.1 FM) and WWPR (105.1 FM) - set the stage for competition starting early in 2005. WNEW (102.7 FM) tried one more new idea, a rhythmic format, while Hispanic radio got stronger and WCBS-FM (101.1) hired one-time Monkee Micky Dolenz to start next month as morning host. Meanwhile, unassuming WLTW (Lite-FM, 106.7 FM) stayed No. 1 the whole year. The indecency argument started when Janet Jackson had a brief topless moment during the Super Bowl telecast in February. A high-decibel outcry followed, with vows by Congress and the FCC for a swift crackdown on inappropriate broadcast material. What followed was a lot more talk than action, but fines were levied on several radio companies, including Stern's Infinity. Hoping to duck that bullet, all radio companies vowed zero-tolerance policies on indecency and several shows, notably Stern's, found content restricted by nervous management. After complaining he could "no longer do my show," Stern announced Oct. 6 that he had signed a five-year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, which has no content restrictions and which said it will spend $100 million a year on the Stern show. Sirius followed this by signing Stern's old Infinity boss, Mel Karmazin, to run the company. These signings gave satellite radio a big push, increasing talk that tens of millions of listeners will soon be paying money to hear the wider music and talk choices on satellite. Sirius' rival XM, which has more than 3 million subscribers to about 1 million for Sirius, had already signed talk hosts Opie and Anthony and longtime NPR "Morning Edition" host Bob Edwards. Traditional broadcasters responded by stressing their local content and talking about reducing their number of ads. The overwhelming majority of listeners still listen to "regular" radio, however, and the big "urban" winner was WRKS, riding the popularity of afternoon host Michael Baisden. Rival WBLS hired Rick Party to replace the syndicated Doug Banks on its morning show, then dismissed Party and reportedly is considering Paul Mooney as morning host. WWPR said at year-end it is moving morning host Ed Lover to the afternoon and bringing in Star and Buc Wild for the morning show starting Jan. 17. Hip-hop rival WQHT installed Miss Jones, Star's one-time partner, as its morning host. News/talk WOR added more issue talkers, but didn't make too much of a dent in WABC. WWRL (1600 AM) added an alternative perspective by hiring Steve Malzberg, formerly of WABC, as co-host of the morning show with Karen Hunter. Originally published on December 29, 2004 |
Two 'shockers' replace Stern in 95X reruns
WAQX-FM has been running "Opie & Anthony" while Howard
Stern is on vacation.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
By William LaRue
Staff writer
WAQX-FM (95X) has traded one shock jock for two others. This week through Jan. 3, the Syracuse rock station is replacing reruns of Howard Stern's syndicated show from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays with another controversial morning radio show, "Opie & Anthony." It's the same "Opie & Anthony" heard since Oct. 4 on XM Satellite Radio, except it's airing a day late and is heavily edited, according to Tom Mitchell, operations manager at 95X "There are times when they get into topics that aren't suitable for broadcast or they mention words we can't broadcast, so we have to cut them out," Mitchell said. "When segments run short, we fill it with music." He said this is the first time any radio station has received permission from XM to retransmit Opie and Anthony, whose real names are Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia. Their appearance on 95X also marks the first time they have been heard on conventional over-the-air radio in nearly 21/2 years. In August 2002, the two were suspended by WNEW-FM in New York City for airing a show in which they encouraged a couple to have sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. At the time, the show was also syndicated to 17 other radio stations across the country, although it wasn't heard in Syracuse. Since 1996,when it first began airing Stern's show, 95X has usually aired "best of" reruns of his program when he's on vacation. However, 95X owner Citadel Communications has been at odds with Stern recently because he has spent much of his morning show promoting his plans to move to Sirius Satellite Radio in January 2006. Stern complained this month that 95X has been editing out his discussions of Sirius and cutting off the show at 10 a.m., even when he has extended the program past that time. Stern fan Rich Hatherill, 38, of Liverpool, has been disappointed with 95X's editing of Stern's show. But he said Wednesday he is pleased 95X is giving "Opie & Anthony" a try, although he wants the station to return to Stern when he's back from vacation. "They're not as good, no. On a scale of 1 to 10, Opie and Anthony are probably a 4, and Howard's a 10. But I think I probably would rather listen to them than the 'best of,' " Hatherill said. Mitchell said 95X hasn't received much reaction from listeners to "Opie & Anthony," probably because of the busy holiday season. He declined to discuss terms of the deal Citadel made with XM to carry "Opie & Anthony" or any plans for the show, although he said 95X expects to bring Stern back Jan. 3. A representative for XM couldn't be reached for comment. To hear the uncensored "Opie & Anthony," XM listeners have to pay $1.99 a month, in addition to the satellite service's basic monthly fee of $9.99. Programming on XM and Sirius is beamed to special receivers from orbiting satellites. In recent Syracuse radio ratings, Stern's show was No. 1 overall from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays, drawing about 12 percent of listeners tuned in to radio in that time period. |
|
O&A pounce on tape of brief Blue airshift |
| 12.20.04 |
|
Blue spun music and plugged WNEW's "$50,000 Re-Do" contest - during which, at one point, he referred to his station as "KTU," WNEW's dance-music rival. Blue was 'KTU program director 1996-2003. He also spoke a semi-garbled word O&A said was the F-word, though not everyone agreed. O&A joked about Blue, but mostly teed off on WNEW, where they were stars until they were kicked off the air and kept out of radio for two years following the "Sex in St. Pat's" incident of August 2002. As for exactly what happened Wednesday, sources at WNEW say Blue had a disagreement with night host Yvonne Velasquez and decided, apparently on impulse, to take her 8 p.m. shift himself. The WNEW Christmas party was held that afternoon, ending at 4, and O&A suggested it sounds as if Blue been drinking. Others think he mostly sounded nervous - speaking too fast, repeating himself and running sentences together rather than, say, slurring words or rambling. He left the air after about a half hour, leaving a bizarre tape that shows why he made his reputation off the air, not on. A spokeswoman for Infinity, which owns WNEW, said the company had no statement. There were unofficial reports station officials reprimanded Blue, but no indication whether there could be any further repercussions. Blue, who is starting a previously scheduled vacation today, could not be reached for comment. He was hired this summer by WNEW, which has gone through many formats over the last few years and figured he could help attract a dance audience. Since he arrived he has changed much of the airstaff and total listenership has risen, though WNEW still ranked only 22nd in the summer ratings, averaging 1.6% of the audience. When he was hired, Blue said, "It's a marathon, not a sprint." |
By JOHN MAINELLI December 18, 2004 -- Radio program director Frankie Blue, apparently under the influence after an office Christmas party, grabbed the mike during a late-night show on 102.7 WNEW this week — and may have gone off-color. Bounced WNEW shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported the incident with great relish on their XM Satellite radio show yesterday as they played a tape of Blue's slurring unscheduled Wednesday night on-air appearance on DJ Yvonne Velasquez's show. But the big question is whether Blue — who had attended WNEW's Christmas bash that afternoon — uttered the F-word. During four rambling minutes at the mike, Blue — the legendary urban radio programmer hired last July to kick-start the long struggling WNEW — repeatedly promoted a station-sponsored $50,000 contest, muffing his words and mixing up the station's name. The highlight — as far as Opie and Anthony were concerned — came when a seemingly blotto Blue said station stars Rick, RuPaul and Kim would "pick out a winner, and then they're going to f - - - the winner." Opie and Anthony weren't sure just what the f-word was, but they had a lot of fun speculating — and delighting in the decline of the station that booted them over two years ago after they broadcast a couple having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. "The station's been in the toilet since we left," said a gleeful Gregg "Opie" Hughes. Blue was not at work yesterday and did not return a call for comment from The Post. No complaints about Blue's possibly off-color remark were received by the Federal Communications Commission, according to enforcement bureau spokeswoman Janice Wise |
| A revolution via satellite | |||
| Two radio outfits alter landscape | |||
XM and Sirius satellite radio still have major obstacles, starting with the fact most people don't know they exist. They also need to make potential customers feel comfortable with a different, higher-tech radio. But soon enough, said longtime media analyst Robert Unmacht, most people will know about satellite radio and consider it no more intimidating than cable TV. The radios themselves will be affordable enough so the biggest issue will be whether listeners want the content. And how enticing is it? "On satellite, I count 26 music formats I like," said Unmacht. "On regular radio, I count five." Or to put it another way: A New Yorker who had satellite radio now could hear country music, popular standards, big bands, '50s oldies, and dozens of shades of rock, dance, classical and Latin music heard only in small blips on free radio. Satellite is also starting to roll out star power. XM has signed young-guy talk hosts Opie and Anthony and National Public Radio veteran Bob Edwards. Starting next year, it will carry every Major League Baseball game. Sirius gets Howard Stern by January 2006 and carries all National Football League games. "Good programming will survive and win," said Jay Clark, executive vice president of programming for Sirius. "There's room for both terrestrial radio and two satellite services." "If you create good radio," said Hugo Panero, chairman of XM, "people will come." Each year satellite programming will get a little better, the radios cheaper, the technology flashier. So it's a personal judgment call whether, and when, to jump in. "Satellite is still a work in progress," said Unmacht. "The Sirius channels with real hosts, like Meg Griffin's, are terrific. But some just play music with an occasional joke over the intros. That's not the way you make radio a companion." XM's '50s channel has a great range of music, from deep rockabilly and blues to the hits. "Hank's Place," XM's classic country channel, has a much narrower playlist. Some channels sound just like "regular radio," with jocks. Others are jukeboxes. Both services are commercial-free on music channels, though not elsewhere. Many of the early satellite subscribers, it turns out, are in their 40s and 50s, which Unmacht said isn't surprising. "As terrestrial radio goes after younger listeners," he said, "those are the age groups it is increasingly disenfranchising." That group can also afford another electronic toy. Satellite costs $9.99 a month for XM and $12.95 for Sirius, and the radio itself can run $100-$500. Both Sirius and XM now offer boom boxes and XM is about to roll out the first Walkman-style portable, which will run $350. That will come down. New Yorkers mulling satellite should also consider the reception issue. Satellite signals, coming down from space, have more trouble penetrating obstacles like buildings or leafy trees than traditional radio transmissions. XM and Sirius figured their primary initial market would be vehicles, so the in-home and portable technology is still being worked out. If you're deep inside a New York building, you may not get the signal unless you can snake the antenna to a roof or window. Both companies downplay the issue but admit it's a factor. In the long term, said Unmacht, the technology will work itself out, just as he thinks the radio business will sort itself out. Terrestrial radio will continue to do fine, he said, because it can offer a local, immediate presence that satellite cannot. And satellite can offer popular standards, unsigned rock bands, uncensored rap, BBC World News and an Elvis channel. Sounding out the differences between XM & Sirius COST XM: $9.99 a month (premium channels including Opie & Anthony are extra) Sirius: $12.95 a month (no premium channels yet) CHANNELS XM: 68 music, 33 sports, talk and entertainment Sirius: 65 music, 46 sports, talk and entertainment SUBSCRIBERS XM: 2.7 million, projecting 3.1 million by year's end Sirius: 800,000, projecting 1 million by year's end SPORTS XM: NASCAR, Major League Baseball, college football and basketball Sirius: National Football League, National Hockey League, college football, NCAA Final Four. STARS XM: Opie and Anthony, Bob Edwards, Jonathan Schwartz Sirius: Howard Stern, Little Steven, Meg Griffin
UNIQUE CHANNELS XM: Unsigned Bands; BBC World News; Playboy Channel (premium) Sirius: OutQ (gay and lesbian); Sirius Patriot (conservative values); '80s Hair Bands; All Elvis MOST INTERESTING LIFESTYLE AFFILIATION XM: Starbucks Sirius: Eminem |
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WASHINGTON - Viacom will pay a record $3.5 million to settle dozens of federal investigations into alleged indecency on TV and the radio, and introduce delays in more live programming to help catch troublesome material before it gets on the air.
The settlement, announced Tuesday, closes investigations dating back to 2001. One involved shock jock Howard Stern, and two focused on Opie and Anthony, who lost their Viacom-owned New York radio show after it featured a couple purporting to have sex inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia went silent after the 2002 show until October, when they joined with XM Satellite Radio, where Federal Communications Commission regulations don't apply. Stern is joining the Sirius satellite network in January 2006, when his contract with Viacom-owned Infinity Broadcasting expires.
Viacom, which also owns CBS and MTV, agreed to implement a companywide compliance plan aimed at preventing future violations of federal indecency statutes. The plan includes installation of audio delay equipment at radio stations that broadcast live programming and training broadcasters and employees about indecency laws.
"This consent decree allows us to move forward and to focus our efforts in this area by serving our viewers and listeners with techniques to safeguard live broadcasts, such as cutaways and video and audio delays," Viacom said in a statement.
Viacom said the public, not the government, should decide what it is exposed to on radio and television.
But agreeing to the settlement makes that impossible, says John Dunbar, a project manager at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. Viacom had a reputation for questioning federal investigations under its former president, Mel Karmazin, who left in June, Dunbar said. Karmazin is joining his longtime associate Stern at Sirius, where he will be CEO.
Becoming more acquiescent with FCC oversight may make good business sense, Dunbar said, but that means potentially losing freedom of speech.
"Regardless of what the content of the speech was, I'm not sure that it's such a great thing for there not to be a debate on it," Dunbar said.
The settlement is not related to the agency's $550,000 fine against Viacom after the exposure of singer Janet Jackson's breast during the CBS Super Bowl halftime show in January. Viacom is contesting that fine.
The agreement cancels investigations into about 50 radio and television shows, said Richard Diamond, a commission spokesman. The shows were broadcast by Viacom-owned stations across the country, including some in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts and New York.
The FCC defines indecent programming in the main as containing sexual language or material that is "patently offensive" when measured against prevailing community broadcast standards. It is forbidden on radio or broadcast television from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Material that is judged obscene is not allowed at any hour.
Viacom has five days to pay the $3.5 million fine, according to the agreement. Diamond said it was the commission's largest settlement.
Infinity Broadcasting paid fines totaling $1.7 million in 1995 to settle FCC violations by Stern.
| Associated Press Update 1:
Viacom, FCC Reach $3.5 Million
Agreement |
| Viacom OKs $3.5M fine |
|
"We have now resolved all outstanding matters before the FCC related to indecency except for the Super Bowl," Viacom said in a statement. The Federal Communications Commission had targeted Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting for a dozen incidents at stations around the country since 2001, the most infamous involving New York radio shock jocks Howard Stern, and Opie and Anthony. A caller to the Stern show in February used a racial epithet while the host was rhapsodizing about anal sex with Rick Salomon, famous for being the guy in the Paris Hilton sex video. The FCC also was steamed about an August 2002 Opie and Anthony stunt describing a couple having sex live in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Listeners were given points for having sex in particular places while a "spotter" gave a running description. The cathedral was worth 25 points. Greg (Opie) Hughes and Anthony Cumia were fired a week later from their show, which aired on WNEW-FM in the city as well as 12 other Infinity radio stations. They have jumped to satellite radio, where they can say what they like to a paying audience. Stern - who has turned his longtime battle with the FCC into a crusade - will do the same when his contract runs out in January 2006. His destination, Sirius Satellite Radio, said yesterday it had signed up 800,000 subscribers and its shares rose 12%. The FCC's indecency crackdown is widely seen as having been fueled by the Super Bowl halftime debacle on Viacom-owned CBS. Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" caused a torrent of indignation and the FCC slapped Viacom with a $550,000 fine. The company was standing firm on that front. It has filed an appeal and the case could go all the way to the Supreme Court. "While we deeply regret the incident involving Janet Jackson, we believe that a government fine for an unintentional broadcast is unfair and unwarranted and we are challenging that decision," the company said in a statement. As part of the deal to end probes into local programs in New York, Detroit, Florida and other states, Viacom - which made $776 million last year - admitted that some of what it aired was indecent and promised to install tape delays on live radio shows and train employees about indecency laws. In return, the FCC will not take the incidents into account when considering whether to renew Viacom's radio licenses. Also yesterday, the FCC ruled that complaints of indecency against the TV shows "Coupling," "Off Centre" and "Keen Eddie" were unfounded. Amid all the buzz about moral values in Washington, newly strengthened
Republicans in Congress plan to reintroduce the Broadcast Decency Act,
which would multiply smut fines by a factor of 10. The bill failed this
session but could pass next year. |
|
Row is brewing anew over '02 Cathedral caper
The URTO will tonight honor Boston Beer Company
co-founder Jim Koch at its annual dinner. |
NORTHJERSEY.COM
Stand-up veterans in N.Y. Comedy Festival lineup
Friday, November 5, 2004
Denis Leary wasn't about to clean up his act for anyone 20 years ago. And he sure as &$#*& isn't about to now.
"I remember the guy who ran Catch a Rising Star saying unless we stopped swearing, we're not going to be able to work on the road," Leary says of the Eighties, when he and other then-unknowns like Jon Stewart and Chris Rock were doing their brand of edgy humor in New York and Boston comedy clubs, where you could get away with more.
|
THE FUN BEGINS HERE: The first New York Comedy Festival will run Tuesday through Nov. 13 throughout Manhattan. Tickets available at Ticketmaster, (201) 507-8900 or ticketmaster.com, unless otherwise noted. For additional information, go to nycomedyfestival.com.
Carnegie Hall: Denis Leary, 8 p.m. Wednesday; Drew Carey, 8 p.m. next Friday. CarnegieCharge, (212) 247-7800 or carnegiehall.org.
|
"I thought to myself, 'I'm not going to change my show for the road,'Ÿ" says Leary. So he went a different route from the traditional series of one-night stands on the national comedy-club circuit. Inspired by the likes of one-man theatrical pieces by actor-writer Eric Bogosian, Leary wrote a one-man show entitled "No Cure for Cancer" that debuted in Scotland and found a wide audience throughout Britain before coming to America in 1991. The following year, the show - an angry bash of anti-smoking laws and the curtailment of personal freedom - was filmed for Showtime.
Today, Leary is known for everything from that show to starring roles in feature films like "The Ref" and his critically acclaimed television series, "Rescue Me." He and a host of other comedians are coming back to where many got their start as part of the first New York Comedy Festival. While the jokes may be different than they were 20 years ago, the sensibilities of participating performers like Leary are bitingly the same.
The weeklong event, running from Tuesday through Nov. 13 at various venues around Manhattan, will feature Leary, Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Paul Mooney and Mo'nique, among others.
Caroline Hirsch, owner and president of New York's famed comedy club Carolines on Broadway and a presenting partner of the festival, said she was inspired to create the event after organizing a 20th anniversary evening at Carnegie Hall a few years back that featured a lot of the club's veteran comics.
"People thought it was a fabulous show, and I thought, 'I want to do more of this.' ... And after 9/11, people would say, 'We need to laugh. We need to have a good time again,'Ÿ" she says.
Barr needs to have a good time again, too. And boy, she says, is she ever, after a long hiatus. "I didn't do this for about 14 years. It really took me a long time to get my nerve up and go out there again after the whole baseball fiasco," she says of the notorious night she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a raucous fashion before a baseball game in San Diego. The 1990 performance was a disaster, triggering death threats and even then-President George H. Bush calling Barr "a disgrace."
But over the past few years, she has gradually gotten back on the horse. Audiences have been welcoming, and her fear of performing has finally melted. Her current act - which she will perform in the festival - took her years to write. The subject matter? You name it. "It's just bitching about everything on earth and how stupid everything on this whole [expletive] planet is," she says. "I'm just going to make fun of everything, because it's all beyond stupid. I'm tired of people not solving any problems, but just digging through the dirt like a bunch of pigs. I have a solution for every [expletive] problem on earth."
Though a crafted, scripted show, there will be some degree of spontaneity, she says. "I do psychic readings for people in the audience. That's the improv part."
Leary, meanwhile, says he'll have fresh material - but he's not exactly reinventing himself, either. He said he agreed to do the festival because it coincides with the upcoming release of his new single, "Merry [Expletive] Christmas," which he hopes to perform at his scheduled venue in the comedy festival - Carnegie Hall. As he explains it: "It's the ultimate Christmas song. It sums up every nasty, horrible part of Christmas that we've ever witnessed - people who drink too much at the Christmas party, all the lies and promises that were told to us and broken over the course of our lifetimes."
But don't worry. It's not all cynical.
"It's also a very PEPPY anti-Christmas song," he notes.
Old Radio - New Radio
Dateline: 11/03/04The Radio landscape that was once dominated by only AM and FM stations has dramatically changed over the past 10 years both within the industry and beyond its borders.Once upon a time, hundreds and hundreds of individuals and small companies operated America’s airwaves at the pleasure of the people and their licensor, the Federal Communications Commission. Deregulation by the government and consolidation by cash-heavy companies forced the “Mom and Pop” owners into retirement and today’s environment is often, and not always kindly, referred to as “Corporate Radio”. But, in the 1990s when radio stations were being furiously bartered and bought up, few folks saw the impending rise of thousands of audio streams which would spew from Internet radio broadcasts run by a gamut of operators from 16-year-old kids in their bedroom to disgruntled professionals looking to love radio from a new point of view. At the same time, Satellite Radio was slowly getting legal clearance and over the past few years has been building its base of subscribers. And two significant events have recently occurred which will allow this fledgling competitor to mature: both XM and SIRIUS have hired big gun talent – Opie and Anthony and Howard Stern respectfully – and XM recently announced it will have a wearable satellite receiver in the market place this fall, the Delphi XM MyFi. (see: XM and Delphi Introduce First Portable, Personal Satellite Radio). Suddenly, Satellite Radio not only has some talent clout and portability; its also no longer tethered to the home or auto and it can now truly compete with the millions of walkmans and iPods we entrust with our audio needs. As I pointed out in a May, 2004 article: "wearability will change everything". There’s been some talk lately of “Podcasting” where iPod and other digital audio player users download portions of radio programs for later playback – some of which have been created by hobbyists, enthusiasts, and even upcoming non-traditional “narrowcasters”. As much as I think this is a somewhat interesting development in the overall distribution of programming, there’s one thing about the Delphi XM MyFi which is extremely attractive. Not only can it pick up XM’s 130 channels of programming but it can store 5 hours of it as well. The user can record audio in real-time or set up a timer to record audio. Wow: commercial free music in almost any genre plus news and specialty programming plus the ability to take it anywhere plus the ability to capture it so you can play it back at your leisure! If it wasn’t evident before, it should be uncomfortably obvious to the owners of traditional AM and FM stations: there is now a historical and growing cultural divide between Old Radio and New Radio. The first time you see someone wearing an XM MyFi personal portable - a symbol of New Radio - imagine this tune is playing in their head: Look what's happening out in the streets - “Volunteers”, The Jefferson Airplane |
November 2, 2004
BY MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter
On Monday, Oct. 4, frat-boyish radio duo Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia, a k a "Opie and Anthony," opened their show with comedian George Carlin's infamous monologue "Filthy Words." Why? For symbolic reasons, partly. But also because at long last they could.
Hired at federally unrestricted satellite network XM Radio nearly two years after their much-publicized 2002 sacking by Infinity Broadcasting after a segment featuring descriptions of a couple having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral -- a bit that drew a hefty $357,500 fine from the Federal Communications Commission -- the jocks no longer must contend with loosely defined regulations involving broadcast decency.
Since 1973, when a displeased dad's complaint about an uncensored New York broadcast of Carlin's routine sparked the FCC's regulatory reign, the agency has been an irritating burr on the backsides of broadcasters, especially vulnerable has been the breed of freewheeling provocateurs dubbed "shock jocks." Several have been slapped with untold thousands in fines for stepping over lines they weren't sure were there in the first place.
Syndicated morning man Howard Stern has been hit hardest. To date, his parent company, Infinity Broadcasting, has paid out more than $2 million in settlements. Come January 2006, he'll start fresh when he moves to Sirius satellite radio, where he can pretty much say and do as he pleases. He'll share the dial with raunchy rapper Eminem, who made his Sirius debut Thursday with an uncensored hip-hop program called Shade 45.
Sirius (with 700,000 subscribers) and rival XM (2.5 million) both offer multiple channels of sports, comedy, music and talk. The specially manufactured digital receivers start at around $80, and each service charges a monthly fee: $12.95 for Sirius, $9.99 for XM. For their money, subscribers enjoy commercial-free, sonically superior programming.
Unfettered by government scrutiny, satellite offers on-air personalities a chance to work sans boundaries, to experiment with personal expression (artistic, political, sexual, etc.) like never before. That, some proponents say, is its chief allure. But with that allure comes a creative conundrum: just because satellite yappers can say whatever the #$*½% they want to say doesn't mean they should. Not always, anyway. Success depends on finding a middle ground.
"There is the 'Sopranos' school of thought," says WLS-AM (890) afternoon host Roe Conn of satellite's temptation to unleash the formerly leashed, "which means that you can finally sound on the air like everybody around you sounds. In the office, people are always dropping the F-bomb or the S-word or the MF. ... So it sort of widens the boundaries to make you sound like everybody else is sounding. However, it also may kind of burn on the radio, the way violence does on TV or sex does on TV. It's one thing to go to the movie theater and see it. It's a whole other thing to have it kind of coming in through a medium that you're not quite sure it should be coming through. So there's gonna be an adjustment period for it."
Stern, who's long had an almost preternatural knack for knowing just how far is too far, insists his shift from public airwaves to paid programming is largely about regaining the ability to speak naturally and forthrightly, about airing comedy rendered unfunny by censoring, about conducting frank interviews and telling unbleeped stories, all without the fear of government reprisal. In short, it's about being free once again to do the show he's always done.
"No one's gonna listen to me goin' F, F, F," he told a recent caller who wondered whether Stern would crank up the lewdness quotient on satellite. "Here's the difference. ... If you've ever watched Chris Rock on HBO, the guy's a scream. ... I happen to think he's one of the funniest guys around, and he uses a lot of street language. If you took that same show and put it on NBC, for example, or CBS tonight, and they had to air it ... you would see about six minutes. It wouldn't just be dirty words edited out, it would be concepts, it would be topics. ... It is absolutely absurd. You would think he was the world's most unfunny guy."
To some extent, Hughes and Cumia echo Stern's sentiments.
"It's all about being able to discuss sometimes adult subject matter plain and clear," Cumia says, "without having to go through all the ritual that you would have to go through on traditional broadcast radio just to make the point, just to get the conversation started, to get people up to speed as to what you're talking about."
"The first day or two, I think both of us kind of found ourselves cursing a little bit more than we probably would have because it was like, oh, wow, look how cool this is," Hughes says. "But you know what? It got old really fast, and we started a rule on our show: Don't curse just to curse. If it comes out like we're just talking off the air, then let's do it. But we still find ourselves kind of editing ourselves and using initials instead of curse words and still using a lot of the code words that we invented."
Euphemism, after all, can be far funnier than X-rated bluntness -- the raw stylings of Carlin, Richard Pryor and a handful of other bawdy bards notwithstanding. For one, it's less linguistically lazy. Also, it's less in-your-face and more easily digested.
Unlike most TV, radio by its very nature engages the mind, says Inside Radio editor Tom Taylor: "Any kind of audio storytelling requires some kind of activity, some kind of participation on your part."
If there's a definitive line to be crossed in satellite land, Cumia and Hughes have yet to find it. And they're not sure they will. As ever, professional instinct and what Hughes terms "the laws of humanity" steer them on a case-by-case basis.
"Live radio, man. It's second by second," Cumia says, "and you have to make these decisions between what you think is gonna be really good radio and what might get your ass thrown off the air."
"At this point," says Hughes, "we're just doing our show and figuring it out as we go. We describe it as the wild, wild West. We're out there kind of killing the buffaloes and exterminating the Indians with smallpox blankets and trying to find our territory."
