Friday, July 21, 2017

Bye Bye Sean Spicer

The president's first press secretary is out. I already miss the Sean Spicer show...



But I'll miss this one even more...

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Coming Soon to Eckhartz Press: Bob Shannon

Bob Shannon cover

Bob Shannon wrote a great book about radio a few years ago called "Turn it Up: American Radio Tales 1946-1996"

We are proud to announce that he has updated that book and brought it to Eckhartz Press. We will be releasing it via e-book on August 16th.

For a little tease of what Bob writes about, take a look at this video interview...

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Quincy Jones Suing Jackson Estate

From the N'Digo e-letter...

The legendary Quincy Jones says he is entitled to $30 million from Michael Jackson’s estate stemming from increased royalty rates after the King of Pop’s death. Jones’ lawyer, Mike McKool, argues that Mr. Jones received the royalties that were due to him for Jackson’s hit records “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” but things changed when Jackson died in 2009. “The death of a superstar artist creates huge interest in his music,” McKool argued in the trial that is expected to last three weeks. In addition to the early solo Jackson records, McKool said Jones is owed money from the documentary “This Is It,” which featured songs the iconic composer produced. Jones is not provided a fair share of the licensing fee — Jones was paid $455,000 while the Jackson estate got $90 million — on the film that grossed more than $500 million.

"Off the Wall", "Thriller" and "Bad" were not just Michael Jackson records. They were THE Michael Jackson records. Pay the man his money.

I was working as a club DJ (yes really) when "Thriller" came out and sorority girls asked me to play this song over and over and over again. I can only now listen to it without breaking into convulsions.



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RIP Chester Bennington

From the RAMP Newsletter...

Chester Bennington, the lead singer for the platinum-selling rock band Linkin Park, has died at the age 41. The New York Times and other sources report his death is being investigated as a possible suicide. Brian Elias, the Chief of Operations for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said law enforcement authorities responded to call at Bennington's home in Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County shortly after 9am PT Thursday and were conducting a death investigation.

Bennington, "who was known for his piercing scream and free-flowing anguish," released seven albums with Linkin Park. He had also performed in the side project Dead by Sunrise and was recruited by Stone Temple Pilots as their lead singer after the band split with the late Scott Weiland in 2013. Linkin Park's most recent Warner Bros. album, One More Light was released in May and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. Linkin Park was preparing to kick off their One More Light World Tour next Thursday, July 27 at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA.

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The Twilight Zone Presidency

Tell me if you've ever seen this before. The Treasury Secretary fined the company once run by the Secretary of State for making a deal with a Russian, so the Secretary of State's company just responded by suing the Treasury department.

The next cabinet meeting is going to be a little awkward.
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Thursday, July 20, 2017

Minutia Men, Episode 58

EP58: Pope signs, Lemonade Stand meanies, Really hating a team, A Cubs poem, and Rick’s brush with Butch Patrick.

Plus an in-depth discussion of the Purple Nurple.

Listen to it here.
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The Bill Paige Media Tour Continues

Audio at the link...

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The International Gesture for...um. Wait a second.

I knew Trump and Putin were close. I didn't know they were THIS close.

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Please Don't Share This

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Lou Christie

Why did I use the name of 60s pop star Lou Christie? His big hit is "Lightning Striking Again". A better headline would have been "Barry Butler".

Barry Butler is the incredible photographer who captured this photo this morning at 5:40 AM. Barry is simply THE BEST photographer of Chicago.

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Get Well Soon John McCain

His prognosis is grim. Senator McCain has aggressive brain cancer. In a rare bout of non-partisanship, everyone in Washington had nice things to say about him last night, even his one-time opponent, and the man who said he wasn't a war hero because he was captured...



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Alti-dored

I couldn't believe what I saw in the USA-El Salvador game last night. USA striker Jozi Altidore was attacked twice. Once with a twisted nipple. (You read that right). The other time he was bitten!



I loved his quote after the game...

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Mark Your Calendars

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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Trump and the potential merger of Time Warner and AT&T

President Trump really hates CNN. I mean, really really really hates them. So, according to this piece in Variety, he is saying he will only approve the merger of Time Warner and AT&T if the CEO of CNN is forced out.

That's the sort of petty decision making that proves Trump is a terrible president.

But in this case, if it kills the merger, it will be a good thing for America. We can't keep merging media giants. It will end badly for everyone. If Trump's pettiness actually helps us in this case, I guess we'll just have to accept victory for all the wrong reasons.
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When You've Lost People Magazine...

People has fawned all over Trump since he became a public figure thirty years ago. Those days appear to be over...

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@Midnight to Sign Off


Chris Hardwick's show "@Midnight with Chris Hardwick" is ending.

They had a pretty darn good run...600 episodes.
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Chicago Literary Hall of Fame

Robert Feder writes...

Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic who wrote 17 books, will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame August 19. The ceremony, emceed by Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Kogan, will be at the new American Writers Museum, 180 North Michigan Avenue. Other 2017 inductees include Margaret Ayer Barnes, Fanny Butcher, Eugene Field, Fenton Johnson and Ring Lardner. “I am thrilled,” said Chaz Ebert, who will accept the honor on her late husband’s behalf. The movie critic for the Sun-Times and nationally syndicated television host died in 2013 at 70.
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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Sad Day at WGN Radio

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New ESPN Morning Radio Show

The start date is now official, according to Tom Taylor's NOW column...

ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” officially evolve to “Golic & Wingo,” starting just after Thanksgiving. But for three days this week, ESPN offers a “sneak peek,” today through Thursday, with Mike Golic and Trey Wingo. That frees up Mike Greenberg to sub for Michael Kay on New York’s “ESPN 98.7” WEPN-FM. (It’s leased to ESPN leading partner Disney by Emmis.) “Greeny” is developing the new ESPN TV show that debuts January 1.
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Fuhrman Will Analyze Simpson Coverage for Fox News

It's beginning to look like Thursday is going to be national "OJ Simpson Day" on television. I mentioned yesterday that ESPN is going to cover his parole hearing live. It looks like all of the cable news outlets will too.

Fox News is bringing in Mark Fuhrman to analyze the hearing.

CNN is interviewing Laura Hart McKinney. Remember her? She's the one that provided tapes of Fuhrman saying racist things to OJ's defense team.

Feels like 1995 all over again.
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27 contact lenses

A woman was having trouble seeing. She thought it was because she was getting older and had dry eyes. Nope.

She had 27 contact lenses stuck in her eye.

That's the "ewww-iest" story I've seen all year.
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Monday, July 17, 2017

Ann Coulter Versus Delta Airlines

If you were on Twitter over the weekend I'm sure you've heard this story. Ann Coulter tweeted angrily about Delta Airlines moving her seat. The people on Twitter, who never support the airlines, came down on Delta's side. And Delta got a little scrappy in their responses to her tweets.

Kind of an entertaining saga if you'd like to read more about it.
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O.J. Simpson Live

On Thursday morning in Nevada, OJ Simpson will have his parole hearing.

ESPN has decided to broadcast it live.

Apparently the Juice has still got some juice.
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Bobby Skafish on GoodReads


Yesterday at Bobby Skafish's appearance in Hillside, we ran into dozens of people who have already read the book and gave us great reviews. Well, folks, it's possible now to put those reviews down on paper...or, in this case...the internet. GoodReads now has a page for "We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters". If you've read the book and enjoyed it, please share your thoughts here.

Thanks!
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RIP Martin Landau

Martin Landau passed away yesterday at the age of 89. He won an Academy Award later in life and turned in some truly incredible movie performances, but to me Martin Landau was always the guy from Mission Impossible. I loved that show...

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My Eckhartz Press weekend

Had a busy but fun weekend. On Saturday night both Dave and I attended a party congratulating Eckhartz Press author Kim Strickland for attaining the rank of Captain (she's a pilot for United Airlines). It was fancy.



On Sunday I spent the morning with Eckhartz Press author Bobby Skafish in Hillside. He was appearing at Chicagoland's Record Collector show. Met a lot of fellow music geeks there.



I also read the (nearly) final draft of Mitch Michaels' new book "Doin the Cruise" which is coming out in early September. Buckle up for that one. Some great stories. And I worked on the upcoming John Landecker Hall of Fame edition. (John sent some great pics like this one below with his daughter Amy and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.)



Next weekend I'll be seeing Eckhartz Press author Brent Petersen ("Truffle Hunt")
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