7 Little Known Ways In Which Poor Sleep Is Killing You And Your Career

Laymen just don't understand how physically taxing doing a morning show can be. I always suspected it was killing me. This article pretty much confirms everything I believed at the time.

I'm lucky I got out alive. I didn't have a full night's sleep for more than a decade.

The Future of Network Television

This could be one of the more depressing pieces I've read about the future of network television. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox are all in trouble.

What does it even mean to be a network these days?

There's a very good chance that your kids have no idea. Viewing habits have changed so dramatically over the past decade that old definitions are as antique as this television on the right. What are those thingees sticking out of the top of it?

NFL Cracks Down on Domestic Violence

Nevermind that they were goaded into it by the universal outrage they received after only suspending Raven's running back Ray Rice for two games (after he punched his wife in an elevator). At least they finally did the right thing. It's now an automatic six-game suspension.

This is what Commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday...

“Effective immediately, violations of the Personal Conduct Policy regarding assault, battery, domestic violence or sexual assault that involve physical force will be subject to a suspension without pay of six games for a first offense, with consideration given to mitigating factors, as well as a longer suspension when circumstances warrant. Among the circumstances that would merit a more severe penalty would be a prior incident before joining the NFL, or violence involving a weapon, choking, repeated striking, or when the act is committed against a pregnant woman or in the presence of a child. A second offense will result in banishment from the NFL; while an individual may petition for reinstatement after one year, there will be no presumption or assurance that the petition will be granted. These disciplinary standards will apply to all NFL personnel.”

Amen.

I personally think they should also make the penalties for smoking weed less severe, especially with so many states legalizing it for medicinal purposes. It essentially helps ease pain. NFL players are constantly in pain.

Just sayin.

The new producers for The View

The View has named two co-executive producers, Bill Wolf and Brian Balthazar.

That's a little unusual, I'd say. The whole idea of being executive producer is that you're the guy in charge, so it should be interesting to see how that works.

As for the political content, I've already heard the cat calls from the always persecuted conservative media about Bill Wolf. He comes from the Rachel Maddow show, but just so you know, he served in the same capacity for Tucker Carlson. And Balthazar's credits include the fourth hour of the Today show and HGTV.

Like I said...should be ineresting.

Before they were stars

The Ultimate "Before They Were Famous... by worldwideinterweb

Svengoolie

From Robert Feder's column this morning...

The great Rich Koz will be honored for his 35 years as “Svengoolie” October 10 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, 360 North State Street. Hosted by the museum and Weigel Broadcasting’s MeTV Network, “An Evening with Rich Koz” will feature an interview with the Chicago television icon, the unveiling of a “Svengoolie” exhibit including his original coffin and other artifacts from the set, a Halloween costume contest and screening of a horror film with classic Sven bits. General admission tickets are available online for $35 at museum.tv. Museum board member David Plier will talk with Koz about the event at 5:35 p.m. Monday on Tribune Broadcasting news/talk WGN AM 720.

I've previously interviewed Rich/Sven for Chicago Radio Spotlight. He's had a very interesting and unique career. And he's a heck of a nice guy.

Jimmy Kimmel's Friend's Reunion Idea

Pretty good bit...

New Midday Co-Host at the Score

Dan McNeil's contract negotiations were cut off once and for all.

So, that meant Matt Spiegel needed a new co-host at the Score (AM 670). They named him yesterday. It's the recently retired Chicago Bears player Patrick Mannely. Mannely holds the record for most games played in a Bears uniform.

He'll certainly be an asset during the football season. Let's see how he does the rest of the year.

Greatest Headline Ever

This is the headline of a story in today's Daily Beast. Tell me it doesn't make you the slightest bit curious. Ready?

Katie Couric on Diane Sawyer: 'I Wonder Who She Blew This Time'

I'm reading it now.

Diane Sawyer Signs Off

Watch more news videos | Latest from the US

Truer Words...

Thanks to "JJ" for this one...

Welcome Back Jon Stewart

He's been gone for a few weeks, but came back and provided this insight into Fox News' Ferguson Missouri coverage...

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Today's Best Tweets

Some of the tweets I found this morning, puttering around on Twitter...





Wayne Randazzo ‏@WayneRandazzo 4m
Overflow crowd in the bleachers at Jackie Robinson Park to celebrate #JRW. Live reports coming up on @670thescore.

Mary Schmich ‏@MarySchmich 35m
A poem to our boys of summer — Jackie Robinson West. Today's column. http://fw.to/qFWwYbD

Carrie Muskat ‏@CarrieMuskat 2m
Rizzo 2nd to Stanton in NL w/30 HRs. Last #Cubs LH batter to hit 30 HRs in a season: Fred McGriff, 2002

David Haugh ‏@DavidHaugh 18m
On baseball's most exciting last-place team, Soler promotion latest sign Cubs' plan coming together soon. Column http://trib.in/1ryCSJw

KROQ's Bean ‏@clydetombaugh 4m
If the South DOES rise again, we're f***ed. RT @HuffPostWeird Guy sets his head on fire in ice bucket challenge fail http://huff.to/1tI50ro

ThinkProgress ‏@thinkprogress 9m
Rams’ Chris Long tweets perfect response to ESPN report on Mike Sam’s showers http://thkpr.gs/1tGYj8L

David Cay Johnston ‏@DavidCayJ 41m
30+ yr literary fraud- books CBS published, filled with lies - my @Newsweek expose - http://bit.ly/1p8gdvL

Salon.com ‏@Salon 1h
In a secret audio recording, Mitch McConnell pledges allegiance to the Koch Brothers http://slnm.us/o2lN9W3 via @joanwalsh

Talking Points Memo ‏@TPM 23m
Zara yanks baby t-shirt resembling concentration camp uniform: http://bit.ly/1tCSlqy

Gawker ‏@Gawker 33m
Here's footage from Kate Bush's first show in 35 years http://gaw.kr/cc4dTq7

WCKG

Right now, AM 1530 WCKG in Chicago is all Glenn Beck, all the time. That's about to change (slightly) with the hiring of new Operations Manager John Spataro. From Radio Online...

Spataro is a Western Springs native who joined the station in April, after leaving his position as a news anchor at the Central Radio Group in Princeton, IL. "I'm excited to execute our vision for WCKG. AM 1530 reaches over 7 million people in Chicago-land, while WCKG.com's possibilities are infinite. I'm absolutely thrilled to be back home working with the wonderful people at WCKG," said Spataro. Station Manager Matt Dubiel added, "There was an exhaustive nationwide search to find the right person for the culture we're building here. I'm excited to have a go-getter like John at WCKG."

They claim in the article that there will be less political talk.

Suspended for a Joke

Sometimes I think that my buddy Dave and I should do another radio show (we did one together years ago). Our phone conversations are often air-worthy, filled with spontaneous bits. Even our wives call it the Rick and Dave show. But then I read a story like this and I remember why we could never do one again (Story from Tom Taylor's NOW column)...

Hank Bauer tells a joke, at the end of a San Diego Chargers pre-season game, and it earns him a one-game suspension. What did he say? According to ESPN, the radio analyst commented to play-by-play announcer Josh Lewin that many folks in the expensive seats had left, because the Chargers were clearly going to lose. Lewin said he would’ve stayed. Then Bauer told Lewin, who’s presumably Jewish, “You know how copper wire was invented? Somebody dropped a penny between Josh and his family member” – implying that both would’ve fought so hard over the coin that they'd stretch it out. That plays to a stereotype about Jews and money. Bauer added, “I say that respectfully and endearingly, my partner.” Both men work for Clear Channel. Yesterday, the Chargers said “although we know Hank had no ill-will behind his remarks, we agree the comments were inappropriate.” It says former NFL player Hank Bauer won’t be working tomorrow’s final pre-season game against the Arizona Cardinals - “per Clear Channel’s decision.”

If you've heard the Rick (German) and Dave (Jewish) show, you know that it could never air in the current climate. Although for the record, Dave is the one that would get us suspended. His "Nazis against the Cubs" bit is surely night-club only material these days.

Sh*t Chicagoans Say

Not a bad effort. Like the parking meter joke.

RIP Richard Attenborough

He passed away over the weekend at the age of 90.

He was in so many great films, but I will always remember him for "The Great Escape". I always stop to watch this one when I flip by it on the tube...

The Emmys

I don't think I've watched the Emmys in years. They were on again last night.

The list of winners is here.

"Breaking Bad" and "Modern Family" were the big winners.

High Praise for "Back in the Game"

Those who have seen the book Back in the Game (by Rich King) are already singing it's praises...

"If Rich King's first book, My Maggie, tugged at your heart, Back in the Game will warm your spirit. What an uplifting book! It's not just a story of renewed hope, Rich also manages to weave in stories about his 40-year Chicago broadcasting career. A must read for Chicagoans."
-Jerry Reinsdorf
Owner of the Chicago White Sox & Chicago Bulls

“Kudos to veteran sportscaster Rich King for sharing his experience of love, loss, and learning to love again. Mr. King is admirably open in describing his journey from despair to hope, and he has much to teach about the importance of relationships in living a vigorous and fulfilling life. On top of that, he provides us with an enormously entertaining account of sports journalism that should delight any Chicago sports fan.”
-Neal Spira, MD
Dean
Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis

"Back in the Game" will be available for pre-orders beginning September 1st!

Don Cannon

Thanks to Tom Taylor for publishing Landecker's Don Cannon story in his NOW Newsletter this morning...

One more Don Cannon story - John Landecker worked with Cannon at Philadelphia's "Wibbage" WIBG, and in his memoir titled 'Records Truly Is My Middle Name,' he says "I was working the 6-10pm shift, and everything seemed normal that night. I put a 45 rpm record on the turntable, put the needle on the record, and it began playing on the air. But as I was talking over the intro, a hand reached over and picked the needle off the record. There was suddenly nothing on the air but my voice. When I turned around to see what happened (with the microphone open), Don Cannon was standing there with a woman wearing a fur coat. When she saw me turn around, the woman opened her coat, and revealed that she was totally naked underneath. I was speechless. And Don Cannon laughed hysterically. To this day that is the only totally naked woman I’ve ever seen at a radio station. Emphasis: Totally naked." Landecker's book is published by Eckhartz Press, and thanks to publisher (and NOW Reader) Rick Kaempfer for sharing the anecdote about Cannon, who passed away last Friday morning at 74.

Zeppelin Unplugged

From Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac, this little tidbit from twenty years ago today...

August 25, 1994…In a London TV studio, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunited to record their MTV "Unplugged" show, "Unledded." Bassist John Paul Jones was not included.

Bunny Ears

Thanks to "BD" for this one...

Cuts Coming at CNN

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN President Jeff Zucker shared the following with his employees. You don't exactly have to read between the lines for the meaning here...

“I want to address the note from John Martin that was sent yesterday and I know it’s on everyone’s minds. What I will add is that clearly we are in the next phase in the process that John laid out earlier. We now have a sense of what Turner is expecting from CNN. I am working with the senior management team at CNN to figure out what this means for us. This will result in changes and what we do and what we stop doing. We need to continue to protect what we’ve been doing so brilliantly for the last few months. We need to have the ability to do what we’ve been doing. On the other hand, we are faced with reality, we are going to have to do what we do with less. As a result, that means there will be changes. No final decisions have been made. I will be meeting with senior management of CNN. You will hear from your manager in the next week or so. We are just now moving into the next phase, I know this is on a lot of people’s mind. We are going to do less and have to do it with less."

As The Rupert Turns

There's an excellent piece in the Sydney Herald this morning that quotes from a new book "Hack Attack". The book is about the phone hacking trial that has cost Rupert's company nearly $600 million. (Photo: Rupert Murdoch)

One of the most interesting passages to me is this one about father (Rupert) and son (James) having a meeting to repair their relationship. (James was overseeing the UK properties when all of this phone hacking stuff went down)...

The book says an attempt to repair the relationship between a father and son "effectively at war" resulted in an ultimatum by Murdoch senior, and James eventually being given the title of deputy chief operating officer and moving from London to the US.

But advisers first needed to find a setting for the detente: Rupert Murdoch wanted it to be held in New York; James was pushing for London.

"The advisers moved in like a flock of nannies dealing with kids fighting over a toy and are said to have finally succeeded in persuading the two to meet in the middle – literally in the middle, of the Atlantic. In the Azores," the book states.

"So it was, according to two sources, that the old man and the pretender flew in to the remote islands from their respective encampments, and the old mogul took charge and dictated his terms: 'You are coming to New York. Nobody else is going to run Europe and Asia because it's being disbanded. And if you don't agree, you're fired.' "

Just your typical father-son relationship.

RIP Don Cannon

The news was reported by Radio Online...

Veteran radio personality, Don Cannon, known as "The Dean of Philadelphia Radio," has died, reports Philadelphia Magazine. He was 74. Cannon, a New York native who adopted Philly as his home, was heard on morning radio there from 1969 until his retirement in 2004. The "Cannon in the Morning" show started on WIBG and has been heard on WIP, WFIL, WIFI and WSNI. His last stint was with CBS Radio's WOGL-FM from March 1990 to June 2004

Cannon was a friend of John Landecker's, and John told a story about him in the pages of "Records Truly Is My Middle Name"...

One time I was the victim of a practical joke played by one of the other jocks on WIBG — Don Cannon. I was working the 6-10pm shift, and everything seemed normal that night. I put a 45 RPM record on the turntable, put the needle on the record, and it began playing on the air. But as I was talking over the intro, a hand reached over and picked the needle off the record. There was suddenly nothing on the air but my voice. When I turned around to see what happened (with the microphone open), Don Cannon was standing there with a woman wearing a fur coat. When she saw me turn around, the woman opened her coat, and revealed that she was totally naked underneath. I was speechless. And Don Cannon laughed hysterically. To this day that is the only totally naked woman I’ve ever seen at a radio station.

Emphasis: Totally naked.

By the way, here’s a little trivia about Don Cannon. If you watch the first Rocky movie, in the scene where Rocky is drinking the raw eggs, the radio is tuned to WIBG, and the jock on the air is Don Cannon.