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Don Barrett
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“There Are Just Things I Don’t Know” – Dr. Laura Schlessinger 

(January 28, 2003) On December 20 last year, a badly decomposed body of an elderly woman was found in the Beverly Hills home of Dr. Laura Schlessinger's mother. An autopsy revealed that Yolanda Schlessinger had been murdered. She was dead for months prior to being discovered. Dr. Laura appeared on the Today Show yesterday with Katie Couric and she talked about her mother. At one point in the interview, Dr. Laura began to cry and Katie handed Dr. Laura a tissue (photo). The dialogue between Katie and Dr. Laura:  

Katie Couric: To deal with a violent crime is so horrendous and then given the back-story of the estranged relationship with your mom. You hadn’t spoken in twenty years?

Dr. Laura: Yeah, I think it was that long. It’s very sad. In the pre-interview for this I was asked if I forgive her. You forgive because you’re angry. I’m not angry. I’m sad about the kinds of decisions she made to isolate herself from everybody. She was dead for four months in a condo and people who shared walls with her, much less had cars parked next to her, were so unfamiliar with her that they didn’t notice for four months. My heart aches for someone to make these choices and the horror of this being a homicide is just way over the top, but for twenty years I have been mourning the loss of having that kind of family attachment. As I tell my listeners all the time, that you have two opportunities have a parent/child relationship. The first is when you are a child, and you can’t dictate how your parents are going to be, but you do have a second chance. This is where I’m helpful to people so they don’t give up the second chance – as a parent of a child it’s not on the other side, but it is the same bond and I’m just so grateful to have that.

KC: You tried to reach out to her. What made her isolate herself? Clearly if she was dead for four months, what made her isolate herself from everyone she knew?

Dr. Laura: Well, I can’t say I completely understand it. She was born in Italy during Mussolini’s time. My aunt that I never met joined the underground to fight the Nazis and the first day her cell was discovered, she was lined up against a firing squad so my mother lost her sister. She lost her mother at 15 of breast cancer and this is an Italian family. She had a brother and the males get more attention and all of that. When she came to this country as a war bride with my dad who was a nice little Jewish boy from Brooklyn, she was an Italian girl from Italy and that didn’t go over very well so there was a lot of ugliness that happened. People respond to these things differently. The priest that I had at her service, even though she had not practiced her religion forever I thought it was the right thing to do, he was very helpful to me actually. One never knows what somebody is going to do on the inside with circumstances and how they are going to react to them. Some people can become very outgoing under those situations. Others just close up and protect themselves. I think she just had this natural reaction to wall off.

KC: She must have had some real deep-seated psychological problems, but I guess there was no way to get it back. She would never have talked with a counselor? It wasn’t in her nature?

Dr. Laura: I never remember her going to a physician the whole time I was growing up. It was a year and a half she had a pinched nerve before I knew she had a pinched nerve. No, my mother was tough like that. She would not ever.

KC: Does anybody have any idea who did this? It seems so strange, this woman who completely walled herself off from everyone.

Dr. Laura: She went on cruises. She went on the Concorde. She traveled all the time according to what they found in the apartment or condo. It wasn’t a robbery. For somebody to be that angry…there are just things I don’t know.

CC Support For Rick Dees. On January 17, Clear Channel sent a press release that stated that KYSR afternooner Ryan Seacrest had signed a new three-year contract. In the press release, Ryan was named “the continuing guest host” on the hugely popular KIIS/fm “Rick Dees in the Morning Show.” In the press release Clear Channel senior vp Charlie Rahilly said that the arrangement with Ryan “gives us the opportunity to share a talented radio personality with more audiences. Rick Dees certainly earns and deserves vacation time, and our listeners deserve a top quality morning show even when Rick takes a break.” Charlie emphasized that, with Ryan being the “continuing guest host,” the KIIS morning show will be live and local virtually every weekday of the year.”  

No one from Clear Channel would respond to the following questions, so they were posted here on Monday, January 20: 

 

1.   Ryan Seacrest is red-hot (Think hosting duties on: American Idol, TNN's Ultimate Revenge, FOX's New Year's show). There is no hotter music personality in radio today. Clear Channel was very smart to lock him in for three more years. This contract was signed last October, as reported at LARadio. Why did Clear Channel wait until now to announce the signing?

2.   Is there a radio precedent to send out a press release announcing a permanent guest host? Television did it with Jay Leno as a permanent guest host for Johnny Carson.

3.   Is Rick Dees considering retiring at the end of his contract next year?

4.   Is Clear Channel paving the way to replace Rick Dees with Ryan Seacrest?

5.   Will Ryan’s involvement with KIIS during Rick’s vacation take away from “Star” mornings with Jamie White & Danny Bonaduce?

6.   Will Ellen K partner with Ryan during Rick’s vacations or will Ryan’s current partner Lisa Foxx join Ryan on KIIS?

7.   Even though Rick is a cash cow for Clear Channel, is the company anxious to reduce costs?

8.   Will CC announce a "continuing guest host" for Ryan on KYSR when he is the "continuing guest host" for Rick on KIIS?

 

Charlie Rahilly had some concerns about my speculations and wanted an opportunity to set the record straight: 

“Your coverage of CCLA's announcement of a guest hosting arrangement for the Rick Dees in the Morning show went far beyond the substance of the arrangement and departed into utter speculation. Your speculation is baseless, contrary to the facts plus discourteous to those you speculate about. Our news release that you quoted clearly states ALL of the FACTS related to this arrangement. There is no sub-text, grand plan or scheme in play. Any handicapping you or anyone undertakes is about a game that is just not being played. Guest hosting is routine in the entertainment business. You need only watch TODAY on NBC to see a Lester Holt or Soledad O'Brien sitting in for Matt or Katie when they vacation.”

”The Rick Dees in the Morning show is the platinum-standard of L.A. morning shows consistently reaching the biggest audiences, generating the highest ad revenue and garnering the radio industry's recognition. CCLA is extremely fortunate to have market leading morning stars across our cluster. There are multiple years to run under our existing agreement with Rick Dees. In fact, we have started discussions about extending our relationship past the current term.” 

”We live in a culture fascinated, captivated and mesmerized by celebrity and forever skeptical of the ‘official truth’ since Watergate. Tongues will wag, especially in Hollywood, when events involve stars like Rick Dees. It is critical to distinguish facts from water cooler gossip and then reflect the facts,” concluded Rahilly. 

City on Fire. XTRA’s Jim Rome was surprised that the disgruntled Raider fan was destroying his city Sunday night after getting rolled up by Tampa Bay. “I was utterly shocked to see them attack passing vehicles, turning them over and setting them on fire. At least wait until the team gets back and do it to their cars,” said Romey. “That passing motorist had nothing to do with it. The passing motorist wasn’t the one missing blocks, jumping off sides and dropping balls.” 

Overheard. 

Radio Stuff. Near Evansville, Indiana, WGAB broadcasts to 22 tri-state counties. "We are talk radio. We carry Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage," said the 27-year old general manager. The station is for sale on eBay. Now another change for the family business. "If someone pays the right price for it, we'll pick up and leave," said the owner. The bidding started at $50 thousand; so far it's up to $100, 800. You can buy it now and end the auction for $2 million. The gm said it’s tough to compete with other stations. He invites someone to write a check for $2 million and he’s off to the Cayman Islands…Ted Leitner, morning man at KFMB-AM, evening sportscaster at sister-station KFMB/TV is OUT, according to SDRadio.net. However, Ted stays on as the San Diego Padres announcer since he is an employee of the Padre baseball organization…In other San Diego news, the sales/programming rights at XEPRS (1090 AM) may go to John Lynch, long-time San Diego executive, in order to put English San Diego sports on the station. Apparently there is the feeling that the San Diego sports community has been abandoned with the merger of XTRA 690 and 1150. Will Bill Pugh be at the helm? Might happen as early as March 1...In other news from SDRadio.net, Melissa Bunting will hop down to San Diego and fill the morning producing role for the Tony & Kris Country show at KSON/fm. She comes to the market from "K-FROG" in the Inland Empire.

Federoff Digs Own Garden. Up until a couple of weekends ago, Nick Federoff, the gardening expert, was the longest running talk show host at KFI. After a shuffling of shifts, Nick was out. His syndicated show, however, is still broadcast to 125 stations United States. “Rumor has it I'm still the most listened to radio gardening expert,” emailed Nick. “I do the two hour long form program from 8 – 10 a.m. and a short form daily program [vignette] that is :90 seconds long. The long form program can be heard locally via the Internet on AdviceRadio.com.

Nick has been approached to bring the show back on the air in Los Angeles and he is weighing his options. “I'm not concerned with the stations popularity, wattage, ratings position. I'm fortunate to have a 20,000 plus database of my listeners that I can bring wherever I end up in the L.A. market. It's kind of a built-in audience. I just renewed a contract a couple of days ago with a company that promotes home shows. I will be making personal appearances for them over next four years including broadcasting remotely for AdviceRadio.com and for the station that picks up my show,” emailed Nick. 

Radio Stuff. KCRW is airing President Bush’s State of the Union address tonight at 6 p.m. followed by the democratic response and a discussion with NPR reporters and commentators…KYSR’s Lara Scott is promoting a trip for “Star” listeners and their daughters to the Star Ski House in Big Bear.

Funnie. KLOS afternooner Gary Moore took his licks yesterday for vigorously rooting for the Oakland Raiders. “There’s no trip to Disneyland for the Raiders. They’ve been invited to star as guest stiffs on Six Feet Under on HBO,” quipped Gary.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: John Fox (ex-KEZY), Ed Mann (ex-Premiere Radio Networks and KIIS), and Jack Silver (KLSX, pd)

LARP Time Line - One Year Ago Today

Satellite Radio:
Biggest Broadcast Failure in History?   
by Don Barrett

(January 28, 2002) The headline of the Reuters story the other day, “Plugged In: Satellite Radio Services Gain a Foothold” got me riled up. Foothold? Hundreds of millions spent and only 30,000 subscribers to show for all your efforts? What a travesty. The day after the Reuters article, XM’s ceo Hugh Panero predicted 350,000 subscribers by the end of the year. I wonder where he got his crystal ball. Satellite radio will go down as the biggest broadcast failure in history.  

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was general manager at two Detroit FM stations - W4 and later WDRQ. These were trying times for FM. Hardly a month went by that I wasn’t in the offices of Ford, Chrysler, or GM attempting to get FM installed on all new cars as standard equipment. The difference between the FM challenge and Satellite radio is that getting the technology to come as standard equipment is only the first step. Once it is in, the consumer still has to sign up. It’s kind of like the no-commercial music channels being offered with our cable tv system. Do you spend the extra $5 a month for the music availability? No. So, just because it comes installed, doesn’t mean you have a subscriber. Granted, it does make it easier to convert people to sign up. Will one receiver handle both XM and Sirius or will you need two receivers if you want both? 

Here are the some of the challenges confronting Satellite radio. 

  1. The marketing effort for XM has been atrocious. I can’t remember a product launch that was so far off the mark. XM’s publicity machine has been excellent in creating awareness of XM satellite radio. Now that the product is available, they needed to reach the consumer in a call to action. Instead, they have pianos falling out of the sky. This has been such a misstep from which they may never recover.

  2. Consumer ease of purchase. The message of how to get the receiver is very confusing. When cars come equipped with the radios as standard equipment, this will certainly ease the current, enormous confusion. And what if you want the system in your home? There may be answers for all these, but so far the answers are not readily accessible.

  3. Price. What is the threshold for discretionary entertainment sources? They charge $250-300 for a receiver and $80 for antennae. After we make this investment, we have a monthly fee. We all have monthly cable tv bills ranging from $20 to $80. We all have monthly Internet connection costs ranging from $20 for basic access to DSL at $50. The $10 or $13 monthly fee for Satellite radio (do you pay for car and home separately?) is where the consumer will draw the line and make a conscious decision that this is a luxury one can do without? Furthermore, I understand you can’t sign up for monthly service, but you have to purchase the service in minimums of quarterly or yearly payments.

  4. Commercials. 70% of the channels have commercials. Wasn’t that one of the original selling points, i.e. escape the clutter of commercials on terrestrial radio stations? Shame on them. Even if the commercial load is limited, they’ve taken away a key marketing selling point to motivate the consumer.

  5. Quality. In the Reuters article, one of the 30,000 subscribers was interviewed about fidelity. “He sometimes loses the signal in hilly terrain around his home in Santa Barbara, and found the radio unit somewhat difficult to operate.” Huh? So much for continuity of signal regardless of topography.

  6. Programming. Outside of hearing more variety or tuning to niche, obscure channels; there is no compelling programming reason for the masses to secure this service. They need a personality or show that leaps off the satellite. Ten years ago, when Howard Stern’s accessibility was limited, you would have done anything you could to bring Howard Stern exclusively to Satellite radio. Learn from cable tv channels how that works. Comedy Central has South Park. MTV has TRL. A&E has the break-through Biography. If you are into Oldies radio, hearing Mama Mia by Connie Francis is not enough to justify the fee.

  7. The launch of Sirius next month, a competing radio satellite service, will all but bury the concept. If the consumer isn’t confused enough, having two services to choose from will throw everything into chaos. Do you buy one receiver for XM and another for Sirius? Will antennae work for both?

How will Satellite radio die? It will simply run out of steam. One day soon it will be over. It will happen as quickly as the Enron meltdown. Is the idea of Satellite radio a good one? It's nice to have an option. But at what price? Do XM and Sirius have enough capital to weather the early missteps?

Sinbad Sails into Mornings. On Friday, subscribers to LARadio.com received the bulletin that “Hot 92.3fm” confirmed what you read here last month. Sinbad will be their new morning man. Joining the comedian will be Michelle Visage, previously part of WKTU-New York morning show and lead singer of the 90s platinum dance/pop group, Seduction. The morning show starts February 11 and it will be called Sinbad and Friends. 

Theo returns to afternoons. Renee Taylor moves to the daypart she was hired for – middays. Sean Andre continues as host of the evening Quiet Storm. Weekends will feature Smokey Robinson and Art Laboe.   

“Hot 92.3fm is a new and unique station,” said Michelle Santousuosso, new Hot pd. “Our goal is to represent a multi-cultural cross-section of classic sounds – Old School meets New School. Hot 92.3 is a mass appeal r&b station. With the addition of superstar Sinbad and pop diva Michelle Visage to mornings, Hot 92.3fm has the air team to take the music to the next level.” 

Hear Ache. The other morning, KIIS’ Rick Dees asked the difference between prison and work. You get your own toilet in prison, quipped the long-time morning man…KLOS’ Mark & Brian would love to see an Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sylvester Stallone movie…KPLS’ George Putnam did a great 30-minute tribute to Peggy Lee…KKBT’s Steve Harvey loves Shrek. “Great big and ugly and green. I loved Eddie Murphy as the donkey. He did some strictly Eddie Murphyish things with that donkey that you could not write in the script. A donkey in the bible is called an ass. The princess was supposed to be kissed by the ogre or whoever rescued her. When the ogre and Murphy were walking off and he said, ‘Who wants to kiss an ass?’ was strictly Eddie Murphy.” One of Steve’s Angels, Dominique di Prima, cried in the movie. “The princess loved the ogre for who he was. She didn’t care about his outside façade,” said Dominique. 

Satirical Slice. Hollywoodpulse.com, a premiere satirical entertainment Web site, is celebrating its one-year anniversary today - and it is somewhat happy to report that it did not receive one lawsuit from the hundreds of celebrities it roasted in that time. Founded by Virginia-based journalist Tom Comi and Ray Richmond, a long-time friendly radio writer, hollywoodpulse.com each week takes the hot entertainment news and adds its own satirical twist.

Over the past 12 months, Hollywood Pulse has skewered actors, musicians, models, politicians and other big names in the news. For example:

* When Tom Cruise - who has fought homosexual allegations - and Nicole Kidman split up their assets after divorcing, hollywoodpulse.com crafted an exclusive story that Cruise was able to keep his gay porn collection.

* Last week, the site featured another exclusive piece detailing how Cher's face had inexplicably fallen off, an apparent side effect of too much plastic surgery.

* One story detailed how George Bush went ballistic when he thought there was a White House coup when he saw The West Wing on tv.

Hear Ache. Steve Atkins is the new operations director and morning personality at AM 1510 “Station Of The Stars.” Joe Lyons has moved into the sales department. Steve has spent the last 10 years with the Ken Dabrow Advertising agency and was the ops manager at KEZY/“K-Praise” in the 80's. Steve is looking for an afternoon drive personality. Call him at 909.483.1500…Jeremy is the new night dj at 94-3 “Cool Radio.” Paul Seacrest has moved to weekends and fill-in. Jeremy was a weekender at “Cool Radio” prior to moving to nights…Former Southern California morning man John Fox is currently the top salesman at Rio Rancho Pontiac GMC Buick…KLSX’s Sheena Metal had a subject recently as to ‘whether certain races of people were better in bed.’ Sheena said she’s a sucker for Irish men. “I was raised in a big musical household – singing, dancing, a lot of music in the house. I like a loud house. I always seem to connect better with black guys, Latin guys, Irish and other oppressed households.”…Vic Slade at KOLA thought that if Buckwheat was a Muslim, his name would be Kareem of Wheat.   

All News, All the Time? Rick Orlov writes in the LA Daily News this morning: "There are a lot of trembling voices and shaky microphones these days over at news radio station KFWB. The station that once boasted 'All news, all the time,' and 'Give us 22 minutes and we'll give you the world,' is beset by rumors of major staffing cuts as a result of its becoming the radio home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. There are reports the Dodgers are so excited about their move that they are looking at ways of pushing it up a year and beginning the KFWB broadcasts this season."

"It's a shame that the Daily News ran this rumor without first checking with the station," responded KFWB gm Roger Nadel this morning. "One phone call could have avoided unsettling a newsroom filled with great broadcast journalists who are doing outstanding work. There are no discussions underway about KFWB carrying Dodger baseball this season."

Audio Vault. “When I was spinning discs at KGRB, George Dvorak and I used to call some of Sinatra's lyrics, ‘Have-a-drink-and-put-a-gun-to-your-head-music,’” emailed Rex Moore. An example: ‘In the school of life, I was lucky just to pass, now I'm chasing rainbows with the losers in the class, but pal, you don't find rainbows in the bottom of a glass ... everything happens to me ...’" 

LA Times Letter to the Editor. In Email Saturday, Nancy Plum responded to the very thoughtful article that appeared in the LA Times on January 21 titled “It’s a Man’s World at KROQ.” The Times also ran a Letter over the weekend from Brian Hunting of Tujunga referring to this story. “I think Kathleen Craughwell missed the boat entirely in that radio stations are guilty of a far greater travesty: playing endless repeats. At any given time, one can tune into KLOS, KRTH, Arrow 93.1, KIIS, KOST, KROQ, etc., and hear the same awful repeats over and over and over and over and over and over again. The real shame of this madness is that there is so much good music to be played from the '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s that is not ever played. What we hear continually from major L.A. radio stations is a tired, sickening playlist prepared by corporate executives whose No. 1 priority is revenue from advertisements and Top 40 playlists from years ago.”  

Hear ‘n There. Somehow seems fitting for Warren Eckstein to use Who Let the Dogs Out as a bumper music on his Saturday morning pet show at KABC…Larry Elder borrows a line from Sit ‘n Sleep commercials during his KABC opening, “You’re killing me, Larry.”...Salem Communications Corporation announced the appointment of John W. Dame to vp of national sales for Salem Radio Representatives. In the late 1990's, John founded Dame-Gallagher Networks, a New York-based national radio syndication company, which he sold to Salem Communications in May 2001. Prior to founding the Dame-Gallagher Networks, Mr. Dame served ten years as partner and coo of Dame Media, a family-owned radio broadcasting group with over twenty-one stations. In 1998, Dame Media was sold to Clear Channel Communications. John's experience in the radio broadcasting industry spans a variety of disciplines in operations, sales and management...KFI's Bill Handel will be sitting in for Rush Limbaugh a couple of mornings later this week...KLSX's Tom Leykis has been sued by a Juneau woman. Tom was in Juneau last week for the trial. Complete story sent this morning to subscribers.

Funnie. Michael Jones read in LARADIO.com about Marketing terms: <5) You go to a party and see a beautiful woman and go up and ask her to go to a free movie and happy hour at an all night strip bar– Promotion 6) You go to a party and a beautiful woman asks you to dance – Brand Recognition! > You go to a party and a beautiful woman tells you an off-color joke and then proceeds to kiss and grope you. A month later she slaps a sexual harassment suit against you - Legal Department

LARP January Question:
Baby-boomers are hurtling through middle age. Have you encountered health challenges? Radio people have extra challenges - a job that is sedentary and earphones cranked up too loud. A recent poll indicated 13% of Americans said they got no exercise. Do you? Are you fit? How are you making the segway into the next phase of your life? Are you healthy? 

Patty Lotz (ex-Powermouth Patty, KPWR): I have always stayed active and fit. Of course, the four Los Angeles car accidents I was involved in doesn't help the cause (none of them were my fault, I swear!).  I exercise daily. I run, swim, do yoga or lift weights, and of course I eat right. My food weakness is a one pump, decaf, venti mocha at Starbuck's (with whip).  

Nick Federoff, (KFI and syndicated talk show host, AdrenalineRadio.com): The worst part about 'becoming-of-age' is the rubber glove treatment you get for those yearly physicals.  Now I know why doctors get paid so much money. Other than that, a 20-year-old complimented me when on a remote in Orlando on how cool the "silver" is in my beard.  Silver I can handle - gray is another story.

 

 

 

LARP Time Line - Four Years Ago Today

Bill Sommers Has Another Bomb in His Arsenal

(January 28, 1999) Judith Michaelson dropped a bomb in her weekly LA Times column this morning. After plowing through a loooonnnng KUSC story, she talks about KABC sinking "to its lowest rating in this decade." She quotes KABC gm Bill Sommers: "We’re looking for a morning show. And until we can put a show in place that can set the tone, we’re not going to see [any] significant growth." When Peter Tilden and Ken Minyard (Ken had been doing mornings for a quarter of a century) left the station last November, the station moved Mr. KABC into the morning slot. Within weeks, the station started moving in a revolving door of co