Radio’s Bells & Whistles…

Friday, January, 9, 2009 by Mel Phillips.

(Weekend Edition) 

Las Vegas has never produced a show like this.  It’s as vast, interesting and innovative as any display ever exhibited.  It’s the current Consumer Electronics Show and according to those there, there are more bells and whistles on display than even Arnie Ginsburg had in his heyday.  Just yesterday, Sirius XM unveiled their MIRGE, a widget that combines Sirius and XM channels which is fine providing you have or want Sirius or XM but there’s more universally enticing hardware like the Abbee Commercial-Free FM Radio…

The Abbee can edit out commercials while it tapes your favorite FM station.  It can also eliminate the jock playing the music.  It has a 500-song capacity, 12-hour built-in rechargeable battery and can skip, pause, fast forward and rewind.  There’s only one button to deal with in order to save and delete songs too.  The Abbee Commercial-Free FM Radio has a suggested retail price of $249.99 but is not yet available for purchase…

Joey (WOR) Reynolds has been filing reports all week from Las Vegas and sends this release on the AT&T CruiseCastSM which will deliver 22 Satellite TV and 20 Satellite Radio Channels into cars for the first time using “breakthrough” antenna and receiver technologies…

Most of what’s been on display in Las Vegas won’t be successful by virtue of the law of averages but if just a few surface, can you imagine what the future holds?  Now that’s something to look forward to…     

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1863] Down the Tube: Britain’s Prime Minister Gladstone opens the first section of the London Underground Railway (1/10)…
2. 1903] SOLD to the highest bidder: New York businessman Frank Farrell and Bill Devery buy the Baltimore Orioles franchise of the American League for $18,000 and move the team to upper Manhattan where the team finishes 4th as the Highlanders. In 1913 the team is renamed the Yankees (1/9)…
3. 1922] Birth of a station: KQV Pittsburgh is licensed and launched and I am proud to be one of the former program directors of the legendary station 51 years later (1/9)…
4. 1937] Premiered on this date: LOOK Magazine. Within a month, LOOK becomes a bi-weekly until 1971. There have been attempts to resurrect the famous magazine but to no avail (1/9)…1956] Abigail Van Buren’s ‘Dear Abby’ first appears in newspapers (1/9)…1959] “Rawhide” starring Clint Eastwood joins about 30 westerns during the ‘59-’60 TV season (1/9)…
5. 1970] Super Sunday: Hank Stram’s Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl IV with a 23-7 victory over Minnesota (1/11)…1981] The Oakland Raiduhs become the first Wild Card team to win the Super Bowl with a win over Philadelphia (1/11)…
6. 1972] One big floating grill: The Queen Elizabeth ocean liner is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong Harbor (1/9).  Here’s the QE in happier times…
7. 1982] The Catch: Joe Montana hits Dwight Clark in the end zone for “The Catch” that gives the San Francisco 49ers a 28-27 comeback win over Dallas and puts them in the Super Bowl against Cincinnati the following week (1/10)…
8. 1989] Going to Hall: Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Bench are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (1/9)…2000] Carlton Fisk who caught for the Red Sox for 11 seasons and the White Sox for 13, is elected to the Hall of Fame with Tony Perez of the Reds (1/11)…
9. 2003] ‘Happy Trails’: Boston Globe sportswriter Will McDonough dies of a heart attack at 67 (1/9)…2004] Actor-writer Spalding Gray, 62, vanishes from his Manhattan apartment (1/10). Two months later his body is found floating in the East River, an apparent suicide…2007] Italian producer Carlo Ponti dies from natural causes at 94 (1/10)…
10. 2003]  Curtains:  Thomas D. Mottola is out at SONY Records after 14 years at the helm (1/10).  One voluptuous singer with a five-octave range throws a party…2005] CBS issues a damning independent review of mistakes relating to a “60 Minutes Wednesday” report of President Bush’s National Guard service.  Three news executives and a producer are fired for their “myopic zeal” in rushing it to air.  One myopic network news anchor starts backing up the truck to his office (1/10)… 

Music Memories:

• 1949] It’s final, it’s vinyl: Vinyl records are introduced by Columbia and RCA Records (1/10)…
• 1956] Recorded on this date: Elvis Presley does his first Nashville recording session for RCA (1/10). “Heartbreak Hotel“, the first song published by Tree Publishing is one of the songs recorded. It’s released on January 27, 1956, backed by “I Was The One” and will top the Pop and R&B charts and reach top 5 on the Country chart…1965] “Do You Wanna Dance” - Beach Boys (1/11)…
• 1964] Number One on this date: “Ring Of Fire” (a compilation LP) - Johnny Cash (1/11)…
• 1979] The gift that keeps on giving: The benefit concert, “A Gift Of Song” is held at the U.N. starring Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, ABBA and Earth, Wind & Fire (1/9)…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:(1/9) Dave Matthews (42), Crystal Gayle (58), David Johansen a.k.a. Buster Poindexter (59), Jimmy Page (65), Susannah York (67), Joan Baez (68), Jimmy Boyd (69), Dick Enberg (74), Bart Starr (75) and Judith Krantz (81)…(1/10) Pat Benatar (56), George Foreman (60), Donald Fagen (61), Rod Stewart (64), Frank Sinatra Jr. (65), Scott McKenzie (70), Willie McCovey (71) and Ronnie Hawkins (74)…(1/11) Amanda Peet (37), Mary J. Blige (38), Vicki (Bangles) Peterson (51), Naomi Judd (63), Clarence Clemons (67), Rod Taylor (79), Grant Tinker (84) and Don Cherry (85)…

Timeline Countdown: 10 days until MLK Jr. Day, 11 days until the Inauguration, 23 days until the Super Bowl and 36 days until pitchers and catchers can report to Spring Training…

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