A couple of weeks back, Rolling Stone published a lengthy, thoughtful music-biz obit that resonated with industry insiders, with its bad news (album sales down 200 million units since 2000) and inside-baseball history lessons (the collapsed talks between Napster and label heads seven years ago) and the larger and still-unanswered…
Yesterday morning, I found in my in-box this Columbia Journalism Review story about The Dallas Morning News — specifically, about the state o’ Dallas’ Only Daily in the wake of the 2004 and ’06 layoffs that reduced the newsroom staff by 30 percent. The piece — penned by former News-ers…
In case you needed proof that the whole Jim Schutze-Wick Allison feud is entirely staged, WWE-style, and intended solely to drum up biz for the blogs, here’s a pic from last weekend’s shindig celebrating the hitchin’ of D mag’s Paul Kix and Daily Candy’s Sonya Castex. That’s Wick in the…
This morning we were notified that, thank God, David “Kidd” Kraddick’s not only gonna be on KHKS-FM (106.1) for, like, ever, but that he also took full ownership of his syndicated-in-60-markets radio show. Clear Channel, which owns KISS FM, was also a part-time player in Kraddick’s recently launched syndication network…
Virginia Postrel, PC World loves you — well, your blog, at the very least. PC World has just its list of “100 Blogs We Love,” and included therein is Blog Maverick, the daily musings of Mavs Man Mark Cuban, whose last two posts reveal his wide-ranging interests: Hedge Fund IPOs…
Only a few weeks into her Anchorwoman gig in Tyler, and already everyone’s giving Lauren Jones a hard time. A few media tid-bytes this a.m.: ESPN is launching ESPN Deportes Radio, an all-Spanish-language radio network making its bow in three hot spots: Dallas, Knoxville and New Jersey. Says here that…
We’re all agreed that Glenn Beck, heard daily on KLIF-AM, is the opposite of “progressive,” right? Thanks to The Dallas Morning News’ Over the Top blog, I sucked down a Tio’s Tortas sandwich with my head buried in a just-issued 40-page study that says, among other things, Dallas radio audiences…
How old are they over at KDFW-Channel 4’s Good Day show, anyway? Because when the word “butts” cracks you up, you’re clearly not old enough. Come to think of it, though, that is so our kind of apology. –Robert Wilonsky…
Belo Corp. today presented its half-a-year-in-review in New York City, and bossman Robert Decherd wisely played up the company’s television properties — you know, the ones investors and financial analysts seem to love a whole bunch. Said the chairman and chief executive officer, even with the recent upswing in Belo…
We’re not huge fans of patting our own backs at Unfair Park; I know, that’s so hard to believe, right? So we’ll just accept the congratulations of our friends at FrontBurner, who make mention this afternoon of our weekend win at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference, where Unfair Park…
From The New York Times today: “Ex-Businessman Wins Runoff for Dallas Mayor.” From the San Francisco Chronicle today: “Gay candidate loses runoff in Dallas mayoral contest.” The stories, written by Gretel C. Kovach, are otherwise exactly the same. –Robert Wilonsky…
I’ve heard from several Friends of Unfair Park this morning complaining about our “new format,” which is a grey screen with black type. Yeah, that sounds pretty unreadable. Trust me, it’s not a new format. It’s some kind of a glitch, and our people are on it, trying to find…
Last week we told you about how Steve McGonigle, reporter over at The Dallas Morning News, was trying to fight a federal subpoena. Because, see, the U.S. government wants him to testify next month when the government finally goes to trial with its case against the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation…
A couple of weeks back, as we noted, a Citigroup analyst suggested Belo’s stock was undervalued and underperforming because its newspapers were dragging down its TV stations’ value. Day after that, Belo’s stock hit a 52-week high. And a few days after that, Barron’s suggested, hey, Belo might wanna just…
Open the airplane door, HAL. There’s a fascinating story about American Airlines and its innovative use of technology in Dallas’ Only Daily this weekend. It’s nothing short of a “revolution,” says writer Terry Maxon. Mechanics are using laptops and “a wireless network that can call up repair manuals, parts lists,…
Hey, this guy was a white, northern Republican too. Last week, Unfair Park defended Ed Oakley after he falsely claimed to have won the endorsement of the NAACP during a forum in front of a predominantly African-American audience. We really exerted ourselves on that one, particularly since Oakley has a…
Specifically you, executive editor Rebecca Sherman. C’mon, Rebecca, but during your tenure at the paper version of Unfair Park, didn’t anyone ever teach you not to piss off crazy people — especially those who speak Masonic? –Merritt Martin…
Since December, the city’s been contemplating an ordinance that would “ban distribution boxes not conforming to rigid standards for size, color and material.” Looks like it’s about to happen — thank God too, because newspaper boxes are all that stands between a shithole and a class act. But you know…
At left, the cover of the Observer two weeks ago. At right, today’s Sports Day in The Dallas Morning News. Yeah, we know — these things happen. And, no doubt about it, Jeff Milburn — who, this very Friday, takes his tiny NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team out to the…
Today, Gawker features an item about how batshit some folks went for a recent T-shirt giveaway on The New103.7: Lite FM (or whatever the former KVIL calls itself these days). Looks like Gene & Julia were giving away Gawker’s “Don’t Free Paris” T-shirts, eliciting quite the frenzy from fashionable fans…
Getty Images photographer John Moore Those of us who worked with John Moore at The Daily Texan in the late 1980s knew he’d be successful for two very important reasons: He’s an astoundingly talented picture-taker, and he’s awfully handsome; guy just looks like one of them mythic flak-jacketed war-zone photographers…
Jon Senderling Jon Senderling, retired director of news and information at the University of Texas at Dallas, died over the weekend of complications of a stroke. Jon and I worked together at the Dallas Times Herald. Well into his 30s, Jon did a mean Elvis impersonation in bars, less of…
