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9/6: Sean Hannity & Neal Boortz at Cobb Energy Centre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Atlantan Sean Hannity came into Atlanta to a hero’s welcome, joining fellow syndicated WSB-AM talker Neal Boortz before a full house at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Friday night.
Fresh from two weeks of political conventions, the two long-time friends joked and cajoled each other, hailing Sarah Polin, dissing Barack Obama and regaling the audience with old stories about each other.
“I feel like Abbott and Costello here,” Hannity said at one point.
“If I had that hair, it’d be ‘Boortz and Colmes!’ ” said Boortz, who lacks a certain amount of hair on top of his head.
On James Carville: “His head is paper mache.” (Boortz)
“You stare at him, you can’t focus what you want to say.” (Hannity)
Boortz told a story of finding an, um, adult toy under the mattress at a Denver hotel. Sean, mock exasperated, said, “Did you ever grow out of the age of 14?”
“You have to grow old,” Boortz retorted. “You don’t have to mature.”
Hannity offered the crowd $100 to define what a “community organizer” is, a job Barack Obama once held and Palin mocked on Wednesday as a “mayor without responsibility.” Naturally, a gal in the fifth row aped Palin’s line and got Hannity’s 100 bucks.
They later brought on Mike Huckabee, former presidential candidate and Arkansas governor and former Clinton confidante Dick Morris.
If you made it, how did you like the show?
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9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox proved she is smarter than a 5th grader by winning $1 million for her school system on the third season debut of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” on Fox Friday night.
She was the first person ever to win the big $1 million. Two people tried and got it wrong. Three who got to this point quit and took home $500,000.
[Read about her viewing party and the three schools she’s giving the $1 million to here.]
Cox had no problem parrying Alpharetta resident Jeff Foxworthy, who would torture her on occasion, throwing out wrong answers before giving her the right one in the question asking what country borders Costa Rica. She talked her way through the $1 million question incredibly well and earned the money 100%.
Partway through, Georgia Lt. Govr. Casey Cagle does a video for her: “Hi. Kathy… I don’t want to put any pressure on you but you’re representing the entire state tonight. Jeff, I know you live outside of Atlanta. As your lieutenant governor, I can make life very difficult on you so make life easy on her.” Well, he was. And she represented the state of Georgia amazingly well.
Here are the 10 questions (answers below)
1-What is the first month of the U.S. calendar year that has exactly 30 days? (1st grade measurements) $1,000
2- True or false: crawfish are fish. (2nd grade animal science) $2,000
3- How many times does the letter “D” appear in the following word…um… can’t print the word cos I’ll give it away. The word in question is grandma’s daughter’s little girl. (2nd grade spelling) $5,000
4- What is the two letter abbreviation for the word doctor? (1st grade English) $10,000
5- The U.S. Naval Academy is located in what city? (4th grade social studies) (Dr. Cox taught social studies for 15 years). $25,000
6- Costa Rica borders two countries. Nicaragua is one of the countries. What is the other? (4th grade world geography) $50,000
7- Which of the following foods contains no natural protein 1- whole milk 2- pure sugar 3- raw eggs (3rd grade health) $100,000
8- Which of the following is NOT an official language of Switzerland 1- German 2- Italian 3- Spanish (3rd grade cultural studies) $175,000
9-What is the name of the following painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch? (5th grade art) $300,000
10- Which commanding British general surrendered to American troops in Yorktown in 1781? (5th grade U.S. History) Cox did a peek to Olivia’s answer but ignored it. $500,000
MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION (she gets no help from her fifth graders and gets no cheats, plus once she sees the question, she must answer. If she got it wrong, she would have dropped to $25,000). The topic: world history. The question: Who was the longest reigning British monarch?
If you want to test yourself, do no look DOWN HERE. I’ll even leave a few blank spaces to help you avert your eyes:
ANSWERS:
1- April 2- False 3- two 4- dr 5- Annapolis, Md. 6- Panama 7- pure sugar 8- Spanish 9- The Scream 10- Lord Charles Cornwallis $1 million answer- Queen Victoria (for 63 years)
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9/5: JaQuitta Williams leaving WSB-TV
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WSB-TV has confirmed that reporter and weekend anchor JaQuitta Williams is leaving the station next week. Her final anchoring day is Sunday. Her final reporting day is Sept. 12.
She has been at the TV station since 2004 and been in the TV business for about 20.
I got a hold of Williams at about 3 p.m. Friday. She said her recent bout with breast cancer was a factor in her departure.
“When I came back from my cancer journey in January, I was different,” she said. “I wanted my life to be more enjoyable. I wanted to do other things.”
While thinking about staying or going, she looked for signs. She found two: her Blackberry stopped working, then her laptop was stolen out of the WSB-TV van while she covered a church fire.
Ultimately, she had nothing but good things to say about WSB itself and was appreciative that they let her tell her breast cancer story on air. (Essence magazine has a story about her in October’s issue.)
Williams said she has a new job lined up but with respect to WSB, won’t reveal what it is until after she leaves.
Better yet, she noted: “I am cancer free. My last mammogram in August was clean. I’m in a wonderful place. I’m so excited!”
According to her online bio, her favorite moments have been interviewing the late legendary R&B singer James Brown and meeting with former V-103er Robin Roberts, now “Good Morning America” host. Both were diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2007 and had surgery, chemo and radiation at the same time.
If you want to reach out to Jaquitta, here’s her Myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/jaquittaw.
-Kaedy Kiely starts her gig at 97.1/The River as morning host on Sept. 18. The station is not personality focused and the morning show is heavily music oriented. But Kiely has tons of experience and will be the primary presence at community events. She’ll contribute music news and interviews to the Web site.
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9/4: “Hometeam” Brandon Leak out at 790/The Zone. Kaedy Kiely in at 97.1/The River Iky
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After just a few months on the air, the “Afternoon Saloon” at 790/The Zone has already lost one patron: “Hometeam” Brandon Leak.
I have no details but he’s no longer on the Web site.. He had worked at the station for eight years. He has a MySpace page which doesn’t look like it’s been updated in ages.
The show’s two main hosts, Chuck Oliver and Mike Bell, remain. Andrew Saltzman wouldn’t say why they cut Leak per se but he noted that 680/The Fan has five local full-time hosts while the Zone still has 10 local full-time hosts. He wouldn’t characterize the move as budgetary but in this day and age, virtually all cuts have something to do with finances.
-Kaedy Kiely, off the air since Z93 became Dave FM in 2004, has found a new gig at 97.1/The River. She replaces Lexie Kaye as the morning host, according to program director Chris Miller. Details forthcoming once I get a hold of Kaedy.
I did a “whatever happened to” on her last November. You can read up on her here.
Kiely worked for 22 years on air in Atlanta including 96rock and Z93, neither of which exists anymore. She had been doing production work at 790/The Zone the last I had checked in on her.
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Project Runway: A foreign affair
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The high: Some nice prints in tonight’s episode.
The low: Blayne’s headband(s).
Here I sit, surrounded by fat September issues of fashion magazines and nursing a burning desire to haul out cashmere sweaters and tall boots. Ah, fall!
It’s too early for sweaters, so I have to get my fashion fix elsewhere. Using a movie as sartorial inspiration is a wonderful idea — except tonight’s “Project Runway” episode gave little indication that the designers actually watched the movie (Billy Wilder’s Oscar-nominated “Foreign Affair”) that inspired their challenge. Did anyone bother to research ’30s fashions or Marlene Dietrich beyond Diane von Furstenberg’s look book?
Shanghai, Berlin, the rest is all white noise — well, at least they got the gist of it. While Blayne continued his love affair with unflattering breeches for women (right, courtesy Bravotv.com), Kenley found a champion in von Furstenberg but failed to pull off the one challenge that she should have nailed. (Note to designers: When everybody else says, “You’re not going to make three pieces?” you might want to go with that flow.)
Final Four prediction? Korto, Leanne, Terri and Kenley. Yes, an all-girl finale. I like Korto to win, though. She has an innate sense of how to handle fabric, the willingness to experiment with shape, and the ability to innovate with texture (leather and linen; vinyl and kale). She also has few flubs on her record and no close calls at all. Unless she goes way off course, Season 5 should be hers. Leanne’s her closest competition.
For Season 6, Lifetime Network should air “Project Runway All-Stars,” pitting the best and most interesting designers of the past five seasons. My picks would include the five winners, as well as Mychael Knight, Uli Herzner, Wendy Pepper, Austin Scarlett, Santino Rice, Sweet P and Jack Mackenroth.
Whaddya think? Who would top your All-Star list?
The last word: Blowout. “Project Runway” ended in just enough time to catch veep candidate Sarah Palin’s new subdued ‘do at the GOP convention.
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9/2: “90210” redux a guilty pleasure, Atlanta group Kazual ousted from “America’s Got Talent”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The CW, in its make or break year, is hoping its savior is a reimagining or revamp or whatever you call it of “Beverly Hills 90210.” And since everyone now knows what that zip code stands for, the new shows is merely called “90210.”
Since TV writers were not given advance copies of this show, I’m live blogging (or close enough since I’m doing it via DVR tonight).
Though when advancers are withheld from movie writers, it usually means the film stinks. In this case, I’m not sure that is the case. In effect, it’s breezy and fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Is it fine art? Or Emmy material? Not even close. These aren’t deep, complex characters along the lines of those in “Friday Night Lights.” The plots are incredibly “been there, done that” and not remotely complicated. You could talk on the phone, fix up your Facebook page and text your buddies all at the same time and still follow the show without missing anything. Take it for what it’s worth and it’s a pleasant diversion.
I’m curious to see how ratings are and whether this can save the network. I doubt it but hey, stranger things have happened.
Brenda Walsh fans had to wait awhile. She does not turn up until one hour and 28 minutes in and isn’t given much to do — yet. Still, there’s plenty of grist for fans of the original.
First of all, the setup is similar. A family moves to Beverly Hills, fish out of water. Except now it’s 2008 instead of 1990 so you have Sidesteps and mochachinos instead of old-fashioned telephones and coffee . The theme song is revved up but otherwise, the opening credits evoke the original. Rob Estes’ character Harry Wilson moves his family back from the MIdwest to Beverly Hills to take care of his mom. He also happens to be principal of West Beverly Hills High. He has a daughter Annie and an adopted black son Dixon, the Brandon and Brenda Walshes of this show. (And making Dixon black is a way to add some diversity to the proceedings. But still, not a lot of Asians or Hispanics at this school - at least non yet with speaking roles.)
“It’s like the Oscars and everybody is Scarlett Johanssen!” says Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) as she enters campus.
There are inside jokes, too, for fans of the original. A gal playing a character named Hannah Zuckerman-Vasquez anchors the school broadcast news. One teacher remarks, “How old is that girl? Like 30?” Gabrielle Carteris, who played journalist Andrea Zuckerman in the original, was 29 years old when she started the show playing a 16 year old.
Naomi, played by former Atlantan AnnaLynne McCord, enters with that “bad girl” aura she exuded quite nicely on the last season of “nip/tuck.” At minute seven, Jennie Garth, the original Kelly Taylor and not far removed from four years on the sitcom “What I Like About You,” arrives with a Flock of Seagulls reference.
It doesn’t take long for Naomi to clash with Annie over the hot lacrosse boy Ethan, Annie’s boyfriend and the guy Annie conveniently kissed a couple summers earlier while visiting her grandma. (He plays lacrosse because that fits the “90210” ouvre more than the cliche of football.)
In most worlds outside of TV, Annie would be the earnestly hot girl. In TV land, she’s dorky, unfashionable and basically an outcast. Annie quickly finds a friend named Silver, bonding over an obscure rock band, who also does videos on line skewering folks at the school. Annie then uncomfortably (and temporarily) bonds with Naomi, whose mom dated Annie’s dad when they were in high school. (Of course!) Silver is displeased and skewers Annie online with a cow reference. (“Naomi is the anti-Christ,” Silver says, none too subtly. She later explains she used to be friends with Naomi, who broke her trust.) Conveniently, Silver is the sister of Jennie’s character, kind of like “What I Like About You,” given the massive age difference.
Joe E. Tata and his reprised, modernized Peach Pit arrive at minute 17 with his Nat character bitching about an expresso machine. “Whatever happened to regular coffee?” he asks (although Starbucks was very much in vogue by the time the original “90210” signed off in 2000.)
Quickly, the two newbies get in trouble. Dixon gets in a fight with a jealous lacrosse player who starts the fight but Ethan, who saw that Dixon did not start it, lies to the principal and fingers Dixon. Then Annie gives Naomi a paper for her to get “ideas from” but naturally, Naomi copies it word per word. Duh. That was telegraphed like the Batman symbol on a cloud.
The scriptwriters choose not to make Naomi out to be a total witch. Coddled, yes. Spoiled? Naturally. But smart, too. Still, they have to ensure Naomi is no longer “friends” with Annie to set up future conflicts.
As the first hour ended, the principal finds out his ex girlfriend had a son who was adopted. Same plotline used on “October Road” last year. But this time, the son is yet unseen. I’d say, mission accomplished in terms of hour one.
Hour two doesn’t quite work as well. Annie quickly gets introduced to an obvious love interest Ty Collins, a lead in the play, a player who can fly her to San Francisco on a private plane for dinner. She lies about it to her mom, gets caught, loses trust. Shannen Doherty, er… Brenda, shows up to hug Nate and says whenever twin Brandon thinks of him, he craves a megaburger. “We should spend more time together,” Kelly says. Aww… a reunion!
Naomi makes Ethan jealous. Dixon tries to gain the trust of the team as the principal’s son by masterminding a prank. Least interesting character is Naomis’ friend Adrianna, who steals, takes drugs and tries to audition for roles for the sake of her mom instead of herself. Yawn. Ethan breaks up with Naomi. Annie kisses Ty. Naturally, Ethan sees this. Eye roll. Yes, the producers here are not exactly pulling a “Sixth Sense” on us.
So fans of the original, how did you like it? Is this worth a second look? I’ll give it a try for awhile and see how it plays out.
-Not surprisingly, Atlanta singing quartet Kazual are out on “America’s Got Talent.” That means no Atlantans made the top 20. Oh, well. Kazual got virtually no air time before last Wednesday and needed to kill it to make the top 5. They didn’t kill it. They looked good, danced well, harmonized okay but three of the four soloists lacked power and finesse. When the show producers paired them with Queen Emily, it was obvious Kazual were goners. Four of the five acts that made it through were singers. America still loves singers and generally prefers them over dancers or magicians or whatever. The season one winner was a singer. Season two was a singer, took, albeit a ventriloquist, too.
The drag queen opera singer Shequida? Like fingers on a chalkboard, that chalkboard being my brain. But I thoroughly enjoyed the music teacher opera singer. Not karaoke to me. All heart. And the baton twirler Jonathan just amped his game up several notches. Wow! I was also a fan of Sarah Lenore, who brought surprising edge to the Dixie Chicks song “Ready To Make Nice.” Disappointing: everybody else.
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9/2: Surprisingly big numbers for TNT’s “Raising the Bar”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve Bochco’s latest drama “Raising the Bar” opened at an impressive 7.7 million viewers Monday night, according to Nielsen estimates.
Atlanta-based TNT says that’s the biggest ratings ever for a new series on a ad-supported cable. That excludes broadcast TV, non ad-supported cable such as Disney and pay cable such as HBO.
Despite generally poor reviews, the drama about the interaction between the Los Angeles public defenders’ office and the district attorney’s office found an initial audience thanks to two factors: a lead in monster by the name of “The Closer” and the lack of competition over on the broadcast networks, which were airing a mix of political convention news and hurricane updates. And surprisingly, a lot of people do watch TV on Labor Day. It’s not a holiday where viewing drops off sharply like some other days.
“Raising the Bar” was the second largest show on TV Monday night, beaten only by NBC’s ” Deal or No Deal,” which drew more than 10 million people for its first one million dollar winner after more than 180 shows. It even beat the fourth season debut of Fox’s “Prison Break.”
Whether this show has the makings of a genuine hit depends on how it does in coming weeks.
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9/1: Back to politics on the news channels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cable news channels, prepping for a repeat of Hurricane Katrina courtesy of Gustav, readied to cut back on the Republican National Convention Sunday. All the big shot anchors (Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper) flew to New Orleans, bracing for the worst.
But on Labor Day, as Hurricane Gustav skirted west of New Orleans, they pivoted back to the convention, especially with Sarah Palin’s daughter coming into play.
As the afternoon wore on, Gustav took less and less time and the convention took over, even with a scaled back opening day. And at the convention, officials made multiple calls for disaster relief.
Tonight, it appears a bulk of CNN/Fox News/MSNBC coverage will be back to politics and the Republicans appear to be going back to a normal schedule as well.
The New York Times noted that the hurricane may have overshadowed the Palin controversy Monday, which otherwise would have dominated coverage.
But the story of her daughter’s pregnancy is still alive on TV. At 1:45 p.m. today, CNN is talking about Palin. And so is MSNBC, with a “right to life debate.” And Fox News is airing Joe Biden commenting on it by saying, “Children are off limits,” repeating Barack Obama’s statement yesterday. When Fox News got around to a brief update on damage west of New Orleans, they shrunk the correspondent to include live shots of the convention, even though nothing is really happening in St. Paul right now. Fox News at 1:55 p.m noted they have whopping 500 people at St. Paul.
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8/30: Radio station Labor Day theme weekends
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While Praise, Smooth Jazz and Hot used Labor Day weekend to cut some actual labor costs, a few stations are dabbling in theme weekends on Labor Day weekend. It’s the theory of just throwing out a lot of “oh wow!” songs. Great stuff!
-B98.5 is doing an alphabetical song list, including many songs that have not been on their regular playlist in ages. In the “B’s as I’m writing this, I’ve heard Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and “Born in the U.S.A,” Supertramp’s “Breakfast in America,” Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings” and Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.”
-Star 94, which has been skewing a bit younger since Steve & Vikki left, is doing something odd: playing songs from the 80s and 90s. I’ve heard some songs that were hits at the time but haven’t been played in ages, which I guess is the point. As I was driving home from the Human Regeneration tour with Naked Eyes, Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Belinda Carlisle and Human League, I heard ABC’s “Poison Arrow,” Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” OMC’s “How Bizarre,” Lou Gramm’s “Say You Will” and Madonna’s “Causing a Commotion,” and Arrested Development’s “Mr. Wendel.”
-Rock 100.5 is playing the top 500 rock songs of all time. It’s all over the map, which is the point, I fathom. The midnight hour includes Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” Better than Ezra’s “Good,” Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak,” the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” Def Leppard’s “Rock! Rock! Till You Drop!” 3 Doors Down’s “It’s Not My Time,” Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever,” Van Halen’s “Top of the World,” Creed’s “My Own Prison,” Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks,” Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me.”
-I also got the final count for WSB-AM’s Care-a-thon for the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.: $1.23 million. That’s comparable to the past two years, impressive given the current economic downturn.
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8/29: Rickey Smiley deal not final, cuts at Praise & Smooth Jazz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today, I got a hold of Kevin Watson, Rickey Smiley’s manager. He said any deal between Smiley and Hot 107.9 is not final and still in negotiations. Still no word from the bosses at Hot in Atlanta. So what I thought was definitive yesterday was not. But it makes total financial sense.
Smiley for the past year has had a syndicated show now heard in 20 markets including Dallas and Miami and is owned by Radio One, which owns Hot and Smiley’s syndication deal. So the company has a major incentive to leverage a major asset (being Smiley) and add him in another top 10 market.
So until the deal is set, Hot will keep the “A Team” in the mornings with Beyonce, Rashan Ali and Emperor Searcy but minus Griff and Akini. Since Hot got rid of Maria More in mid-days and E4Real in afternoons (keeping Mizz Shyneka), this leaves openings that could be filled by Rashan from 10 to 2 and Searcy from 2 to 6 with Mizz Shyneka.
Radio One, which also owns Smooth Jazz and Praise, cut a couple of jocks from those station as well: Rene Miller, long-time jock at Smooth Jazz who had been doing afternoons, and Sonja Hamm, mid-day jock at Praise.
Latest comments
Thanks RJ, that explains a whole lot about Debbie!!!!... read the full comment by The Truth | Comment on 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Read 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
I’m a liberal too and I say Congrats to Ms. Cox. Just ignore the ugly naysayers and enjoy your achievement!... read the full comment by TheOliarchyRulesUsAll | Comment on 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Read 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
I am proud, but I wish the money would be used to support Georgia’s teachers and not a school or two.... read the full comment by dc | Comment on 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Read 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
DEBBIE she’s not African American, she’s bi-racial!!!!... read the full comment by RJ | Comment on 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Read 9/5: Georgia school super Kathy Cox wins $1 million in "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"