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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
10/23: Cutbacks at WSB-AM, Kiss 104.1 and 97.1/The River
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cox Radio, just a few days after coming out with relatively strong summer ratings numbers, is suffering revenue dropoffs like virtually every media outlet. The result: targeted cutbacks today in staff.
Among the on-air people who are gone. (The announcements were made to the respective staffs at 1:30 p.m. today.)
— Marjorie Coley(right) News director and morning news reader for Kiss 104.1 since 2000. Veronica Waters from WSB will do the morning news during the Tom Joyner show.
— Jeff Dantre, a veteran news reporter for WSB-AM
— Kerry Browning, an assistant news director for WSB-AM who has been at the station for 30 years and has been heard on air for a bulk of that time.
— Stacy D. Night-time jock at Kiss 104.1. Program director Jay Dixon is set to take over.
— Chris Miller Program director and mid-day host for 97.1/The River
Cox Radio is part of Cox Enterprises, which also owns the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
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10/22: Update on Judge Glenda Hatchett, Bill O’Reilly gets an extension
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta native Judge Glenda Hatchett stopped taping her successful show last year after eight years. But the syndicator is giving the show a bit more life by running “best of” episodes this season despite the fact there are 12 other judge shows on the air, including fellow Atlantan Judge Penny Reynolds Brown.
The “Best of Judge Hatchett” now airs on CW69 at 2 and 2:30 p.m. It’s broken down into 52 unique theme weeks, such as “Celebrity Interventions,” “Out-of-control Youth,” “Family Feuds,” “DNA Dramas,” and “Sue Thy Neighbor.”
Ratingswise, the show was never at the top (where Judge Judy resides) but never near the bottom either. She taped a whopping 1,130 episodes.
“It has been the most amazing journey for me these past eight years,” Hatchett said. She said she wanted to work more in production behind the scenes creating her own shows. Her company name: Great Day Productions. “People ask me, ‘How could you walk away?’ I see it as evolving to the next stage.”
She’s proud of how she has helped many individuals turn their lives around. She took a promiscuous young girl to a rural village in South Africa to live with orphans. She took a chronic runaway to Louisiana to work on a Habitat for Humanity house. She took an alcoholic with a DUI record to spend time with mothers whose kids were killed in DUIs. She said not everybody comes clean but she felt she has made a difference in many cases.
She split time between New York and Atlanta for eight years. Hatchett said when she shot the show for Sony, she’d live in New York during the week for the show, coming back to Atlanta by Friday. Her mom would watch the kids while she was up north. “It was a challenge,” she said, “but I loved it. It’s like anything else. When it’s important to you, you make the logistics work. I never missed a varsity football game or track meet.” Occasionally, if she had to shoot in NY on weekends, she’d bring her kids up and bring them on set.
Amusingly, she said most people, even close friends, call her “Judge.” “It’s hysterical,” Hatchett said. “My sister in law calls me ‘Sister Judge.’ It’s like I don’t have a first name!”
Hatchett is staying busy, not only with TV production and books but a series of parenting conferences.
Tonight she’s hosting a free parenting skills workshop at the Georgia International Convention Center from 6 to 8 p.m.. The address is 2000 Convention Center Concourse, College Park.
“It’s very practical,” she said, revolving around the three C’s: commitment, consistency and cheering. “It’s to empower them. I want to inspire them to think about ways to be a better parent.”
-Bill O’Reilly gets another four years at Fox News. Hollywood Reporter says he is making about $10 million a year..
“Bill O’Reilly is the most prominent and influential name in all of cable news, and his contribution to the network’s success cannot be overstated,” FNC chairman and CEO Roger Ailes said. “After 12 years, ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ maintains remarkable and consistent viewership growth, and his firmly established itself as the top destination for newsmakers to reach a wide, diverse audience.”
The former ABC correspondent has found unprecedented success at Fox, where he joined in 1996. It has been the top-rated cable news program for 94 months, with an average viewership of 4 million a night. He outdraws his competitors at CNN and MSNBC combined.
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10/22: Real Housewives of Atlanta, episode three recap
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okay, I’m blatantly pandering by writing these highlight recaps of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” But, hey, the antics of these five women are indeed great watercooler fodder. And this is from a guy who writes about “American Idol” every day, even off season.
ABOVE: NeNe reads the letter claiming her daddy isn’t her daddy!
So here we go:
The focus of this episode is split fairly evenly among three of the housewives, but the most compelling story for once did not revolve around some party. Kim Zolciak went to her psychic Rose (with the skeptical fellow housewives in tow) and while most of them bowed out, NeNe Leakes decided to get a reading. The psychic, who looks like Your Average Sweet Lookin’ Grandma, said NeNe will get an important letter and something related to her dad would occur.
Indeed, a letter from a relative claims the man she thinks is her dad (Curtis) is… not! It’s someone else! NeNe is shaken, understandably. She visits the aunt who raised her in Athens, who said it doesn’t matter. But NeNe wants to know and at the end of the episode, she calls Curtis, who she hadn’t spoken to in two years.
Sadly, he doesn’t even recognize her voice. Then when she asked if he had doubts about whether he was really her father. “I had doubts,” he said, “even before you were born. But I just let it go.” Sounds like a winner of a dad!
“It’s just amazing to me that you would let these many years go by and not say a damn word,” NeNe says.
“I consider you my daughter,” he says.
“Don’t you want to know the truth?” NeNe asks.
“It don’t make no difference,” he says.
But NeNe insists they prove it with a DNA test. Curtis is a little taken aback but doesn’t battle her and petulantly says fine.
She is numb. “I thought I’d be real emotional,” she said. “Now that he’s all defensive, ** him.”
Good stuff!
Plotline No. 2: Kim’s attempt to go into country singing.
She says: “I want to be known for my voice, not blonde hair and big boobs per se.”
(Viewers giggle.)
We only heard bits of her singing on the show, not enough to gauge whether she can really sing. Ed, her daughters’ music teacher, gives her some country songs to sample. NeNe is hilarious as she mocks them, then actually gets a kick with his “Tardy for the Party.” Dallas Austin, wearing sunglasses indoors, stops by Kim’s house and tells the cameras away from Kim that she may not realize how much work it’s going to be to be a real singer. He isn’t thrilled by Ed’s songs and though he has no country background, has some ideas and will get her before a big-time vocal coach who has worked with the likes of Usher.
ABOVE: DeShawn Snow convinces Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to auction a lunch with him and his wife for her foundation fundraiser.
Plotline No. 3: DeShawn Snow wants to ramp up her self-named foundation, which has the squishy notion to build self esteem among inner-city teen-age girls. We see her reading some sort of decree with some random girls. Her goal: raise $1 million in her opening fundraiser. Everyone expresses skepticism, at least off camera. Odds that she’s going to raise $1 million? About the same as the odds that I am Kim’s “Big Poppa”! There’s also a minor “drama” where DeShawn considers having a live auction. She ponders auctioning a date with Sheree Whitfield, who is recently single, but that doesn’t work out, partly because she didn’t ask Sheree directly before Sheree found out. Or whatever. Very high school!
By the way, Sheree claims with her usual certainty there is only one available man in Atlanta for every 20 women. I guess it depends what type of “available” man she’s talking about, meaning a man with enough money and good looks to satisfy her. Perhaps, we’d change the ratio to 100,000 to 1 then?
Teasers show that Kim and NeNe have tensions over Sheree’s burgeoning friendship with Kim. And the DeShawn fundraiser appears to not raise $1 million.
So with three episodes down, are there any housewives you’re liking more — or less — as time goes on?
“Top Chef” finalist and Atlanta chef Richard Blais writes a hilarious blog about the show if you want more laughs.
-Also, former Atlantan Toni Braxton was booted from “Dancing With the Stars.” It wasn’t a surprise at this stage of the competition. Her problem seemed to be multifold. Sure, she’s a solid dancer. But she wasn’t improving or connecting with the audience the way the others were. Her personality and back story wasn’t as compelling as, say, that of Warren Sapp, Lance Bass, Cloris Leachman and Susan Lucci. That’s all.
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