Larry Ling Is Going Part-Time.

I first heard Larry King when I worked the graveyard shift during late '70s summers on Lake Champlain. King was on the now-defunct Mutual Broadcasting Network in those days and was entertaining company. Then from the early-80's until 1987, I routinely recorded King's syndicated radio bits to replay on the radio stations I worked at during that time. He's always thrown softballs, but he's also always called himself an interviewer, not a journalist, and he's never attempted to confuse the two. I like the old guy--bizarre moments notwithstanding--and I know he's had a rough go of it, ratings-wise, over the last year on CNN. Maybe it really is time for Larry King to hang up his suspenders, but he's left his mark without screaming at guests with manufactured malice and I hope his farewell will be on his own terms.

MediaBistro.com, HELLO:

CNN's 9 p.m. host Larry Kinghas announced that he will be leaving his nightly talk show this Fall. King, who has been a staple on CNN for 25 years, will transition to a part-time role at the network, hosting occasional specials tied to breaking news and events.

King will dicuss his decision during tonight's edition of "Larry King Live."

Before I start the show tonight, I want to share some personal news with you. 25 years ago, I sat across this table from New York Governor Mario Cuomo for the first broadcast of Larry King Live.

Now, decades later, I talked to the guys here at CNN and I told them I would like to end Larry King Live, the nightly show, this fall and CNN has graciously accepted, giving me more time for my wife and I to get to the kids' little league games.

I'll still be a part of the CNN family, hosting several Larry King specials on major national and international subjects.

I'm incredibly proud that we recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot. With this chapter closing I'm looking forward to the future and what my next chapter will bring, but for now it's time to hang up my nightly suspenders.

Fox News Hired The Wrong Monkey.

"Keep Your Feet On The Ground And Keep Reaching For The Stars."

That was Casey Kasem's trademark sign-off.

From Newser.com:

Casey Kasem counted down the week's hit songs on his radio show this weekend, then quietly dropped a bomb: He's through, effective immediately. Kasem, 77, introduced the countdown format, peppering his shows—"American Top 40," now hosted by Ryan Seacrest, was his signature achievement—with factoids, trivia, and famously sappy long-distance dedications. He may write a memoir, his wife, the actress Jeannie Kasem, tells ABC News.

"Charts are changing, stations are changing, the networks are changing, radio itself is changing, and I think, you know, the pendulum swings back and forth," says Jeannie Kasem. "You just have to be willing to jump ship and try something new."

As a former radio announcer, I'd like to give a shout-out to a man whose countdowns and song dedications were delivered in a voice as familiar as family. I dedicate this one to you, Casey:

No Rush.

     No hectoring, hateful hosts here.     

      From the Washington Post:

     At a time when newspapers, magazines and TV news continue to lose readers and viewers, at least one part of the traditional media has continued to grow robustly: National Public Radio.

     The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

     The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR -- including talk shows and music -- also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7 percent increase over 2007.

     The favorable audience data, however, hasn't spared NPR from the budget woes that are affecting almost every news organization in the nation.

     NPR faces declining funding from all its major sources: corporate underwriters that give money in exchange for on-air mentions, charitable foundations and annual dues from almost 900 member stations. Many NPR member stations have announced staff cutbacks of their own in the face of declining listener contributions and other revenue.

     NPR's rising popularity reflects the decline of news as a radio format, said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington think tank. Producing an original newscast is expensive, especially compared with playing music or airing syndicated talk shows; many radio companies have pared back or eliminated their news departments as the industry has consolidated over the past decade. "Local news stations have slowly but steadily vanished in a lot of cities," said Jurkowitz.

     One strength of NPR, he said, is its original foreign reporting -- something that is now largely unavailable elsewhere on the radio. The organization maintains 18 foreign bureaus, more than any of the major broadcast TV networks.

     Its reports from abroad, he said, are a magnet "for a lot of people who weren't necessarily born in this country who may see NPR as the one place to get news about parts of the world they care about."

You Can't Say #%&@ On The &$%*@#* Radio!

Keith Thomson has an item on HuffPo to which I can relate:

If you're one of the 16 million people who bought the Eagles' album "Hotel California," or if you've spent any portion of your life somewhere other than the underside of a rock, you've heard the song, "Life In the Fast Lane." For 33 years it's been a staple on classic hits radio stations like WBPT 106.9 FM in Birmingham, Alabama.

Recently, some radio stations have begun to censor the song. You probably know the line:

We've been up and down this highway/haven't seen a goddamn thing.

WBPT program manager Mike Schoenherr, a.k.a. "Hurricane Shane," replaced "god" with a snippet of lyric-less music from elsewhere in the song. Another Alabama station, WGMZ in Glencoe, uses a "sanitized" version that replaces "goddamn" with silence.

This is not per any FCC policy or any other regulation.

"It's everybody's policy," said WBPT's station manger Ray Nelson, a veteran of nearly 40 years in radio, explaining his decision. "People find it offensive."

In fact, the vast majority of classic rock radio stations in the United States continue to play the original version.

I know a little about radio stations and language.

My first radio gig was at my college radio station. I knew immediately that being left alone in a radio booth with a stack of my own records, a microphone and my big mouth was as close to heaven as a godless heathen such as me would ever get. I've never seen God, but I have seen Mick and Keith.

One night I cued up "Sweet Virginia" from Exile on Main Street. I turned the studio speakers up as loud as they would go. It's a great song, I'm sure I was thinking; my listeners must be loving this!  And I particularly dug this part:

Come on come on down you got it in you Got to scrape that shit right off your shoes...

The college station manager apparently didn't share my appreciation for the song's earthy lyrics and the studio phone rang. I must've heard it only after "Sweet Virginia" ended, because he asked me why I hadn't been answering the phone. His language was far worse than that used by the Stones.

"What the f*** are you doing? You can not play a song with the word "shit" on the radio! The FCC will pull our license!"

I reminded him that I highly doubted that FCC officials were tuned into the SUNY/Morrisville college radio station. That observation flew straight over his head. I'm paraphrasing here, but it went something like, "Do not play that f****** song again!" 

But I was in the fast lane! I was a college radio DJ!

I played it on my next shift, of course. I've always loved Exile on Main Street. 

(I'm not an Eagles fan, but life in the fast lane? Surely make you lose your mind...)