Radio - FishbowlDC

Celeb Chef To Cater RTCA Dinner

Peter Ogburn — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:32:29 +0000

While the Radio/TV Correspondents Dinner is typically a quieter affair than the White House Correspondents Dinner, they’ve stepped up their game this year. The event, which takes place June 5th at the National Building Museum, will be catered by celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse. The RTCA Dinner has traditionally been held in the Washington Convention Center in past years, so it appears they are making an attempt to evolve and reclaim some of the prestige that the WHCD is known for. Let’s hope not too much.

From the release: “All guests will be encouraged to grab their white handkerchiefs, beads, masks and parasols that will be on every table and join in as they swing through the crowd.” They are expecting some 1500 guests — journalists, newsmakers and lawmakers.

Traditional New Orlean’s jazz pianist, Washington DC native and longtime New Orleans resident John Royen will entertain. They’ll also crown a King or Queen of the Dinner. They’ll be presented with a cape, crown and Jester Staff and asked to lead the crowd to the after-party at the conclusion of the night. We have no idea what this could mean, but they’ll have two Jesters on hand creating mischief throughout the dinner.

The theme will be “Laissez les bons temps rouler ” – Let the Good Times Roll – New Orleans style.” It will feature dancing, masks, beads, although hopefully, no one will have to take their top off to obtain them.

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NPR’s Not-So-Black-And-White Race Series

Eddie Scarry — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:55:18 +0000

When regular listeners of NPR turn on the radio there’s a relatively high chance they’re going to hear about something they’ve never heard before. Like an extensive story about the creation and evolution of the Barbie doll.

NPR is taking that classic approach and putting it toward race in America. On Monday the radio network launched its “Code Switch” series, an in-depth look at the changing demographics in America. The multimedia project includes the NPR blog “Code Switch,” and on-air on “All Things Considered,” “Talk of the Nation” and “Tell Me More.” The series ends Friday.

Whereas most publications say “race” and mean “black and white,” NPR’s Code Switch series looks at more than that. Subjects include… continued…

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Laura Ingraham Sees Big Government Looming In D.C. Cherry Blossoms

Eddie Scarry — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:55:12 +0000

One of the hazards of working in partisan media is that everywhere you look, whether it’s at a spreadsheet or a humming bird, there’s an ideological point to be made. Enter conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.

“Blossom traffic on the way to Fox News,” Ingraham tweeted Tuesday morning. “How long before Obama taxes us per Cherry blossom viewed?” The tweet has since been retweeted 22 times and favorited 14.

This is what, in the media echo chambers, is known as “a joke.” It isn’t particularly funny, but it lets the reader know that Ingraham isn’t a fan of President Obama and that she thinks he supports taxing too many things. Her cheerleaders, who likely already knew this much about Ingraham, chimed in to show solidarity. continued…

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NPR Wins Peabody for Syria Coverage

Betsy Rothstein — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:15:24 +0000

NPR wins the Peabody award for their coverage of the conflict in Syria and for an audio chronicle of a teenager’s ambition to compete with the first female U.S. Olympic boxing team, produced by Radio Diaries and broadcast on All Things Considered.

International correspondents Kelly McEvers, based in Beirut, and Deb Amos, a roving correspondent who’s spent three decades covering the region, led NPR’s reports during frequent trips into Syria and from along the border in Turkey and Lebanon. Interviews included Assad regime officials led to the unexpected discovery of unity among Muslim and Christian rebels.

McEvers and Amos share the award with… continued…

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Bill Press Show Goes Noir

Betsy Rothstein — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:51:14 +0000

How chic. How Charlie Rose. Current TV’s “Full Court Press” radio program went dark this morning as Pepco killed power for the entire building where Bill Press‘s studio is housed in Washington’s Eastern Market neighborhood.

Pepco says “a feeder” went out. Press was forced to do half his show in the dark.

“In all my years of doing TV and radio, this has NEVER happened to me,” the lefty radio host told FishbowlDC. “We were talking to Karl Frisch from Bullfight Strategies and Elizabeth Wydra from Constitutional Accountability Center about gay marriage. I knew this was an explosive issue, but had no idea it would blow the damn lights out.”

All in all, Press saw the glass half full. “Hey, we lost the lights, but we kept doing the radio show in the dark,” he said. “Thank goodness for iPhone flashlights!”

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NPR Host Falls Prey to Belly Fat Ads

Betsy Rothstein — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:45:59 +0000

NPR Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin typically promotes stories about talking with David Keene, President of the NRA, or U.S. top military officer, General Martin Dempsey.

But pushing Raspberry Ultra Drops that will help slim you down and shed that pesky belly fat? Not usually.

Apologies All – my twitter account (and thus FB) was hacked. I have no advice on how to lose weight fast. Happy Tuesday.

— Rachel Martin (@rachelnpr) February 19, 2013

“Time to change your password,” a listener, follower and master of the obvious suggested. “You’ve been hacked.”

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Reporter Calls 911 on Way to Work

Betsy Rothstein — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:00:29 +0000

WTOP reporter Neal Augenstein is a model citizen.

This week while driving to work on Evergreen Mill Rd. at 3:30 a.m., the night of the flooding rains, he noticed a van in a ravine and called 911.

The driver, Bobby, admitted he’d been scared. His wife later phoned the newsroom to thank Augenstein. The van? Well, according to the story, that’s still in the mud.

Read the full story.

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Spotted: WMAL’s Brian Wilson at Bob Evans

Peter Ogburn — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:00:32 +0000

Sighting: Morning man and co-host of 105.9 FM/630AM WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall,” Brian Wilson. He was seen eating breakfast this morning at a Germantown, Md. location of Bob Evans. Our spy didn’t catch his order, but reported that he spent a good chunk of time tapping away at his iPhone with the sound ON. Someone should tell Wilson to keep that phone on vibrate in the middle of a restaurant. The loud noises didn’t deter someone from snapping this photo of him reading on his phone.

Our spy also remarked that Wilson was, “shockingly tall.” It appears that he is wearing a “Sun Records” baseball cap, which earns him high marks in our book.

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WTOP’s Day Makes His Shakespearean Exit

Betsy Rothstein — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:35:41 +0000

WTOP anchor Richard Day didn’t want a cake or even a farewell announcement. At 70, Day’s last day at the station was Friday. The Julliard-trained Shakespearean actor will be missed. He gave WTOP the best compliment anyone could — he said the place was run “without ego and selfishness and instead with creativity and inventiveness.”

Day joined WTOP in 1985. Before that, he was a reporter for syndicated television. At 15, he became a professional musician. Later he was a page for CBS where he worked on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “What’s My Line.”

See the sweet memo. continued…

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Justice Scalia: Big Fan of WMAL Morning Radio

Betsy Rothstein — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:54:20 +0000

Supreme Court Justices are apparently people too.

Case in point: As it turns out, Justice Antonin Scalia is a big fan of WMAL’s morning drive radio show. Host Brian Wilson attended a Ricky Skaggs concert this weekend. He ran into Scalia, who wore a Stetson and attended with his “lovely” and “absolutely charming” wife Maureen.

Most importantly… continued…

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NPR Announces New Roles for Hosts

Betsy Rothstein — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:45:38 +0000

NPR announces new appointments for three of its news magazine hosts: Michele Norris returns from a leave of absence to take on an expanded new role as a host and special correspondent; she returns to the air full-time in February. Audie Cornish will stay on as co-host of All Things Considered; and Rachel Martin anchors Weekend Edition Sunday. She will stay on as the host of Weekend Edition Sunday, where she’s been filling in while Cornish has been with All Things Considered. Cornish and Martin have been interim hosts of their respective programs.

See further details and the internal memo from NPR’s Senior VP of News… continued…

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Boring Goes Meta

Piranhamous — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:50:06 +0000

When Betsy sent me the link to listen to this week’s episode of “Sadly Lacking Radio” featuring DCRTV’s Dave Hughes as a guest I thought, “This will be fun.” But it’s not fun. And there’s a reason they’re sadly lacking a radio gig and it’s not a lack of options.

The SLR host was excited to have Hughes on because the last interview with him was “big in Australia.” But this show sounds so horrible even a dingo would refuse to eat it.

Nothing makes for a less compelling radio interview topic than a wannabe radio host talking about real radio hosts with someone who makes their living bitching about radio hosts. It’s so meta it’s meta. The worst part: Hughes goes on about his own site being such a high trafficked mecca that it crashed several times this week (that’s right, in the confines of his brain, it crashed).

So if you have an hour to kill, and sticking bamboo slivers under your toenails isn’t an option, but only because you don’t have enough bamboo slivers, give it a listen. But listen at your own risk. After I listened I began to resent the Mayans for being wrong.

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Lunch at The Palm With Bill Press: The Lockup Edition

Betsy Rothstein — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:45:11 +0000

If you’re lunching at The Palm today in northwest Washington, you’re in a for a real treat — or a real fiasco, however you want to look at it. Today is the infamous Bill Press lunch in which Current TV’s liberal TV/radio personality shows up to dine with his employees.

“Every year I demand that we go to The Palm and sit under his picture because it’s just so weird and awkward and I love it,” said Peter Ogburn, longtime producer for Press and now a co-host on “Full Court Press.” (Ogburn also contributes to FBDC, so it wasn’t hard to pry details out of him.)

Ogburn recalls with, um, fondness, seven years ago when they first began doing annual Bill Press lunches at The Palm beneath his caricature. This is the year that Ogburn’s underling, Associate Producer Dan Henning, got hammered to the point of lockup.

Ogburn recalls, “Dan is just being a total prick, demanding that he get back behind the bar to make drinks. I was just like, I’m leaving. So embarrassed. He gets a glass bottle of water to bring with him. We get to the Dupont Circle Metro. Dan trips head over heels the whole way down the escalator. I mean, Head. Over. Heels.”

Pausing for a brief interruption: For anyone who knows either Dupont Metro escalator, this is one long-ass ride.

Continuing on, Ogburn says… continued…

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Dr. Drew Deeply Worried About Lindsay Lohan

Betsy Rothstein — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:57:02 +0000

Dr. Drew Pinsky has a lot weighing on his mind these days. Among the topics brewing are relationships, closeness, and HIV and AIDS awareness. And then there’s Lindsay Lohan.

On the heels of the latest Lohan debacle — she was arrested for fighting with a woman in a New York nightclub — Pinsky, who hosts Dr. Drew on HLN and previously VH1′s Celebrity Rehab, told FishbowlDC that he really worries for the troubled actress. “Lindsay is very sick. She is going to die if she doesn’t get help,” he said during a commercial break of a special hour-long “Ask Dr. Drew” radio segment this morning at WTOP headquarters in northwest D.C.”We need to be praying for her. I’m very very scared for her. She’s a recalcitrant drug user.”

Pinksy is in town for an HIV awareness forum at the White House today. He also has a special airing on MTV Saturday at 7 p.m., a documentary on young people living with HIV. Aside from a West Wing tour, he has never been to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in any professional capacity. He said he hoped to meet President Obama. On air with WTOP’s Mark Lewis and Debbie Feinstein, he hammed it up, saying, “First we’re going to share a beer, how’s Mitt, how’s your buddy?”

Continuing on about Lohan on air, Pinksy said something that could make the hair on your neck stand on end. He has real fears that the actress could lose a limb before it is all over. He didn’t elaborate.

Pinsky speaks out about HIV, addiction and stress… continued…

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Get Your Q’s Ready: Dr. Drew on WTOP

Betsy Rothstein — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:12:39 +0000

Addiction. Sex. STD’s. You name it. The world will be WTOP’s oyster this Thursday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. as Dr. Drew Pinsky shows up for a Q & A.

WTOP Radio 103.5 FM will host Drew… continued…

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