Archives: December 2012

Shuttling back and forth between LA and St. Louis, George Noory is a very busy man. His syndicated overnight radio show Coast to Coast AM is heard on KFI AM 640 and more than 560 other radio stations. And just about every other weekend, or so it seems, he is touching down at a special event somewhere to moderate a leading-edge paranormal discussion.

This month, Noory has added Beyond Belief, a one-hour weekly live-audience talk show streaming on GAIAM TV. The first episode December 14 featured author, filmmaker and genetically modified food expert Jeffrey Smith; for last week’s second installment, Noory chatted with Nostradamus expert John Smith; and next he will welcome ghost hunter Joshua Hunter.

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This past Thursday, sports reporter Gabriel Rizk (pictured) had the dubious honor of being bylined in both LA Times community newspaper the Glendale News-Press and the Orange County Register. Why, you may ask?

Because before he officially left the former for the latter on December 17, he completed one or two more GNP articles. Rizk is now covering the south coast region for the Register. Per the announcement:

Rizk is a prep sports star, having worked as sports prep editor and reporter at the Glendale News-Press since 2006. His former colleagues use words like ‘phenemonal and magnificent’ to describe the USC graduate’s work ethic and writing skills. It’s a matter of time before Register readers start offering the same accolades.

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Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is located at 4650 Sunset Boulevard, eight and a half miles east of Norma Desmond‘s fictitious, haunted lair. Billy Wilder‘s timeless Tinseltown tale was made for around $1.75 million and now, all these years later, the filmmaker together with his late wife Audrey has reached out from beyond the grave. Six-fold.

From the hospital announcement:

Stars of the silver screen have had a huge impact on our hearts and minds for decades and at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles we are grateful when Hollywood stars partner with us to benefit the health of our patients.

This year, our hospital received a very special Christmas gift when the trust of Billy and Audrey Wilder sent an $11 million gift to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles that will support the work of our division of Neurosurgery, the Neuro-oncology program and the division of Rheumatology while still leaving money left over to provide for the under and unreimbursed care for children we provide each year.

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Time Warner Cable SportsNet, the new home of the Los Angeles Lakers, is adding 12 Los Angeles D-Fenders to the schedule starting this weekend.

The telecasts of the Lakers’ minor league team (though it would be hard to pick out the real minor league team based on the way Kobe and Co. have been playing) will be called by veteran broadcaster Steve Quis and former three-time NBA champion A.C. Green.

“We are thrilled to partner with Time Warner Cable SportsNet this season,” Joey Buss, president/CEO of the D-Fenders, said in a statement.  “This is an opportunity for our fans, Lakers fans and basketball fans to develop a connection with top D-Fenders prospects as well as Lakers assignment players, both of which are instrumental to the future of the Lakers and NBA.”

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With Jim Rome‘s replacement officially announced, the media giant formally announced his move to CBS Sports Radio starting Jan. 2.

That leaves just one problem for Los Angeles.

There’s not exactly a local affiliate carrying Rome’s syndicated talk show yet.

Your best bet is tuning in to the Mighty 1090AM based out of San Diego.

Other local options include KVEN-AM (Ventura), KRAK-AM (Riverside), and KAVL-AM (Lancaster/Palmdale).

Rome also shared with his audience that his new Showtime series was picked up for a second season and is moving from weekly to monthly in 2013.

We can’t think of a better way to ease into Christmas weekend than to listen to KPCC 89.3 reporter Christopher Johnson‘s 40th-anniversary look at the LA recording of Aretha Franklin‘s live double album Amazing Grace.

The sessions took place over a two-day period in 1972 at South Central’s Temple Missionary Baptist Church. Franklin laid down classic gospel tracks alongside the legendary Reverend James Cleveland and the church’s Southern California Community Choir. Tantalizingly, there is one element of the timeless concert that is still waiting in the wings:

Ten years before he shot Tootsie, Sydney Pollack had a crew document the whole thing at New Temple. No movie has been officially released, but there is a trailer. In it, you can see Aretha ease down the aisle, through the standing ovation. Elegant. For sure, a queen – not just of soul, but of this moment, too. Her kaftan like light green sea spray. Sequined.

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Via EW staffer Anthony Breznican‘s great awards season column “Prize Fighting,” Sorkin has shared some thoughts about the new Gus Van Sant drama starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski.

Sorkin suggests that the December 28-January 4 release is no more about fracking than Jaws was about fishing. Instead, he writes, the screenplay – written by the film’s nauseatingly talented two stars – is anchored to a nifty narrative chassis:

Promised Land is so deft in its storytelling that it manages to dramatize one of the more compelling ANTI-environmental messages you’re likely to see. Forget you just read the words “environmental” and “messages” — you’ll be completely taken in by the con game, the humor, the stakes, the absence of easy answers and the typically detailed, subtle and charismatic performances…

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Max Cherney, a contributor to online newspaper The San Francisco Appeal, had an interesting email exchange this week with Todd Vogt (pictured). The owner of the Bay Area’s Examiner and Bay Guardian newspapers confirmed he’s about to announce local acquisition number three.

Vogt indicated the news was to be shared by the end of today. The reporter was unable however to get any on-the-record comment from reps for the East Bay Express and Village Voice Media’s SF Weekly, two most likely targets of The SF Newspaper Company exec. From Cherney’s December 20 item:

“The new property will be highly complimentary to The Examiner and the Guardian,” Vogt wrote. “It will give us, by far, the greatest readership, reach and audience in the Bay Area, effectively covering every demographic in every corner of The City.”

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UC Berkeley Master’s journalism grad Joe Donnelly has spent the bulk of his career working for instantly recognizable local outlets: the LA Times, LA Weekly and quarterly Slake. But now it’s time for something a little different in the form of a tremendous enterprise journalism opportunity.

Donnelly has been hired by the Santa Barbara Journalism Initiative to be the non-profit organization’s inaugural executive editor. From yesterday’s announcement:

“It became clear from our first conversations with Joe that he believed strongly in the collaborative opportunities the initiative could and should pursue with established area media outlets,” said Steven Ainsley, board chairman for the Santa Barbara Journalism Initiative. “This will be an important driver for everything the initiative hopes to accomplish and it was critical the editor understood this. Joe clearly endorses this approach.””

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Mayan apocalypse or no Mayan apocalypse, the organizer of the Los Angeles Survival Community did not want LA Times reporter Gale Holland using his last name. That’s because although Tony never personally bought into all the December 21, 2012 guff, he firmly believes that a super-volcano or earthquake could one day trigger the mother of all local TV newscast storm watches. And when that happens, the naysayers will be hungry.

Holland paid a visit to Tony’s extremely well-stocked San Fernando Valley stucco HQ. There she found lots of mayonnaise and another critical condiment:

A row of barbecue sauce jars takes up one shelf. “We want to make sure food tastes good, with the different wildlife we might be eating,” Tony explained.

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