When Davy Jones passed away on February 29, 2012, the Morro Bay, CA crew that puts together the wildly popular weekly show Animal Radio were faced with a dilemma. They had banked what turned out to be the actor and former Monkees lead singer’s last interview. The question suddenly became: Should the interview be aired?

The issue was put to a vote on the show’s Facebook page and buoyed by a resounding yes from fans, the Jones conversation was shared in April. For those who missed it, the entertaining interview with hosts Hal Abrams and Judy Francis will be repeated on the New Year’s Eve weekend edition of Animal Radio. From that telephone chat:

“I played Epcot Center’s Flower Power festival on Mother’s Day last year and I will again this year… I gave out T-shirts that say, ‘Davy knows your mother.’”

“It’s all changed of course. I went to see Peter Noone the night before at Epcot. They’re all getting old, these guys. I mean he sings, “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Walker.” And then Tony Orlando was there and he was singing, you know, “Knock Three Times on the Ceiling If You Hear Me Fall.”

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The Hollywood Reporter readers have a new redesigned iPad option to digest their industry news on a weekly basis.

The entertainment publication unveiled its new THR iPad edition and readers will have free access to the magazine through the Golden Globes preview issue on Jan. 9. Aside from the content you would normally find in the magazine, the app includes interactive features and unseen images from weekly features.

“The new THR iPad edition finally makes reading and experiencing The Hollywood Reporter a true 360-degree experience with incredible entertainment coverage tailored specifically to this format,” said THR editorial director Janice Min. “We’re thrilled that readers will have this rich expansion to THR content every week in their hands for holiday entertainment, awards coverage and beyond.”

Nikki Finke has linked to an old LA Weekly item about Gordon “Gordy” Crawford, a.k.a. “The Pope on Hope [Street],” on the occasion of his imminent retirement. The Capital Group VP is exiting the downtown LA firm tomorrow after 41 years, during which time the firm’s assets grew from $2 billion to $1.1 trillion.

Crawford nurtured close relationships with media moguls and his fingerprints were all over many of the biggest transactions involving the likes of Time Warner, News Corp, DirectTV and Disney. From Finke’s 2003 piece:

Crawford is soft-spoken in a sea of screamers, he’s low-profile in a realm of egotists and he’s nice in a nexus of nasties. Besides, it’s hard to say a harsh word about someone who in 1993 suffered such a profound personal tragedy: the death of his 21-year-old son Brett during a hiking accident in Taiwan while enrolled in a semester-at-sea program. Crawford has told friends: “I’d give up all the money I ever made for one hour with him.”

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Is this taking the post-Newtown massacre media climate a little too far? Some, like Variety film reporter Jeff Sneider, certainly think so.

Sneider is referring to a December 19 article on TheWrap by Greg Gilman. The site sought (and received) comment from This Is 40 writer-director Judd Apatow about whether a line of dialogue that has the grandfather character played by Albert Brooks joking about “murdering” his triplet sons will/should have been removed:

“I wrote this script two years ago. That line is spoken by a sarcastic father kidding with his children,” the director said in a statement to TheWrap. “In light of recent events, I understand if some people might make an unfortunate association or put it in a context in which it was not intended.”

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In the latest episode of “Elevator Pitch,” host Alan Meckler talks with Marissa Evans founder and CEO of “Go Try It On.” It’s an iPhone app that acts like a virtual stylist. Users upload a photo of an outfit they plan on wearing and let their friends and the community respond.

For more videos, check out mediabistroTV, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

The last time the Los Angeles Clippers won eleven straight NBA games, they were called the Buffalo Braves. So it’s no surprise that after Wednesday’s record-tying 11th victory over the New Orleans Hornets at Staples, some unusual activity took place in the locker room of the local NBA franchise not debilitated by a Steve Nash injury.

Per Arash Markazi‘s report on ESPN.com:

Clippers owner Donald Sterling walked into the room with an entourage of about 10 friends who normally occupy the center courtside seats at home games. It was the first time Sterling has entered the Clippers’ locker room this season and the first time many of the new players on the team had even met him.

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Who better to lead a self-proclaimed “Love Mob” than a person with the last name Smiles?

When Preston Smiles took to YouTube at the beginning of December to explain how he would lead a flash mob at Hollywood & Highland set to the street-guitarist accompaniment of The Beatles “All You Need is Love” and “She Loves You,” the horrible Connecticut elementary school tragedy was nowhere on the horizon. But by the time the event day of December 15 arrived, there was a desperate need for such public acts of healing.

With the “Love Mob” video subsequently posted to YouTube, the gathering has begun picking up viral steam. Yesterday for example, it was highlighted in a report on Texas NBC affiliate KTSM Channel 9:

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As Tom Leykis winds down the end of his first year as a Burbank-based Internet radio show host, he’s decided to start his own Christmas tradition. And as with most on-air things the blower-upper inserts himself into, it’s going to be unconventional and abetted by the fact that he’s no longer constrained by the limits of advertiser-supported terrestrial radio.

During the first hour of his Monday, December 24 broadcast stream, he and his cohorts will smoke a couple of joints. From there, it’s anybody’s guess how the rest of the program, which is set to include some Jean Shepherd storytelling, will go. What’s more, Leykis officially announced today that he has decided to stick with the Internet show for at least another year:

“Since Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics started collecting data on September 10, we have surpassed two million tune-ins and this past week, we had the best week ever for The Tom Leykis Show with over on 176,000 connections,” he said.

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This is an excellent fit, in no small part because over the years Jay Mohr has often filled in for the vacationing Jim Rome.

In a few weeks, when Rome officially wraps things up at FOX Sports Radio, the talented comedian and actor will take over Rome’s noon-to-3 p.m.-eastern national time slot. On KLAC AM 570, he will be heard between the PT hours of 9 a.m. and noon. As such, Jay Mohr Sports is sure to up the number of times a channeled Christopher Walken joins in as Monday morning quarterback. From today’s announcement:

Originating from FOX Sports Radio’s Los Angeles studios, Jay Mohr Sports will debut on radio stations nationwide Wednesday, January 2, 2013. “I’m looking forward to talking sports, connecting with listeners and interviewing amazing guests every day, while being a part of the FOX Sports Radio family,” said Mohr. “It was worth the wait…”

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SoCal Connected correspondent Jennifer London, producer Karen Foshay and editor Michael Bloecher have brought home a second Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award for KCET’s nightly news magazine. Their March 16 report “Courting Disaster” highlighted the problems plaguing Los Angeles County’s Children’s Dependency Court, a branch of LA Superior Court that encompasses more than 25,000 children.

Congrats to the rest of the “Courting Disaster” team: executive producers Bret Marcus and Justine Schmidt; videographers Dan Caston, Kenny Gioseffi and Brett Wood. “We are extremely honored to receive a second duPont-Columbia award,” said Marcus. “This type of special long-form reporting is what SoCal Connected is all about.”

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