Category Archives: Media

News, Weekly take one, two punch at Mayor Langford

Birmingham’s mayor made the front pages of two of the area’s print publications, though not necessarily for good reasons. The stories result from both The Birmingham News and Birmingham Weekly obtaining copies (warning – it’s a big file) of what has been identified as Larry Langford’s June 2007 testimony to the SEC (no, the other one).

The Birmingham News ran their coverage below the fold of this morning’s paper. Their story focused on the then county commission president’s testimony that he regularly asked recipients of county contracts to give to charities that he was associated with and controlled.

Kyle Whitmire follows up two teases on the Weekly’s blog (here’s the latest one) with a War on Dumb filing (we’ll link when it gets posted) that digs a little deeper into the mayor’s testimony, contrasting it with comments made during the mayor’s inaugural address.

Definitely an interesting time for these stories to break, especially considering some of the heated discussion that took place at Tuesday’s marathon council meeting.

Which leads us to ask: What do you think?

Click on the question to let us know…

Now hear this: Matthews vs. Murphy online

It’s currently one of the featured posts over on Birmingham Weekly’s Mixed Media blog – Kyle’s piece about Frank Matthews’ “exchange”with Matt Murphy on Murphy‘s February 8th broadcast resulting from John Archibald’s* blog post on February 7 about Larry Langford’s mayoral campaign’s media dealings. Now you can hear how it went down.

WAPI-AM has posted the audio from this exchange on-air; listen up and let us know what you think:

http://www.wapi1070.com/getpodcast.aspx?sid=22245&lid=5017&id=581546&source=2&url=http://podcasting.fia.net/5017/2405697.mp3

*Incidentally, I’ll finally get a chance to meet the Birmingham News columnist when he and I join Wade Kwon as panelists at today’s PRSA meeting beginning at 11:45 a.m.

Play 20 Questions to find your candidate

Fox News Candidate Matchmaker screenshotI’ve been on the fence when it comes to the 2008 presidential election. So far my only real opinion has been that the campaigning starts way too early. And I’m not alone. Recent polls by the Mobile Press-Register/University of South Alabama find 33 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of Republicans undecided.

So I was curious when Fox 6 tells me they have a handy-dandy “matchmaker” that will match me with my perfect candidate. With the Feb. 5 primary looming, decisions do need to be made. Though I still don’t think the Alabama results mean anything to the candidates. If it did, we’d see some commercials by now.

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Local TV’s going retro this year

rtn logoWell, at least for those with televisions that can pick up digital signals. Retro Television Network has signed a deal that was announced earlier this morning with NBC 13HD to introduce its station to the Birmingham, AL market during the first quarter of 2008. Continue reading

So what was on the charts in 1970?

The Hits Just Keep on Comin' logoThe writer of The Hits Just Keep on Comin’ stumbled across the answer to that question when he intended to write a post about year-end countdowns. Check out this Madison, WI based blog written by a lifer in the radio business to see just what folks were listening to on WSGN on this date in 1970.

If you’re looking for a slightly more recent list of songs, check out this list of lists compiled by Shawn Avery. Just keep going to the next newest one. He found a lot of them.

We’re kind of wondering the answer to the question of what your favorite song of the year is ourselves… granted we’re still waiting for answers to our request for your vote on the biggest social event of 2007

From the Stationmaster: the boss gets profiled in The News

Yeah, it’s not from the stationmaster, but we knew he’d never post this story about himself on the site, so I’m going to do it for him.

If you happen to pick up today’s Birmingham News and check out the second part of the local section’s front page article about local bloggers, you’ll find a profile on our own André Natta and the site that you’re looking at right now…

So after you give him some grief – or some love – you’ll also want to know that this week’s and next week’s express newsletters will hit inboxes on Thursday instead of today due to the holidays. Don’t forget to sign up on our front page to receive it!

Fox 6 sale may be completed by summer 2008

WBRC neon sign

WBRC neon sign. Photo credit: André Natta

In a follow-up to a story that we first posted about in June, News Corporation announced on Saturday that eight of those stations, including Birmingham’s own WBRC-TV, will be sold to Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity company with offices in Menlo Park, CA, New York, NY and Stamford, CT. The reported amount paid for the eight stations is $1.1 billion – and its completion is of course subject to regulatory approval.

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