KZEL radio director locks door, pitches his tent in studio.
Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard It's a ruse, right? A stunt, just a way to get KZEL, Oregon's Classic Rock, back on top of the ratings. Right? "Everybody asks me that," KZEL program director Mark Raney said Wednesday afternoon, taking a...

Greatly exaggerated reports of the death of newspapers.
AFTER THE NEW YORK newspaper strike of 1962 had been running for a month of so, James Reston of the New York Times wrote a famous column for his syndication service that took the form of an appeal to Santa Claus: Please do what you can to...

Your favorite `local' radio host may be in California.
Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard They're right there, coming out of your radio as you drive down Coburg Road - Mark and Brian on KZEL, Oregon's Classic Rock. They're telling you that they're "kinda favorite sons of Eugene," that they went to the high school...

Syndicated show replaces last local talk host.
Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard "What's your take on this?" The familiar refrain from Dan Carlin on KUGN-AM every weekday afternoon is no longer, but the question is now circulating among local listeners of his talk show. Cumulus Media took another swipe at...

Wicked as a step-mother; clever as a crystal ball.
In 1959, the world of animated television changed forever--as the groundwork was laid for future cartoon series like "The Simpsons" and "SpongeBob SquarePants"--with the appearance of a perky flying squirrel and his slow-witted sidekick of a moose. "Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends" was a groundbreaker, using wit, satire, and...

Pro-life columnists: voices in the wilderness.
Cal Thomas has been a friend of the pro-life movement for many years. With a syndicated op-ed column that appears in over 540 newspapers nationwide, he is a widely read advocate for the unborn child. When Cal called me recently to tell me that the Cincinnati Enquirer had dropped...

A diversity of voices in a "vast wasteland".
I believe Newton N. Minow had a crystal ball. In 1961, in his first speech as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC"), he challenged members of the National Association of Broadcasters to: [S]it down in front of your television set when your station goes...

Structural Regulation of the Media and the Diversity Rationale.
Structural regulations of the media--such as the multiple ownership rules--play a useful role in media governance in the United States. Under Chairman William E. Kennard, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has struggled, in a climate unsympathetic to regulation, to keep the basic core of the multiple ownership rules while...

Joint Statement of Sumner M. Redstone Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Viacom Inc. and Mel Karmazin President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS Corp.(*).
Viacom CBS I. INTRODUCTION On September 6, 1999, Viacom Inc. and CBS Corporation agreed to combine the two companies in a merger of equals. Sumner Redstone will lead the new company, to be called Viacom, in his continued role as Chairman and Chief...

In Memory of Frank Ray Rifkin--Renaissance Man Founder, Editor, and Publisher of Nutrition Health Review.
Frank Ray Rifkin was the most amazing person I have ever encountered. Even if he were not my father, I still would have wanted to know him. His range of interests was proportionate to his intellectual fervor, which seemed endless. He harbored an insatiable curiosity about life...