Broadcasting

Digital podcasts and streaming video might bring Christian audiences inspirational messages in the future, but they aren't bringing in the cash that broadcast ministries need to weather a painful economy. To make ends meet, religious broadcasters are tightening their belts and going back to basics. That means sticking with time-tested formulas, postponing innovations and counting on loyal (largely senior) audiences to keep donating even when it hurts.

MEMPHIS, Tenn -- Imagine waking up here Monday morning and realizing you really are a loser. And now everyone in the country who watches TNT or ESPN knows you're a loser, your team built on grit, grind and "Believe Memphis," but rolling over like a submissive dog when pressured. I was a Memphian. I worked in this Mid-South sweatbox 32 years ago, never returning until forced to do so now. But I can tell you after all these years the place still smells like no one showers. Elvis is buried here forever and I cannot imagine how upset he must be. The city's highlight is Beale Street, a rundown slab of bars with police running a wand over anyone wanting to enter the area Saturday night.

As a former KNXT staffer, I read with considerable interest "Broadcast News, L.A." However, Channel 2 was not known as KNXT in 1947. As an experimental television station (I believe it was the second in the country), it had been broadcasting since the 1930s as W6XAO, with studios and transmitter atop Mt. Lee in Hollywood, just above the Hollywood sign. When it was licensed for commercial broadcasting (that may have been 1947), the call letters were changed to KTSL, named for Tommy Lee, son of a prominent Southern California auto dealer and owner of KHJ radio.

Anyone can go to their local television station and ask to see how much candidates paid for political advertisements. Now, the Federal Communications Commission wants to put that information online for everyone to see. Entertainment reporter Joe Flint says broadcasters aren't happy about that. He explains why in this video. The FCC is voting on the proposal Friday.   ALSO: Fed upgrades economic outlook Economy adds more jobs, but are they good jobs?

Please, please, please! No women in football broadcasting. We hear enough whiny voices on the evening news. If they want some action, let them get down on the field and play. JOHN LUSK Crestline

A federal appeals court declined to review an earlier ruling that struck down government rules requiring radio and television broadcasters to recruit women and minorities in hiring. The Federal Communications Commission had asked the full Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the April 14 decision by a three-judge panel that threw out the long-standing rules.

Broadcasting executives announced an investment fund Wednesday aimed at spurring ownership of television and radio stations by minorities and women. Led by CBS Corp. chief Mel Karmazin and the head of Clear Channel Communications Inc., Lowry Mays, the industry initiative already has $175 million in cash commitments. Officials said that translates into $350 million in purchasing power available to minorities and women with experience in the industry.

MCI Communications Corp. and Seattle-based start-up Progressive Networks Inc. unveiled a service that for the first time lets companies broadcast live audio and video to large audiences over the Internet. The service, called RealNetwork, uses Progressive's technology to send real-time sound and film over MCI's portion of the global computer network. It will be sold to broadcasters and other companies looking to show events to audiences using PCs.

The Federal Communications Commission abolished the Fairness Doctrine regulating broadcasters six years ago, but the debate that dogged it for four decades continues today, and its advocates are pushing to have the doctrine written into law. Created by the FCC in 1949, the two-part doctrine decreed that radio and television stations have a responsibility to air issues of public importance, and in doing so must provide a "reasonable opportunity" for discussion of contrasting viewpoints.

In one of its most significant actions in years regarding what one commissioner called "an onslaught of on-air smut," the Federal Communications Commission issued a long-awaited policy statement Friday about broadcast indecency standards. The 28-page document, summarizing and explaining how the commission reaches its decisions, includes detailed examples of what the FCC has previously ruled to be unacceptable.

This month, just before the Pennsylvania primary, Mitt Romney's campaign bought a 30-second commercial on CBS-owned KYW-TV Philadelphia that ran during the station's late local news. The ad cost $1,800. That's hardly confidential information. The details of such political advertising purchases are available to anybody willing to schlep to their local television station and ask to see the public files. But now the Federal Communications Commission wants to take that same material, which is required by law to be made available to the public, out of a dusty filing cabinet and onto the Internet.

LONDON - Rupert Murdoch's media empire enjoyed possibly inappropriate contacts with senior British politicians, including the government minister charged with deciding whether to allow Murdoch to take over a lucrative satellite broadcaster, according to evidence at a judicial inquiry Tuesday. James Murdoch, Rupert's son and deputy chief operating officer of News Corp., testified that he had met a dozen times with Prime Minister David Cameron and rubbed elbows with George Osborne, the finance minister, and Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland.

Vin Scully was back in the press box, back telling stories, being modest, laughing, delighting. After being out all week with a cold so severe he was told it was "one click from pneumonia," Los Angeles' great civic treasure returned to the broadcast booth Sunday. Scully had missed five consecutive games, the last four played in near frigid weather. Now that the warm blanket on a cold night for Dodgers fans was back, saying he was humbled by all the attention his absence had caused.

Seconds before showtime, the DJ took his place before the bank of monitors, switches and dials. He took a deep breath, a light flickered on above the door. Waffles was on the air. "It's the best in rock!" he said into the mike. "Let's start things off right!" With that, he kicked off a rollicking two hours on Mt. Rock Radio, the student-run station at Mt. San Antonio College. Howling guitars and heart-pounding percussion pulsed through the airwaves. The spiky-haired host, zinging with frenetic energy, drummed his fingers to the beat and sang along as he worked the boards and set up the playlist — Thin Lizzy, Joan Jett, the Ramones.

Still battling the cold that sidelined him for the Dodgers' first two home games, Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully will miss his third consecutive game Thursday night. The Dodgers are unsure of when Scully will return, said a team spokesman, who described the 84-year-old as "day to day. " In Scully's absence, Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons have called the games on Prime Ticket. Scully missed only his second home opener in his 63 years with the club. Aware that Scully didn't call their 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, Dodgers players wished him a quick recovery.

The Dodgers made history at their home opener Tuesday before a single pitch was thrown. And not the good kind. Sadly, Vin Scully was not in the house. Scully, 84, missed his first home opener in 35 years when felled by a bad cold. PHOTOS: Dodger Stadium's 50th home opener The Hall of Fame broadcaster and Los Angeles icon is broadcasting his 63 rd consecutive season for the Dodgers. The Dodgers said the only other home opener he missed came in 1977 when he was the national broadcaster for the Masters.

King Broadcasting Co. founder Dorothy Bullitt, one of the richest women in America and a pioneer in American television, died Tuesday at her home from heart failure. She was 97. Bullitt, a Seattle native, entered the broadcasting business in 1947 when she acquired a small radio station located in Seattle's Smith Tower. She changed the call letters to KING. King is one of the largest privately held communications companies in the West. The company includes television and radio stations in Spokane, Wash.

A top-to-bottom rethinking of the rules governing AM radio broadcasting--some of them almost 60 years old--was started by the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. Mark S. Fowler, the FCC chairman, said it may be a first step on a road that gets the government almost out of regulation of radio. "At some point, the day will come when we will regulate only technically," he said.

Dear Vin, Greetings from Chavez Ravine, where Dodger Stadium just held a 50th birthday party with a bunch of candles, loads of singing, but no cake. We missed you. You were absent for only your second home opener in 63 years, yet your voice here has never been louder. The Dodgers said you have a cold, yet it's the rest of us who are shivering. The Dodgers said you should return to work in a couple of days, yet it is the rest of us who now feel like calling in sick.

When Vin Scully arrived from Brooklyn with the Dodgers for the 1958 season, he found Los Angeles to be lacking a core. "What was it that Gertrude Stein said about Oakland? She said, 'There is no there there.' " Scully said. "When I came to Los Angeles, all I knew was that it was like 450 square miles. There was no 'there.' I felt Los Angeles did not have a centerpiece. " The opening of Dodger Stadium in 1962 changed that. "In a sense, Dodger Stadium put the 'there' in Los Angeles," Scully said.