ATTY: NOVA M FOLDS

Report: Co-founder Sheldon Drobny Attempts Suicide

Liberal talk network Nova M Radio has been shut down, according to the attorney for Randi Rhodes, Robert V Gaulin of New York. This also brings Mike Malloy's syndicated program to an abrupt end as well, at least for now (update below: Malloy's camp is denying this will affect his show, All Access reports a new firm may assume this role).

Randi Rhodes’ on-air home for less than a year will shut its doors. In an email message of February 17th from counsel for Nova M Radio, Inc. to Randi’s entertainment attorney, Robert V. Gaulin, the company is said to have been advised to file for bankruptcy protection next week. All payroll deposits were reversed on Tuesday, leaving Nova’s employees unpaid for the past two weeks.

On Sunday, Nova received a letter from Mr. Gaulin asserting that the contract with Ms. Rhodes was terminated due to material breaches and other reasons. Ms. Rhodes had not broadcast for over a week prior to this time, a situation which was diplomatically referred to as a “problem” that was solely within Nova’s control to solve. A few days earlier, Sheldon Drobny, founder of Nova M, and a co-founder of Air America Radio, attempted suicide and is hospitalized in Chicago.
Mr. Gaulin indicated on Randi’s behalf that “We saw this coming, but are most saddened by the tragic news regarding Sheldon Drobny. Randi is devastated by the impact of these events upon her fiercely loyal audience, affiliates and sponsors.
Discussions are already being conducted for Randi’s swift return to the air. Stay tuned…”

Thank you

Robert V. Gaulin
GAULIN GROUP PLLC
COUNSELORS AT LAW

Beyond Nova M, Anita and Sheldon Drobny are well-known Democratic Party fundraisers inside Chicago's machine politics. Before this venture, they founded Air America Radio and had since hired away two of its former hosts, Rhodes and Malloy.
It's not clear whether any of NovaM's programs will continue to broadcast. Rhodes has already been away for well over a week and her website has been completely shut down.

Mike Malloy's producer - wife has issued a strong denial of indications it will affect his program:


"This also brings Mike Malloy's syndicated program to an abrupt end as well, at least for now."

Kathy Malloy here. Randi Rhodes' lawyers have no information about our broadcast status. Our program is most definitely NOT coming to an abrupt end, now or in the future. This is completely untrue. We have intact and continuing affiliate relationships that may be harmed by this lie on your website. I strongly suggest you remove it now.

Kathy Bay Malloy
Executive Producer
The Mike Malloy Show
www.mikemalloy.com

Drobny confirms that Malloy has found a way to continue broadcasting. Meanwhile, Rhodes flagship WJNO in West Palm Beach has temporarily substituted Sean Hannity's program in the afternoon slot due to the absence of her program.

As I have pointed out a few times now, "Air America" has been slowly dying for a long time now. I don't see how they are relevant to "progressive talk" radio any longer. Here in Portland, KPOJ will be broadcasting only 2 hours/day of AAR programming (a few more late in the evening) once Hartmann leaves in March. That 2 hours should be easy to fill.

Sounds like Malloy is still on the air and Rhodes will be back sooner or later, though I personally wouldn't miss her. And those are the only two shows Nova-M was syndicating anyway.

Radio Havana or Radio Moscow might be left of Airhead America??

als0 KGO?

Air America going out of business? Hot damn, the Democrats must have won the White House.

Regardless of your personal politics, these shows are better ran by radio people than by political fans... Let Premiere, ABC and the rest take the best hosts and syndicate them..

Its about time. When is 620 changing its format?

A good guess would be, when 800 changes format.

Wayne: Do you know when this will happen?

"The 12th of Never?"

Malloy is hate speech radio. His show needs to be off the air.

I'd love a Mike Malloy/ Michael Savage debate/cage match. They're both kooks from opposite sides of the spectrum. Personally, even though he expresses a lot of anger, I think Malloy spews less hate for others than Savage. But that's just me.

Rumor has it smooth jazz will soon make a return to PDX in full-fidelity amplitude modulation.

1lossir
You just said that to tease Wayne.

say no to jazz!!say yes to oldies in stereo!!say no to AA!!

Have the two Mikes do a coal miners cage match. ala Dutch Savage and the old Pdx wrestling. LOL.

The "Battle of the Mikes" idea is pretty funny. I'd tune in for that. But, seriously, any thoughts on how prog talk will fare in the Obama era....I've noticed Ron Reagan doing more hours on topics that aren't blatantly political...is there likely to be more of that?

>>1lossir
You just said that to tease Wayne.<<

Nah - why would I do that?

Besides - SJ would probably do a LOT better on 620 than playing the hits of the '50s and '60s once again...

Well, there is Progressive Democratic as opposed to older school corporate Democratic, or blue dog moderate Democratic.

Lots to talk about, IMHO.

Besides - SJ would probably do a LOT better on 620 than playing the hits of the '50s and '60s once again...
remember the format was on 620 for too short of a time. Why wouldn't it work again? nobody knew about it.I say have smooth jazz on fm. Maybe on a non commercial station. Who wants to hear commercials anyway?

I've mentioned before that anything before about 1962 is really vague for me and I'm out of all the salable demos. I'm also a "radio guy", which means most people my age probably don't go back that far. I'm surprised we're still hearing the mid-60s. Don't expect to, much longer.

Cmon Semoochie, you and I were about 8 in 1962, eh?

I got my first transistor radio for my 7th birthday.

Wasn't that a great day?

>>I'm surprised we're still hearing the mid-60s. Don't expect to, much longer.<<

I wouldn't count on that.

The '60s were a time of big changes in the world. Many post-'64 groundbreaking songs are timeless and will be played well into the future.

Semoochie- Yes it was. Then I got a "record player" the next year. I was pretty well hooked.

http://feedback.pdxradio.com/discus.cgi

The number 4 station in Portland is going off the air?

Come on, it's happening every where in the world, the economy has hit a hole and now we find out that for the last few decades the "air" sales people were more conserned about having a few "advertise regular" clients to give them a good base on their commission.

Rather than get rid of on air staff the national boys should hire better traffic people to make sure the ads get on the air at proper times.

Also make the accounts I listed above house accounts with no commission. Then there would be enough money to run every station in the US and then what's left of the sales people can bring in new accounts and receive a 50% commission. The "Good" ones will survive, but I believe they are not out there based on my experience.

Also don't you sales people believe your stealing from the company when you barter for lower ad rates, but have the advertiser provides you personally with discounts (free dinners, tickets, etc.) to get those lower rates, and then you turn around and then not report these items as barter income?

I would name names, but there would be several people no longer working in radio sales any longer if I did.

"I got my first transistor radio for my 7th birthday."
Gee, I got my first "portable" radio when I was about 10 and had a morning paper route. The thing was about 8" long, 5" high, and 2" deep. It had, I think, 5 tubes. Transistors were still just an idea at the time. Al Priddy was still playing music on KEX when I went out to pick up the papers. Eventually, KKEY signed on and played music. There were no headphones for portables back then. You tied it to your handlebars and turned it up at 5AM. Elvis was singing Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog. Bill Haley, Little Richard, and Pat Boone were the other big names at the time.
Yes, those were the days.......

"The thing was about 8" long, 5" high, and 2" deep"

RCA B411? One of a handful of tube portable radios that small:

http://www.tompolk.com/radios/rcatube.html

Indeed, those were the days.......

my first "portable" radio when I was about 10 and had a morning paper route. The thing was about 8" long, 5" high, and 2" deep. It had, I think, 5 tubes.

Did it run on 2 of those 67.5 volt "B" batteries?

I remember back when I was in 2nd grade (probably about 1962 or 63) some kid brought in an electronics "kit" for show and tell.

One thing I remember was that he showed us that if you took the 9 volt battery and put it on your tongue, you could feel the voltage!

A couple of days later, I was at our local drug store and while walking around I went by the battery shelf and remembering what the kid in class showed us, I grabbed a battery and, hey it had snaps on it like the 9 volt, and, and, and the nice lady was looking at me laying on the floor asking me if I was OK!!!

That hurt!!!

KXL is going classic oldies!

"Eventually, KKEY signed on and played music."

Jimbo: If I know you, when you mentioned KKEY you were thinking KHFS but maybe couldn't remember the original calls.

I think I found your "Huffy-RadioBike":

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/gimages/radiobike.jpg

http://www.nostalgic.net/arc/bicycles/1957%20Huffy%20Radio%20Bike%203.jpg

LOL@Skybill!

I had one of those batteries for a while. Lots of little cells inside. Seemed dangerous.

My first radio was a transistor deal. Loved it. Ran on a few C batteries. Ran a long time too.

My favorites are the older tube models though. AM and Tube radios just go together perfectly.

(shoulda never sold all those tube models I fixed as a kid!! They are big $$$ now!)

"Did it run on 2 of those 67.5 volt "B" batteries?"

To be honest, I don't really recall what batteries were in it but it wasn't the normal A-D or 9V battery. It was not as big as a lantern battery but it was similar, I think.

Thanks for those pics, Craig. I do remember some bikes with built in radios but no, I did not have one. I had your basic one gear Schwinn. Anything with more than one gear, we called an English Racer. I don't remember the brand of the radio but it was not an RCA.

I still have my original transistor radio somewhere in the house. I think it is buried at the bottom of one of my nightstand drawers. It used a 9V battery and had a "leatherlike" case. It was small. In fact, I have two around here somewhere. You know me, Craig. I generally don't throw anything out. I still have the radio from my 65 Impala in the garage. It was one of those things I kept when the car got totalled in 1971. Great AM radio section. High sensitivity, as GM Delco radios were.
I am not that old. It was KKEY at the time. This was 1956-57.

Jimbo: You're right on the line. KHFS became KKEY June 28, 1957.

Craig, I did not remember the exact date but I remember I was going to South Powellhurst School at the time and mid-late 1957 works. At that time frame, it was quiet at 6AM and you scanned the radio dial for anything that sounded interesting.

> You tied it to your handlebars and turned it up at 5AM.

Years ago, I remember seeing, every now and then, some ingenious person finding a way to attach a radio or cassette player (I grew up a few decades later than some of you) to a bicycle for music on-the-go. In today's more safety-conscious society, this has become a no-no. I mentioned the idea to a former co-worker who had been an avid bicyclist for many years, and he recommended against it, saying that for safety, it is important to be able to hear as much of the traffic sounds as possible. Wearing headphones or earbuds while on a bicycle is a definite no-no that I wouldn't even think of trying (Anyone remember the Pixies' song "Ed is Dead"?).

By the way, once again, we are way off topic!

We've just done the impossible: We've taken a political topic and turned it into one about radio!

Around 1968 I made a proto-Walkman by adapting a cheap pair of stereo headphones (then about $10, from Lafayette) to a Monkey Wards "pocket" FM portable.