Author: John McDermott @mcdradio

The Verge has a good read about what artists receive from Spotify. We talked about this one in the class I teach, and the students told me they would just bootleg music if all the streamers charged. Interestingly they have no problem giving Netflix $8.

This week, Amy Schumer, Mike Birbiglia, Brendon Burns, Tim Minchin and one of my favorite cuts of all time, Red Peters’ Holy Shit It’s Christmas.  Enjoy.

Much thanks to Variety for this article!

I’m really excited about this announcement.  Very cool things to come.

UCB Signs Deal to Join DGital Media’s Comedy Voices Audio Network | Variety

And here’s the press release.

DGITAL MEDIA SIGNS EXCLUSIVE AUDIO DEAL WITH UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE

Expands DGital’s Comedy Footprint

New York, NY, November 24 – DGital Media (http://www.dgitalmedia.com) has signed an exclusive audio deal with Upright Citizens Brigade (http://ucbcomedy.com/), the iconic comedy creation of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh, to join its Comedy Voices audio network.

Says Matt Walsh, “I love podcasts – I’ve been doing mine for 9 years.  Digital technology makes them so easy to produce and on-demand is the way people get their entertainment today.”

With this agreement, DGital Media will produce, distribute, market and monetize UCB’s existing audio platform as well as develop new content.  The UCB podcasts will include Hooray Show with Horatio Sanz; Bear Down with Matt Walsh and screenwriter Scot Armstrong; Revenge of the Podcast with comedian Griffin Newman and critic David Sims; and The UCB Digital Podcast which takes you behind the scenes of the comedy business with the writers of SNL’s Weekend Update, Key & Peele and others.

Says DGital Chief Content Officer Chris Corcoran, “We are honored and thrilled to partner with such an influential and important brand in the business of comedy. The UCB is all about creativity, discovery, and influence and it will headline our Comedy Voices on-demand audio platform.”

Adds John McDermott, DGital’s VP of Programming for Comedy, “Upright Citizens Brigade is an iconic brand in comedy and we are so proud to be working with them – and expand our own comedy offering in the process.”

The Comedy Voices network was announced earlier this month along with a partnership with Stand Up NY, an iconic New York comedy club and podcast producer on West 78th Street.

For business inquiries, please contact: Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer at [email protected], 212 680 0151 x 105.

About DGital Media
DGital Media (http://www.dgitalmedia.com ) is an audio engagement company that creates, distributes and monetizes spoken word audio products.  DGital partners with national content producers and brands to extend their audio brands and engage their audiences.  The company is headquartered in Soho, New York, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

About UCB
Upright Citizens Brigade (http://ucbcomedy.com/ ) is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group whose founders are Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh. The TV show, ‘Upright Citizens Brigade,” aired for three seasons on Comedy Central. At that time, UCB opened the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Improvisational and Sketch Comedy Training Center in New York City and then expanded and opened the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Los Angeles. UCB Theatre hosts all kinds of comedy shows including improv, stand-up, sketch, talk/variety, cool weird stuff that defies categorization and more. UCB also runs one of the largest and most respected improv schools in the country.

I’ve somehow avoided owning a car with an HD Radio all these years.  (These days I’m mainly listening to my iPhone connected to the radio of my 2006 Hyduani Tucson via cassette adapter.  It works great by the way.)

I never understood how someone would actually tune to an HD-2.  I would ask fellow Radio Executives how it worked and nobody knew. Finally I have found this video.

Um…seriously? Go two menus down and hope your eye notices the scroll and whatever whatever? Have you met my wife? You think she’s going to find these things?

I wish everyone well. I’m not here to make the nice folks at the Canadian station mad or to dissuade anyone from doing cool programming, but I continue to see HD as a non-starter.

As for the argument that new formats will be innovated – not in the current financial environment. Any programmer who spends five minutes on the HD-3 opens him or herself to criticism from the GM the first time the ratings on the main station go down.  Why are you messing around with that Polka format when we’re down two tenths!  So that leaves us with AM simulcasts and at best Timmy the Intern loading he polka records that none of the adults care about.

So much easier to get in your 2016 and connect your phone via bluetooth.  Or your 2006 car and use that last generation cassette deck.

Nothing to do with radio today, but I did set this up as a “media blog” and video-games sure are media.

I can’t believe I have already had my PS4 for two years already.

I stayed with PS2 for a long time and was very slow to get the three.  A big part of that was the combination of work and having young kids (you don’t find yourself with idle hands with young kids.)

Eventually I got the three and was like, whoa, I waited too long on this.  So I did a year of PS3, and then when the 4 came along I decided I was not making that mistake again.

And the 4 did not blow me away.  I would regularly bounce between systems, playing The Last Of Us (3) or Uncharted (4) and not seeing all that much difference.  Slowly some better games (NBA2K14) came along, but I still wondered about this system.

Then Destiny came along and the system got more use.  Fifa ’16 is leaps and bounds over my first purchase of Fifa ’14 and feels a lot more like soccer.  Great game.

But now, now, we’re at the beginning.

I won’t waste time writing a review (just get it) but this is what I have been looking for.  I spent many hours on this one Saturday evening, tons of fun.  And this week we get the long awaited Star Wars: Battlefront.

I have no idea where I will find time for both, and Destiny, and my player careers on Fifa, still NBA2K15, MLB: The Show, or time to explore Gotham City, but PS4 has finally arrived.

Caught him at Just For Laughs Montreal and enjoyed him a lot.

A year ago, Jon Rudnitsky was a stand-up comic tweeting his sketch videos to just about every online media outlet he could think of. No foul there: most YouTubers with faith in their ideas have done the same. Soon, however, those websites will be covering his every move without any solicitation: it was announced today that Jon is the newest featured player on Saturday Night Live. Quick resume summary: Jon is a 25-year-old comedian from New Jersey and a USC alum. He also won Laugh Factory’s college comedy competition in 2012 and was featured in the New Faces showcase at the 2014 Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. At the moment, there’s not much more we can say about the guy without showing you some of the work he’s done, so we’ve compiled a few of our favorite videos he has starred in and/or written. Take a gander below and let us know in the comments what you think about SNL’s newest cast member. Straight Outta Newport History seems to have forgotten the monumental impact

Source: Jon Rudnitsky is the Newest SNL Cast Member, Here are His Funniest Videos | Nerdist

Amen amen amen.

Not to mention, if people are coming to you for sports, why are you bombarding them with weather reports, stock reports and traffic reports? Are those items sports related? When was the last time you put on SportsCenter, NFL Live, Baseball Tonight or any other sports show and said “damn, I really want to know the weather”?

Source: Are You Willing To Break The Rules? | HOME OF JASON BARRETTS SPORTS MEDIA BLOG

On Réunion Island, where debris believed to be from missing MH370 was found, Radio Freedom is the first port of call, even before police.

Source: On Island Where Airplane Parts Washed Up, Residents Turn to Talk Radio First – WSJ