Radio Pioneer Hal Jackson is laid to rest

VIEWING;
 WEDNESDAY MAY 30TH 2P-5P AND 7P-9P
FRANK E. CAMPBELL FUNERAL HOME
1076 MADISON AVENUE AT 81ST NEW YORK CITY.
 
FUNERAL;
RIVERSIDE CHURCH; 490 RIVERSIDE DRIVE, HARLEM-11AM

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to
Hal Jackson's Talented Teens International / Youth Development Foundation
1230 Park Avenue, PH-A
New York, NY 10128

EULOGY:
Rev. Al Sharpton  

 

BIOGRAPHY -

Who is Hal Jackson? Mr. Jackson is a popular radio and television personality and one of the most respected men in the communications industry. As a radio pioneer, Jackson has experienced many "firsts" that have assisted in opening doors for other aspiring Black broadcasters, musicians and performers.

What has Hal Jackson accomplished in his 70 years in the communications industry? He was the first Black radio announcer in network radio; the first Black host of a jazz show on the ABC network; the first Black play by play sports announcer on radio in the country; the first Black to host an interracial network television show on NBC-TV; the first person to broadcast from a theater live; organized and owned the first Black team to win the World's Basketball championship; the first Black host of an international network television presentation; was instrumental in acquiring the first radio station owned and operated by Blacks in New York City; the first to broadcast live from New York into Japan; the first New York City radio personality to broadcast three daily shows on three different stations in the same day; the first to broadcast live via satellite from Jamaica into New York and currently hosts a radio program which has been rated #1 by Arbitron continuously in its time slot for over 11 years on 107.5 WBLS in New York.

Jackson has for over 39 years been Executive Producer and Host of his Talented Teens International competition which highlights the intelligence, creativity and talents of young minority women 13 - 17 year of age. The ladies are given the opportunity of displaying their talents and competing for educational scholarships, trips abroad and the opportunity of networking with young women from around the world who are their peers. Past winners and participants are Tammi Townsend, Vanessa Williams and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The list of Hal's honors and awards is long. Among them are being honored by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his fund raising efforts; President Harry S. Truman, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and President John F. Kennedy, Jr. In 1989 Hal Jackson's 50 Years of Broadcasting and his major contributions to youth and charitable causes was acknowledged by Honorable Mervyn M. Dymally of California on the floor of the House of Representatives which has become a part of the Congressional Record. There are two honors that he truly cherishes, in the spring of 1990, Mr. Jackson was honored with being the first Black (or minority) inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and in October of 1995 he was the first Black inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. In November of 1999 Mr. Jackson celebrated 60 years of Broadcasting Leadership with a star-studded event at the Rainbow Room in New York. In 2001 Mr. Jackson was inducted in the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame. Hal Jackson is the creator of the idea to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. Because of Hal’s access to the airwaves, he was instrumental in stimulating the initial movement for the 6.5 million signatures solicited on petitions and letters submitted to Representatives John Conyers and Shirley Chisholm on behalf of creating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday.

This gentle and charitable man has lived a life devoted to sharing his gifts with his fellow man and woman and has always found time to help those less fortunate. It is all depicted in his autobiography “The House That Jack Built” on stands now. Perhaps his career and lifestyle can be summarized by the theme he has chosen for his radio programs -- "It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice."

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Above story and tribute by the Radio homes of Hal Jackson, WBLS / WLIB in New York 

African-American Woman Marissa Alexander Gets 20 Years in Jail for "Standing Her Ground" in Florida

Story by Opposing Views

Written by Michael Allen

In Jacksonville, Florida, Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison for three counts of aggravated assault after firing a warning shot at her ex-husband inside their home on August 2010 (video below).

At the time, Alexander had already taken out a restraining order against her ex-husband, Rico Gray. Earlier that year when he was arrested for physically abusing her.

Alexander, an African-American, said that she fired only a “warning shot” when confronted by her threatening ex-husband.

However, the State Attorney's office said that Alexander was the aggressor, not her husband. State Attorney Angela Brown added that there were two children present at the time of the shooting.

Still, Alexander believed she was protected that day under the state's 'Stand Your Ground Law,' which gives people wide discretion in using deadly force to defend themselves.

Alexander's defense attorney, Kevin Cobbin, wanted a new trial based on 'Florida's Stand Your Ground' law and said that it should have applied in this case, but the judge and jury disagreed.

Circuit Judge James Daniel said that Florida’s '10-20-Life' statutes took away any sentencing discretion out of his hands. The law states that firing a gun during a crime requires a mandatory 20-year sentence.

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown Brown was outraged at the verdict: “How many times have they accepted Stand Your Ground if the person that was asking for it was black?”

State Attorney Angela Corey said she offered Alexander a plea bargan of three years, which Alexander refused.

Alexander's sentencing came 435 days after the shooting. It took a jury 12 minutes to find her guilty.

Chicago: 11 dead, 43 wounded in holiday weekend shootings

Story by Chicago Sun-Times

Eleven people are dead and at least 43 others were wounded in holiday weekend shootings across the city since Friday, including a 7-year-old girl shot while playing in front of her South Side home.

Those killed were:

◆ Ivan Alanis, 13, of the 7400 block of North Western, was shot about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday while eating pizza with his sister and a male acquaintance of the sister at a pizzeria and liquor store in the 5100 block of North Broadway, police said. Another male fired shots into the pizzeria from outside on the sidewalk, He was pronounced dead at 3:16 a.m. at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

◆ Malcolm Dowdy, 33, of the 9600 block of South Euclid, was shot in the head about 10 p.m. Monday while standing with a large group in the 1700 block of East 68th Street, police said. He was pronounced dead at Jackson Park Hospital at 10:25 p.m. A 22-year-old man was also wounded in that shooting.

◆ Marley Collins, 19, was shot in the 1500 block of South Spaulding at 5:36 p.m. Monday. Collins, of the 5000 block of West 18th in Cicero, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital.

◆ An unidentified woman was found shot about 5:30 a.m. Monday in an alley in the 3000 block of South Kostner. A person walking a dog found the woman bleeding from the head and called emergency crews, who took her to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where she died, police said.

◆ Robert McNear, 35, of the 7100 block of South Eberhart, was dead on the scene at 1:20 a.m. Monday in the 5000 block of South St. Lawrence, according to the medical examiner’s office.

◆ Marcus Morgan, 27, died at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County at 3:20 p.m. Sunday after he was shot in head Friday night in the 5300 block of South Justine Street, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

◆ Jaleel Beasley, 19, was shot in the head and stomach in the 2400 block of West Roosevelt Road, police said. He was pronounced dead at 2:34 a.m. Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital, the medical examiner’s office said.

◆ Jeffrey Triplett, 17, was shot about 2:15 a.m. Saturday in the 1500 block of Millard Avenue. Triplett was shot in the lower back and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said. Another 17-year-old boy was wounded in the shooting and was listed in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.

◆ Jaylin Johnson, 18, shot in the head in the 1100 block of South Normal about 10:40 p.m. Saturday. He and a 21-year-old man were wounded while having a conversation on the sidewalk. Johnson, of the 11000 block of South Emerald died early Monday at Christ Hospital while the older man was seriously wounded.

◆ Mario Tempana-Vena, 69, and Lorrie Heidrick, 48, who were found dead with shotgun wounds to their chests at their apartment in the 6500 block of South Kenwood Friday night, authorities said.

A third roommate — 52-year-old Michael Myrieckes — is accused of shooting both during what prosecutors say was a dispute over who could stay at their Woodlawn home.

Since Friday, at least 39 other people have been wounded in shootings throughout the city, police said. Seven separate shootings claimed 13 of those victims during one particularly bloody 90-minute stretch early Sunday that began about 12:45 a.m.

The youngest shooting victim was a 7-year-old girl, who was listed in good condition Saturday night, police said. She was shot about 4:20 p.m. Saturday, when a white four-door car pulled up to a group of boys near the intersection of West 69th Street and South Artesian Avenue and someone inside opened fire.

Police said none of the boys were injured, but a bullet hit the 7-year-old as she played in front of her home on South Artesian Avenue, police said. Paramedics initially took the girl in good condition to Holy Cross Hospital, police said.

Robin Quivers surgery was last Friday for removal of bladder tumor - Robin Quivers is co-host of the Howard Stern Show

Robin Quivers has been Howard Stern’s faithful side-woman since the early 1980s where she began as his newswoman, and proved to be one of few who “got” him on the air, Robin Quivers headed for surgery last Friday, May 25. 

She revealed on Stern’s Sirius XM show May 14th that she has a tumor of 13 centimeters—that’s more than 5 inches—that’s pressing against her bladder. She’s wearing a catheter now.

Quivers understands the severity of the procedure: She’s a trained emergency medical services nurse and served in the U.S. Air Force as a First Lieutenant and Captain.

Stern stated (video above) that he will not do the show without her. Quivers responded, “Oh, don't make me cry.”

Syndication One News-Talk Network's Talk Show Hosts Al Sharpton and Warren Ballentine hit thee OVER ONE MILLION Audience Plateau - Per Show

Rankings compiled by Talkers Magazine

Happy Birthday Miles Davis, and his biography is set for the big screen

Miles Davis

Story by AP

On this date in 1926, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois. In the more than 45 years after his breakthrough with the Billy Eckstine Orchestra in 1944, Davis caused a number of radical changes in jazz.

For instance, his recordings made at the close of the 1940s under the title “Birth of the Cool” set the pattern for jazz on the West Coast for the next decade. Davis’ quintet, with John Coltrane on tenor sax, did its first gig in 1955, and laid the groundwork for countless jazz combos that followed.


In 1968, Davis began the process that eventually brought him to a fusion of jazz and rock in the 1970 album “Bitches Brew.”

After a 1972 car wreck, Davis became a recluse for some years but re-emerged in 1981 with a new album and concert appearances.

Miles Davis died of pneumonia, respiratory failure and a stroke on September 28, 1991.

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Link about upcoming Miles Davis Movie: http://thegrio.com/2011/11/15/notorious-director-to-make-miles-davis-biopic/ 

Radio Legend Hal Jackson dead at 96

Story below by Radio Facts
Washington Post link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/hal-jackson-black-radio-pioneer-and-civil-rights-activist-dies-at-96/2012/05/24/gJQAQScMoU_story.html

“He was an amazing pioneer who opened the doors for black radio announcers to work in radio. He was one of the first black announcers on the air and he was was determined after being told no black person would ever be on the radio.” Stated WBLS PD Skip Dillard a few minutes ago when describing one of the most respected radio legends in the industry.

“Man, this is just too much, I had so much respect for Mr. Jackson he helped me with so many of my acts at J Records like Alicia Keys. He was a pioneer and one of the nicest guys in the industry” Stated independent promoter Ken Wilson.

Mr. Hal Jackson one of the urban radio industry’s last great pioneers and revolutionaries died today, he was 96. Without a doubt his legacy is immeasurable in the urban radio industry.

Industry legend Hal Jackson has died. No further details are available at this moment except to say Mr. Jackson was a radio legend. He helped break the careers of many artists including Alicia Keys.

Early years

Jackson was born in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up in Washington, D.C. where he was educated at Howard University.

Career

Jackson began his broadcasting career as the first African-American radio sports announcer, broadcasting Howard’s home baseball games and local Negro league baseball games.

In 1939, he became the first African American host at WINX/Washington with The Bronze Review, a nightlyinterview program. He later hosted talk show, a program of jazz and blues on WOOK-TV.

Jackson moved to New York in 1954 and became the first radio personality to broadcast three daily shows on three different New York stations. Four million listeners tuned in nightly to hear Jackson’s mix of music and conversations with jazz and show business celebrities.

In 1971, Jackson and Percy Sutton, a former Manhattan borough president, co-founded the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which acquired WLIB — becoming the first African-American owned-and-operated station in New York. The following year, ICBC acquired WLIB-FM, changing its call letters to WBLS (“the total BLack experience in Sound”). As of the late 2000s ICBC, of which Jackson is group chairman, owns and operates stations in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Fort Lauderdale, Columbia, South Carolina, and Jackson, Mississippi.

As of February 2011, nonagenarian Jackson continues to host Sunday Classics on WBLS each Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m., with Clay Berry and Deborah Bolling Jackson, known professionally as Debi B., his wife of 23 years.

In 1990 Hal Jackson was the first minority inducted into the National Association of Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame. In 1995, he became the first African-American inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. He was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 2003. In October 2010 he was named a “Giant in Broadcasting” by the Library of American Broadcasting.

Jackson is the founder of the Hal Jackson Talented Teens Miss International Competition.

Washington Post link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/hal-jackson-black-radio-pioneer-and-civil-rights-activist-dies-at-96/2012/05/24/gJQAQScMoU_story.html 

Robin Quivers surgery date is set

Story below by FMQB
Video above by Sirius/XM and Howardtv
Photo by Michael Stewart

Longtime Howard Stern sidekick Robin Quivers (right) recently revealed that she is slated for an operation to remove a tumor pressing against her bladder. Quivers originally made the announcement last week on Stern's SiriusXM show, with Howard vowing he would quit his show if she wasn't there.

On this Monday's show, Baltimore native Quivers added she has a surgery date scheduled and was seeing a doctor later in the day.

Quivers met Stern in the early 1980s when she was a newsreader during his stint at DC's DC101. Stern and Quivers were heard for many years on the DC area's WJFK.

'Our Voting Group Has Failed,' Says Nominating Committee Chairman

Question: Who is on the voting committee and what is their background, when two artists with multiple number one songs -- music icons more than a decade -- in Disco Queen 'Donna Summer' and the hit making Disco Group 'Chic', are snubbed by the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame members?

Story by Billboard
Written by Marc Schneider
Photo by Getty Images

It's a topic that's hard to avoid when discussing the achievements of Donna Summer, who died Thursday of cancer: Why is the legendary singer not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Longtime member Elton John weighed in almost immediately following the singer's death, calling the snub "a total disgrace." Now, the person in charge of nominations to the Cleveland-based Hall has issued a blunt statement, blaming voters for the "error."

"There is absolutely no doubt that the extraordinary Donna Summer belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," Jon Landau, the chairman of the nominating committee, told the New York Times. "Regrettably, despite being nominated on a number of occasions, our voting group has failed to recognize her -- an error I can only hope is finally and permanently rectified next year."

Summer was nominated for this years's class, but was passed over. Inductees included Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Faces, Guns N' Roses and The Beastie Boys.

The issue with voters could very well be the genre of music Summer is most associated with, disco, which has a quiet presence in the museum. A scan of members reveals only two groups that could be categorized as "disco," The Bee Gees (1997) and ABBA (2010) -- however, both have diverse pop portfolios, much like Summer, who thrived in dance-pop and rock after disco fizzled out in the late-1970s.

Landau is correct in saying Summer "belongs" in the Hall, in terms of popularity, having earned 32 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in her career, with 14 of those reaching the top 10. Her biggest singles include her four No. 1s "MacArthur Park," "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls" and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" with Barbra Streisand. In 1983 she returned to the Hot 100's top 10 with the No. 3 anthem "She Works Hard For the Money."

Other members of the Hall dabbled in disco during their careers, particularly Rod Stewart ("Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"), The Supremes ("I'm Gonna Let My Heard Do the Walking"), The Jackson 5 (as The Jacksons) and The Rolling Stones ("Miss You"), among others.

One dance group that many believe should join Summer soon is Chic, the Nile Rodgers-led band behind hits like "Le Freak" and "Good Times." They've been nominated for inclusion seven times since 2003.

_________________________________________________________________

The group recorded a demo of "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" but couldn't get any label interested in it. Finally Buddah Records released the 12" single and the success made Atlantic Records sign them in the late 1977 and re-release the single, which sold a million copies in its first month.

This first single is also the most important in Nile's opinion - as this was actually the first song with so called sub-bass.

Before "Dance, dance, dance" all bass below 60 Hz had been removed in the mastering process, but in this song Nile and Bernard decided to keep all of it. So this was the first song in which you could hear and feel the speakers in a club rumble with every bass-beat. This was really something completely new and avant garde at this time...

The huge success of the single led to their first album - Chic (1977).

From disco-disco.com, Nile Rodgers talks about Chic's beginning following decent success as a New York bank called 'The Apple Band', later featured with the "Walter Murphy and The Apple Band" and their big disco hit 'Fifth of Beethoven': "The first song we wrote was 'Everybody Dance' and it was the perfect Chic kind of song. The chord changes were real sophisticated, very jazzy, the bass playing was phenomenal, the groove infectious, and we used to play this record over and over again at this black after-work club in New York. Our song, 'Everybody Dance' became one of the hottest cuts in New York but no one could buy it because we just recorded it in our little studio. We realized that the people who were dancing to our music had a certain look. They were all wearing suits and the girls were fine and made up. We looked at them and it was like, 'Damn, what if we looked like that?' 

'Everybody Dance' was pumping in this club for three or four months. At the time Bernard and I were still musicians, working with other people. We would go to this club every night and see the black urban professionals dancing to our music and we decided 'What if we started to look like the people who were relating to our music?' That's how we came up with the idea for Chic. We didn't have any name, we were just doing music. When we looked at the people we said, 'Damn, there's the concept right in front of our faces?'

Read more »

Howard Stern Show’s Robin Quivers to Have Surgery for Tumor

Story by Talkers

The longtime co-host of the Howard Stern program announced to the show’s listeners that she will undergo surgery for a tumor in the near future.

Robin Quivers, Stern’s sidekick since 1981, stated on the Sirius/XM Satellite Radio show that doctors say she has a large tumor pressing against her bladder – whether the tumor is cancerous or not is not known – and that she has a surgery date scheduled.

Cumulus Broadcasting plans more Acquisitions, CEO Lew Dickey Says

CEO Mel Karmazin cashes in his Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's stock

Story by Inside Radio

A chief executive selling 13.7 million shares over three days is uncommon on its own, but with a possible takeover brewing Mel Karmazin’s move is drawing added scrutiny. 

The Sirius XM chief cashed-in stock options valued at $27.2 million this week. Karmazin had alerted shareholders in February he’d sell some options to fund “philanthropic efforts.” Liberty Media has been raising its holdings in the company to gain control.

12 Things You Didn’t Know About Donna Summer

Story by NewsOne

Written by Ruth Manuel-Logan 

 

The “Queen of Disco,” who worked hard for the money,  Donna Summer, ended her battle with breast and lung cancer on Thursday morning.  The diva rose to superstardom in the 70s and 80s with such shake-your-booty dance floor staples as “Hot Stuff,” “Last Dance” and “Bad Girls.” Summer was one of the most influential performers in defining the disco era.

1) Donna Summer’s actual name was LaDonna Adrian Gaines.  She married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer in 1972, then divorced him three years later after he discovered that she’d had an affair with a German surrealist painter. Thereafter, she Anglicized her last name as “Summer.” [Source:   Biography.com]

2) The sultry “Love to Love You Baby” recording artist had six siblings and was raised by staunch, take-no-mess, Christian parents in Dorchester, Massachusetts.  [Source:   Wikipedia]

3) Since disco music was not on the horizon during the sixties, Summer aspired to follow in the musical footsteps of the Motown girl groups of the times.  She formed a group with a cousin and sister and they patterned themselves after the more popular singing groups of the times like The Supremes and Martha Reeves and The Vandellas. [Source:   Wikipedia]

4)  While working as a backup singer for the famed 70′s trio Three-Dog Night, Summer caught the eye of two record producers who helped her secure a deal with a European label.  Summer’s first album, "Lady of the Night" debuting in 1974 had some success in Europe but was never released in the States. [Source:   Amazon.com]

5) “Love to Love You Baby,” Summer’s first mega hit, was actually sung with actress Marilyn Monroe in mind.  Summer thought it would add an interesting dimension to the song’s lyrics if she made sensual sounds throughout the cut, so she had the recording studio’s lights turned off.  The controversial song got banned from several radio stations in the U.S. Time Magazine even dubbed the song “a marathon of 22 orgasms.” [Source:   People.com]

6) Not unlike many artists of the times, Summer battled depression and anxiety, and developed a dependency on prescription drugs that stayed with her for several years.  In her memoir, “Ordinary Girl:  The Journey,” the songstress states that she attempted suicide several times and even experienced a nervous breakdown in 1979. [Source: CNN.com]

7) When AIDS hit the scene in a devastating and still widely misunderstood way in the 80′s, Summer was said to have made some anti-gay remarks that hugely impacted her career negatively.  The diva whose records had been the toast of many gay clubs back-in-the-day had, by this time returned to her strict Christian roots and became born-again.  She was alleged to have said that AIDS was a punishment from God for the immoral lifestyles of homosexuals.  She vehemently denied the allegations but apologized profusely for her delayed reaction in not addressing the accusations promptly. [Source: MetroWeekly.com]

8)  Summer had a recurring role on the 90′s ABC-TV hit comedy show “Family Matters” as the character Steve Urkel’s Aunt Oona. [Source:  TV.com]

9) The first recording artist to receive a Grammy Award for “Best Dance Recording” was Donna Summer in 1998. [Source:  Grammy.com]

10) In 1994, Summer transplanted her family, two daughters, to Nashvile, Tennessee where she took up the soothing pastime of painting. [Sources:  Answers.com and NashvilleLifestyles.com]

11) Summer is the recipient of five Grammy Awards, twelve Grammy nominations, two Golden Globes, six American Music Awards, one NAACP Image Award and was the first African-American female to receive an MTV Video Music Awards nomination.  Although she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she was not selected. {Source:  IMDb.com]

12) Although Summer was viewed upon as a sexy fashionista throughout the disco era, she was actually ridiculed about her looks by her family who, by the way, also made fun of her voice.  [Source:  Wikipedia]

Disco-Famed Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb dies at aged 62

Story by Getty

Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb died today following a lengthy battle with cancer and intestinal surgery, his family said.

In a statement, Gibb's family said they were announcing his death with "great sadness".

The 62-year-old had fallen into a coma earlier this year after contracting pneumonia in his battle against colon and liver cancer.

But after more than a week, he started to make an astonishing improvement - a recovery which sadly has now ended.

Gibb, who had undergone intestinal surgery, notched up dozens of hits with brothers Maurice and Barry - as performers and writers - and sold more than 200 million records.

Robin Gibb - alongside his brothers in the Bee Gees - provided decades of chart hits and helped to turn disco into a worldwide phenomenon with tracks such as Night Fever and Stayin' Alive.

The Bee Gees' song catalogue, which includes Massachusetts, I've Gotta Get A Message To You, Lonely Days, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, How Deep Is Your Love and Stayin' Alive, led to their induction into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

But it will be the group's contribution to the late 70s disco boom - and in particular the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack - which will long be seen as his and the group's most enduring legacy.

Posing with toothy smiles, bouffant hair and tight white outfits on the album's cover, they captured the look of an era. And with their falsetto close harmonies hitched to a new dancefloor-friendly sound, the trio's career was propelled to new heights.

They sang on fewer than half the songs on the soundtrack to the 1977 film, which brought John Travolta to the attention of the film world for his portrayal of a working class boy who lived to strut his stuff.

But as one of the biggest selling albums of all time, it brought recognition for their new direction (two of the songs had featured on earlier albums) and paved the way for the even bigger Spirits Having Flown in 1979.
Spirits, which went on to sell 30 million copies, included songs such as Tragedy and became the group's first and only UK number one studio album.

It was also their first appearance in the UK albums top 40 for a decade.

The new-found reputation of the Bee Gees was far removed from their beginnings as a young trio performing in theatres in Manchester in the mid-1950s.

Robin and his twin Maurice were born on the Isle of Man to English parents on December 22, 1949, three years after their brother Barry.

The trio started out as a child act encouraged by their father Hugh, a band leader, and their mother Barbara, a former singer. They continued performing when the family moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 1958.

They took the name Bee Gees, an abbreviation of Brothers Gibb, signed to the Australian label Festival Records and released a series of singles written by Barry while in their teenage years.

The group were popular and released an album but they failed to top the charts Down Under until they had headed back to the northern hemisphere to try to find success.

Their single Spicks And Specks went to number one in Australia while they were signing a record contract in the UK and their first recording under that deal - New York Mining Disaster 1941, released in mid-1967 - made the top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic.

But the group's first major hit was the chart-topping single Massachusetts, showcasing their ability as arrangers. The brothers soon followed the lead set by The Beatles and Rolling Stones as they embraced experimentation, tackling different styles.

They recorded the album Idea and from it released I Started A Joke and Gotta Get A Message To You, both hits. But the brothers argued over the follow-up album Odessa, released in 1969, and did not record together for 18 months.

Regrouping in 1970, they created their first US number one Lonely Days, and the following year had another hit with How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, covered by soul legend Al Green.

But as tastes and the musical landscape changed, their star slipped and they lost ground.

It was teaming up with producer Arif Mardin - who had worked with Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and many other soul legends - which sowed the seeds for the change in sound.

Jive Talkin' featured on their second Mardin-produced release, the Main Course album, and they went on to continue with the dance groove on follow-up Children Of The World.

It was the group's manager Robert Stigwood who brought them on board for Saturday Night Fever, a film he was producing, and the songs were written in little over a weekend. Disco was already established but the music and the film combined to give it even greater popularity.

But tastes changed once again and as the disco boom ended, so their sales took a hit and the trio became virtually invisible for a few years, concentrating on solo material and producing hits for other artists.

But they staged a comeback in 1987 - almost grand statesmen of pop, despite Robin and Maurice only being in their late 30s - with a new album and a return to the top of the singles charts with You Win Again.

Songwriting for others also yielded numerous chart hits including Dionne Warwick's Heartbreaker, Diana Ross's Chain Reaction and Islands In The Stream for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

"A lot of these songs in our catalogue are still on the radio," Robin said in an interview in 2011. "I can turn the radio on, on any given commercial radio station including the BBC, and hear five Gibb brothers' songs a day - also in America - because of all the other artists we have written for, as well as ourselves."

The family suffered a setback when younger brother Andy - who had his own pop success - died in 1988 from heart failure at the age of 30.

And 15 years later there was further heartache for the family when Maurice died in Miami, due to a complication from a twisted bowel.

Robin found it particularly hard to come to terms with the 2003 death of his twin.

In an interview seven months later, he said: "He was part of the fabric of my life. We were kids together, and teenagers. We spent the whole of our lives with each other because of our music.

"I can't accept that he's dead. I just imagine he's alive somewhere else."

Robin was later to suffer from the same bowel condition which led to his brother's death, leading to his own protracted bout of ill health.

However in 2011 he finished recording his first solo album in seven years, a collection tentatively titled 50 St Catherine's Drive.

In the same year he re-recorded a Bee Gees song for Remembrance Day, the 1968 hit I've Gotta Get A Message To You, with military group The Soldiers in aid of the Poppy Appeal.

Mr Gibb last performed on stage in February, supporting injured servicemen and women at the Coming Home charity concert held at the London Palladium. He had been due to premier his classical work The Titanic Requiem in April with son Robin-John, but the event went ahead without him due to his poor health.

When not touring or recording, he divided his time among his homes in Oxfordshire, Miami and the Isle of Man.

He had a great passion for history and was involved in a campaign to build a permanent memorial in London for the veterans of the Second World War's Bomber Command.

He was married twice, to Molly Hullis, a secretary in the organisation of impresario Robert Stigwood, from 1968 to 1980, then to Dwina Murphy-Gibb, an author and artist. He had two children, Spencer and Melissa, from his first marriage, and a son, Robin-John, from his second.

He was made a CBE in the 2002 New Year's Honours List, along with his brothers.

President Obama Weekly Address: Congress Must Move Forward, Not Back On Wall Street Reform

 

  President Obama discusses the reforms to Wall Street that he put in place to protect consumers and make Wall Street play by the same set of rules -- and calls on lawmakers to finish implementing these reforms so that we can prevent excessive risk-taking and help create an economy that is built to last.

Pastor Marvin Winans Carjacked And Robbed In Detroit

Story by Urbaninsite

Pastor Marvin Winans was robbed and carjacked at a Detroit gas station Wednesday afternoon.
Winans was at a Citgo Gas Station when four men followed him out and assaulted him while he was pumping gas. They punched him and ripped off his pants during the incident. They also took his purple Infiniti QX56.
The license plate number on the vehicle is 0DRT73. Detroit Police are searching for the suspects. Winans was not hurt in the incident.

Disco Queen Donna Summer dies at 63

Donna Summer

Story by Reuters

Photo by Frances Martel

Bio Link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Summer  

Previous Blog Link: http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2009/12/donna-summer-love-to-love-you-baby.html

Queen of disco Donna Summer, famous for her 1970s hits like "Hot Stuff," "Last Dance" and "She Works Hard for the Money," died on Thursday at the age of 63, her publicist said. No cause of death was given but celebrity website TMZ.com said Summer had been suffering from cancer, and died in Florida.

"Early this morning, surrounded by family, we lost Donna Summer Sudano (Born: LaDonna Adrian Gaines on December 31, 1948)  a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith. While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy," the singer's family said in a statement issued through spokesman Brian Edwards. The Boston-born Summer began her career in Germany where she performed in productions of the shows "Hair" and "Porgy and Bess."

Her breakthrough hit was the song "Love to Love You Baby" released in 1975. She later dominated the disco era with the songs "Last Dance," "Hot Stuff" and "Dim All the Lights." http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/2009/12/donna-summer-love-to-love-you-baby.html

In 1983 she scored a massive hit with "She Works Hard for the Money." Summer won five Grammys

Emmis to become WBLS/NY landlord

YMF Media has been looking for a new home for urban AC WBLS, New York (107.5) for several months to cut costs as part of an ongoing bankruptcy reorganization. 

Big Apple real estate can be tough, and when it struck a deal last month with Emmis to combine WBLS with the format of former rival “98.7 Kiss FM” WRKS, it opened the door to merging more than just formats. 

The “Kiss”-infused WBLS could soon occupy its former competitor’s old downtown digs.

Chuck Brown dies: 'Godfather of Go-Go' passes away at 75

Chuck Brown - August 22, 1936 - May 16, 2012

Briefing by WJLA/ABC-TV

Chuck Brown, the legendary musician who is known as the "Godfather of Go-Go," passed away Wednesday,  his daughter confirmed to ABC7's Sam Ford.

Brown's passing comes about a week after the Washington Post confirmed that the musician, considered  the pioneer of Go-Go music, had been hospitalized with pneumonia http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=33772760#editor/target=post;postID=6992839290842933888. 

Brown's 1970 hit, "Bustin' Loose," hit #1 on the MCA charts. The song was later sampled in the 2002 Nelly song, "Hot in Herre." Following the 1970's, Chuck Brown was most known for covering popular funk, jazz, and R&B songs with the go-go beat, and of course, creating his own go-go songs.

He had recently postponed numerous shows due to his failing health.

Bio below by Wikipedia

Chuck Brown (born August 22, 1936 - May 16, 2012) was a guitarist and singer who is affectionately called "The Godfather of Go-Go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed in and around Washington, D.C. in the mid- and late 1970s. While its musical classification, influences, and origins are debated, Brown is regarded as the fundamental force behind the creation of go-go music.

Brown's musical career began in the 1960s playing guitar with Jerry Butler and The Earls of Rhythm, joining Los Latinos in 1965. He still performs music today and is commonly known in the Washington, DC area. Brown's early hits include "I Need Some Money" and "Bustin' Loose". "Bustin' Loose" has been adopted by the Washington Nationals baseball team as its home run celebration song, and was interpolated by Nelly for his 2002 number one hit "Hot in Herre." Brown also recorded go-go covers of early jazz and blues songs, such as "Go-Go Swing" Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing If Ain't Got That Swing", "Moody's Mood for Love", Johnny Mercer's "Midnight Sun", Louis Jordan's "Run Joe", and T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday".

He has influenced other go-go bands such as Big G and The Backyard Band, Rare Essence, Experience Unlimited (EU), Little Benny and the Masters, and Trouble Funk.

The song "Ashley's Roachclip" from the Soul Searchers' 1974 album Salt of the Earth contains a famous drum break, sampled countless times in various other tracks.

In the mid-1990s, he performed the theme music of Fox's sitcom The Sinbad Show which later aired on The Family Channel and Disney Channel.

Brown is considered a local legend in Washington, D.C., and has appeared in television advertisements for the Washington Post and other area companies. The D.C. Lottery's "Rolling Cash 5" ad campaign features Chuck Brown singing his 2007 song "The Party Roll" in front of various D.C. city landmarks such as Ben's Chili Bowl.



Brown resides in Brandywine, Maryland. He has 2 sons Wiley and Nekos Brown. Wiley is a gifted musician and football player at Virginia Tech. His son, Nekos, was a defensive end/linebacker for the Virginia Tech football team. While his son was in college, Brown scheduled concerts and other appearances around the Hokies home schedule to ensure that he would never miss a game, and became a fixture at Lane Stadium. Following the Virginia Tech massacre, Brown stated in an interview that he was "absolutely devastated" by the tragedy, and cried every day for two weeks. In shows that followed, Brown would pause for a moment in prayer for the victims and their families before beginning his performance, and dedicated several shows to their memory.

Brown was the subject of the cover article in The Washington Post Magazine on October 4, 2009, entitled Chuck Brown's Long Dance. He received his first Grammy Award nomination in 2010 for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for "Love" (with Jill Scott and Marcus Miller), from the album We Got This.



Since the early 1970s, Brown has exclusively played a blonde Gibson ES-335, which is affectionately referred to as his "Blondie."

On September 4, 2011, Brown was honored by the National Symphony Orchestra, as the NSO paid tribute to Legends of Washington Music Labor Day concert - honoring Brown's music, as well as Duke Ellington and John Philip Sousa - with a free concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol. Brown and his band performed capped the evening with a performance.

Defense rests without calling John Edwards or Rielle Hunter

Story by MSNBC

Written by M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

Lawyers for former Sen. John Edwards rested their case in his campaign finance corruption trial Wednesday morning without calling Edwards or his onetime mistress, Rielle Hunter.

Read more »

ESPN Radio Unveils New App for iPhone, iPad and iTouch.

Announcement via Talkers Magazine

The sports entertainment giant announces it is releasing a new ESPN Radio app touting it as its “single, most definitive ESPN Radio app optimized for iPhone, iPod touch and – for the first time – iPad. 

The app, sponsored by Lowe’s, creates a seamless, personalized sports listening experience both live and on demand and includes a new feature that allows fans to build their own sports stations.

Additionally, fans now have the option to rewind live audio streams, including ESPN Deportes Radio.”  ESPN digital and print media vice president Marc Horine says, “With this update, fans now have complete control over their listening experience as the app provides the functionality to customize specifically by sports, teams and athletes they care most about."

Review of Steve Coll’s ‘Private Empire’: How ExxonMobil bent Washington to its will

Story by Washington Post
Written by Moisés Naím 

"Private Empire" is a big book about big oil, big money and big government. 

It chronicles how ExxonMobil — the energy behemoth that recently displaced Wal-Mart atop the Fortune 500 list, with more than $450 billion in revenue — operates in failed states, keeping the oil flowing when no one else can, and how it handles hapless bureaucrats charged with regulating it, scientists challenging it, rival companies trying to outsmart it and activists bent on changing it.

It is also a book about one idiosyncratic man — Lee “Iron Ass” Raymond — who was chief executive of the company from 1993 to 2005.

 The global marketplace was remade during those years. The Soviet collapse had unleashed a wave of deregulations that opened markets to foreign investors. Asia, especially China and India, began a rapid ascent, fueling a global economy that posted unprecedented growth and booming stock markets. At the same time, the world gained heightened awareness about environmental damage caused by fossil fuels, while terrorism, war and all kinds of domestic political upheavals became common.

The impact on the corporate world was mixed. Most of these transformations boosted profits, but their speed and complexity created volatile conditions for business. And a company such as ExxonMobil is allergic to volatility.

“Exxon’s investments in a particular oil and gas field could be premised on a production life span of forty or more years,” writes Steve Coll. “During that time the United States might change its president and its foreign and energy policies at least half a dozen times.” Overseas it is even worse, with coups and revolutions and violence even more common.

“We see governments come and go,” Raymond once remarked, with considerable understatement.

So can a powerful corporation wield enough influence to evade and manage global volatility, and make it work on its behalf? In the case of ExxonMobil, it can, and with great success. “The corporation’s lobbyists bent and shaped American foreign policy,” writes Coll, “as well as economic, climate, chemical and environmental regulation.”

Video of interview with author Steve Coll by Democracy Now

Getting the story of how it did so is the goal of this ambitious book. Coll, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a former managing editor of The Washington Post and now a New Yorker staff writer, has a knack for prying open closed institutions. His book "Ghost Wars" chronicles the CIA's involvement in Afghanistan pre-9-11, while his book "The Bin Ladens" painstakingly documented the saga of that family. In a recent interview with Texas Monthly magazine, Coll asserted that “reporting on Exxon was not only harder than reporting on the bin Ladens, it was harder than reporting on the CIA. . . . They have a culture of intimidation . . . they make people nervous, they make people afraid.”

Yet, ExxonMobil has met its match in Coll, an elegant writer and dogged reporter. More than 400 interviews, thousands of pages of previously classified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, obscure court records and careful scouring of WikiLeaks documents provide the foundation of a fascinating story of how corporate power is exerted at the highest levels and across the globe. 

Coll traveled to Indonesia, Nigeria, Chad, Russia, Equatorial Guinea, among other places, as well as ExxonMobil’s headquarters in Irving, Tex., and, of course, Washington, the city where the company’s influence is as pervasive as it is effective.

While for most of its history Exxon was an international company — after all, large oil companies need to follow geology wherever it takes them — in the 1990s its global reach grew, and its ties to its home country became even more tenuous. 

While “Exxon benefited from the new markets and global commerce that American military hegemony now protected,” writes Coll, “Exxon’s far flung interests were at times distinct from Washington’s.” Raymond, the chief executive, “did not manage the corporation as a subordinate instrument of American foreign policy; his was a private empire.” Raymond put it even more bluntly: “I am not a U.S. company and I don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the U.S.”

The wholesale freeing of world markets that started in 1989 and boosted Exxon’s fortunes coincided with an accident that, in Coll’s view, helped the company by forcing internal changes that gave it an edge in the emerging competitive landscape: the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This environmental catastrophe, in which hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude spilled into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, was also a public-relations disaster, sinking the company’s reputation from the sixth most-admired in America to the 110th.

Raymond, then the company’s second-ranking executive, coordinated the response. As he learned the extent of the problem and the chaotic way in which his organization and the government agencies were dealing with it, he became “horrified and to an extent devastated.” Even his wife told him that “it’s the first time I have ever been embarrassed that we work for Exxon.”
 
Among the long-term changes Raymond introduced was “a financial audit and risk management system designed to identify and root out managers who cut corners, massaged revenue reporting or fiddled with expense accounts.” 

Raymond, who earned his “Iron Ass” nickname for his tendency to badger terrorized staffers, would fire people over the smallest expense irregularities. “Employees who found themselves on the receiving end of Raymond’s ridicule sometimes referred to him darkly as ‘the Lip,’ ” Coll writes, a reference to a childhood cleft palate.

Raymond’s reforms “would turn one of America’s oldest, most rigid corporations into an even harder, leaner place of rule books and fear-inspiring management techniques,” Coll explains.

http://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/1594203350#reader_1594203350

The introspection and internal reforms triggered by the Valdez spill, plus the new markets in oil and gas that opened up around the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union, propelled the company to new heights, with revenue and profits multiplying to record levels. By 2005, the company’s profits reached $36.1 billion, more than any corporation had ever made before.

The company’s size, its profits, internal discipline and the critically important product it sold — energy — gave ExxonMobil inordinate power, which it used ruthlessly. “Compromise was not Exxon’s way” Coll states wryly.

That conclusion is borne out by Coll’s detailed examination of many instances where the company had to confront rivals, critics, governments or any group it felt could threaten it. A classic example was the company’s successful lobbying of the U.S. Congress to continually change obscure provisions in the tax code that would yield billions in savings. “A sardonic line among ExxonMobil lobbyists in the Washington office held that the corporation’s number-one issue of concern was taxation; its number two-issue was tax; its number-three issue was tax; and its number four-issue varied from year to year,” Coll writes.

The number-four issue that quickly became as important as taxes — and that did not change from year to year — was ExxonMobil’s crusade against efforts to lower carbon emissions. The company aggressively fought initiatives aimed at slowing the increase of global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels. It did everything from funding congressional campaigns to supporting think-tanks, “climate coalitions” and so-called experts who would spread doubts about the science behind global-warming concerns.

It did not matter that these “experts” were often not climate scientists, Coll notes. “The books authored by members of this movement included titles such as ‘Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception To Keep You Misinformed’ and ‘The Global Warming Deception: How a Secret Elite Plans to Bankrupt America and Steal Your Freedom.’ ”

At the 2000 annual meeting of ExxonMobil shareholders, an activist confronted Raymond and demanded a long-term solution to global warming. “If the data were compelling I would change my view,” Raymond responded. “Ninety percent of the people thought the world was flat. No?”
 
Raymond then asked an aide to show “the slide on the seventeen thousand scientists.” On a wide screen, a slide appeared showing a petition signed by thousands of supposed scientists casting doubt on the consensus on the issue. The problem, explains Coll, was that “the petition’s credibility had already been undermined by testimony presented to Congress demonstrating that its signatures included those of pop musicians such as the Spice Girls and James Brown. If Raymond knew about these problems, he did not care.”

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Steve Coll, winner of a 2005 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction for Ghost Wars and 1990 Pulitzer for explanatory journalism, is president of New America Foundation, and a contributor at The New Yorker magazine. Previously he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and senior editor at The Washington Post, serving as the paper's managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is the author of seven books, including The Deal of the Century: The Break Up of AT&T (1986); The Taking of Getty Oil (1987); Eagle on the Street, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the SEC's battle with Wall Street (with David A. Vise, 1991); On the Grand Trunk Road: A Journey into South Asia (1994); Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin ...

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ExxonMobil deployed all its resources and political prowess in the global warming battle and other environmental debates. “Whether the subject was the damage caused by oil and gasoline spills, climate change, the safety of chemicals . . . or other critical matters involving public health and the environment, the corporation joined directly in scientific controversies to protect its interests,” explains Coll. “It contracted with academic scientists, and it brought staff scientists out of ExxonMobil laboratories to lobby Congress and regulatory agencies. ExxonMobil’s science bore all the hallmarks of the corporation’s worldwide strategy: It was well funded, carried out by highly competent individuals, unrelenting in its focus on core business issues and influenced by the litigation strategies of aggressive lawyers.” The nagging question for those on the receiving end of these efforts, he writes, “was whether the corporation’s science could be judged honest.”

“Private Empire” also details ExxonMobil’s adventures in dealing with a guerrilla war in Indonesia; cozying up to Middle East oil sheikhs; arm-wrestling with strongmen such as Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago; its links with the Bush White House, including Raymond’s close friendship with vice president Dick Cheney; the 1999 merger between Exxon and Mobil; and its entry into the natural gas boom created by the widespread adoption of the controversial new technology called fracking. And much, much more.

Each instance is exhaustively researched and reported, highlighting Coll’s strenuous effort to provide evenhanded and fair reporting of ExxonMobil’s behavior. Yet his reporter’s instincts to stick to the facts and let readers interpret their meaning is one weakness of this otherwise extraordinary book. 

After almost 700 pages, we still don’t know what Coll explicitly thinks about corporate power and its political influence or what ideas he has about curbing the excesses that he so lucidly reports. His monumental undertaking surely left him with precious lessons and insights, but readers will have to distill them without the author’s help.

In the Texas Monthly interview, Coll offers one of his most revealing personal opinions: “ExxonMobil does follow the law, I think,” he said. “I’m persuaded that they really stay inside the lines.”

Of course, it is easy for a company to stay inside the lines when, as this book shows, it is drawing them itself.

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bookworld@washpost.com

Moises Naim, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is a former minister of trade and industry of Venezuela.

ExxonMobil and American Power
By Steve Coll
Penguin Press. 685 pp. $36