Broadcasting

In an annual rite known as Upfront Week, NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and the CW just presented their lineups for the 2012-13 TV season to advertisers in New York. The ceremonies took place in some of the city's most august concert Halls (Carnegie, Avery Fisher, Radio City Music) over four days. The broadcast companies introduced only 20 new series for the fall (down from 27 last season). NBC led the pack with six new shows. Fox and the CW had half that many. Like it or not, an awful lot of familiar faces will be returning in the fall.

John B. Roberts, 94, founder of the Temple University radio station, WRTI-FM, in 1953 and a teacher of communications at Temple from 1946 to 1988, died Thursday, March 8, of a spinal infection at his home in the retirement community of Rydal Park. Mr. Roberts was also the weekend news anchor at WFIL-TV (Channel 6) from 1952 to 1972, according to the website of Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, which named him its person of the year in 1987. Paul Gluck, a former TV executive now on the Temple faculty, said Friday: "For people like me, who worked as practicing journalists and transitioned into the academic world, he is a near-perfect role model.

HE WAS basically a West Philly kid who never really forgot the life of the corners and the playgrounds and the camaraderie of the streets. But Steve Fredericks rose from that environment to become one of Philadelphia's best- known sportscasters, who raised sports broadcasting above the ordinary with his wry humor and his erudition. "Live," he'd open his "Sports Line" show, "from the palatial, but not overly ostentatious, studios of WCAU Radio . . . " "That's not normal sports language," said Bob Gelb, Steve's producer at the time.

It was nearly 11:30 on a Tuesday morning, and WYSP disc jockey Debbi Calton was well into her on-air shift, sitting in a studio chatting with listeners before playing the next set of rock music. Her smooth voice, amplified, commanded notice inside the fourth-floor studio at One Bala Plaza in Bala Cynwyd. It gained a wider audience, though, by traveling an electronic path from the studio to the rooftop, then out over trees and rooftops to a transmitter in Roxborough 2 1/2 miles away.

Let's put it bluntly: The weapon of choice in the dirty campaign against public broadcasting is the Big Lie. When Sen. Larry Pressler blathers, "Don't let anybody say that we're trying to kill public radio and public broadcasting . . . we just want to privatize it," that is a Big Lie. There is private broadcasting and there is public broadcasting. There is no such thing as private public broadcasting. Public broadcasting is noncommercial, with limited, noninterruptive, on-air acknowledgments of contributors.

I have been a broadcasting talent for 12 years and an executive in management for six years, also in broadcasting. I possess solid skills in many areas of radio station operation. However, I wish to move on either to something on a higher plane in broadcasting or preferably to another industry. How do I market myself to make a career change? How do I find a new career? - P.U.P., Philadelphia First, try to parlay your accumulated broadcasting experience into something bigger in the same field.

His broadcasting philosophy is one that any Philadelphia fan of any sport can relate to: "Broadcasting to me is like the two of us sitting in a living room watching the game and talking about it, without the cursing. " It is part of the reason Whitey Rigsby has become as recognizable a face in Villanova basketball lore as Rollie Massimino, Jay Wright and anyone else who has ever been a part of it. Saturday, for the second time in his career, Rigsby will be calling a national semifinal game that features his beloved Wildcats, who face North Carolina (CBS3, approximately 8:40 p.m.)

Television was still in its infancy in the 1950s, experimenting with images and sounds, when Lionel J. Monagas found himself a place behind the scenes as a traffic typist with a CBS affiliate in Washington. It was a time when African Americans were rarely seen in front of or behind the camera, but Mr. Monagas, 70, spent his life trying to change that. He died Sunday of cardiac arrest at Abington Memorial Hospital. Mr. Monagas continued to work behind the scenes during his long career in broadcasting, but he used his increasingly influential positions to inform and empower other African Americans seeking jobs in the media.

Jack "Goose" Givens never played in the Olympics, but he'd sure like the chance to broadcast at them, as early as 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. "It was always a dream of mine when I was playing, to win a gold medal," said Givens, who is best remembered for his 41-point performance in Kentucky's 1978 NCAA championship game victory against Gene Banks and the Duke Blue Devils. "But that's kind of tough when you graduate two years after one Olympics (1976) and two years before the next.

I have a small proposition to make: If the media insist on stripping people in public office (and their families) of every last scrap of personal privacy, it's only fair that the people who do the broadcasting should come clean as well. In fact, I think we should pass a law requiring it. If such a law were already on the books, a typical TV network news broadcast during the last week would have sounded something like this: Trumpets: TV news theme song. Announcer: And now, we interrupt this program to bring you this ZBC Special Report.

Comcast Corp.-owned NBC Sports will broadcast Olympics events on the cable channels CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo, in addition to the 24-hour NBC Sports Network. MSNBC, in a ratings battle with Fox News and CNN, will air 155.5 hours of wrestling, badminton, basketball and other Olympics events. CNBC will air 73 hours of men's and women's boxing, and Bravo will carry 56 hours of tennis between July 28 and Aug. 3 — Bob Fernandez

The Flyers are ending their longtime affiliation with WIP and jumping over to 97.5 FM The Fanatic beginning next season. The move comes just days after the Sixers abruptly ended their relationship with WIP and moved over to The Fanatic for postseason games. The Fanatic will be the flagship station, along with simulcast AM station 950 WPEN Radio. Several Flyers games will also be broadcast on WMMR (93.3-FM). "We're thrilled to be working with a partner that is 100 percent committed and excited about the Philadelphia Flyers," Comcast-Spectacor president Peter Luukko said in a statement.

When Lew Klein started working in broadcasting, Harry S. Truman was president and television was not yet a household word. After a career that has run the gamut from producing and directing pioneering TV shows such as American Bandstand, to being part owner of a string of television stations, to educating broadcast students for more than a half-century, Klein, 84, has donated his papers to Temple University. The collection spans most of the history of television.

HE WAS basically a West Philly kid who never really forgot the life of the corners and the playgrounds and the camaraderie of the streets. But Steve Fredericks rose from that environment to become one of Philadelphia's best- known sportscasters, who raised sports broadcasting above the ordinary with his wry humor and his erudition. "Live," he'd open his "Sports Line" show, "from the palatial, but not overly ostentatious, studios of WCAU Radio . . . " "That's not normal sports language," said Bob Gelb, Steve's producer at the time.

John B. Roberts, 94, founder of the Temple University radio station, WRTI-FM, in 1953 and a teacher of communications at Temple from 1946 to 1988, died Thursday, March 8, of a spinal infection at his home in the retirement community of Rydal Park. Mr. Roberts was also the weekend news anchor at WFIL-TV (Channel 6) from 1952 to 1972, according to the website of Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, which named him its person of the year in 1987. Paul Gluck, a former TV executive now on the Temple faculty, said Friday: "For people like me, who worked as practicing journalists and transitioned into the academic world, he is a near-perfect role model.

WASHINGTON - The historic U.S. Supreme Court battle over President Obama's signature health-care legislation - with 51/2 hours of arguments planned over three days on a matter that affects every American and may influence the 2012 elections - will test the justices' refusal to allow live broadcasts of their proceedings. Lawmakers and media organizations are pressing for live television coverage, or failing that, live audio, in a case that will determine whether the government can require people to obtain insurance.

The Rev. B. Sam Hart, 80, founder of The Grand Old Gospel Hour, who began to spread his message in the 1970s and 1980s through the Phoenixville radio station he owned, died Thursday, Jan. 19, of complications from dementia at Edgehill Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Glenside. A son, Tony, president of the Grand Old Gospel Fellowship in Lansdale, said the fellowship continued to present the Grand Old Gospel Hour through worldwide syndication, as well as on Sunday evenings on WFIL (560 AM)

Former broadcaster Andy Musser, 74, who called Mike Schmidt's division-clinching homer for the Phillies in 1980, died Sunday at his home in Wynnewood, his family said. The cause of death was not given. At one time or another, Mr. Musser did play-by-play for every major sports team in Philadelphia except the Flyers. The native of Lemoyne, Pa., broadcast Phillies games for 26 years. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Andy's family," Phillies president David Montgomery said in a statement.

An exasperated Mayor Nutter recently reacted to the news of a shooting that took the lives of three Philadelphia teens by saying: "The first way for young people to stop this stuff is for young people to be home, where they're supposed to be home, and for adults not to act like idiots and assholes out in the streets of our city shooting at kids in a car. " The mayor's words were broadcast on Fox29 on the same day, ironically, that the Supreme Court...

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Fighting to protect his lead in South Carolina, Mitt Romney's campaign hit back hard Wednesday at chief rival Newt Gingrich, accusing him of "leadership by chaos" that he said cost the Republican Party once and would again. Gingrich, sensing a tide turning his way just days before the first-in-the-South primary Saturday, warned voters to be on guard against smears from a suddenly worried Romney. "They're desperate," he said. The sniping underscored how much and how fast the race has changed this week as Romney fears losing his double-digit lead thanks to missteps of his own and a commanding debate performance by Gingrich on Monday.