Radio

THE RESTAURANTS and merchants of Rittenhouse Row are gathering again on Walnut Street this Saturday, and that means about 50,000 area residents and guests will be joining them for one of Center City's largest street fairs. The Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival will close Walnut from Broad to 19th streets (from noon until 5 p.m.) and feature food, fashion, entertainment and fun for children. It's big. It's crowded. It's fun. And this year there's a lot of new stuff. * Dunkin' Donuts will be giving out free iced coffee on the 1400 block of Walnut.

By Brian Wright O'Connor Nearly 50 years after leaving the University of Pennsylvania for Vietnam, Lt. Col. Mortimer Lenane O'Connor will receive a posthumous Ph.D. today in a ceremony honoring academic achievement and sacrifice on the field of battle. My father, who set aside his dissertation to lead soldiers in war, will be included in the Class of 1968, the year he would most likely have completed his doctorate had fate not intervened. Born in 1930, my dad grew up in the company of soldier-storytellers on Army garrisons from Manila to the Old West, and watched his own father and three uncles set off for war in Europe.

He was hailed as an icon of Philadelphia's black community, a groundbreaking radio personality, and an impresario who brought the nation's best rhythm-and-blues artists to the landmark Uptown Theater, and a champion of racial equality and social justice. At a church on a street named for Cecil B. Moore, a civil-rights leader with whom he often collaborated, Georgie Woods was remembered yesterday by about 2,500 people who attended his funeral as, above all else, his radio handle: "The Guy with the Goods.

PATTY BALBO, Bob Dewald, Denise Nejame and the Native American Blue Eagle may not be household names in any households but their own, but chances are they are the singers who've been heard most on Philadelphia radio. After all, did the Beatles, Elvis, Bobby Rydell or even the Delfonics sing those wondrous lyrics, "KYW. Newsradio. Ten-Sixty"? At least three times an hour - at the top and the 15s on either end - many news radio faithful probably even join in with the quartet of Philadelphia studio singers.

Anchorwoman Alycia Lane's future with KYW (CBS3) is uncertain after her arrest early Sunday on charges of slugging a plainclothes New York City police officer. The station announced that Lane, 35, would begin a planned two-week, end-of-year vacation a week early, effective yesterday. Her name and image were stripped from station promos, and her work on the station's holiday special, airing tonight, was edited out. Observers say her return to her $700,000-a-year anchor job hinges not only on her legal case - a felony charge of second-degree assault that could take months to resolve - but the court of public opinion.

The world is a bad place, a bad place, / A terrible place to live, oh, but I don't wanna die. / All my sorrows, sad tomorrows, take me back, to my old home. - "Reflections of My Life" by the Marmalade IT WAS JUST a little green radio with a big clear-plastic tuning dial. In the late 1960s, my big brother Mike found a small piece of wood paneling and used it as a shelf for the green radio, on the wall above his bunk bed. There were four of us in that room, and every night we would fall asleep with the radio on. We'd listen to WFIL and WIBG ("Wibbage" as we called it)

SO FCC chief Michael Powell has decided to do something about the Super Bowl halftime entertainment. The only thing Janet Jackson is going to do is plead her case that she's innocent. Janet, you're not Penny on "Good Times" - you're an adult. Act like it. But there's never a cry when a radio jock (Howard Stern or Wendy Williams) uses language like b----, n----- and a-- to describe and demean individuals. Can somebody please tell me when b---- became socially acceptable? You have broadcasters who protect their interests by hiding behind the First Amendment and put the blame on "parents not monitoring what their kids listen to. " Mr. Powell: Take the rose-colored glasses off and use a Q-Tip to remove the wax. Maybe you'll hear something offensive.

A RECENT column ("Pay for Play," Aug. 25) treated readers to a generous amount of record-label spin regarding legislation in Washington that would require local radio stations to pay an additional licensing fee - a performance tax - for every song aired free to listeners. While characterizing the debate as one between stations and musicians, you glossed over the fact that the group bankrolling this campaign is none other than the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the four largest record labels in the world.

Since arriving in Rwanda six months ago, I have learned a lot about the power of radio. On a recent Wednesday, I looked up from my Facebook page to watch six teenage girls leave my office in Kigali. They were off to the local radio station to produce Urungano (the local word for generation), a program addressing the trials and tribulations of Rwandan girls. The girls typically begin their program with a teenage chat and then work their way into discussions of such issues as underage marriage and child labor - both real problems in Rwanda.

What's in a Z? There are dozens of stations across the country that identify themselves with the letter Z plus a frequency number. Such a statio ID is considered easy to hear and recall, especially critical when listeners fill out radio ratings diaries. (The letter Q with a frequency number is also judged a memorable combination, as are the words "Power," "Magic" and "Kiss" plus a dial number.) Still, WHTZ-FM in New York is now claiming exclusive regional rights to its identification as "Z-100," and demanding that Philadelphia's newly turned contemporary-hits format WKSZ-FM stop identifying itself the same way. WHTZ has issued a threatening "cease and desist" letter to our Z-100, which up to a couple of weeks ago went by "Kiss 100" and played easy listening.

"NOW that I'm back, forget about the other chicks. You won't miss 'em," vows hip-hop veteran Eve on one of the tougher-minded tracks from "Lip Lock. " Confidence becomes the rapper. Hitting stores and download sites today, this return to music has been only 11 years in the making and waiting (and then remaking) from the Philly-formed star who also answers to the name Eve Jihan Jeffers. That's like three career lifetimes in music, she agreed. Which raises the question: Do they still need her, will anyone still love her, when she's 34?

LINWOOD, N.J. - There's "Breaking News" on the website of James M. Kauffman, board-certified endocrinologist, but it is not the news all of Linwood seems to be expecting. "Now accepting Tricare. New patients welcome," according to the site. One year after his wife, Shore radio personality and veterans advocate April Kauffman, 47, was found shot to death in the bedroom of their home in this leafy community just over the bridge from Margate - a year after the prosecutor at the time confidently suggested the case would be solved - there has been no arrest, no breaking news.

  Robert T. Russo Sr., 75, a first baseman for a Delaware County baseball team in his youth who became a sports broadcast producer for Philadelphia radio stations, died of complications from heart problems Friday, April 26, at his home in Egg Harbor Township. He was a longtime resident of Clementon. In 1967, Mr. Russo became the first producer for WIP-AM broadcasts of Eagles football games, his son, Robert T. Jr., said. "He was in the mail room at WIP," in one of his early jobs, his son said, "and got exposed to the industry.

If nuns can fly, can a rabbi be a talk-show host? WWDB-AM (860) radio is betting that Richard Address, senior clergy at Cherry Hill's M'Kor Shalom, has the chops to attract a coveted audience: baby boomers. And not just the Jewish ones. (Address goes by Richard on the program.) Boomer Generation Radio , which debuted in February, aims to address the unique concerns of the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. The first wave is already careening through their mid-60s, joining Medicare, maybe applying for Social Security - all the while caring for their children, possibly looking after grandchildren, and, more often than not, taking care of an elderly parent.

NAVIGATING iRadioPhilly.com's website or phone app couldn't be easier. The home page brings up a station menu with one-button, "click to listen" access. There's also a "station ticker" on the browser version that tells who and what's playing. Dedicated channel pages list the song currently playing and the last 10 tracks. Only Y-Not Radio and specialty shows such as Bob Craig's "Sunday Morning Magic" on Bell Bottoms and Mike Bowe's Friday "Happy Hour" on Martini Lounge feature live track announcing.

NOBODY KNOWS better what listeners like (and dislike) about local radio than Tom Kelly, director of Kelly Music Research. The Havertown-based operation offers programming counsel to B101 and WXTU locally, plus three dozen more stations nationwide. Now, in his separate gig as managing director of iRadioPhilly, Kelly is doing more to fix what's broken, bruised or missing in action on our FM and AM radio dials than anyone else in the business, essentially (and ironically) by making an end run around the broadcasting world.

You may be an Anglophile or a Francophile, or simply interested in news and views from around the world. Smartphone applications put international radio at your fingertips. TuneIn Radio , free from TuneIn Inc., comes in versions for devices of all kinds. Hear thousands of stations and millions of podcasts, from every continent, including the Web-station outpost playing folk music the other evening from windswept Snow Hill Island, Antarctica. Pick your stations on TuneIn by geography, format, or genre.

You may be an Anglophile or a Francophile, or simply interested in news and views from around the world. Smartphone applications put international radio at your fingertips. TuneIn Radio, free from TuneIn Inc., comes in versions for devices of all kinds. Hear thousands of stations and millions of podcasts, from every continent, including the web-station outpost playing folk music the other evening from windswept Snow Hill Island, Antarctica. Pick your stations on TuneIn by geography, format or genre.

ORLANDO - Former 76er Tony Battie was calling the Sixers-Magic game for an Orlando-area radio station Sunday. It's a new role, after a 14-year career, including his last 2 with the Sixers. "I've been doing a little analyst work down here," said Battie, who lives in Orlando. "Matt Guokas is sick so Rich Adubato is coming down from radio for TV and I'm going to be filling in for Richie on the radio. " Sixers coach Doug Collins said last season that he would love to have Battie on his coaching staff.

In an effort to bring one of the nation's most venerable high school radio stations up to 21st-century standards, the Kal and Lucille Rudman Foundation has donated $10,000 to Haverford High School's WHHS (99.9 FM). WHHS, which began broadcasting in 1949 and claims to be the nation's first high school station, is in the process of renewing its FCC registration, which requires an updated system. The station's current equipment does not have the power or digital capacity needed to run a modern studio.