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Unsuited as it may appear, the Special Broadcasting Service’s home in light-industrial Artarmon is a fitting place for a network attempting to address an identity crisis and the media revolution on scant resources.

When SBS television commenced on October 24, 1980 – United States Day – it started with a documentary, Who Are We? It had been a nod to the reason for SBS’s being : to strengthen the social policy of multiculturalism.

Thirty years on, a broadcaster that started with commercial-free radio and TV built to showcase Australia’s cultural diversity now receives a third of its income from advertising. To several it is better called the station that brought Top Gear down under, and the home of football and the Tour de France.

In the government’s review of public broadcasting two years back, one viewer bitched that SBS had changed from ”a terribly special broadcaster of the past, into a de facto commercial lookalike”. In essence, he asked : who are you, SBS?

Chris Berg, a research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs, goes further : why are you still here? He is saying SBS has dropped into ”almost complete irrelevance”. ”It can’t possibly hope to cater for the sheer diversity of migrant communities in Australia in 2011, and those communities have access to home content thru online and satellite services,’ ‘ he says.

”The writing has been on the wall for SBS for many years, but it lumbers on usually because state programs are extraordinarily hard to shut down.’ ‘

The government professes strong support, but that’s not paired with strong funding. In the last funding round, SBS won $20 million extra, but the ABC got $180 million, while the worthwhile commercial networks were relieved of $250 million in licence charges. SBS runs two Television channels and four radio stations on 1 / 4 of Channel Seven’s cash and less than a 3rd of the ABC’s.

The internet has brought a deeper challenge, undercutting the reason for its existence. Folk can now hear, see and read their own languages and cultures online when they desire from their homelands.

But SBS’s new MD, Michael Ebeid, believes it is required now more than ever.

Ebeid, 45, personifies the broadcaster’s inclusiveness. Born in Egypt, schooled at Epping Boys High and a previous head of marketing at the ABC, Ebeid lives in East Sydney with his partner, Roland, a Qantas pilot.

A quarter into the job, he has settled into his pitch. ”Today, we’ve got double the quantity of folks who talk another language than 35 years back when SBS was set up,’ ‘ he says. ”So I might argue that cultural complexity [means] SBS is required and is more important today than ever.’ ‘

Cultural enclaves may develop if migrants get all of their stories from home. ”It means they are not getting news and current affairs from an Australian point of view and, more importantly, news and current affairs about Australia,’ ‘ he is saying. ”I think that sure is a real worry for our society.’ ‘ SBS can help by reporting Australian issues in migrants ‘ languages.

As for the tougher question of the SBS identity, he would like to take it back to charter basics : less Top Gear and more Go Back To Where You Came From, which took six Australians distrustful about asylum seekers to Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the time it aired it was SBS’s preferred program of the year – 524,000 viewers on the 1st night. The other networks frequently do double that. Its prime-time chunk of the national audience has been about 6 per cent for the past six years.

But its point is to be niche, and Ebeid welcomes it. ”We are returning to being a rather more distinctive organisation,’ ‘ he says. A ”large majority’ ‘ of programs will concentrate on a charter that needs ”multilingual and multicultural’ ‘ programs which ”inform, entertain and educate all Australians and, in doing therefore reflect Australia’s multicultural society”.

His main worry is whether he is able to afford to get there.

The responsible minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, announces SBS is ”one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions’ ‘ – but there is no doubt SBS is struggling.

This week while it announced a real life show, Bollywood Star, it also canned its only forthcoming local drama. Dusty was to be a series based mostly on a detective in Darwin, in the tradition of current offerings East West 101 and The Circuit.

It just hasn’t got the money for expensive Australian drama. ”We don’t have anything on our commissioning slate for significant drama and I suspect that’s a real shame.’ ‘

The additional $20 million Conroy won for SBS is, in television terms, peanuts, especially as it must compete with other broadcasters scrambling to fill their digital channels.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says : ”They are getting hit from a spread of fronts, and we think the most significant concern for the station is a substantial increase in public funding.’ ‘

Its three-year deal will be displayed in the subsequent budget, and Ludlam says the Greens will make ”a large deal’ ‘ about its future.

Of its $207 million income in 2009-10, two thirds came from the govt. Its stake in the pay TV channels World Films and Stvdio provided $6 million, while $78 million came from advertising, first authorized on a public broadcaster by the Work central authority in 1991.

Those rules were re-interpreted to permit commercial breaks to interrupt programs and SBS told a Senate guesses investigation this year junking them would cost it $45 million a year – just about 1 / 4 of its earnings.

Ebeid is optimistic about a funding boost, but given the government’s determination to revisit surplus, he is not assured. His minister may be ”very supportive’ ‘ but he’s ”very realistic”.

If the money does come, SBS wants to offer four channels within 5 years, improved reports and current affairs, more local programs and lots more online and on-demand.

And if the money doesn’t come? Ebeid warns of ”a lot harder decisions’ ‘ on what to show and what to skip. It raises the chance of having to choose between entire migrant groups ; already some African groups miss out.

The government has asked it to launch a native Television service with the $15 million it gives Countrywide Indigenous Television, displaying on pay Television and in remote Aboriginal communities. Ebeid wants an indigenous channel but says the quality needs to improve and so does the money.

”I don’t want to be running 3 underfunded TV networks,’ ‘ he says. ”Fifteen million may seem like a lot but it’s not when you have to commission content. You can’t buy indigenous content from the BBC.”

Ebeid spends much of his time lobbying for money – the government, other parties and the ethnic communities who are his network’s first audience. Their support is seen as vital to winning extra money. ”Arguably, not a lot of politicians watch SBS, but I am able to bet that a lot of their constituents do’ as reported tagza.com.

FOX All Access, the weekly entertainment radio show produced by FOX, has created an one-hour radio special to happen at the same time as the premiere of this fall’s most highly-anticipated new series, THE X FACTOR. The special is available to list of radio stations across the land from now thru Thursday, Sept. Twenty-one and can be heard beginning Sept. 3 on KOOX / San Francisco ; beginning Sept. Four on WDVD / Detroit, KUDD / Salt Lake City, KKWD / Oklahoma Town, KKOB / Albuquerque, WWXM / Myrtle Beach ; and in Los Angeles on KOST on Sept. Eighteen. For a up-to-date list of airings across the country, visit www.foxallaccess.com.

Hosted by FOX All Access personality Chris Leary, “The X Factor : The Judges’ Final Picks” gives listeners a behind-the-scenes glance at the current music and classic artists who inspire the quartet of judges – Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid and Nicole Scherzinger. Captured during exclusive FOX All Access interviews, listeners will hear first hand which recording artists the judges think have “The X Factor,” as well as the tunes they suspect best represent those artists. The revealing special will also give listeners a preview into the pro lives of THE X FACTOR judges and how their unique experiences and collaborations with music icons like Elton John, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Rihanna and Usher have paved the way to where they are today.

“The grand scale of THE X FACTOR and the incredible buzz it’s generating has given FOX and FOX All Access the opportunity to create an exciting, first-of-its-kind radio special for stations nationwide,” said Nick Belperio, Senior Vice Chairman of Selling, Fox Broadcasting Company. “We’re so happy to bring the special’s celebration of music to listeners across the land it’s a perfect way to explain what THE X FACTOR is all about.”

Air dates and time for “The X Factor : The Judges’ Final Picks” on FOX All Access radio associates include :

RADIO STATION DATE TIME

KOOX / San Francisco, CA Sat., Sept. 3 6:00-7:00 PM PT

WDVD / Detroit, MI Sun., Sept. Four 9:00-10:00 PM ET

KUDD / Salt Lake, UT Sun., Sept. 4 5:00-6:00 PM MT

KKWD / Oklahoma City, OK Sun., Sept. Four 10:00-11:00 PM CT

KKOB / Albuquerque, NM Sun., Sept. 4 1:00-2:00 PM MT

WWXM / Myrtle Beach, SC Sun., Sept. 4 6:00-7:00 PM ET

For extra airings across the country, come and visit www.foxallaccess.com.

THE X FACTOR is the new competition series that gives viewers the opportunity to help choose the next global superstar or breakout music group. The judges will travel the nation searching for undiscovered talent 12 years of age or over both solo artists and vocal groups who are worthy of the largest prize in television history : a $5 million recording contract with Syco / Sony Music. Hosted by Steve Jones, the two-night series premiere of THE X FACTOR will showcase the live auditions which happened in front of audiences of thousands, around the country Wednesday, Sept. 21 (8:00-10:00 PM ET / PT) and Thursday, Sept. Twenty-two (8:00-10:00 PM ET / PT) on FOX.

THE X FACTOR is produced by Syco TV and FremantleMedia North America. Rob Wade and Siobhan Greene are exec producers for Syco TV. Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Richard Holloway and Andrew Llinares serve as executive producers for FremantleMedia North America.

About FOX All Access

FOX hits the airwaves every weekend with FOX All Access, a hit-driven, 2 hour music-based entertainment radio show hosted by Chris Leary. Each week Leary takes listeners onto the red carpet, backstage, backstage and into the studio to hear from the biggest names in music, TV and film. Syndicated on 120 CHR and HOT AC radio stations across the land, and reaching more than 4,000,000 folk every weekend, FOX All Access features the most up to date hits and artists around, including tastemakers like Woman Gaga, Rihanna, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. Add in the 411 on the most discussed celebs, special in-studio co-hosts, exclusive interviews and features and you’ve got a radio show that’s buzz-worthy and packed with great entertainment. Listeners can also stay abreast of the most up to date in entertainment twenty-four / seven at www.foxallaccess.com, the FOX All Access website that highlights in-studio music performances, exclusive celebrity interviews, entertainment news and special promotional giveaways and sweepstakes,writes tagza.com.

Price, a morning radio character and news director for Fremont stations KHUB and KFMT, took part in the Pig Wing Challenge at Starsky’s Bar and Grill in south Omaha.

Filming for the episode, which Price claimed likely will air in the next 6-8 weeks, happened Friday and Saturday.

“I would say, and I have told this to my folks, this is up there behind being married and having a child as the best thing I’ve ever done,” Price announced.

Price heard earlier this month that the program, hosted by Adam Richman, was looking for somebody to partake of one of its challenges that was going to be filmed in Omaha.

Price had won a corned meat eating contest back in 2006 when he worked in Arkansas, and was told by producers to submit an audition video.

He recorded a 2-minute video that concentrated on Nebraska foods like Fairbury hot dogs and Dorothy Lynch salad dressing.

Price was shocked when he got word that he was chosen for the show. He quickly recounted yes, despite not knowing what the challenge would be.

“I was pumped,” he announced. “It was a really good feeling. It was kind of a shock and a ‘What did I am getting myself into? ‘ sort of thing or ‘Am I going to shame myself?’”

Price prepared for his battle with the pig wings by not eating for 30 hours prior to the challenge.

“I drank a lot of water that morning, as much as I could, until I couldn’t drink any more because it’s meant to stretch your stomach out,” Price recounted.

On Fri., Price spent five hours filming material for the show at radio stations in Omaha, where he’s employed part-time and is a station imaging voice.

The “Man v. Food Nation” crew shot footage of Price at work in the studio. Price then had the chance to interact with Richman and came away impressed.

“The guy’s awesome,” Price related. “Being in radio for 10 years I have had an opportunity to meet a number of celebrities. Considering he had a hurricane going over his place, he was by miles the nicest celebrity I’ve ever met.”

On Saturday, Price showed up at Starsky’s to start filming at six p.m. He also received information on how to tackle the challenge from Richman, who did almost 60 food challenges as host of “Man v. Food.”

A little after 10 p.m, Price sat down to take on the Pig Wing Challenge – eight pounds of smoked pork on a mini bone and sweet corn nuggets. Just one person had managed to accomplish the food accomplishment at Starsky’s.

“The toughest part is attempting to size up the plate,” Price declared. “When we first looked at it, everybody recounted, ‘Oh, that’s no great deal. You can do it. ‘ But as fast as we broke it down we knew that it was a real food challenge.”

Price had an hour to finish the challenge, and – while he can’t show whether he succeeded – he enjoyed the proven fact that he was encircled by acquaintances and family, including his other half, Stephanie, and 5-year-old child Jay.

Between 125-150 folks were at Starsky’s during the taping, including some Fremonters who went to support Price .

“I’m going to remember my folks being there for five hours standing next to me and cheering all the time, buddies being there and some of the really nice stuff that Adam claimed to me throughout the show,” Price recounted.

Even Richman was impressed by the support Price got from the group.

“The one thing that Adam said to me in the show was it’s amazing how well Nebraskans stick behind each other,” Price said. “They actually cheer for folks and what they are doing no matter what it is.”

Price stated that he possibly won’t be in the mood for pig wings again in the near future. It’s also a sure thing that you won’t see Price in a hot dog eating contest or anything of that nature, either.

“I think I have retired from food challenges,” he claimed, writes tagza.com.

Quakes and hurricanes shook things up in Aug, but this is Sep now.

There are tons of manmade events that may shape the market in the coming weeks.

Here are a couple of the days that I plan to approach with eyes completely open this month.

Sept. One
The most vital month — ever — for Netflix (Nasdaq : NFLX) starts today. Of course , this is the month where its existing subscribers will start paying as much as sixty percent more to continue to stream video and receive optical discs by mail.

It’s a outlining moment for the service, and one that will either find the company validating its model with chunkier margins to boot or leave Netflix scrambling to deal with a dramatic uptick in churn.

Subscribers will start paying the new rates thru their Sep billing cycle, so we should know where things stand straight after the end of quarter 3.

Netflix is optimistic. It sees twenty-two million of its twenty-five million U.S. Subscribers paying $7.99 a month to stream from its growing digital library, and nearly half of its users paying for both the streaming and DVD plans. How sticky is Netflix? We’re about to find out.

Sept. 13
Best Buy (NYSE : BBY) reports its financial second-quarter results in two weeks. This used to be a joyous event for expansion investors, but the consumer electronics giant has shorted out recently.

Best Buy has delivered three sequential quarters of year-over-year declines in comparable-store sales and profits. Analysts are not all that thrilled about the meandering retailer this time. They see Best Buy checking in with a decent profit of $0.54 a share, well short of the $0.60 a share it posted a year earlier.

The success of more agile online outlets offering better pricing and the digital revolution that is replacing the requirement for physical CDs, DVDs, books, and video games are making life tougher for Best Buy.

Sept. 13 is also the time when Nintendo will be hosting a 3DS event in Tokyo for researchers and stockholders. All eyes are on the Nintendo game trailblazer after a desperate 32% price cut on the handheld system that it had introduced just 5 months earlier.

Shares of Nintendo recently hit a five-year low, so any good news will be welcome. Nintendo will probably be hyping up new 3DS software titles that’ll be out before the holiday shopping season. Rumors are circulating of an extremist redesign, but that seems not likely since it might crush any holiday momentum the Aug price cut might have made. New games and peripherals are the better bet, and even then Nintendo is still going to have a tough time against the improving quality of smartphone games that are practically being given away.

Sept. Twenty-two
There are not too many earnings reports slated for Sep, but an important one will come from FedEx (NYSE : FDX) in three weeks.

Even if you’re not a shareholder, FedEx’s financials carry a good deal of industrial weight. If companies are sending more documents and parcels around — and clients are not worrying over paying a little more for speedy deliveries — the economy cannot be doing all that badly.

Researchers expect FedEx to earn $1.52 a share for the quarter, a good 27% improvement over last year’s showing.

Sept. Twenty-three
Few take earthly radio giant Clear Channel (OTC : CCMO) seriously when it comes to online streaming, but that may change in three weeks.

Clear Channel is hosting a two-day music festival — bringing some of the industry’s biggest recording stars including Jay-Z, Coldplay, and Lady Gaga to Vegas — to introduce the updated iHeartRadio app.

Clear Channel’s existing app is pretty favored. It offers smartphone owners free streaming access to 750 different rock radio stations from all over the country. However , Pandora (NYSE : P) — and to a lesser extent Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq : SIRI) — will need to be concentrating when some of the new features are introduced.

“The new version is everything you want in one place,” Ryan Seacrest teased during July’s festival announcement.

“Real radio stations from cities across the land, and coming shortly custom radio like Pandora but with more songs, more control, and no commercials thru the end of the year.”

Commercial-free streams from earthly radio? Things are on the point of getting interesting here, writes tagza.com.

Clear Channel Radio, the premiere media company in America with a bigger reach than any radio or TV outlet, today announced the beta release of the New iHeartRadio.

The New iHeartRadio brings users a best-in-class customisable digital listening experience, one which mixes the very best of both worlds to deliver everything listeners desire in one free, fully-integrated service : More than 800 of the country’s preferred live broadcast and digital-only radio stations from 150 towns, and user-created Custom Stations which provide listeners more songs, better music intelligence, more user control and deeper social media integration.

With 50 million listening hours a month and 34 million downloads of iHeartRadio mobile software apps, Clear Channel is one of the most well-liked digital music destinations.

As part of Clear Channel’s commitment to social media integration, from today until Sep fourteen fans can access the beta by first ‘Liking ‘ iHeartRadio on Facebook ( facebook.com / iheartradio ) and then going to iheartradio.com. Beginning September fourteen, users can experience the beta by going right to iheartradio.com.

Reinventing the Digital Radio Experience : Real Radio plus Custom Stations Featuring More Songs, Better Music Intelligence, More User Control and Deeper Social Media Integration

The latest feature of the New iHeartRadio beta is the ability for users to create their own personalized Custom Stations by simply entering an artist or song — and iHeartRadio does the rest. These Custom Stations offer users a bunch of state-of-the-art features, including :

More Songs — iHeartRadio listeners can draw from a great catalog of more than 11 million songs and four hundred thousand artists — more than ten times the number of songs offered by Pandora. In fact , iHeartRadio’s library contains more albums than Pandora’s does songs.

Better Music Intelligence — iHeartRadio’s music intelligence capability combines a classy technology solution with millions of greenbacks ‘ worth of ongoing consumer music research and the experience of Clear Channel’s leading radio programmers to give users the best custom radio experience available.

More User Control — By adjusting an easy onscreen ‘control slider, ‘ iHeartRadio users can ‘tune ‘ their Custom Station to play the music catalog’s more familiar songs — or adjust it to a discovery mode to play a greater variety of artists and music. A “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” feature allows users to show song preferences to further individualize their Custom Stations.

Deeper Social Media Integration — iHeartRadio’s leading edge user Profile Pages and social media tools show users what songs their friends have just listened to and the tunes and artists they like, which serves currently another means to larger discovery as well as a deeper, more meaningful listening experience. Listeners can also share songs and stations by posting to Facebook and Twitter.

Other important features of iHeartRadio’s Custom Stations are :

“My Stations,” which should act as a bookmark permitting users to save their favorite real and custom stations and simply access them with a single click ; “My Stations” stay in synchronization between the web and users ‘ mobile gizmos for speedy access at home and on the go ;

-No monthly cap on listening hours ;

-Custom Stations will be commercial-free until the end of the year.

And as always, iHeartRadio’s live rock radio stations allow listeners to tune up into their favorite programming no matter where they’re — including music, talk, news, comedy and sports — from Clear Channel’s more than 800 stations, and offers exclusive content from popular local radio DJs plus top syndicated personalities like Ryan Seacrest, Elvis Duran, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Steve Harvey, Glenn Beck, Jim Rome, Bill Handel and Delilah.

The New iHeartRadio should be available for the iPhone beginning on Monday, September 12 ; the app will be compatible with the iPad and iPod Touch. Android and other platforms will follow in the near future. IHeartRadio’s current mobile app lets listeners take their favorite live stations and DJs with them wherever they’re going, and is available on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Android, Windows Telephone 7, Mac, and P.C.

Clear Channel will release the official New iHeartRadio at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on September twenty-three and twenty-four. This two-day music event, which sold out in 10 minutes, is hosted by Ryan Seacrest and will mark the largest live concert holiday in radio history. It features an extraordinary line-up, including Woman Gaga, Jay-Z, Coldplay, Kenny Chesney, The Black Eyed Peas, Steven Tyler, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Lopez, Carrie Underwood, Jane’s Obsession, Nicki Minaj, John Mayer, David Guetta, Lad Flatts, Bruno Mars, Sublime with Rome, Kelly Clarkson and special performances from Usher and Sting.

“With the New iHeartRadio, we took something that was amazing and made it even better,” related Bob Pittman, Manager of Media and Entertainment Platforms for Clear Channel. “The New iHeartRadio will reinvent the digital radio experience by offering the inventive features that listeners want the most — live real radio and the power to create Custom Stations, all in one integrated service. And we released the New iHeartRadio beta on Facebook so that our most obsessed fans could be first to experience the new product.”

“The data behind our new user-created Custom Stations is unparalleled,” Pittman continued. “Clear Channel is uniquely ready to mix the data and eagerness of industry-leading radio programmers, an extraordinary library of songs and unique, best-in-class processes ; we also continue to invest millions of greenbacks in ongoing patron music research and technology, which pays off in our unmatched customized music-matching experience.

The ultimate result is a digital radio product that offers fans the top live stations plus user-created Custom Stations with more songs, more user control, deeper social integration and more chances to discover new music — all in one easy-to-use, continual product.”
“The New iHeartRadio advances our technique of being everywhere our listeners expect us to be, with the most suitable goods and services,” said John Hogan, President and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “It also serves our partners in the music industry by increasing our commitment to new music and music discovery and will provide our advertising partners with one more dynamic automobile to enhance their selling plans.”

Hogan added, “The approaching iHeartRadio Music Holiday in Las Vegas lets us get the word out about this new service swiftly and on a scale which has never before been exploited for a media product launch.”

About Clear Channel Radio

With 237 million monthly listeners in the U.S, Clear Channel Radio has the largest reach of any radio or TV outlet in America. The company’s radio stations and content can be heard on AM / FM stations, HD digital radio channels, Sirius / XM satellite, on the Web at iHeartRadio.com, and on the iHeartRadio mobile application on iPads, and smartphones, and used via navigation systems from TomTom, Garmin and others.

The company’s operations include radio broadcasting, online and mobile services and products, syndication, event and promotion creation and operation, music research services and countrywide TV, radio and digital media representation. Clear Channel Radio is a division of CC Media Holdings, Inc. CCMO +8.33%, a leading worldwide media and entertainment company. More information on the company can be discovered at www.ccmediaholdings.com.,writes tagza.com.

As we look towards the future of stories, it’s clear that many big, state stories brands are here to stick around.

But what about local reports? Local newspapers,list of radio stations, and TV affiliates are the ones that could be most simply disrupted by changes in technology and advertising. What replaces them as they’re going away?

One idea — discussed here before by colleague Nicholas Carlson — is that Facebook’s reports feed could take over their responsibilities.

How’s that?

In a recent Adage poll, folks said the 2 most important reasons they subscribed to local papers were for local stories and vouchers. Well, Facebook already aggregates and distributes both these.

Instead of requiring a local newsroom to present local reports and events, your friends — and Facebook’s procedures — could do it for you, complete with photos, videos, and so on.

Instead of purchasing classifieds and placing coupons in local papers, businesses could buy Facebook advertisements, targeting them based on your geography, and even much more specifically than that. And when Facebook rolls out Groupon-style “deals,” businesses could buy those, too.

The question, then, becomes : If Facebook is preparing and presenting this information to you, who’s writing it in the first place? Who’s covering local city council conferences? Who is covering crime and car crashes and obituaries and new business openings?

The answers will vary.

In the tiniest of cities, maybe some of that sort of journalism will get more of a pastime than a profession.

There are already thousands of glorious neighborhood blogs out there today, written just for enjoyment. And it does not even have to be an article. If a local business closed, you’ll find out about it from a friend’s status update just as simply as from a paper. And it was a lot cheaper to produce.

More info could be disseminated from official agencies and businesses to folks, via tools like Facebook, rather than being rephrased by somebody between. (And states and businesses will seek more feedback immediately, too.) This won’t be the only real way it occurs, however it will often happen more.

People will have to learn how to trust different reports sources differently, and to hold people responsible for their statements — how they already do. Officers and firms will need to learn how to communicate better. And folks will have to learn to seek out different stories sources for different topics. But the world isn’t going to fall to bits, and folks will figure out how to make it work.

OK, this sounds extreme. The truth of the matter is that change will take a long time, and will be more subtle. Heck, by the point your local newspaper folds, Facebook’s reign as the social networking king may be over, and there may be even more recent, better tools for stories distribution.

But the big idea is still valid : Local stories distribution is bound to change, as last century’s economics stop working. And Facebook’s stories feed — already seen by hundreds of millions of folks — could play an enormous role in the future of reports.

Facebook is one of the biggest web sites in the world, with more than five hundred million monthly users. The site was started in 2004 by founder and Head honcho Mark Zuckerberg when he was an undergraduate student at Harvard.

Since Sep 2006, any person over the age of 13 with a good e-mail address can join Facebook. Users can add “friends” and send them messages, post statements, and update their private profiles to inform friends about themselves.

The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to scholars at the beginning of the educational year by varsity administrations in America. The objective of the book is to help scholars to start to know each other better as reported tagza.com.

Over the past decade Oslo’s Youngstorget has become the city’s music center with locations, bars, trattorias and record shops making a vibrant scene in and around the square.

But until the beginning of this year, visitors flocking to the copious gigs and events would have been struggling to find reasonable accommodation in the area. This has changed thanks to the opening of the Choice chain’s Comfort Express Hotel, a new concept it plans to launch in each Nordic capital over the next three years.

Don’t be put off by the name. This is not your average bland budget hotel chain. The lobby includes pinball machines, a local punk record shop provides a variety of new releases for sale to guests and massive screens offer a massive database of where to go out. Many in-house rock radio stations programmed by 2 local rock DJs offers a pleasant change to the common chill-out compilations, which became the modern identical to Muzak.

Rooms begin at NOK299 ( around £35 ) rising with demand to a maximum of around £115. Prices are kept low by charging for extras which some guests may not need. These include daily towel changes and room cleaning for those staying more than one night (around £10). Check-in is done thru touchscreens. “As the check-in is performed by the guests, we were not attempting to find normal receptionists,” claims director Simen Vinge.

Workers were inducted at an audition in the close by Revolver venue, with the five hundred candidates for 7 positions selected for their understanding of music and the city.

Although the 172 rooms fifty twins, 112 doubles and 10 singles are compact and there is a a touch “corporate groovy” feel, there are some nice touches like iPod docks and free Wi-Fi. Guests can also open their room door by sending a text and then holding their mobile to the sensor below the handle.

Architect Lars Helling popped up with the design, which incorporates the facade of a former church. Nonetheless the owners made Facebook and Twitter communities which they consulted throughout its development, inviting input on everything from what to stock in the store, which mags to supply and even the color schemes.

“Every time we needed to take a decision we asked our followers on Facebook and Twitter,” asserts Vinge. “We sell lots of food, drink and mags because our guests asked if we’d put them there.”

The online communities are sustained by offering members free tickets to the various events which have partnered with the hotel since it opened. They include Scandinavia’s great music business meeting by:Larm (bylarm.no), Oslo’s prestigious ya Festival (oyafestivalen.com) and the Inferno metal gathering (infernofestival.net), with the basement infrequently used for gigs.

Vinge is secretive about which bands have stayed at the hotel, but given that there’s special entrance for artists playing at the big Rockefeller location across the road and ya’s impressive line-ups, there are likely to have been some giant names.

So far the only bad behavior has come thanks to guests attending the huge Sensation rave last April. Vinge describes that weekend as “hectic” with dozens of intoxicated revellers wearing white “breaking stuff all over the place”.

Against this, he describes the black metal brotherhood attending Inferno last May as model customers.

“The only thing we had to deal with was putting a fellow to bed who had passed out in the hallway,” he asserts. “The next day he came with flowers to apologise”, writes tagza.com.

The motivational clich for aspiring artists is “the sky’s the limit,” except for Union Town singer-songwriter Maryam Qudus, the sky may simply become a view from the ladder of success she shortly sits on.

At twenty years of age , Qudus, who performs under the moniker Doe Eye, is already making noise fragile, haunting noise in the Bay Area music scene.

She released her debut EP, Run Run Run, last month to high praise from indie music blogs and internet sites.

“Since then, things have occurred extraordinarily fast,” she said. “The response has been amazing.”

Her lead single, “I Hate You,” has started receiving spins on Live105, the number 1 rock radio stations in the Bay Area. The video for the song, which debuted online the same day as her EP’s release on Aug. Nineteen, was subsequently featured on the station’s website, together with lots of other music blogs.

Produced by Steven Murr, you would not know the record was made with small assistance from outside musicians. Qudus is the sole vocalist and guitar strummer heard on the record, with a guest drummer on 2 tracks. All of the instruments were made digitally by Murr to make a polished, fine quality indie-folk production.

In its abruptness, the four-track EP exposes Qudus’s vulnerabilities, hopes and wishes, wrapped up in her attracting vocals that even make the words “I hate you” sound seductive.

“I like to form something out of my emotions,” she announced. Her feelings go from the bold and rebellious lead single to the somber and hopeful dreamscape of “Sea to See”

“The scars on my feet / It is the strength I am going to keep / Thru the ghastly and beauty that lies ahead,” she sings on “Sea to See.”

“It’s about being held back and needing to let go of things you are fearful of, taking probabilities and not being afraid of doing something because you’d get hurt,” she said about the song.

That lack of fear and unbending backbone are what set Qudus’ career in motion at a young age.

She has had a fondness for singing for as long as she will remember, but did not get serious about playing music until she was in middle college, where she picked up the guitar and learned on her very own, she announced.

“I’m not the greatest guitarist, but I know enough to draft songs off it,” related Qudus, who owns 3 guitars, a bass, keyboard and tambourine.

Driven to make a career of music, she started coughing up for her very own voice lessons at 16 after getting a part time job. “Every dollar I made went to that,” she said.

Last year, she tried to write one new song a day. “I failed to pressure myself. It did not have to be good. I could not keep it up, but it taught me a lot,” she announced.

She took those “skeletons” of songs to Murr. “He took those concepts and made them bigger,” she announced,writes tagza.com.

The last 2 months have been the “craziest” for her, she announced.

In the last fourteen days of July, she recorded and finished her EP. Right after, director Adrien Colon filmed the noire-like black-and-white video for her single

While she’s excited for the opportunities that may come from her contemporary exposure, she isn’t playing the waiting game. Instead , she’s pushing forward with her education to further develop her craft.

Next weekend, Qudus packs her life into 4 large cases and sets for the east coast to attend the Berklee Varsity of Music in Boston. She already plans to assemble a band and tour the coast, and return typically for spot dates in the Bay Area.

“My career will only improve from here,” she announced. “There’s a lot more songs to come.”

By next summer, she is hoping to perform at Live105′s BFD and the Outside Lands festivals, 2 of the largest music festivals in the Bay Area.

“I think I’ll make it happen,” she claimed.

The MTV alternative rock show was a Sunday night immersion in music that wasn’t played on mainstream radio. It gave wide exposure to the peculiar, the offbeat and the downright iconoclastic, and made a dedicated following. The remainder of the week was devoted to Madonna and Def Leppard ; for fans of the Pixies, Hsker D, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and other alternative favourites, there were only those precious 2 hours.

“’120 Minutes’ has always stood for something important,” asserts Matt Pinfield, 44, who hosted the show in the mid-’90s and became its most familiar personality. “It’s about going past the conventional and showing you that there had been other great music out there that you won’t know. And always presented with enthusiasm, rather than hipster cynicism.”

It was Pinfield who brought much of that passion. The excitable, bald-headed radio vet, who began his career at Rutgers’ WRSU-FM, looked nothing like a standard MTV veejay. That simply made him relatable. Pinfield was the guy down the hall in the school sleeping area the one whose formidable collection of cassettes and vinyl seemed to grow by the day.

Pinfield, who is living in Harrison, never lost his on-camera happiness or his admiration for musical lead runners. And he cultivated a simple rapport with musicians, which made for some of the most relaxed, natural interview segments in the network’s history.

Pinfield left “120 Minutes” in 1999 ; in 2003, it was canceled. The show’s amalgam of offbeat videos, choice classic cuts, clockwork imagery and interview segments was occasionally imitated by other video programs. But no successor to “120 Minutes” ever appeared. It is debatable that YouTube and other free video-sharing sites on the internet are that successor, and that “120 Minutes” is no longer necessary.

Last week, though, MTV revived the show and placed Pinfield back in his standard command position. It has even put the deejay’s name in the show’s handle. “120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield” will air monthly on MTV2 at one a.m. On Saturdays, and episodes will stream afterward on mtvhive.com. (The 1st episode, which was shot in part at the Arlene’s Grocery club in Manhattan, is presently on the site.)

Pinfield, who deejayed at the Tune Bar in New Brunswick in the early ’90s, is ecstatic about the possibility. He believes the time is correct for the program’s resurrection.

“In the old days of ’120 Minutes,’ unless you had some unimaginable state-of-the-art rock radio stations in your area, you couldn’t hear these songs,” claims Pinfield. “Now it’s the opposite problem. There’s so much info. What’s needed is a curator, a filter, a reliable place to go.”

A TV programme, he recommends, is suitable better than a music blog or an algorithm-driven service like Pandora.

“A lot of those sites lack that personal thing. Who has a year, or a week, to go thru 1,000 websites?”

Ahead Of HIS TIME

Pinfield’s decision to leave “120 Minutes” after five successful years on the program was lead to by his desire to carry on looking forward. He was one of the originators of farmclub.com, a fleeting website tethered to a real life show on USA that tried to match hopeful musicians with record labels.

Pinfield sees similarities between farmclub.com and social networking platforms like Myspace and Bandcamp, which at last did change the relationships between imprints, artists and fans.

“It was one of the first composite projects,” announces Pinfield, who moved to LA to work on farmclub.com. “I did that with Jimmy Iovine, and I learned so much in those years. It was before its time, really.”

It was also identical in scope to “120 Minutes.” At base, farmclub.com attempted to do the same that the alternative video show did : introduce underexposed music to a mass audience. Pinfield was galvanized by the same desire that prompts pop fans to play their new discoveries for their mates, or that forces all good deejays to break out fresh vinyl. He’s informed of something rare, peculiar, and maybe even shocking, and he’s determined to share it with as many people as practicable.

“Everything’s become so subgenre-fied,” announces Pinfield. “Pop radio has its formula, and that true passion of distinctiveness gets lost. There needs to be a destination on the TV and online for musical creativity.”.

The original “120 Minutes” was dominated by white men in rock bands, but this time, hip-hop will have a place at the table, too. The 1st copy of the show featured interviews with Alexis Krauss of NY fuzz-pop act Sleigh Bells ( a group heavily influenced by the first wave of “120 Minutes” bands ) and Brooklyn rap ironists Das Racist. Emcees Lupe Fiasco and Theophilus London both of whom have new albums out this summer also talked with Pinfield. In keeping with Pinfield’s genre-bending mission, London called Smiths figurehead Morrissey “one of the illest rappers.”

“The variety has always made the show special,” asserts Pinfield. “It stayed true to what was great about free-form radio in the ’60s and ’70s. It was open season, and anybody who was driving their own boat was welcome. It could be hard rock or some laidback, folky thing. The bands may be huge or completely unknown. We usually want to give the underdog a shot.”

Having said that , there’s not quite as much room on “120 Minutes” as there used to be.

On a typical show in 1988, twenty to 25 videos would be aired. “120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield” cuts the anticipated number of clips down to twelve to fourteen. The remainder of the time is filled up with interviews, which are busy with jump cuts and even occasional impertinent flash animations. A program already noted for its speed has picked up speed.

“You still see the full videos,” announces Pinfield. “The show hasn’t lost the music info or the great stories from bands. I am keen on the pacing because it keeps things exciting.”

EXILE FROM WRXP

The resurrection of “120 Minutes” comes at a hard moment for Pinfield.

The deejay had been the first on-air personality at WRXP 101.9, the radio station that brought the choice rock format back to the New York urban area.

Early this summer, WRXP was sold to an out-of-town radio multinational that instantly converted the station to a talk format.

All of the station’s rock deejays were given their walking papers.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” announces Pinfield, “and I know our listeners are bummed out now that they don’t have a radio station to hear new artists. Still, those three years at RXP were wonderful, and I’m grateful for them. These things occur in the radio business.”

Pinfield insists that the sale and conversion of WRXP had very little to do with sales or ratings. For the veejay, the success of RXP, however fleeting, demonstrated that an alternative rock station can work in New York City.

“What I am looking for is that someone else with a signal will see our ratings, and decide to move into the market with a new rock station,” claims Pinfield. “I’m ready to go. I’ll be waiting for that call” as reported tagza.com.

But on Monday, WBSR, a community / student-run station sponsored by Brown College, loses its signal, its spot on the FM dial but not, its staff hopes, its listeners.

“We are still a college radio station,” said Ryan Lester, a senior at Brown and BSR’s CEO. “That’s whether we’ve got a terrestrial signal or not.”

After 14 years of leasing broadcast time from WELH (88.1), BSR becomes a terrestrial-signal have-not.

2 weeks ago, BSR learned its broadcasting lease, which ends July 31, will not be replenished.

Last year, Wheeler School, owners of WELH, increased the station’s wattage to four thousand from 150 permitting statewide broadcasting, according to Laurie Flynn, the school’s communications director, and modified the station’s plans. Flynn said Wheeler will make “big” changes at its station, though will not communicate them for no less than a week.

“It will be excellent for Rhode Island,” Flynn said. “We are really thrilled about what we are about to announce.”

The people at BSR sixty five scholars and 35 non-students are not as excited about the latest news.

“We were definitely a little disappointed,” claimed John Foley, BSR’s co-publicity director.

When the disenchantment went away, BSR staffers made an attitude adjustment, deciding to turn lemons into well-known lemonade, investing their energy on the web.

“This is a big opportunity for us to make headway in the online world and be a national leader,” Foley said.

BSR has been online (www.bsrlive.com/) for a few years. Now, it is going to be completely online as it loses its 9 p.m.-to-3 a.m. Broadcast slot on WELH.

Being without a normal “terrestrial” signal, Lester asserted, is a loss.

“People can hit your number at random,” he revealed. “It’s a bit more difficult with the Internet.”

But having a strong Web presence, Lester expounded, is critical. WELH’s leasing call, Lester asserted, has given BSR impetus, or maybe unexpected necessity, to assertively pursue a more robust Web presence.

“We might be able to build a great Web and rock radio stations for ourselves,” Lester said. “But building a great Web radio platform for college radio is a goal.”

In the last year, Foley claimed, one or two college radio stations have lost their license, principally as the universities sold them. BSR did not own a license, but leased time on the markets, and, in the case of the new WELH lease, could not compete.

WELH received applications to lease airtime from several affiliations, including BSR, Foley claimed.

“We’re well deeply set in the community,” Foley claimed. “Ultimately, I would have to assume the call came down to a monetary matter.”

Foley would not divulge how much BSR paid for its lease last year and how much it offered for next year.

BSR is a free-form station with eclectic programming from rock to hip-hop to Cape Verdean. Its roots return to the Brown Radio Network, established in 1936, that also spawned WBRU, a 20,000-watt FM station that is independent of the school, and terrestrial.

BSR would still welcome a lease with a terrestrial radio station, if one presents itself. Foley expounded, “there are not plenty of options.”

So for the moment, Lester claimed, BSR will continue to offer music and talk radio, although not on the radio.

“Taking away the terrestrial signal does not take away what makes BSR BSR.” as reported tagza.com.