Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Dallas gave Oprah Winfrey a boisterous welcome when she taped segments of her popular chat show last week at the State Fair of Texas.

Oprah checked out such fried food treats as Fletcher’s Corny Dogs and this year’s newest addition, Fried Butter. Along for the taste test were Gayle King, Nate Berkus and Martina McBride.

Harpo Productions now says the program with the State Fair segments will air at 4 p.m. next Monday, October 26, on WFAA-TV Channel 8.

Oprah schedules State Fair episode air date.

Silly rabbit - did you let your digital TV converter box coupon expire? Well, fear not as you can now apply for new ones.

The recent $timulus package put more money into the coupon program, letting the National Telecommunications and Information Administration give households with expired coupons a second chance.

Each household can apply for two $40 coupons that cover most of the cost of converter boxes. While 26 million coupons have been redeemed, 17 million expired at the end of their three-month life span.

The government also has cleared the wait list that built up after funding for the coupons dried up in January. That problem led Congress to delay the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts by four months, to June 12.

After then, older TVs that aren’t hooked up to cable or satellite feeds will need converter boxes.

Apply for your coupon at this link: https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc.’s shares plunged around 1 p.m. after reports that it had hired legal counsel to explore a possible bankruptcy filing.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP has been hired to evaluate restructuring options for the world’s largest movie-rental chain, according to Bloomberg News.

The wire service quoted a person familiar with the situation.

In today’s President George W. Bush update:

The Dallas City Council has approved the installation of gates on either end of Daria Drive to keep gawkers from driving past the cul-de-sac where President Bush will be residing. The funds for these gates and installation will be paid by Bush.

The President has also chosen his posh new office digs. He has taken a 10-year lease on 8,000 square feet at the Sherry Lane Place towers. This office is about 3 miles from both his new home to the north and his soon-to-be library on the SMU campus to the south.

The misinformation has already begun. On Yahoo News today, a writer by the name of Mike Krumboltz has posted a story about Bush moving into a “sleepy Texas suburb“. Krumboltz also refers to Preston Hollow as a “suburb” of Dallas and that neighbor Tom Hicks is considering installing a helipad.

Out of morbid curiosity, this 5th generation Dallasite is wondering if this is the cue when we are supposed to put a plug o’ tobaccy between our cheek and gum and start marveling at the “big city folk” who have come to follow the actions of President Bush. Perhaps, this is where we are supposed to utter such quaint things as “Lawd-a-mercy” and kick at the dust.

Yeah…right.

Krumboltz and his like-minded reporters might want to consider looking at a map of the city of Dallas and putting a pin where Bush’s house, office and library are going to be. Then getting a big-ass red Marks-a-Lot and outlining the city limits. Strange but true, Krumboltz and crew might discover that Bush isn’t moving to a “sleepy suburb” but in fact is deep in the heart of a major metropolitan city that is also the 6th largest media market in the U.S. And by the way, Tom Hicks ALREADY has a helipad in his backyard.

Maybe these journalists should leave the Dallas reporting to those of us that actually know the city.

That daring dancing boy wonder, Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and co-owner of the Landmark Theaters cinema chain, has acquired a 9.4 percent stake in Carmike Cinemas Inc., according to an SEC filing today.

In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Cuban reported buying 1.2 million Carmike shares on the open market for roughly $2.8 million of his own funds. According to the filing, Cuban has been acquiring the shares through his personal investment account since mid-October.

If you want to jump on this bandwagon, fire up your E*Trade account and the stock symbol is CKEC.

Carmike has 252 theaters in 36 states, most of which are equipped for digital projection.

In Monday’s SEC filing, Cuban said he acquired his stake in Columbus, Ga.-based Carmike for investment purposes. He reserved his right to discuss the company’s performance and strategic direction with Carmike’s stockholders, officers or directors.

Cuban co-owns movie theater chain Landmark Theatres with Todd Wagner, who was his co-founder of the pioneering online audio streamer Audionet. The service, later named Broadcast.com, was sold by Cuban and Wagner to Yahoo! in 1999.

The Wagner/Cuban Cos. also include distribution company Magnolia Pictures, production company 2929 Productions, and high definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies.

Carmike shares fell 4 cents to $1.99 in morning trading. The stock has traded between $1.37 and $11.37 during the past 52 weeks.

After losing a valuable piece of online real estate to enterprising cyber-squatters, the Bush presidential library has replanted its flag into that e-territory.

But the squatters – a North Carolina Web development company called Illuminati Karate – had the last laugh, making a huge profit off an embarrassing oversight by the GOP-connected company charged with overseeing the Web site for the George W. Bush Presidential Library, which will be built in Dallas.

Illuminati Karate paid less than $10 for the www.George WBushLibrary.com domain name – and sold it back for $35,000 to the library’s contracted Web developers, Yuma Solutions, who had accidentally let it expire. Illuminati Karate recognized what the library obviously knew as well – that anything else, like www.GWBPresidentialLibrary .com, would have been cumbersome and less than ideal.

“It worked out very well,” said George Huger, lead Web developer for Illuminati Karate in Raleigh, N.C.

Mark Mills, owner of Yuma Solutions, could not be reached for comment.

The Tallahassee, Fla.-based Yuma Solutions has a history with the Bush family, hosting Web sites for Mr. Bush’s 2000 campaign and for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s 1998 and 2002 campaigns. The company also sold $1.25 million in computer equipment, support and Web services to John McCain’s presidential campaign this year.

Records indicate that in March 2007, the George W. Bush Library Foundation, using Yuma Solutions as its contractor, bought the domain name from a private citizen for $3,000. Officials apparently overlooked the fact that the registration was set to expire within a few months.

Mr. Huger was trolling through a public list of names that were about to expire and saw the potential in the library name. He grabbed it.

Months later, in March 2008, Mr. Huger said he’d gotten some offers on it, but he declined to detail what they were or who was trying to buy it.

After The Dallas Morning News reported that the library had lost the domain, Mr. Mills contacted Illuminati Karate and asked to buy it back, Mr. Huger said.

At the time, a spokesman for the library foundation said officials were unaware that the name had been lost until a reporter contacted them about it.

“When the article came out, I think they wanted it back pretty badly,” said Mr. Huger this week.

Yuma finally reached a deal to buy the Web address back for $35,000, which the company, not the library foundation, apparently paid, Mr. Huger said.

Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Library Foundation, said Tuesday that he didn’t know about the Web site being lost and recovered. But, he said, he would know if the library had been stuck with a surprise $35,000 expenditure.

The site changed hands on April 17 and won’t expire until 2013.

Russ Martin had an email exchange with D Magazine’s blog and here are his comments regarding his dismissal:

Yesterday Live 105.3 switched formats. It’s now mostly sports talk, and it’s called The Fan. With the switch, afternoon drive ratings juggernaut Russ Martin was let go. He was kind enough to answer a few questions via e-mail:

FrontBurner: Was yesterday’s format change a surprise to you? When did you learn of it?

Russ Martin: Surprised? Not really. Got an e-mail from a friend over the weekend that KLLI had registered The Fan website. They officially told me Monday afternoon.

FrontBurner: When is or was your contract up?

Russ Martin: They indicated they’d honor the remainder of my contract, which runs through April of 2011. So, no worries. Very odd, though, to be paid seven figures annually to do nothing. Gonna sit back, relax, and get me some of those Dr. Shoal’s jelly pads for your feet.

FrontBurner: What did station management tell you about their decision?

Russ Martin: They said nothing more than they were flipping to all sports talk and apologized — many times. I told them I didn’t perceive this as a personal attack and to make sure my money showed up every two weeks.

FrontBurner: I assume you can’t comment on any other station you might be in talks with. But would you ever consider doing mornings again?

Russ Martin: As far as other stations, I haven’t heard from anyone. My e-mail inbox exploded yesterday and had to use an auto responder. That way every e-mailer at least got something.