Through the Wire
By Kent Gibbons, Ted Hearn, Linda Haugsted and Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/18/2007 7:00:00 PM
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Items:
Now Vogel Gets TV Eye on His Driver So Senators Don’t Read Every Line of Every Bill? Feuding’s Big Business For Donald Trump Tim Brooks Turns Book Into Grammy Win |
Items:
Now Vogel Gets TV Eye on His Driver
So Senators Don’t Read Every Line of Every Bill?
Feuding’s Big Business For Donald Trump
Tim Brooks Turns Book Into Grammy Win
Now Vogel Gets TV Eye on His Driver
How big a car racing fan is Carl Vogel?
Well, NASCAR marketing deals keep following him from job to job, including his current stint as EchoStar Communications president. Last week, EchoStar struck a marketing pact with the stock-car racing circuit and ESPN that includes signage, other media exposure and a “technology trailer” at all ESPN Nextel Cup and Busch Series races.
While he was CEO at Charter Communications, the cable firm sponsored a Roush Racing car driven by Greg Biffle in the Busch Series. Then, when Vogel came to his new gig, EchoStar signed on as a Roush sponsor for every Busch race — including Biffle driving the No. 16 Dish Network Ford Fusion.
Now, the ESPN deal calls for six in-car cameras per season in Busch races — in the Dish/Roush car, EchoStar said. (So root for Roush to stay in the race and keep the camera feed going!)
Vogel’s ties to Roush and NASCAR go back to his short stint in the late 1990s at Primestar, the cable-backed satellite-TV venture that sold out to DirecTV. Primestar sponsored a Roush car and a 500-mile NASCAR race for a few years. Vogel inherited that deal, done earlier by marketer Denny Wilkinson.
“It was perfect for PrimeStar — it was our audience,” Wilkinson said last week. There was constant scrutiny on whether the expense made sense, and it always added up that way, he said. “It makes tremendous sense for EchoStar,” he added, as Dish is aiming at rural markets with price-conscious consumers and NASCAR fans are very brand loyal.
Including Carl Vogel, it would seem.
So Senators Don’t Read Every Line of Every Bill?
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) made a recent disclosure which would suggest he’s not exactly thrilled with his new assignment on the Commerce Committee, which oversees the communications industry.
But a Carper aide insists his boss was just trying to be funny.
Carper joined the panel in January after winning a second six-year term. On Feb. 8, he was one of the last to get a shot at questioning a panel of witnesses on the controversial Cyren Call proposal to grab an additional 30 MHz of analog TV spectrum for police, fire and emergency teams.
After thanking the panelists for their opening statements, Carper said, “I’d be lying if I said I’m going to go home and read them. Maybe I should.”
Some people laughed, probably because senators rarely advertise their indolence.
With calm restored, Carper continued, “Others will tell you they’re going to go home and read them. I’ll tell you the truth. I’m not. That’s why I hire all these smart staff people.”
Bill Ghent, Carper’s committee aide, said his boss was trying to get people to lighten up.
But did the people laugh at the “joke” or at Carper’s apparent uninterest in the issue of securing more spectrum for first responders as requested by the 9/11 Commission.
“I don’t think that any senator reads every single bit of testimony that is ever given before every single committee he presides over,” Ghent said. “That’s why you have staff.”
Feuding’s Big Business For Donald Trump
Now that his feud with Rosie O’Donnell is old news, Donald Trump is pursuing a new one that has the potential for follicle fall-out.
The latest Trumped-up dust-up is with World Wrestling Entertainment exec Vince McMahon. First, Trump criticized McMahon for a “failed attempt at satire” when McMahon staged a faux match on Monday Night Raw between Trump and Rosie look-alikes. McMahon countered by offering his advice on how Trump could have better handled the Miss USA alcohol abuse controversy and offered to appear on The Apprentice to help boost sagging ratings.
Trump then upstaged McMahon on WWE Fan Appreciation Night by dumping thousands of dollars from an arena ceiling to the cheers of the fans in attendance.
Now the two have agreed to a “hair match” at Wrestlemania 23. The loser of the “Battle of the Billionaires” will have his head shaved at WrestleMania 23 in Detroit at Ford Field on April 1.
That date should be a hint: we at The Wire doubt sincerely the script will be calling for Trump to have a chrome dome anytime soon, especially since Trump is a friend of the show. He’s hosted Wrestlemania at his hotel/casino in Atlantic City and made a cameo appearance at Wrestlemania XX.
But with this event, Trump’s show biz career may have truly jumped the shark.
Tim Brooks Turns Book Into Grammy Win
And the Grammy went to … Tim Brooks.
Although you didn’t see him on the tube, the TV historian and Lifetime executive VP of research took home a trophy for Best Historical Album during an afternoon ceremony Feb. 11 at the 49th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
It’s for his role as a mastering engineer on Lost Sounds: Blacks and The Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922. His book of the same name was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2004 (Through the Wire, May 3, 2004).
For the book, Brooks spent 15 years of weekends and vacations digging through collectors’ bins, archival materials and visiting the home states of the pioneering entertainers who recorded in the acoustic days before microphones and speakers.
Then Richard Martin, co-owner of Archeophone Records, contacted him about helping to put together an album. Brooks identified the songs, was involved in transferring some of the recordings — several came from his collection — and wrote the accompanying commentary.
The result: a double CD set with 54 tracks from 43 artists, including George W. Johnson, the first black man to record, and 60 pages of analysis. (Brooks was a Grammy nominee for Best Album Notes, too.)
Now he’s working with Earle Marsh on the ninth edition of their The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows. Due out this fall, the tome is approaching 1,900 pages, up from 1,360.
“There have been a lot more cable shows over the past four years,” Brooks explained.
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