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RIP Dan Ingram, One of the Great Top 40 DeeJays of All Time, of WABC and CBS FM Fame

Roger Friedman
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RIP Dan Ingram, One of the Great Top 40 DeeJays of All Time, of WABC and CBS FM Fame

Dan Ingram is gone today, at age 83. He was my radio hero, mostly from 77 WABC AM, the greatest top 40 radio station ever, and WCBS FM from its heyday when it didn’t play crap from the 1980s.

Dan was irreverent but never a shock jock. He warmly undermined the status and cracked you up when you didn’t expect it. When “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” played, he inserted Joe Tex screaming “I Gotcha!” when Robert Flack arrived ponderously at “The first time ever I lay with you.” He was juvenile appropriate for a teen audience.

I got to know Dan in the 80s, after WABC was converted into right wing jabbering. He went to CBS FM with many of his great colleagues, now missed so much: Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard, and so on. Cousin Brucie is still kickin’ it on Sirius. They were the championship team.

Dan ended every show with “Bye now, Kemosabe!” So it’s back at him, today, Bye, now Kemosabe! Thanks for everything!

Listening to these sound checks on YouTube from an era gone by, you can hear how much deejays shaped the popularity of what we call classic pop and rock. They hyped it. They loved it. They made it into something dramatic. There was a sense of occasion.

Film Academy Invites A Whopping 928 New Members from 59 Countries, 17 Oscar Winners, 92 Nominees

Roger Friedman
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Film Academy Invites A Whopping 928 New Members from 59 Countries, 17 Oscar Winners, 92 Nominees

The Motion Picture Academy has found 928 new members to invite, from 59 different countries.

They’ve cast their web so wide that, really, only Stormy Daniels is left for next year. (Just kidding.)

A lot of people are in now who you might associate mostly with television. Maybe they made one or two movies of no significance, but if they’re anything other than white, or men, they’re in.

The Academy is really touting inclusion of women– many of whom should long ago have been made members, like Christine Baranski or Eileen Atkins. Julie Kavner is finally in, even though we think of her mostly from “Rhoda” or “The Simpsons.” Six time Tony winner Audra McDonald is in, as is Indian actress Tabu (I wondered what happened to her), and Scientologist Yeardley Smith of “The Simpsons” (also TV).

In music, they’ve added Melissa Etheridge, Questlove from the Roots, and Kendrick Lamar.

Plus some of our favorite publicists got in, including Janice Roland, Michael Kupferberg, Nicolette Aizenberg, Scott Feinstein, Lina Plath, Shannon Treusch, Pete Dangerfield, Vicky Eguia, and the just married Bebe Lerner!

Congrats to all!

 

Ratings: George Clooney AFI Tribute Beaten by Bobby Flay, Survival Show on History, Apes, House Hunters, Ryan Phillippe

Roger Friedman
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Ratings: George Clooney AFI Tribute Beaten by Bobby Flay, Survival Show on History, Apes, House Hunters, Ryan Phillippe

The American Film Institute tribute to George Clooney was fun to watch, if you were watching.

The show aired last Thursday at 10pm on TNT and scored 483,000. It was sixth or seventh in its time slot. Shows that beat it– scoring a million or more viewers on cable at the same hour– included Bobby Flay on the Food Network, “Alone,” a survival show on the History Channel, Primates on Discovery Channel, “House Hunters,” and Ryan Phillippe’s USA Netowrk series “Shooter.”

Julia Roberts had been advertised for the AFI Tribute but didn’t show up for the taping. No explanation was given. Many Clooney co-stars, especially Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt, weren’t included at all. Odd miscellaneous types appeared for no reason.

In between the taping and the airing of the show, the AFI laid off a popular black female executive who ran the AFI Film Fest. The institute is top heavy with salaries, and, as I reported earlier this month. is in overall financial trouble.

In addition to a low overall total viewer number, the AFI tribute had a .15 in the key demo, about half of what Flay, the survivalists, or the primates got in their time period.

Kathy Griffin Tour: Carnegie Hall Sold Out But Radio City Has Hundreds of Seats Available

Roger Friedman
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Kathy Griffin Tour: Carnegie Hall Sold Out But Radio City Has Hundreds of Seats Available

Kathy Griffin’s concert bookers may have over reacted to her new found popularity.

She is mostly sold out for tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall. But tonight’s date at Radio City Music Hall is wide open. There are hundreds of unsold seats.

The Carnegie Hall date was announced first and sold out quickly. We announced it here, a great success. But like someone who was doing well in a casino, Griffin got greedy.

Radio City is vastly bigger and much harder to sell for a single act. Also, with Carnegie Hall already saturating the ticket buying populace, Radio City would be much more difficult to fill– and a less exclusive seat.

On Ticketmaster, almost all sections are showing 100+ seats available. Maybe they’ll let the people in the cheap seats move down to hear Griffin, who is sharply funny and a refreshing rebuke to the current crazy political climate.

Kanye Sales Collapse: In Third Week, “Ye” Album Sells Total Only 39K, Mostly from Streaming

Roger Friedman
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Kanye Sales Collapse: In Third Week, “Ye” Album Sells Total Only 39K, Mostly from Streaming

Kanye West? You remember the “Ye” album release? It was, what, two weeks ago? Kanye and DefJam flew 150 people to the wilds of Wyoming for the album release. Then they had another album release party in Brooklyn. Kanye was everywhere.

Right around that time, when Kanye was supporting Donald Trump very vocally, and announcing his diagnosis of bipolar illness, a friend of mine who’s back said, “That album? No black person wants that album.”

And so, two weeks later, the “Ye” album, priced to sell at $7.99, is over. This week “Ye” sold just under 39,000 “copies.” Most of that was from streaming. There were only around 6,400 paid downloads.

Kanye’s other album, “Kids See Ghosts,” with Kid Cudi, in its second week, sold around 33,373 copies– again mostly from streaming. Paid downloads came in around 7,800.

The money Kanye is seeing from streaming isn’t much for a celebrity with his overhead. On hitsdailydouble’s Song Streaming Revenue Chart, Kanye and Kid Cudi’s songs together earned around $700,000. The licensing and expense fees are high for all those tracks. The biggest Kids See Ghosts tracks is actually listed “with Louis Prima,” the late jazz star. The Prima estate is getting prima money for that sample.

 

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” Makes $150 Million, Down $58 Mil from Original, While “Ocean’s 8,” “Solo,” Struggle to Hit Goals

Roger Friedman
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“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” Makes $150 Million, Down $58 Mil from Original, While “Ocean’s 8,” “Solo,” Struggle to Hit Goals

The dinosaurs roared in with $150 million.

“Fallen Kingdom” is number 1, of course, with a bib $150 million weekend. But keep in mind, that’s quite a bit off from the original “Jurassic World.” Three years ago the dino’s had a $208 million opening weekend.

So good news, bad news. The good news is, they’re still in the game. The bad news is, there was a lot less enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, “Ocean’s 8” finally hit $100 million after three weeks. That was a struggle.

“Solo” hit $200 million after its own struggles. The Han Solo movie still has a lot of life left in it.

A nice note: this is the maybe the first ever father-daughter box office report as Ron Howard directed “Solo” and Bryce Dallas Howard stars in “Fallen Kingdom.” Very nice! Couldn’t happen to better people!

Box Office: John Travolta’s “Gotti” Loses 37 Theaters But Finds a Few Fans in Hungary

Roger Friedman
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Box Office: John Travolta’s “Gotti” Loses 37 Theaters But Finds a Few Fans in Hungary

“Gotti” doesn’t need any more mob metaphors about being whacked at the box office. It’s time for the funeral.

The John Travolta disaster lost 40 theaters in release this weekend, its second, and went into sharp  decline.

On Friday night the Zero-rated film scored just $219,000 in 466 theaters. The total through Saturday morning is $2.66 million. On the upside, it will cross the $3 million mark on Sunday, presumably.

“Gotti” does have some foreign fans. According to boxofficemojo.com, Travolta and company have made $57,063 in Hungary since June 14th. There’s no word on whether it’s more popular in Buda or Pest.

There are currently 32 reviews of “Gotti” on Rotten Tomatoes. None are positive.

 

Recent Videos of Joseph Jackson Show Him Sicker Than Realized, But Still Alive and Kicking

Roger Friedman
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Recent Videos of Joseph Jackson Show Him Sicker Than Realized, But Still Alive and Kicking

Recent of videos of Joseph Jackson should the old warrior looking not well, very thin, but still alive and kicking. If pancreatic cancer takes him soon, the irony will be him dying on the anniversary of Michael’s death (June 25th).

The irony of Charles Coupet, Joe’s long time crony and “manager” cutting him from his family, is that the Jackson kids are getting from Joe what he got from Michael. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Coupet’s been around for years– I wrote about him in 2005.

More to come soon.


 

Jurassic Surprise! HUGE Opening For Dino Sequel Will Give Universal Film Biggest Non-Disney Opening of Year

Roger Friedman
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Jurassic Surprise! HUGE Opening For Dino Sequel Will Give Universal Film Biggest Non-Disney Opening of Year

Surprise, kids. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is over performing expectations. The weekend could gross $143 million– way over the low ball of $130 million. That would mean the dinosaurs and friends will have the biggest non-Disney(PixarLucasMarvel) opening of the year.

Blue, the smart dinosaur, had his money on this one. “Fallen Kingdom” did $58.7 million (including the $15 mil from Thursday) on Friday. Universal must be celebrating everywhere. Confidence pays off.

“Fallen Kingdom” lacks any kind of character development, but no one cares. It’s all about the special effects. They are amazing.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that “Fallen Kingdom” is in the widest number of theaters/screens known to man–a stunning 4,475. Normal wide releases are more like 3,200. So Universal will leave its largest dino footprint this weekend.

Stay tuned…

UPDATE Paul McCartney Carpool Karoake Sends Beatles “Red,” “White,” “Blue” Albums Plus “Abbey Road” Up the Charts, And Singles

Roger Friedman
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UPDATE Paul McCartney Carpool Karoake Sends Beatles “Red,” “White,” “Blue” Albums Plus “Abbey Road” Up the Charts, And Singles

SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: “The White Album,” both the red and blue greatest hits albums, “Abbey Road” and “1” are on the iTunes top 100. “Hey Jude” has joined “Let it Be” and “Blackbird” on the top 100 singles.

EARLIER That was some great Paul McCartney special on Thursday night with James Corden.

What started out as a Carpool Karoake turned into a 30 minute documentary that was moving and elucidating about the Beatle.

The result is that Beatles records have jumped back onto the charts with a vengeance.

In the iTunes top 100 albums are now three Beatles volumes and one by McCartney. “Abbey Road,” “Greatest Hits 1962-66,” and the Beatles “1” album are all there. So is McCartney’s “All the Best.”

On the iTunes singles chart, “Let it Be” and “Blackbird,” two songs Paul sang with Corden, have arrived big time.

It’s the same on Amazon for the albums.

Why did McCartney do it? The Corden special kind of promotes his new album “Egypt Station,” which doesn’t release til September 7th. The “Yellow Submarine” 50th anniversary is coming in about three weeks. On the show, McCartney doesn’t sing any of his solo hits– it’s all Beatles.

Who knows? But a splendid time is had by all.

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