This was posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Atlanta-based Turner Classic Movies is planning an entire weekend to honor the legacy of veteran host Robert Osborne, who passed away March 5 of unspecified health issues. Airing all day on Saturday, March 18 and Sunday, March 19, the 48-hour tribute will replay many interviews Osborne conducted with Hollywood greats over his 23 years since the network launched.
He was the voice of the network and taped more than 50,000 introductions to classic movies, much of that time at Turner's Midtown studios.
Among the clips:
- Alec Baldwin interviewed Osborne in 2014.
- A clip of Osborne's very first intro clip in 1994 to "Gone With the Wind."
- His "Private Screening" interviews with Debbie Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, Betty Hutton and Ernest Borgnine.
- TCM's annual "Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival" interviews with screen legends such as Peter O'Toole, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Alan Arkin and Luise Rainer, who was 101 at the time of the interview and without her hearing aids, a situation Osborne graciously worked around by writing each question out on a noteptad for her to read.
The complete schedule for TCM's tribute to Osborne is included below:
Saturday, March 18
6 a.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
7:30 a.m. – Private Screenings: Norman Jewison
9 a.m. – Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute
10:15 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Alan Arkin
11:30 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Luise Rainer
12:15 p.m. – Private Screeniings: Liza Minnnelli
1:30 p.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
3 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Eva Marie Saint
4:15 p.m. – Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute
5:30 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Peter O'Toole
6:45 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Kim Novak
8 p.m. – Robert Osborne introduces Gone with the Wind in his first-ever on-air appearance as TCM's host
8:05 p.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
9:30 p.m. – Private Screenings: Debbie Reynolds
10:30 p.m. – Private Screenings: Betty Hutton
11:45 p.m. – Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli
12:45 a.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
2:15 a.m. – Private Screenings: Norman Jewison
3:30 a.m. – Private Screenings: Ernest Borgnine
4:45 a.m. – Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute
Sunday, March 19
6 a.m. – Private Screenings: Liza Minnnelli
7 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Eva Marie Saint
8:15 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Kim Novak
9:15 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Peter O'Toole
10:30 a.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
Noon – Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute
1 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Alan Arkin
2:15 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Luise Rainer
3 p.m. – Private Screenings: Ernest Borgnine
4:15 p.m. – Private Screenings: Norman Jewison
5:30 p.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
7 p.m. – Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli
8 p.m. – Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute
9 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Eva Marie Saint
10:15 p.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Luise Rainer
11 p.m. – Robert Osborne's 20th Anniversary Tribute
Midnight – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Peter O'Toole
1:15 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Kim Novak
2:30 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Alan Arkin
3:45 a.m. – Private Screenings: Robert Osborne
5:15 a.m. – Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival: Luise Rainer
(All times Eastern)
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Katie Walls is expected to return next week from maternity leave after having a son three months ago.
She posted on her public Facebook page: "In one week I'll be leaving this cutie pie and returning to work. See you soon!"
She joined the news team in 2014.
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Channel 2 Action News has beefed up its technology from its chopper so people can see street names as the copter flies over Atlanta.
It also allows real-time comparison using satellite images to show what a location looked like in the past versus what it looks like now. This can be used to show situations such as damage from a fire or flooding, or to show progress on new construction.
The station used it for the first time this week to show the area around the new Suntrust Park.
And Mark Arum and Fred Blankenship Thursday morning honored the 20th anniversary of Notorious B.I.G.'s death this way:
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Variety wrote an extensive piece about how IHeartMedia's unwieldy debt is increasing the chances the company will have to file for bankruptcy protection.
They built up more than $20 billion in debt in 2008 after a private equity takeover just as the economy was cratering. Although the economy has since recovered, radio revenues have not come back to pre-recession levels.
And while IHeartMedia does throw off plenty of cash, it's not enough to reduce its burdensome debt.
"They've got a ticking time bomb," says Jude Gorman, general counsel of Reorg Research, which analyzes distressed companies, in Variety. "They clearly thought they had a path, and so they gave it a shot. It didn't work out."
IHeartMedia owns more radio stations than any other company, including Power 96.1, Radio 105.7, 94.9/The Bull and 640/WGST-AM in Atlanta. It owns 860 nationwide.
Bob Pittman, who started MTV 36 years ago, is trying to turn IHeartMedia (once called Clear Channel) into a digital powerhouse. While his app is third largest nationwide, it is well behind Pandora and Spotify.
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Star 94.1's is wisely trying to grab listeners away from B98.5, which recently took Melissa Carter off the air as a morning host:
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