Katy Perry, who will take part in a Britney Spears tribute next Sunday on the MTV Video Music Awards, continues to dominate the Atlanta radio charts with her latest pop truffle “Last Friday Night.” It’s No. 1 for a second week.

Star 94 (45), Wild (108) and Q100 (89) had “Last Friday Night” in their top rotations for much fo the week. But Wild on Friday swapped the song in its top 5 rotation in favor of Spears’ “I Wanna Go.” (Recent No. 1 Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” was pushed down a notch in favor of Lil Wayne’s “How To Love” as well.)

Top 10 songs
1. Katy Perry “Last Friday Night” 242 (-19)
2. Pitbull “Give Me Everything” 216 (+18)
3. Lil Wayne “How to Love” 199 (-1)
4. Nicki Minaj “Super Bass” 198 (+32)
5. Adele “Rolling in the Deep” 192 (-49)
6. DJ Khaled “I’m on One” 168 (-14)
7. Kelly Rowland “Motivation” 168 (-23)
8. Britney Spears “I Wanna Go” 168 (+37)
9. LMFAO “Party Rock Anthem” 164 (+2)
10. Beyonce “Best Thing I Never Had” 156 (even)
SOURCE: Mediabase 24/7

New …

Continue reading Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ lands on top of Atlanta radio for second week »

Lady Gaga. CREDIT: AP

The biggest spectacle this week will likely by the MTV Video Music Awards this Sunday, or at least MTV hopes for a few “water cooler” moments. Lady Gaga will work her darndest to do something outrageous. Britney Spears, at the stellar age of 29, gets a special tribute. It does feel like she’s been around forever, eh?

Bruno Mars, Lil Wayne and rock band Young the Giant are also scheduled to perform.

Otherwise, it’s a quiet week for debuts and finales. TNT’s “Leverage,” which was recently renewed for a fourth season, will close shop for the summer Sunday. And Discovery’s “Man vs. Wild” will finish its seventh season Friday.

Bravo also brings back the second season of  “Top Chef: Just Desserts,” one of its two spin-offs of “Top Chef” Thursday.

There are also some interesting specials on Thursday about UFO’s on History, the odd virtual world of Second Life on OWN and the building of One World Trade in New York City on Discovery.

MONDAY
“Hell’s Kitchen” 8 p.m. …

Continue reading TV best bets with MTV Video Music Awards, season finales of ‘Leverage,’ ‘Man vs. Wild,’ »

Paula Deen promo photo

Paula Deen, Savannah’s most popular on-air food personality, bit back at Anthony Bourdain’s harsh assessment in TV Guide of her and other Food Network staples.

At the same time, she does not address his chief criticism: that the food she dishes out is incredibly fattening and unhealthy for its viewers. Instead, she said he went after her character and failed to address how charitable she is, while also questioning his level of charity.

Here’s what she told the New York Post:

“Anthony Bourdain needs to get a life. You don’t have to like my food, or Rachael’s, Sandra’s and Guy’s. But it’s another thing to attack our character. I wake up every morning happy for where I am in life. It’s not all about the cooking, but the fact that I can contribute by using my influence to help people all over the country. In the last two years, my partners and I have fed more than 10 million hungry people by bringing meat to food banks.”

Back at you, Anthony! What do you …

Continue reading Paula Deen bites back at Anthony Bourdain: ‘Get a life!’ »

Loni Anderson will be at DragonCon next month. CREDIT: AP

Like the fictional radio station it depicted, the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati,” struggled during its run from 1978 to 1982. But like “The Brady Bunch” and “Star Trek,” it flourished in syndication.

It also turned actress Loni Anderson into a huge star. As the cool and collected secretary Jennifer Marlowe, Anderson made sure bumbling boss Arthur “Big Guy” Carlson did no harm while fending off blowhard salesman Herb Tarlek’s relentless advances.

Three decades later, the show’s first season is now available for free on demand on Hulu and is remembered fondly by fans, even those too young to watch the show when it originally aired.

“I was just at a Bed, Bath and Beyond,” Anderson said in a recent phone interview from her Los Angeles home. “A woman stopped me and said, ‘I love you.’ She looked like she was 30 years old.”

Anderson and Howard Hesseman, who played the pot-addled morning jock Johnny Fever, will be in Atlanta at …

Continue reading Interview with Loni Anderson (’WKRP in Cincinnati’), coming to DragonCon »

After nearly five months off the air, Youngblood will be back on R&B station Kiss 104.1 this Saturday morning starting at 7 a.m.

Youngblood, who objected to a salary cut in April and left, said in an interview that he and Kiss were “able to compromise, cut it in the middle and work it out.”

He talked to other stations but in the end, he felt Kiss was the best place for him to be.

Fans of Youngblood flooded the station with protests.

“We’re very excited to have him back,” said Tony Kidd, Cox Radio Atlanta vice president of programming who runs Kiss. “He’s been in this marketplace a long time. And people love the way he tells stories, the way he delivers the music. People view him as a friend. He’s a staple.”

Youngblood has hosted Spotlight Gold on the station for two decades primarily with soul classics from the 1960s and 1970s.

ON AIR
Youngblood’s Spotlight Gold, 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays on Kiss 104.1 (WALR-FM)

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Continue reading Youngblood returns to Kiss 104.1 August 20 »

Jim Basile also plays in a polka band. CREDIT: 11Alive

Jim Basile, the long-time morning traffic guy on 11Alive (WXIA-TV), is off the station after 12 years.

He was actually never an employee of 11Alive. He works for Metro Traffic Networks and continues to do so.

11Alive switched traffic vendors for more updated mapping technology and moved traffic into its own building instead of operating it out of Metro Traffic.

Nick Vavas now does Basile’s work as part of what 11Alive dubs the “Traffic Jam.”

Basile continues to do work for Sirius/XM’s traffic feed and 1380/WAOK-AM during mid-days. “I enjoyed it,” he said in an interview, of his time on 11Alive. “I’ll miss it. I worked with some great people there.”

Here is news director Ellen Crooke’s explanation for the changes in a Facebook comment:

This is Ellen Crooke, V.P. of News for 11Alive. I want to answer your questions about our new traffic reports in the morning. One of our goals as we continue to improve our morning …

Continue reading Why is Jim Basile off 11Alive? »

Dagmar Midcap on the WGCL-TV set in 2008. CREDIT: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Just shy of a year ago, I met with Dagmar Midcap minutes after she had handed in her resignation at CBS Atlanta (WGCL-TV). At the Silver Skillet not far from the station in Midtown, she looked tired, depressed, defeated. She said a year after her boyfriend committed suicide, she needed to leave town.

She told me about taking sleeping and anti-anxiety pills, how she couldn’t focus on work and would have crying jags.  Within a few weeks after that interview, she had left Atlanta for good, moving to Los Angeles with Internet consultant Kyle Hudson and three dogs. (She said she and Kyle are just friends. “He’s like my brother,” she said.)

The change of scenery helped, she said. She already had a manager, Robbie Kass, who also represents former wrestler and current actress Stacy Keibler and Atlanta actress Jasmine Guy. He helped her get an agent at talent agency IMG named  Babette Perry, who also represents Phil …

Continue reading Catching up with Dagmar Midcap a year later »

CREDIT: NBC

Michael Grimm, the winner of “America’s Got Talent,” will be opening tonight for Stevie Nicks at Chastain.

He surprisingly beat out Jackie Evancho, the heralded 11-year-old opera singer who recently sold out Woodruff Arts Center.  In many ways, Grimm was the Kris Allen to Jackie’s Adam Lambert. The bluesy singer-songwriter slid in there with low-key confidence and likability, getting more votes than his more theatrical counterpart in the end.

“I spoke with Jackie’s father a few days ago,” he said in an interview last week. “I’d love to do a song with her. She’s an outstanding vocalist.”

He thinks maybe 10 percent of the Nicks’ audience might know who he is. “That’s why I’m there,” he said. “To try to get more fans. People do say, ‘Hey! You’re that guy from ‘America’s Got Talent’ Some think it’s ‘American Idol’! The way I see it, in due time, if I’m blessed to get my songs out there, get another record album, people will get to know me aside from the show.”

Then …

Continue reading Michael Grimm, 2010 ‘America’s Got Talent’ winner, opening for Stevie Nicks at Chastain August 17 »

Anthony Bourdain is happy to smack down celebrity food personalities. CREDIT: AP

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Anthony Bourdain has never been shy about his opinions. Just read his book “Kitchen Confidential” or listen to him on his Travel Channel show “No Reservations.”

In the current print edition of TV Guide magazine, he also sounds off on various celebrity chefs, including Savannah’s own Paula Deen, whose buttery blood might boil if she read this:

“The worst, most dangerous person to America is clearly Paula Deen. She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations and she’s proud of the fact that her food is f–king bad for you [...] plus, her food sucks.”

Continue reading Anthony Bourdain calls Paula Deen ‘the worst, most dangerous person to America’ »

The Fiddleheads of North Georgia performed in the wild-card round on "America's Got Talent." CREDIT: NBC

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Most of these acts are pretty good, but there were specific reasons why most didn’t make it into the semifinals in the first place. So I gave most of acts grades in the B-minus to B-plus range.

But the last two, as the producers clearly knew, were slightly better.

So here are the four I think will go through:

Landon Swank, the magician, performed …

Continue reading ‘America’s Got Talent’ wildcap recap: back again? »