From the Chicago Sun-Times: "Some of radio's most noteworthy talent raids these days aren't happening on the air. Instead, they're online. The latest defection was engineered Tuesday (5/30) by ABC-owned WXCD-FM (94.7) and WMVP-AM (1000), which hired away the Webmaster of WKQX-FM (101.1).

"Keith Sgariglia, former promotion manager at Q-101, had been the Emmis station's 'interactive manager' for the last eight months. In his new role, Sgariglia will revamp and manage the Web sites of classic rock CD 94.7 and sports-talk ESPN Radio 1000.

"As broadcasters look to their Web pages as potential profit centers, ABC's Chicago outlets are taking a more aggressive position..."

Read Robert Feder's full column here.

The amazing part of this story, to me, is that it warranted such serious play in a major metropolitan newspaper! (It's the kind of coverage Lujack got when he moved from WCFL to WLS!)

From All Access: ComedyWorld.com is officially up and running as of today (6/5). The lineup, as reported by All Access in previous weeks, includes morning man Brian Whitman from WABC/New York, the team of comic Allan Havey and Susan Olsen in late mornings, L.A. comedy impresario Beth Lapides with a midday show, former "Remote Control " and "Make Me Laugh" host and KLSX/Los Angeles talker Ken Ober in afternoons, late additions Travis Clark and Greg Behrendt in afternoon "drive," [and] comedian Bobby Slaton with sidekick Sue Murphy in evenings...

"Few of the on-air personalities have radio experience. The service is not airing on any broadcast stations.

Read the full story in All Access's "Net News" here (registration required).

According to the ComedyWorld.com website, "Jody Sherman is Comedy World's Chief Executive Officer and President. Prior to joining Comedy World, he was one of the principals at NBC Internet (NBCi), serving as Vice President of New Business."

The top radio exec involved is Jay Clark (pictured), the firm's VP and GM of Broadcast Operations. Jay previously served as GM of Sportsfan Radio Network and VP/Programming at Winstar Radio Networks, as EVP at New York's Sabo Media. He came to Sabo from CBS/Infinity Broadcasting. Prior to that, Jay served as PD of Real Radio 104.1 FM in Orlando, WWW/Cleveland, WLLZ/Detroit and WABC/New York City.

Reprinted from yesterday's issue:
From the New York Times: "Sega Enterprises Ltd., the world's third-largest video-game console maker, said on Monday it agreed with Motorola Inc to jointly develop new cellular phones that can access the Internet.

"The two companies will develop new software allowing mobile phones to hook up to the Internet and process data at high speeds with technology now used in Sega's Dreamcast home game machines, a Sega spokesman said. The new cell phone, to be launched in the spring of 2001 in the United States and other countries, will be able to download games and video as well as other forms of data from the Internet, the spokesman said.

Read the full story here (registration required). (Why this is relevant: Internet-enabled cell phones may be an important way that consumers listen to Internet radio in the not-so-distant future.)

From Walter Mossberg's "Personal Technology" column in the Wall Street Journal: "Music is the hottest commodity in the digital world, so it's not surprising that the competition to create the best music-jukebox software has been heating up.

"I've been testing two new jukebox programs: one from the market leader in the category, RealNetworks; and one from the colossus of all software, Microsoft. I've compared these with the jukebox software I consider the gold standard, MusicMatch Jukebox, from MusicMatch...

He concludes, "So, I still like MusicMatch best, but now I also can recommend RealJukebox 2 -- provided you know how to turn off its sneaky security features and advertising..."

Read the full column in the Wall Street Journal here (subscription required -- and then, due to the way the Journal's site is designed, you'll have to do some searching to find it).

June 12-14	Streaming Media East 2000, New York City
June 14-17	R&R Convention 2000, Los Angeles
June 14-17	PROMAX & BDA, New Orleans
July 13-16	Upper Midwest Conclave, Minneapolis
August 3-5	Morning Show Bootcamp, New Orleans
September 20-23	NAB Radio Show, San Francisco
October 5-7	Billboard/Airplay Monitor Seminar, New York
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
Nov. 28-Dec. 1	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA

xxx

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If you're hiring for a position that's radio- and Internet-related this week, we'll post it -- free! Simply e-mail the job description here. If you're looking for new opportunities that involve the Internet, you can take a look at the first three available positions here.