Search Results for: Missio

TV stations across the U.S. started cutting their analog signals Friday morning, ending a 60-year run for the technology and likely stranding more than 1 million unprepared homes without TV service. The Federal Communications Commission put 4,000 operators on standby for calls from confused viewers, and set up demonstration centers in several cities. Volunteer groups and local government agencies were helping elderly viewers set up digital converter boxes that keep older TVs functioning. Any set hooked up to cable or a satellite dish is unaffected. “When you’re alone like me, that’s my partner,” Patricia Bruchalski, 82, said about her TV.… Read more »

Green Day is continuing their march to an inevitable Number One album, setting up rock-opera shop at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on May 18th for the East Coast live debut of 21st Century Breakdown. The band’s Bay Area guerilla gigs in April all featured the record in its entirety. But at the Bowery, Green Day played a pocket-jukebox edition of the album, starting with the opening title track and the first single, “Know Your Enemy.” Then the new six-piece band – with singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool assisted on guitars, keyboards and extra… Read more »

Apple’s iTunes online music store may reach more customers throughout Europe after the body tasked with collecting artist royalties in France agreed to allow counterparts elsewhere to license its catalog. SACEM, which collects royalties for about 128,000 artists, said it would be willing to drop territorial restrictions and allow national counterparts to license its repertoire, European antitrust regulators said on Tuesday. If pan-European licensing becomes a reality, Apple, which controls slightly more than half of global digital music sales through iTunes, may look at broadening access to the system, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes added. “If iTunes was readily able… Read more »

PARIS — Alternative act MGMT has beef with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “No time to think of consequences/Take only what you need from it,” sings American psychedelic indie rock band MGMT in its popular anthem “Kids.” This was exactly what French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party did when it used the song without the band’s permission. Now the ruling UMP party, which faced the threat of a lawsuit, has agreed to pay a financial compensation to the band, MGMT’s French lawyer said on Tuesday. Asked if the settlement fee amounted to 30,000 euros ($39,050), a sum cited by France Info… Read more »

LOS ANGELES —  The diagnosis on Dr. Jan Adams’ career: inoperable. The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West’s mother the day before she died in 2007 has given up his license to practice medicine in California after the state’s Medical Board brought charges against him over two criminal convictions for driving under the influence. In court documents, Adams admits “the truth of each and every allegation,” thereby resolving the board’s allegations against him. “The mission of the Medical Board is pubic protection, and this action reflects the Board’s ongoing commitment to that mission,” Barb Johnston, the Medical Board’s executive… Read more »

The average cellphone customer pays more than $3 per minute, according to a report being issued this week by the  Utility Consumers’ Action Network, a San Diego consumer advocacy group. Researchers arrived at the average $3.02-per-minute charge by comparing the average number of minutes charged in more than 700 San Diego consumers’ telecom bills and dividing by the average number of actual minutes used. “We knew it was a myth that wireless costs were going down,” said Michael Shames, UCAN’s executive director. “But we were blown away by the actual costs.” That $3-per-minute figure is skewed by the relatively small… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – Three years after the former manager of The Killers sued the band for alleged breach of contract, the group has filed a countersuit claiming a pattern of incompetence and double-dealing. The Killers' lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Las Vegas alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment as well as breach of an implied good-faith covenant by former manager Braden Merrick and his company, From the Future. Though the Killers' suit doesn't specify the amount of damages being sought, a statement from the band obtained by Billboard cites "multi-million-dollar damages in… Read more »

When Barack Obama moved into the White House on January 20th, he gained access to five chefs, a private bowling alley – and a killer collection of classic LPs. Stored in the basement of the executive mansion is the official White House Record Library: several hundred LPs that include landmark albums in rock (Led Zeppelin IV, the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed), punk (the Ramones’ Rocket to Russia, the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols), cult classics (Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica, the Flying Burrito Brothers’ The Gilded Palace of Sin) and disco. Not to mention… Read more »

EARN IT YOURSELF.com has announced an official sponsorship of the 2009 VANS WARPED TOUR with the introduction of THE EARN IT YOURSELF SPOT on the tour’s Kevin Says Stage. At each tour stop, one band will be handpicked to perform on the stage, based on submissions that will be taken at EARNITYOURSELF.COM. Sarah Saturday, booking manager of the Kevin Says Stage, created the original application process for independent bands to perform on the tour when she collaborated with tour founder Kevin Lyman in 2004. Beginning on January 1, 2009, bands are invited to create a profile for free at EARNITYOURSELF.COM… Read more »