Cable to feds: Let market decide
CHICAGO, June 10 (UPI) -- The cable industry voiced its distaste for nearly all federal regulation at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's annual show.
Citing their success introducing a panoply of new services during the past year, including video-on-demand and high-definition television, industry leaders strongly indicated their preference for minimal intervention from Capitol Hill, the Hollywood Reporter said.
"Let the marketplace determine how best to meet consumer needs," AOL Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard Parsons said.
Parsons was joined on the opening panel Monday by Mel Karmazin, president and chief operating officer of Viacom; Brian Roberts, president and CEO of Comcast Corp.; and Bill Gates, chairman and chief software officer of Microsoft Corp.
The panel was moderated by CNN anchor Lou Dobbs.
MCA brand about to become history
LOS ANGELES, June 10 (UPI) -- The restructuring of MCA Records and the move to eliminate the MCA brand is under way, the Hollywood Reporter says.
Monday, about a third of the label's staffers were let go, but a spokeswoman for Interscope Geffen A&M wouldn't confirm how many employees were affected. The layoffs extended across the board and to all levels. The spokeswoman said, "Further details about the structure and staffing of the label will be announced shortly."
MCA's remaining staff and artist roster will move under the Geffen Records banner sometime next week.
AOL banks on Wieden's ad campaign
ARLINGTON, Va., June 10 (UPI) – Hoping to stem a continuing loss of dial-up subscribers, America Online has tapped Portland, Ore.-based independent ad agency Wieden & Kennedy to handle its corporate brand advertising account.
Wieden & Kennedy is best known for its branding work for Nike, Miller Beer, ESPN and Coca-Cola.
AOL also said it was consolidating all of its product and service advertising, including the launch of AOL 9.0, with BBDO New York. BBDO was a runner-up for the branding work, Daily Variety reported.
AOL Time Warner Chief Financial Officer Wayne Pace recently confirmed that the online division has lost more than 1 million dial-up subsscriptions since late 2002. The group is expected to spend some $80 million on marketing its AOL for Broadband service.
TV hunk made military indiscretion
LOS ANGELES, June 10 (UPI) -- The star of a new NBC reality TV series had his military career derailed after he allegedly drunkenly groped the breasts of a Navy officer, The Smoking Gun reports.
The report says Rob Campos, the 33-year-old attorney starring in "For Love or Money," was headed for a career in the Marine Corps Judge Advocate General unit when the alleged escapade occurred in mid-1999 at the Newport Naval Station in Rhode Island.
As a result, Campos was expelled from the JAG training program and was subsequently allowed to leave the Marine Corps 20 months before his service commitment expired.
NBC spokesman and Bruce Nash, executive producer of "For Love or Money," said Campos did not disclose his checkered military career.
During a brief interview Friday, Campos said he did not disclose the incident because, "I thought it was a private matter. I thought it was over."
Haggard to appear at UFO festival
NASHVILLE, June 10 (UPI) -- Country music legend Merle Haggard will be appearing at the First Annual UFO Music Fest with Marty Stuart and Pam Tillis at Roswell, N.M. July 5.
Merle Haggard's First Annual UFO Music Fest is an addition to the Roswell UFO Festival 2003 "Experience the Unknown." The UFO Festival is in its ninth year and draws more than 10,000 people annually to Roswell to revisit the site of the infamous 1947 "Roswell Incident." Festival highlights include the Plateau Wireless UFO Electric Light Parade, Classic Sci-Fi Film Festival, the Alien Costume Contest and the 10K Alien Chase Fun Run.
Singer, songwriter, remarkable musician, bandleader, and historian Merle Haggard may well be the most well-rounded country talent ever to take the stage in front of a microphone or an audience.
He is best known for his hit songs "(All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers," "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive," "The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde," "Okie From Muskokee," "Yesterday's Wine," "Sing Me Back Home," "Silver Wings," "That's The Way Love Goes," and literally dozens of other hits produced since he scored his first hit, "Sing A Sad Song" in 1963.
