NR Top 10 - ALL-TIME TOP STORIES ON ALL PLATFORMS

"Dr. Beat" - Free Health Care hospitals for Cambodian Children - Kantha Bopha photo

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Our reports on all platforms including print, radio, television and the Internet over a 30 year period are revealed - MTV tops the list - Part 1 - Top 1 through 5

Sunday January 24, 2010

THE ALL TIME BIG STORIES

At is this time of year media outlets review the most interesting stories from the past year. We're going to go one step beyond in our archives and present our most interesting stories over the past 30 years. The choices are based on what stories proved to ATTRACT, rendered FEEDBACK and had IMPACT.

#1

At the top of the list is our story on MTV. There's no question that over the years MTV has had impact on the music industry and the way people listen to music with the addition video. We were a major factor in the creation of MTV although John Lack and Bob Pittman are taking the credit. It's a long story how MTV came about and we were apart of it and challenge Lack and Pittman to argue the issue. Given the depth of the subject it is a story of its own that we will divulge at a later time.

In November 1980 we released the story to the Music Connection. At the time they didn't believe it and held on to the piece until August of 1981 the month the service was launched. MC had a major story in their possession but was too naive to release it. This was a print story prior to our involvement in Internet content.

Entertainment BIZ: VIDEO BEAT - MTV @ THE BEGINNING - August, 1981
This MTV story was written in December 1980 after interviewing MTV's first President Bob Pittman about his programming plans of their to be launched 24-hour music television channel. The magazine held on to it before publishing it after the MTV launch August 1, 1981. Their reluctance in doing so they joined a long list of skeptics that said the channel couldn't be done and questioned who would watch music on television 24 hours around the clock?

Our second major story was regarding the work of Dr Beat Richner in Cambodia where he built hospitals to provide FREE HEALTH CARE for children. Over a two year period this story held down the number one spot of our NR Top 10. We also received numerous emails regarding the Richner story.

Feature - "Dr. Beat" - Free Health Care For Cambodian Children
"He gave his life for this," an American from the city of Chicago said of the performer of a music concert. . He…is, Dr. Beat Richner who was about to perform a solo cello concert. The this... the tourist was referring to, be Jayavarman VII Hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia. For the past ten years Richner has raised funds and has overseen construction of three Kantha Bopha Children's Hospitals in Cambodia. He is the founder and acting head of the facilities that give medical treatment to Cambodia's children FOR FREE.

The third spot goes to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jim Murray who also held the number one position much of the time in our NR Top 10 over a two year period.

Feature - Jim Murray (1919-1998) - Pulitzer Prize columnist and cofounder of Sports Illustrated Magazine - My recollection of my first encounter with Murray was in the Rose Bowl press box, early on in my sports journalism career when he graciously shared his thoughts on writing. Here was an legend in his own time taking time to share his thoughts with someone who was new in the business and trying to figure out what was going on.

The fourth position is taken by a radio feature we did in 1998 titled Angels With Dirty Faces. It was a baseball brawl in which the California Angels proved they were tough and not Angels who were going to let opponents kick dirt in their nice clan faces and lay down and roll over.... or... as they say in street language eat $#!t and die.

A few hours after that story was released on the then Internet San Diego, California USA sports talk host Lee Hamilton opened his sports talk show mentioning our title and said how much he loved it. It's a common practice in the media business to search other sources for subjects to address on the air.

Sports Notes: ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES - June 1998
The Angels didn't spread their wings and fly away, NO… they tucked them in, whipped out their muscles and started to pound away at their attackers rolling around in the dirt and getting their squeaky clean red, white and blue uniforms all soiled up.

Cambodia's Royal Place took the fifth position it never reached the number one spot in our NR ratings but did fluctuate between number two and three for the most part of two years. When we researched the Royal Palace there was nothing on the Internet regarding the subject. We did the work and explored the grounds took pictures and uploaded it to the Internet. It is one of our most stolen stories. At this time there are numerous stories on the Palace.

CAMBODIA'S ROYAL PALACE - - A pleasant way to spend a day in Phnom Penh in a concentrated area is a visit to the Royal Palace. The National Museum, Independence Monument, restaurants and the river walk are within a few blocks of the palace grounds.

Coming Part 2 - Rankings 6 through 10

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