Above is a three hour and five minute video uploaded by the Reagan Library, (shot by Fox News), of Nancy Reagan’s funeral service from late this morning. It starts out slow, and for an unknown reason the audio cuts out, but then returns fourteen minutes in with footage of the bulk of the guest arrivals.
A good place to jump ahead to is the 1:28:30 mark— where First Lady Michelle Obama, Governor Jerry Brown, President George W. & Mrs. Bush, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy are led in together by a phalanx of Secret Service. This was appropriately done given the notoriety of this group, and the fact they waited until most of the rest of the guests were in and seated. Right after is the casket procession and then the service begins.
Photo Credit: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum
Waking up this morning, I had texts and other messages awaiting me— all with the same notification: Nancy Reagan passed away.
It’s a surprise in a way, but obviously not a shock. She was 94 years old and had faced some serious health issues since around 2008/09. Even in frail health she continued to be involved with the Reagan Presidential Library, and even being a ceremonial host for quite a few GOP debates there.
As a political/presidential buff since I was about eight years old— I was thrilled when I had the chance to go on up to the Reagan Library back in 2002 to meet Mrs. Reagan. It was a book signing event that she held and she had those on a semi-infrequent basis. There were a few back in the 1990s, a couple in 2000/01 and then the one I attended in February ’02. It ended up being the final signing she ever did where the public could meet her. It’s a really beautiful place— done up in mission-style with Spanish tile roofs.
Waking up yesterday I saw a headline in my Twitter feed that I didn’t expect at all—
I love Margaret Carrero; she interviewed me on KNX 1070AM a couple years ago. She doesn’t mess around with fluff stories, so I knew if she put it out— it had to be something. But I have to say that it started feeling like June of ’94 all over again: Simpson dominating the headlines at the top of every hour both on TV and radio.
Over the course of the day the information coming out about it became hit-and-miss, depending where you were getting your news. ABC and CBS kept putting out that their sources were telling them that it was not likely the actual murder weapon from 1994, but then TMZ kept putting out articles that really made you think the other way. Most recently this one.
The long-awaited announcement hit: Howard Stern to stay with SiriusXM through this time in 2020. He re-signed for five years, and came fully loaded, as you can see in the video.
Leading up to today it was anybody’s call. Will he re-sign? If not, where would he go? If he stayed, how long? It was conjecture junction. My guess was 70% he’d stay, and maybe three years, tops. I was actually surprised to hear it’s for another full five years. This would make his reign at Sirius lasting fifteen years through the end of 2020.
But I have to say— the last couple years, to me, it was really looking like he was winding down for the end of his time at Sirius. Two years ago, this month, they 86’d the HowardTV platform, which was a continuance of the E! platform they had back at K-ROCK. Then some people left— including most noticeably Lisa G earlier this year. It was never said what happened with her departure except that Howard made a brief blip on the air that she was no longer there, and Lisa’s been very mum about it— refusing to answer queries through her Facebook & Twitter. She actually doesn’t respond to anyone, really, about anything. She just posts her pictures and videos, and it’s been great to see her doing her thing, but I think she was a nice asset to the show and it sucked to see her go.
According to USA Today, Sirius stock rose today 3% after Stern’s announcement.
One thing I was happy hear, and see with today’s video, is that they’ll be bringing back the video portion of the show. The E! show was good, but very watered down due to it being a television show, but HowardTV was phenomenal. It was uncut and uncensored and it was a big shock that they shut it down two years ago. It was said at the time that Howard was exploring options to put HowardTV on another platform, but that never happened. So since then we’ve settled for the on-again, off-again watching on YouTube. I say on/off because there’s been fits and starts at times where HowardTV (though defunct) had filed DMCA take-down requests to remove them off YouTube. For a while content was dry, but then people started uploading them again. Some were uploaded so much (ie: people downloading other folk’s videos off their channels, etc) that the degradation quality was so apparent on some. Essentially a handful of people had originally ripped the clips off their DVR’s and uploaded them. I had HowardTV (back when I still had cable), and they were the greatest when you caught them off your television set.
I’m not too jazzed about the idea of an app, because I’m hoping it won’t be the only way to see Stern-streamed content. Apparently in addition to the show being streamed, like the old days, they’ll also be making available all the old radio and video segments.
So you know what this means… watch all you can on YouTube for right now. Because you know they’re all comin’ down.
Tommy R. Donovan 