LOOK: Gary Bernstein at the White House with the President and the First Lady

Radio Facts: Congrats to my friends at syndication one. As many of you know I am a big fan of The Rickey Smiley show and I booked for the show in the early days. Oh, have I already mentioned that before? At any rate syndication one had a record breaking year in 2010 literally almost doubling the size of the Rickey Smiley Morning show to almost 50 stations! I guess when you create such a syndication achievement, you get to hang at nice places like the White House.   What in de fook?   Hey, I get to hang at Pink’s Hot Dog stand. Maybe I need to change careers. You think I’m joking don’t you?   We hear that Rickey is about to add a whole slew of new stations in 2011. I am not surprised, after all, I booked for the show in the early days (OK, that’s overkill).   You know I predicted FIRST Rickey’s crowning achievement of CBS’s 102 Jamz in Orlando .   The Rickey Smiley Morning show is a rare Urban brand that has achieved tremendous success in PPM finishing in the top 3 in many significant markets like Miami, Atlanta, St. Louis, and even Baltimore, just to name a few.   As you all know, PPM has not been a friend to most Urban brands as a matter of fact, a PD pointed out to me just this week that since PPM kicked in no new ratings-based urban stations have popped up? I have to check that but he may be right. At any rate, Rickey has been a NOTABLE exception but then again, real talent will always rise and Rickey has a major team behind him that apparently has access to the oval office now.   You heard it here. Look for big things from Smiley in 2011, and that means not just radio. His brand is about to explode. Can someone ask Rickey if he got my application yet?