Westwood-owned Shadow/Metro Traffic pump out 700,000 reports a year to 119 client radio and TV stations - a far cry (says the New York Times) from the early days, when reporter Joe Levy would call Shadow's Joe Nolan from a payphone, driving back and forth between the Holland and Lincoln tunnels. TV stations are now avid consumers of traffic - a big change - and Shadow/Metro's Nolan says there's no longer any such thing as "rush hour", since massive traffic delays can occur 24/7. Read the Times feature on traffic reports (including the Clear Channel-owned Total Traffic operation) here.

A first step back toward the media spotlight? It's a carefully-chosen one and it's on a 30 million subscriber-cable channel named RFD, whose slogan (as Variety notes) is "Rural America's Most Important Network." Imus has had a very rural Summer himself, working with kids on the Imus Ranch in New Mexico. He and wife Deirdre agreed to do do the one-hour special last year, but it was taped last month, so the media-curious will be watching to see if he discusses CBS, NBC, or his plans now that he's negotiated his exit from CBS. Variety says RFD president Patrick Gottsch promises "three-hanky viewing, as [the special] chronicles how the kids overcome their fears and health limitations" on a working 4000-acre Western ranch complete with horses, and horse stalls to muck out every morning. Read the Variety article here.

Singletary - a regular contributor to public radio's "Day to Day" and a Washington Post columnist - gets a Sunday evening 8-10pm slot on Radio One-programmed XM Channel 169, known as The Power. BlackAmericaWeb reports the deal, which adds more radio to a schedule that includes appearances on Howard University's station to discuss personal finance questions.

Nassau's Lou Mercatanti says there will be 11, from among his portfolio of New England stations, and now we know that WEMJ in the Concord (Lake Regions), NH Arbitron market is one of them. That will be a change from its current talk lineup that includes Boston-based Howie Carr and Premiere's Rush Limbaugh, and represents (says the Citizen of Laconia) the third format since Nassau took over the cluster several years ago.

The host of NPR's popular "Fresh Air" just taped an appearance on The Simpsons, in a scene where Marge turns on the radio in a rental car. The Philadelphia Inquirer says the producers encouraged Gross to sound "more cartoonish" on her lines, which make her the latest in a long line of guest stars on the Fox TV series. NPR says the daily hour-long "Fresh Air" is carried on more than 160 stations, and is a popular download via podcast.

SoundExchange and DiMA (representing large music webcasters like AOL, Pandora, Live 365 and Clear Channel) emerged from Thursday's closed-door meeting with a compromise that caps the per-channel fee at $50,000 a year for the big guys, and doesn't require them to start using the anti-stream-ripping technology the labels want. But the online operators do agree to more complete reporting requirements, requiring them to report a full "census" of all the tracks they play.

The stream-ripping issue hasn't gone away: SoundExchange says there will be "cooperation on discussion and assessment of anti-stream-ripping technologies", in further talks. John Simson of SoundEx says the new deal upholds "the integrity of the Copyright Royalty Board process" - and taken together with the offer to smaller webcasters earlier this week, means they've addressed "the key issues of concern" and can move forward with new rules for Internet radio. But several small webcasters have already said "no thanks" - so Simson's work isn't done. Read the SoundExchange release here.

New Director of Marketing for cluster Larry Howard comes from Chicago, and WGCI/"Inspiration 1390" - where he no doubt worked with recently-hired Radio One-Philly programmer Elroy Smith. Current WPHI, Philadelphia promotions director Nakia Fowler takes over that job at WRNB and gospel WPPZ, as Will Patterson moves the other way, becoming Larry's Promotions Assistant for "Beat" WPHI.

This morning's New York Post reports that DIMA - the Digital Music Association - is sitting across the table from label-rep SoundExchange, mostly talking about the $500 per channel minimum. Clear Channel's online music-casting puts it alongside Yahoo, AOL and Apple in this set of negotiations, as you can see in the Post story.

Spanish sports outlet KWKW (1330) just signed a five-year deal to air Angels games starting next year. The station formerly had a deal to air the Dodgers, but lost them to Liberman-owned KHJ-AM - because of the hot L.A. Galaxy soccer team, and its new star, David Beckham. KWKW told the Dodgers it might sometimes bump some games in favor of soccer.  Lotus-owned KWKW says its new baseball partner, the Angels, understands that its Spanish-language games will move to sister KWKU, Pomona, serving the eastern L.A. market, in the case of conflicts.

Smooth Jazz KTWV (The Wave) Los Angeles has found a new APD/MD in Blake Florence, formerly of top 40 KBIG Hilo/Kona, HI.

Arbitron again acknowledges that data from about 200 panelists for the week of July 26-August 1 was mistakenly omitted from the processing, and Bob Patchen and Jay Guyther say the revised data for weekly cume is now in the hands of subscribers. As for the bigger issue of shortfalls in the sample - 12% to 14% in Philadelphia and Houston - Arbitron's set out on an ambitious (and expensive) program that includes offering incentives like a $50 gift card for some demos. One of the lessons Arbitron's learning: it should quickly move people off the panel if they're not complying - carrying the meter. The problem, it turns out, is replacing them. There's extensive coverage of yesterday's all-day Consultant Fly-In in today's T-R-I - Taylor on Radio-Info. Register to read it here - every day, free.

Last year WVON found a new home - giving it a 24-hour signal for the first time - at 1690, thanks to an arrangement with Clear Channel. Now the longtime African-American-run company will go Spanish on its original frequency of 1450, says Robert Feder in today's Chicago Sun-Times. Gustavo Rios will manage the new Radio Latino when it launches on September 3.

KQKE PD Bob Agnew tells Radio-Info this isn't just a stunt or a bit of windowdressing: they're changing the call letters to KKGN, for "Green 960", and positioning the station as a leader in green development ("it's a natural fit"). Agnew says it's not even about politics, per se, but going green is "something that progressives really care about, and there's real advertising out there" to support a green-friendly approach. The transformation happens next week and it will be signaled by a current weekend show expanding to weekdays, and plenty of 1-2-3 minute practical-advice vignettes featuring everyone from the mayor to builders and designers who are busy creating new green buildings. Read the Quake's turning-green press release here.

Executive producer Aaron Spielberg has been named PD of ESPN O&O WEPN-AM New York. He takes over for Mike Thompson, who has been holding down two gigs since March--program director duties at the station as well as Senior programmer of new media for ESPN.

San Antonio's rhythmic KTFM (Jammin' 94.1) debuted a new morning show this week, featuring PD Robin Flores and former night jock "Miss Neka" Cleaver. They replace the former duo--longtime hosts "Rick The Stick" Mireles and "Hot Henrietta" Hernandez. No announcement yet on a replacement for Neka in nights.