In an update to our story posted over the weekend, CBS Radio News correspondent Cami McCormick, who was injured in an explosion while on assignment in Afghanistan, has been flown to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for further treatment. She will reportedly be transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington later this week. Meanwhile, the U.S. military has detained three people in connection with the roadside bombing that injured McCormick and several U.S. military personnel, and killed Spc. Abraham Wheeler, 22, of Columbia, SC. The suspects were detained based on evidence, including fingerprints, gathered at the scene of the blast. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that explosive residue was also found on at least one of the suspects detained. Ironically, McCormick filed a report on the increasing threat of roadside bombs in Afghanistan not long before becoming a victim of an IED herself. You can hear her CBS Radio News report HERE.

You wish it were not so, but longtime SoCal residents will tell you that wildfires are pretty much an annual occurrence across the region. Having personally experienced the anxiety of being evacuated from your home with no real assurance it will be there when you return, our hearts go out to our NTS MediaOnline Today friends and colleagues being impacted by the raging fires in the Los Angeles area. As always, local L.A. radio stations are providing residents in need with a 24/7 mobile source for critical emergency information. Last night, the peak known as Mt. Wilson, which is home to numerous radio, TV, cellphone and other critical communications antennas, as well as the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory, appeared to be doomed as the “Station” fire roared toward the broadcast facilities. As of mid-morning today fire officials believe that aggressive clearing of brush and air drops of fire retardant have minimized the potential for the fire to cause major damage to the mountain’s communications facilities. A chilling 15-second time lapse video of the fire advancing on Mt. Wilson overnight is posted on YouTube HERE.

Salem Communications News/Talk WNYM (970 The Apple)/New York inks a deal to become the Gotham City radio home of Syracuse University football and basketball. The two-year pact give Syracuse alums and fans in NYC an outlet to follow the Orangemen, New York’s lone BCS team … In other news from Salem, Pat Ryan is promoted from GSM to General Manager for the company’s Boston cluster. The Beantown native is a 14-year local broadcast veteran, most of those years spent with Salem/Boston … Kudo’s to WSTC/Stamford, CT host Lisa Wexler on being recently named best radio personality in Moffly Media’s annual “Best of the Gold Coast” survey.

Some 5000 people turned out in Sacramento as a nationwide bus tour dubbed “The Tea Party Express” kicked off in California’s capital city over the weekend. Led by a coalition of politicians and media figures, including longtime Talk radio host and cable news commentator Mark Williams, the group plans stops in cities across the country, ending in Washington, DC on September 12th.

Meanwhile, Dial-Global/SupeRadio syndicated talker Ed Schultz will host a sold-out Town Hall meeting in Boulder, Colorado today in conjunction with Clear Channel progressive talker KKZN/Denver which will air a live broadcast of the event. Schultz notes it will be the first Town Hall meeting held since the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, a longtime supporter of health care reform in America.

The DC newspaper will partner with the San Diego-based Talk radio web portal to launch wsRadioDC, “The Global Voice of the Nation’s Capital.” The official network launch of the venture will take place on September 3rd with a live remote broadcast originating aboard Airship Ventures (pictured), reported to be the only Zeppelin based in the U.S. The kickoff broadcast for the new online DC talk station will be hosted by KCBQ/San Diego evening talker, and anchor of Washington Times Inside The Story Radio, Rick Amato. All wsRadioDC programs will first air live online, then be archived and be available as on demand, 24/7 podcasts via iTunes.

CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick has reportedly been seriously injured while on assignment in Afghanistan. McCormick, who joined the network in 1998, was injured today when the vehicle in which she was riding with members of the U.S. Army was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED). A U.S. soldier died in the explosion. CBS News reports that McCormick was initially treated at a field hospital, then transferred to Bagram Air Base for additional treatment, but the network has released no other details of the reporter’s injuries. RTNDA Chairman Stacey Woelfel notes the incident is a reminder that “journalists put themselves at the forefront in bringing stories home to our communities, and Cami’s passion and dedication reflect the best of our profession. We ask all journalists to take a moment and join in prayers for a speedy recovery.” McCormick is no stranger to the region. She reported from Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar four years before the first American soldiers crossed into Iraq and has reported from numerous embedded missions with U.S. troops during the past decade. (CBS News photo).

KKOB/Albuquerque OM/PD Pat Frisch says when he heard the news yesterday that Jaycee Lee Dugard was found alive 18 years after she was abducted by a convicted rapist and sex offender, “The hair stood up on the back of my neck.” Frisch (pictured) told NTS MediaOnline Today, “When I went home last night I went through some old boxes from when I was a reporter at KRLT and KOWL in Lake Tahoe and found the local news stories I wrote that the Associated Press also used on the day Jaycee was kidnapped. I believe I broke the story, my first report was on the AP wire less than an hour after Jaycee was abducted.” Frisch says the story of the kidnapping “changed the Lake Tahoe area forever” and notes the lead line of his breaking radio news story reads: “Officials in California and Nevada are conducting an all-out search at this hour for a man and a woman who abducted an 11-year old girl waiting for a school bus south of South Lake Tahoe.”

Premiere Radio Networks syndicated talker and FOX News Channel personality Glenn Beck seems to be proving there’s some truth behind that old Hollywood PR axiom that, ‘any publicity is good publicity.’ Returning to his cable TV show this week, following a vacation and a lot of press over a call for an advertiser boycott of his show by the activist website ColorOfChange.com, Beck posted big numbers, besting all of his cable news competitors in the 5pm (ET) timeslot where his show airs. TVbythenumbers.com reports that Beck’s August 26th broadcast on FNC attracted over 3 million viewers and “the most 25-54 viewers in the cable news world for the entire night.” CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer came in second in the 5pm hour with 688,000 viewers, while MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews finished third with a reported 536,000 viewers tuning in between 5-6pm.

The annual Hold Their Feet To The Fire rally will be held September 13th-17th, in Washington, DC, with a slew of both local and national talk show hosts already signed up to broadcast live from the event. Get more info from Sandy Carter at 1.877.407.0090 … Clear Channel/Cleveland Market Manager Mike Kenney segues to the same position for the company’s Charlotte cluster. Read our full story posted late yesterday HERE … Syndication One taps Tanita Myers as Director of Operations for the Radio One-owned syndication arm that’s home to talkers Al Sharpton and Warren Ballentine, among others. For the past six years Myers served in a similar capacity at Reach Media working directly with the Tom Joyner Morning Show … Veteran news journalist and longtime KUZZ/Bakersfield morning drive anchor and News Director Mark Howell will retire next October after more than 35 years on the air in California, the last 25 of them in Bakersfield. Local TV outlet KGET gives Howell a really nice send-off HERE.

This week’s original story on the idea of starting a Rush Limbaugh School of Journalism, and our follow up report yesterday, both continue to draw comment from NTS MediaOnline Today readers. WVHU/Huntington, WV News Director Bill Cornwell writes, “Rush Limbaugh is a pundit, certainly not a journalist (and I am speaking as an affiliate of his show). If you want to start a Talk radio school, name it after Rush, but never relate him to journalism, because he never was one.” Meanwhile, Joint Communications CEO John Parikhal expands on his earlier comments on the topic saying, “A journalism school shouldn’t be liberal or conservative. The best journalism tries to present more than one point of view around the same set of facts (although this has almost vanished in the age of television). If journalism is simply used to pursue an ideological agenda, it’s not journalism — and should declare itself openly and clearly.”