TMZ

TMZ is a celebrity news website that debuted on November 8, 2005. It was a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. The name TMZ stands for thirty-mile zone, the historic "studio zone" within a 30-mile (50 km) radius centered at the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

TMZ's managing editor is Harvey Levin, a lawyer-turned-journalist who was previously a legal expert for the Los Angeles television station KCBS-TV. The site claims that it does not pay for stories or interviews; however, Levin has admitted that TMZ does "sometimes pay sources for leads on stories". Levin has stated that "everything is researched and vetted for accuracy." A companion television series, TMZ on TV, debuted on September 10, 2007.

Development

Seven months prior to the official launch of TMZ, America Online (AOL) had hinted that it was planning to launch a Hollywood and entertainment-centric news site that would be produced in conjunction with Telepictures Productions and had shown interest in launching a website featuring a focus mainly on celebrities. At the time of the launch, AOL confirmed that the site would primarily feature and consist of Hollywood gossip, including interviews, photos and video footage of celebrities and information pertaining to industry news on movies, television shows, etc. The site was described as "an effort to further feed the current American obsession with celebrities". Mike Shields of MediaWeek.com wrote, "the site also boasts of an expansive collection of archived star photos and videos", allowing fans to "trace changing hairlines and waistlines of their favorites performers over the years".

TMZ on TV

TMZ on TV (also known simply as TMZ or TMZTV) is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007. The program is generally aired on Fox, CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates (along with a few affiliates of other major networks), though a majority of the stations that carry the series are Fox affiliates. It is essentially a television version of its sister operation, TMZ.com, a news website with a heavy emphasis on gossip of celebrities' personal lives, which debuted in December 2005.

The television program is produced at studio facilities that serve as the headquarters for the parent website, located at 13031 West Jefferson Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. TMZ is an insider term ("thirty-mile zone" or studio zone), referring to the movie studio area of downtown Hollywood. It is led by Harvey Levin.

On October 23, 2013, Warner Bros. Television Distribution announced that the program's charter station group, Fox Television Stations, renewed TMZ on TV through the 2016–17 season.

2012

2012 (MMXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (dominical letter AG) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium, the 12th year of the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2010s decade.

2012 was designated as:

Events

January

February

TuneIn

TuneIn is a privately held company based in San Francisco, California founded by Bill Moore as RadioTime in Dallas, Texas in 2002. TuneIn has over 100,000 real (broadcast) radio stations and four million on-demand programs and podcasts from around the world. In May 2014, TuneIn announced that its service had over 50 million monthly active users. TuneIn is available for the web at TuneIn.com, for a suite of mobile apps: iOS,Android, BlackBerry,Samsung, Windows Phone, and on over 200 connected devices. TuneIn raised over $47 million in venture funding from Institutional Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Icon Ventures.

Function

TuneIn's website and free mobile apps offer users the ability to listen to streaming audio of over 100,000 radio networks and radio stations worldwide, including AM, FM, HD, LP, digital and internet stations. Additionally, over four million podcasts are available for streaming on TuneIn. TuneIn's directory carries a very comprehensive list of sports, news, talk, and music from around the world.

Murder of Bobby Kent

Bobby Kent (May 12, 1973 – July 14, 1993) was an American who was murdered by seven people, including his best friend, Martin Joseph "Marty" Puccio, Jr. (born March 21, 1973) in Weston, Florida.

Events prior to murder

Bobby Kent, the son of Fred and Farah Kent (née "Khayam"), attended South Broward High School in Hollywood, Florida. According to Tim Donnelly, who prosecuted all the conspirators for this murder, one attorney described Kent as "very Eddie Haskell like. Adults saw him one way (polite and charming) while the kids saw him in a completely different way."

Marty Puccio is an Italian-American and was raised Roman Catholic. Kent and Puccio had known each other since third grade, had lived on the same block in Hollywood in Broward County since that time, and were good friends as adults. Bad blood, however, existed between the two. Puccio felt "ill-will and hatred" towards Kent because he would bully and pummel Puccio. Both sets of parents were wary of the friendship as well. Puccio's parents, Martin Sr. and Veronica, were cautious because Marty often returned from being with Kent with bruises or bleeding. Fred Kent thought of Puccio as a wayward slacker who had no future (Puccio was a high school dropout) and felt the friendship with his son would destroy the future he was helping him build. Frequent gym goers, it was rumored both boys used steroids, which in Kent's case, according to testimonial accounts, significantly contributed to his erratic, aggressive behavior.