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Disney News Feed for September 20

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MousePlanetWatch 37 – news feed for September 20, 2007

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Run time 0:27:21

Reminder: We have three separate feeds: one for MouseStation
only, one for MousePlanetWatch
only and one for both
in a single feed. This way, you can subscribe to whichever combination
you prefer.

Let us hear from you!

Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email feedback
form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278).
You can also make suggestions by replying to this post.

If you want to contribute a story for our Monday Magical Moment segment (and
possible inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can
either use our email Magical Moment story
form or the toll-free feedback line. (We love it when you use the voice
mail system, because then we can play your call on the show!)

Something new

Let us know what you think of Mark
and Mike discussing the news instead of Mark just reading it!

Walt Disney World News

  • The schedule for the Candlelight Processional has been filled out. For
    the complete schedule, listen to the show or go to Monday’s
    Park Update    . Mike is disappointed that they have Steven Curtis Chapman
    there but he only narrates and doesn’t sing.
  • The Haunted Mansion reopened
    to positive reviews last Thursday.
  • We’ve got some photos of the construction of Toy Story Mania in Monday’s
    Update    , thanks to Steven Kropf.
  • Quick Takes:
    • Next year’s Night of Joy event will be leaving the Magic Kingdom after
      25 years and moving to the (by then) Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
    • We’ve now got updated dates.for next year’s closure for refurbishment
      of the main pool at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

This and other news can be found in this week’s Walt
Disney World Park Update.

Disneyland News

This and other news can be found in this week’s Disneyland
Park Update.

The Walt Disney Company News

This week’s news was a little disjointed due to Mark’s need to rush to leave
town for a family funeral.

  • Disney Parks marketing boss Mike Mendenhall is leaving the company, and
    will become Chief
    Marketing Officer     for Hewlett-Packard. Some lament his departure, as
    he was responsible for many promotions that brought larger crowds into the
    park, but others
    are rejoicing    , claiming that he has been responsible for many of the
    evils of poor decisions related to new attractions.
  • left off at 14:30
  • The Disney.com web site
    had a record-breaking
    month     in August, racking up 23.03 million unique visits.
  • The High
    School Musical 2 soundtrack     has spent four consecutive weeks at No.
    1 on The Billboard 200 album chart, the first album to achieve that milestone
    since 2005. Meanwhile, the Hannah
    Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus     CD has spent 11 consecutive weeks in the
    Top 5 on The Billboard 200, the only double album in 30+ years to accomplish
    the feat since Stevie Wonder?s Songs
    in the Key of Life     in 1976.
  • Disney CEO Robert Iger sold $41.6 million in Disney stock during the current
    $10.2 billion corporate buyback, according to Financial
    Week    . In the show, however, we said that he led the pack in selling
    during a buyback. While he was easily among the top few, he was far outdone
    by Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, who sold a reported $118 million
    in stock during a $2.5 billion buyback program. Safeway?s Steven Burd also
    topped Iger, selling $47.7 million during the company’s $4 billion buyback
    program.
  • The Walt Disney Company came in at number 7 in Business Week’s list of
    best
    places to launch a career    . Last year, it topped the list.
  • Disney Legend Ralph Kent, known as the “Keeper
    of the Mouse,”     and who was also honored
    with a window     on Main Street U.S.A., passed away last Saturday.
  • Disney will soon begin a safety
    testing program     for all merchandise made in China.
  • Roy E. Disney will permanently donate
    the trophy     his boat Pyewacket won in this year’s Transpacific
    Yacht Race to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.
  • Disney has been accused
    of violating     Chinese labor laws by an activist group. While Disney has
    contracted this out, it maintains a policy about the conduct of its licensees,
    so we’ll see how this turns out.
  • Hong Kong Disneyland has completed a disappointing
    second year     as it celebrates its second anniversary.
  • The remake of Tron
    is still
    in the pipeline    , with Joseph
    Kosinski     supposedly directing and original Tron creator Steve
    Lisberger     as producer.

Administrative stuff

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the new format of shorter, more
frequent MouseStation shows. Currently, MouseStation is published three times
a week, with short subjects on Mondays, featured topics on Wednesdays and
listener feedback on Fridays; the MousePlanetWatch news is published on Thursday.
We’re still currently maintaining the series of three feeds, one for MouseStation
only, one for MousePlanetWatch only and one for both shows.

Based on listener feedback, we will be deciding whether to merge the feeds,
and return to a single feed with all shows, folding MousePlanetWatch into
the main MouseStation feed. That would still leave us with four shows per
week, but there would be only one feed. With the current listener numbers
being fairly even between MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch, it seems as if
there’s a great deal of overlap between the shows.

Please weigh in on the idea of returning to a single feed via email
or by calling our toll-free feedback line at 1-866-939-2278. Don’t forget
that we love voicemails because then we can put your voice on the show!

Don’t forget that you’ve only got two weeks from tomorrow to get your entry
in for our Owner’s Locker contest!

We also wanted to remind you that we have now scheduled our MouseFest meet
for the podcasts. The MouseStation Hustle-tini Meet will begin at 5:30 p.m.
at Classic Concoctions in the Everything Pop food court at Disney’s Pop Century
Resort for Bluetinis to get our nerve up to get up and boogie. We’ll make
sure that we’re in the lobby before 6 p.m. so that we can do The Hustle, then
return to Classic Concoctions or elsewhere to record some more for the podcast.
For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored
meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest
information page.

Wrapping up

Please take a few minutes to complete our listener
survey. It helps us learn more about you and what you like most about
this podcast.

Don’t forget to go to the iTunes podcast directory and give us a good rating!

You can get your MousePlanet (or MouseStation) swag from the MousePlanet
CafePress store and the brand-new MouseStation
CafePress store.

Thanks to our West Coast correspondent Andrew Rich, and audio engineer and
sound editor Steven Ng.

Thank you for listening!

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