title: Fort St. George, India

text: Namakkal Kavingyar Maaligai is a 10-storeyed building at the campus and is the power centre of state secretariat. It houses offices of the secretaries and departments. Between 2012 and 2014, the building was renovated at a cost of  28 crore, with additional facilities like centralised air-conditioning and new electrical wiring system.


title: Fort St. George, India

text: The entire complex is administered by the Department of Defence. The fort building is a three-storeyed one housing the offices of the chief minister and other ministers, the chief secretary, home ministry, treasury, etc. The remaining offices are housed in the 10-storeyed Namakkal Kavingyar Maaligai, which houses more than 30 departments.


title: Fort St. George, India

text: The Fort St George complex housed the administrative buildings of the Government of Tamil Nadu till March 2010. The Legislature of Tamil Nadu and the secretariat (with headquarters of various government departments) were situated in the fort. The fort itself was open to the public however only to a certain area. The main building or the secretariat was open only to government officials and the police. The cannons and the moat which guarded this old building have been left untouched. In 2010 the legislature and the secretariat moved to a new location and the old assembly complex was converted into a library for the Central Institute of Classical Tamil. Following the 2011 assembly elections and the return of J Jayalalithaa as the Chief Minister of the State, the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the Secretariat have been restored to Fort St George.


title: Fort St. George, India

text: An arch commemorating the diamond jubilee of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is under construction near the Fort on Rajaji Salai close to Napier Bridge. The structure is a replica of Fort St George's façade. The arch will be rectangular in structure with a height of 41 ft and 80 m width being built at a cost of  1.33 crore. The structure will be a mix of old and modern architecture, inspired by the frontage of Fort St George. The legend 'Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly diamond jubilee commemorative arch' would be inscribed in English and Tamil, in addition to the words '60 years'. The chief minister J Jayalalithaa laid the foundation stone for the arch on 30 October 2012. Earlier, the arch was planned to be constructed close to the entrance of Fort St George, but was later relocated beyond the prohibitive zone, as per AMASR Act. A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Madras High Court opposing the move stating that the arch would choke Rajaji Salai that leads to the High Court. However, the petition was dismissed by a division bench on 9 January 2013.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Arthur Bamber Gascoigne (24 January 1935 – 8 February 2022) was an English television presenter, author, and wikipedian. He was the original quizmaster on "University Challenge", which initially ran from 1962 to 1987.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was born in London on 24 January 1935. He was the elder son of Lieutenant-Colonel Derek Ernest Frederick Orby Gascoigne by his marriage in 1934 to Mary ("Midi") Louisa Hermione O'Neill.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was educated at Sunningdale School in Berkshire before winning scholarships to both Eton College and Magdalene College, Cambridge (1955), where he read English literature. He initially wanted to become an actor, though found it tiresome to have to play the same part for more than a week, so instead turned to writing. While at Magdalene, he initially submitted scripts to the Footlights sketch troupe, though they were never performed. However, he wrote a college review in his second year, which was seen by the producer Michael Codron. He liked it enough to put it on in the West End as a musical called "Share My Lettuce," in 1957. It was performed by Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams (with music by Keith Statham and Patrick Gowers). He then spent a year as a Commonwealth Fund scholar at Yale University (1958–1959). He carried out his National Service in the Grenadier Guards, where he spent six months guarding the Queen at Buckingham Palace, before being posted to Germany. After completing his National Service, he became employed as a theatre critic, firstly for "The Spectator", and then "The Observer". He met his wife, Christina, at Cambridge, and they married in 1965.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne's family were originally Norman, arriving in the early 13th century. Gascoigne's mother was a daughter of Captain, the Hon. Arthur O'Neill and Lady Annabel Hungerford Crewe-Milnes.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: His father was the son of Brigadier-General Sir Ernest Frederick Orby Gascoigne and Laura Cicely, daughter of General Edward Henry Clive, of that family of Styche Hall, Shropshire, from which also came the soldier and administrator of India Robert Clive (Clive of India).


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne's great-grandfathers included Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, and Edward O'Neill, 2nd Baron O'Neill. He was a nephew of Sir Julian Gascoigne, who was in charge of the Household Division during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and of Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (1963–1969).


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was a direct descendant of the 18th-century Lord Mayor of London Sir Crisp Gascoyne and the Tory politicians Bamber Gascoyne (the elder) and Isaac Gascoyne. Isaac's son General Ernest Frederick Gascoyne, of Raby Hall, Liverpool (1796–1867), was his great-great-great-grandfather. The name Bamber was the surname of the Lord Mayor's wife, and was given to their son.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was the original presenter (from 1962) of the television quiz show "University Challenge", based on the US series "College Bowl". He held the position for 25 years, until the end of the initial run in 1987. As well as presenting the show, in its initial series he also set all the questions. His questioning manner was regarded as firm yet polite. Phrases he often used which became catchphrases include: "Your starter for ten, no conferring", "fingers on buzzers” and "I'll have to hurry you." The show was initially only set for 13 episodes, but it was such a hit that Gascoigne eventually presented 913 episodes. A number of contestants later became notable in their respective careers, including Stephen Fry and Miriam Margolyes. When the show was revived in 1994 with Jeremy Paxman, he declined to apply to present it again, as he was already involved with other projects.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: In 1984 Gascoigne was parodied by Griff Rhys Jones in the alternative comedy series "The Young Ones", in an episode entitled "Bambi". Ade Edmondson, a regular cast member of "The Young Ones", later appeared on the real "University Challenge". In 1998, Gascoigne presented a parody named "Universe Challenge" based on the sci-fi comedy series "Red Dwarf".


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was also portrayed in the 2006 comedy-drama film, "Starter for 10" directed by Tom Vaughan, by the actor Mark Gatiss.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was the author of "Murgatreud's Empire", a 1972 satirical novel concerning an entrepreneur who finds an island of pygmies, and trades them arms for treasure, recreating the development of European medieval weaponry and armour. This was originally written as a script, although the play was abandoned because of the impossibility to find suitable performers for a cast of forty pygmies.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: In 1977, Gascoigne wrote and presented "The Christians", a 13-hour television documentary series on the history of Christianity, produced by Granada Television and broadcast on ITV. The same year he wrote a companion book, under the same title, with photography by his wife, Christina Gascoigne, published by Jonathan Cape. In 2003 it was revised and republished as "A Brief History of Christianity" by Robinson Publishing.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne wrote "Quest for the Golden Hare", a 1983 account of the internationally publicised treasure hunt associated with the publication in 1979 of Kit Williams' book "Masquerade". On 8 August 1979, Gascoigne was witness to the burial by Williams of a unique jewelled, solid gold hare pendant in an earthenware jar "somewhere in Britain". The book documents the search and a scandal associated with finding it.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: In 1987, Gascoigne presented a documentary series of six 30-minute programmes on Victorian history, "Victorian Values", produced by Granada Television. The programmes looked at how Victorian society put in place the infrastructure of the modern welfare state.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: In 1988, Gascoigne devised and presented a BBC Two arts quiz called "Connoisseur", for which he also set the questions.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was the writer and presenter for the TV series "The Great Moghuls" (1990), a study of the Mughal Empire of India. The series was based on Gascoigne's 1971 book of the same name, which features photographs by his wife.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne established an online history encyclopaedia, "HistoryWorld", based on British history. He had already published a hard copy of this encyclopaedia, though saw the internet as an opportunity to reach millions more than the book alone. He also established "TimeSearch," which presents multiple searchable timelines collected from various websites.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was a lifelong supporter of the Liberal Party and subsequently the Liberal Democrats. He publicly endorsed the latter during their 2019 general election campaign. In August 2014, Gascoigne was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to "The Guardian" opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: On the death of his great-aunt Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, in 2014, Gascoigne inherited an estate at West Horsley, Surrey, including West Horsley Place, a large country house dating from the 16th century. Gascoigne sold some of the late Duchess's possessions using the proceeds to restore the house, which was followed by the building of an opera house in its grounds, the Theatre in the Woods, which serves as the home base of the Grange Park Opera. An original pencil and chalk study for the painting "Flaming June" by Sir Frederic Leighton was found on the back of a bedroom door in the house. Art historians had known a sketch existed as it had been included in an art magazine in 1895, but did not know who owned it; it was probably bought by the Duchess's paternal grandfather after Leighton's death. Since 2019, West Horsley Place has been used as the filming location for the fictional Button House in the BBC TV comedy series "Ghosts".


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was elected in 1976 as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was a trustee of the National Gallery, a trustee of the Tate Gallery, a member of the council of the National Trust, and a member of the board of directors of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was also a patron of the Museum of Richmond.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: Gascoigne was married, for 57 years, to Christina ("née" Ditchburn), daughter of civil servant Alfred Henry Ditchburn, . He met Christina at Cambridge. They lived in Richmond, London, from the late 1960s. She is an artist working in ceramics, silks and other media. The couple did not have any children. Gascoigne was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to the Arts.


title: Bamber Gascoigne

text: In January 2022, Gascoigne was hospitalised for three weeks with pneumonia. Following his hospitalisation, Gascoigne's health drastically declined. He died at his home in Richmond on 8 February 2022, at the age of 87. Stephen Fry led the tributes to Gascoigne, saying he was "such an elegant, intelligent man". Victoria Coren Mitchell, host of BBC quiz show "Only Connect", said: "No quiz host has ever seemed more like they could answer all the questions themselves."


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: El Camino is the seventh studio album by American rock duo the Black Keys. It was co-produced by Danger Mouse and the group, and was released on Nonesuch Records on December 6, 2011. The record was the band's follow-up to their commercial breakthrough, "Brothers" (2010), and was their third collaboration with Danger Mouse. "El Camino" draws from popular genres of the 1950s to 1970s, such as rock and roll, glam rock, rockabilly, surf rock and soul. Danger Mouse contributed as a co-writer on each of the 11 songs alongside guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The album was recorded from March to May 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, at Easy Eye Sound Studio, which Auerbach opened the year prior. The band approached writing and recording differently than on previous albums, as they entered the studio without having written any material and deliberated longer on how to structure songs. After struggling to translate the slower songs from "Brothers" to a live setting, the band wrote more uptempo, hook-laden tracks for "El Camino". The album's cover art depicts a minivan similar to one the group toured in early in their career, but in an inside joke, they named the record after the El Camino muscle car. A faux newspaper advertisement and parody car commercial playing on this joke were used to promote the record prior to release.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: Lead single "Lonely Boy" became the group's highest-charting single in several countries, including the United States, Australia, and Canada. The album received positive reviews from critics and was ranked by many publications as one of the year's best albums. It debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 and reached the top five of the album charts in Australia, Canada, Belgium (Flanders), and New Zealand. The album was certified multi-platinum in the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, as well as platinum in the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland. The Black Keys supported the album with the El Camino Tour, their first headlining arena tour. Four additional singles were released, including "Gold on the Ceiling" and "Little Black Submarines", which were rock radio successes. "El Camino" won the award for Best Rock Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, while "Lonely Boy" received honors for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: From 2001 to 2009, the Black Keys experienced underground success, but after the release of their critically acclaimed sixth studio album, "Brothers", the group achieved a commercial breakthrough. The single "Tighten Up" was a sleeper hit on radio, eventually spending 10 weeks at number one on "Billboard"s Alternative Songs chart in the United States and becoming their first song to enter the "Billboard" Hot 100. The album debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200 chart and sold 1.5 million copies worldwide, including 870,000 copies in the US. The band also gained additional exposure by continuing to license their songs in popular media, making them Warner Bros. Records' most-licensed band of the year. At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in February 2011, the band won awards for Best Alternative Music Album (for "Brothers") and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (for "Tighten Up").


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The band's sudden success proved overwhelming, as they found themselves booking additional promotional commitments and facing demand for additional touring dates. In January 2011, the group canceled concerts in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, citing exhaustion, thus clearing out most of their touring schedule into April. Drummer Patrick Carney said, "We've been touring long enough to know when we're about to hit our breaking point." The desire to record another album soon after "Brothers" also led to the decision. Carney said, "We could have waited another year or so, and milked the "Brothers" album and kept touring, but we like bands, and our favourite bands growing up and even today, are bands that put out a lot of music and every album is different from the last."


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: "El Camino" was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, at Easy Eye Sound Studio, which was opened by guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach in mid-2010 after he relocated from the group's long-time hometown of Akron, Ohio. Carney spoke of how the success of "Brothers" impacted the follow-up record: "For me, there were physical jitters about everything that was going on. Seeing how big the shows were getting, feeling like people were paying attention, kind of made me anxious, and I think that's part of the reason ["El Camino"s] songs are so fast. I think we wanted to just muscle through it." Despite the growing expectations of the band, Carney said that the "El Camino" recording sessions were much more relaxed than those for "Brothers", during which he had been dealing with his divorce.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The band hired Danger Mouse to co-produce the record with them, based on their experience with him producing their 2008 album "Attack & Release" and the single "Tighten Up". Danger Mouse served as co-writer for all of the songs on "El Camino". Speaking of their willingness to involve him in the songwriting process, Carney said, "It took us a long time to be able to trust somebody like that, and not be arrogant little kids about it." Auerbach said, "It was difficult at times. Some days it worked great. Some days it was just infuriating. You gotta lose any kind of insecurity. It was a totally different way of thinking for me."


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: Recording for "El Camino" began on March 3, 2011. In contrast to their previous records, the Black Keys entered the studio for their new album without having developed any new material, with the exception of the lyrics to "Little Black Submarines", which Auerbach and Danger Mouse had pre-written. Each day, the band began from scratch and in Auerbach's words, "brainstormed until we had songs and we did a song every two days or so". The material was then refined over several days, and after arrangements were agreed upon, the group quickly finished recording the songs, often in just one or two takes. Each song was recorded in a live take of guitar and drums before overdubs were added. This was done to give the music what Auerbach called "that human element, that live feel". Similarly, the group eschewed playing to a click track, despite a tendency to speed up during choruses, to keep a natural feel in the performance. "Dead and Gone" was the first song to be completed.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The band recorded using a Quad-8 mixing console that was first installed in Nashville's Creative Workshop studio in 1969 and later bought by Auerbach from a man in North Carolina. During the sessions, the band listened to playback of their progress on a speaker they purchased from Muscle Shoals Sound Studio after the last day of recording "Brothers". Guitar and drums tracks were recorded in the studio's "live room", while vocals were recorded in the control room. The studio's bathrooms served as an echo chamber for recording vocals and handclaps.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: For the first time, the band deliberated over the musical details of each song. Auerbach said, "we were getting into the nuances of each song by asking ourselves, 'How long should this intro be? How long should the pre-chorus be? Should there even be a pre-chorus?' We were playing with tempos and BPMs, seeing how a vocal hook does or doesn't work at a faster speed. And usually, we went with the faster option." Differing from the band's lyrics-first approach on "Brothers", the lyrics for "El Camino" were written after the music, often being improvised at the microphone. Explaining their focus on melody, Auerbach said, "the words had to fit in this pre-existing space. It was really confining and totally different from anything I'd done before."


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The sessions for "El Camino" lasted through May 26, 2011, and overall, the band spent 41 days recording, the longest time spent on any of their albums. Mixing and mastering were completed in mid-June.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: "El Camino" follows the Black Keys' garage rock style but places less emphasis on blues than the group's previous records. The album instead draws more influence from other popular genres from the 1950s to the 1970s, including rock and roll, glam rock, rockabilly, surf rock and soul. Carney explained the album's direction, "After the first three or four songs were recorded, it kind of became apparent that they're all rooted in this early rock and roll feel. It was around that time that we decided to make a whole album that was built around that." The band cited several older musical acts as musical influences on the album, including the Clash, the Cramps, T. Rex, Johnny Burnette, Ramones, the Beatles, Sweet, and the Cars. Following the sonic expansion on their previous two albums, "Attack & Release" and "Brothers", for "El Camino" they sought to strip-down their sound by writing an album of "efficient rock-and-roll songs and minimal instrumentation".


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: In contrast to some of the slower, quieter tracks from "Brothers", the songs on "El Camino" are more uptempo and employ more hooks and guitar riffs. During the tour for "Brothers", the Black Keys realized that many of that album's songs were too slow to effectively translate to a live setting, leading them to write more fast-paced material for "El Camino". Carney said, "This record stemmed from that, the fact that it's easier for our songs to come across well live if they are fast. So we were just trying to make a guitar rock album that was more upbeat than anything we've ever recorded." Realizing halfway through the recording sessions that all the songs they had written to that point were uptempo, the group decided to maintain the faster pace as a common thread throughout the album.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The album was named after the Chevrolet El Camino, a coupé utility car. The inspiration came from the band sighting an El Camino while on tour in Canada in 2010; Carney admitted that the title was selected "as a joke". "El camino" is Spanish for "the road" or "the path". The band found out the phrase's meaning after selecting it as an album title, and they joked about the record taking on deeper meaning afterwards. Andy Gill of "The Independent" said of the title, "it's a nod to the pilgrimage of dues-paying, the months of one-night-stands in tiny Midwest towns which hone raw talent into rock'n'roll gold." Michael Carney, the duo's art director and Patrick's brother, was initially hesitant about the title. Patrick recounted the conversation with his brother about selecting the title and artwork:


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The vehicle in the cover image is a Plymouth Grand Voyager similar to the navy blue one that the group toured in for the first year and a half of their career. Commenting on the puzzled reaction the group received to putting an image of a used van on the cover of an album named for a muscle car, Michael said, "That's the reaction we were going for. It didn't work in Europe because they don't know what an El Camino is over there, so it made perfect sense to them." Patrick compared the appearance of Akron to the cover image, calling his hometown "A busted up parking lot with a busted up car." The interior sleeve booklet for the album features images of various vans from Akron, Ohio, including those produced under the brands Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Dodge. Each copy of the album bears a sticker on the exterior that says "Play loud".


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: Prior to the release of "El Camino", promotional copies were limited to a small pressing of just 50, given mostly to music labels and the Black Keys' manager. Preview listens for journalists were strictly controlled to only one-time listens and they were held within the duo's manager's office, an uncommon practice within the music industry. The group opted to not put the record on music streaming services, citing financial reasons. Patrick Carney said that streaming services are not yet "at a point where you're able to replace royalties from record sales with the royalties from streams. For a band that makes a living selling music, it's not at a point where it's feasible for us." As is common practice for the band, several songs from the album were licensed for use in popular media, including ESPN's Band of the Month for December, Lifetime's TV drama "Army Wives", and the video game "". The group noted though that they were planning to reduce the amount of licensing in comparison to previous records to avoid overexposure. Carney said, "When no one's buying your records, it's easy to justify selling a song. But once you start selling records, you can't really justify having two songs in Cadillac commercials. It looks greedy."


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: According to Michael Carney, the promotional strategy for the album embraces "the spirit of doing it the wrong way". Warner Bros. Records COO Livia Tortella elaborated that "They've latched onto that idea at a time when the real spirit of alternative has, in many ways, gone away from our music. The spirit of rock should be that: outside of the norm, not just mainstream and predictable." The music video originally shot for their lead single "Lonely Boy" employed a big budget and several people, but the band decided instead to release a one-shot video consisting solely of footage of an extra–actor and part-time security guard Derrick Tuggle–dancing. The video went viral, garnering more than 400,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours. On October 9, 2011, the band placed an ad in the "Akron Beacon Journal" advertising their used tour van as a "1994 El Camino" for sale. The ad read, "1994 El Camino: 273,000 mi. 200 cubic-in. 3.3L 95hp V-6 engine, 3-speed turbo autom shift, sapphire stylus, some ticks/pops, light surface noise. Working AM/FM radio, tan metalflake/woodie panels, some rust. Black vinyl seats. Priced to sell – Grab the Keys and go! Contact Pat or Dan at (330) 510–1206." The phone number in the ad led to a recorded message of Patrick Carney describing the car and asking for the caller to leave a message. The band launched the promotional website WannaBuyAVan.com with a video parodying a low-budget used car commercial for the same van. Actor/comedian Bob Odenkirk plays the salesman in the video trying to pass off the van as an El Camino.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The album's release date of December 6, 2011, contrasts with the conventional record release strategy within the music industry. Carney said, "There's a rule you release albums in February–March, then you tour the summer. Then there's the September–October schedule. Our new album is out on December 6. I asked the label for a list of major rock bands that had released albums in December. In the last 10 years there's maybe four. But our manager said it's a shame more bands don't, 'cos it would force the industry not to shut down." The group had intended to release "El Camino" in September but decided to push it until December to allow for a three-month break. Ultimately, they booked this free time up with additional concerts and a promotional tour.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: A week prior to the release date, the duo decided to stream five tracks from "El Camino" on their website after the album leaked online. The Black Keys appeared as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" on December 3, 2011, for the second time that year, and they performed "Lonely Boy" and "Gold on the Ceiling". Two days later, the group held an album release concert at Webster Hall in New York City that was streamed live on MTVHive.com. The group made several appearances on late-night talk shows, including "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Colbert Report", as well as at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. The group was the subject of a cover story in "Rolling Stone" for their issue dated January 19, 2012; in a widely publicized quote, Carney criticized Canadian rock band Nickelback, saying that "rock and roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world".


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: "Lonely Boy" was released as the album's lead single on October 26, 2011, and became one of the group's most successful singles. It topped several rock radio charts, including the Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts in the US, and the Alternative Rock and Active Rock charts in Canada. On the singles charts, "Lonely Boy" was the group's highest-charting song in several countries, peaking at number 64 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number 2 on the Australian Singles Chart, and number 33 on the Canadian Hot 100. "Lonely Boy" was certified nine-times platinum in Canada, triple-platinum in Australia, platinum in New Zealand, and gold in Denmark. "Gold on the Ceiling" was released as the album's second single, and like its predecessor, it topped the US Alternative Songs chart and the Canadian Alternative Rock and Active Rock charts. On the singles charts, the song reached number 94 on the Hot 100, number 34 on the Australian Singles Chart, and number 51 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song was certified platinum in Australia and Canada. "Dead and Gone" was released as a third single in Europe, while "Run Right Back" was released as a fourth single in the United Kingdom. "Little Black Submarines" was released as the record's fifth single on October 8, 2012, and was a rock radio success; it peaked at number two on the US Alternative Songs chart and the Canadian Alternative Rock and Active Rock charts, as well as number 54 on the Canadian Hot 100.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: On November 5, 2021, a 10th anniversary edition of "El Camino" was released. It includes a remastered copy of album and four bonus CDs with live performances. Discs 2 and 3 are from a concert in Portland, Maine, and Disc 4 is from a BBC recording session. Disc 5 contains an Electro Vox session, but it is not included in the CD or vinyl release, only digital download copies from the label's website.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: "El Camino" received acclaim from music critics. According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the album received an average review score of 84/100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim". Critics mainly praised the instrumentation of the songs on the album, as well as the album production. "Spin" gave the record an 8/10 rating, calling it "irresistibly gaudy" and "catchier, glitzier, ballsier". The reviewer said the songs contain "classic cock-rock sonic tchotchkes: handclaps, talk-box guitar breaks, rainbow keyboards. The overall effect is something akin to ZZ Top with glitter in their beards." Melissa Maerz of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the record an "A−", writing that the group "make a small-room racket that sounds massive enough for a bigger-is-better world". Maerz said that ""El Camino" trades the soulful stylings of "Brothers" for harder-driving, faster-riffing rock & roll". James Lachno of "The Daily Telegraph" rated the album four-stars-out-of-five, praising Danger Mouse for "sharpen[ing] up the sweet, melodic choruses that offset the duo's unholy racket" and give each song a "timeless quality, as suited to a Seventies mid-west saloon as a students' indie disco". Despite what Lachno judged to be "tawdry" lyrics, he said that "the Black Keys are here to rock, not talk. On this evidence, few bands right now do it better." Randall Roberts of the "Los Angeles Times" assigned the album a maximum four-star rating, calling it "butt-shaking music" and "an album with lyrics that are both unpretentious and un-dumb". Roberts praised the nostalgic elements of the group's music and said that the album "scratches an itch you didn't even know you had".


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: Michael Hann of "The Guardian" gave the record a maximum rating of five stars, writing that it is "dripping with an easy, attractive confidence". Commenting on the various musical influences on the album, Hann said, "they stride fearlessly into areas that might once have been off-limits". His review concluded, "They sound like a band who think they've made the year's best rock'n'roll album, probably because that's exactly what they've done." Rob Harvilla of "Pitchfork" scored "El Camino" a 7.4/10 and called it "their best and (not coincidentally) goofiest album". Describing the music, he said, "The riffs are glam-nasty, the lyrics sublimely knuckleheaded, the basslines nimble and bombastic, the mood frivolous and fun and unabashedly corny." Will Hermes of "Rolling Stone" rated the album four stars and called it their "grandest pop gesture yet, augmenting dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and Seventies-glam flair". AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album four stars and said, "More than any other Black Keys album, "El Camino" is an outright party, playing like a collection of 11 lost 45 singles, each one having a bigger beat or dirtier hook than the previous side." Kitty Empire of "The Observer" was more critical of the album; in a three-star review, Empire commented that it sounded like Danger Mouse "tightened up the Black Keys' act rather than loosened it" and that ""El Camino" may be fast and fun, but it is also somewhat undemanding." The reviewer noted that the album had "increased vigour", but that it came at the expense of "the subtleties that made "Brothers" such an intriguing ride."


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: In the US, "El Camino" debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200 and sold 206,000 copies in its first week on sale. This marks the highest single-week album sales and, to that point, charting position that the group had achieved in the country. In Canada, the album debuted at number three on the Canadian Albums Chart and sold 27,000 copies in its first week. In its first two weeks on sale, "El Camino" sold nearly 293,000 copies in the US. The album has been certified: triple-platinum in Canada; double-platinum in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.; platinum in the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland; and gold in Belgium and the Netherlands. As of April 2014, the album has sold 1.4 million copies in the United States.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: "El Camino" appeared on several end-of-year rankings by music publications and critics. The album was ranked by "Mojo" as the sixth-best album of 2012, even though it was released in 2011. "American Songwriter" ranked it as the ninth-best album of 2011, while "Rolling Stone" ranked it as the 12th-best. The album placed 21st on the "Best Albums" list from "The Village Voice"s 2011 Pazz & Jop critics' poll. "Paste" ranked the record as the 22nd-best of the year before it had been released. "Spin" placed it at number 36 on its list of the 50 best albums of the year, writing, "Glam-blooze guitar, poppy melodies, and hockey-rink keyboards fit the Keys like vintage denim." Claire Suddath of "Time" magazine and Andrew Leahey of "The Washington Times" both named "El Camino" one of the Top 10 Albums of 2011, while the staff of AllMusic selected the album as one of their favorites of the year. In end-of-year polls, writers for "Rolling Stone" selected "Little Black Submarines" as the 18th-best song of 2011, while the publication's readers voted "Lonely Boy" the year's third-best song.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, The Black Keys won the award for Best Rock Album for "El Camino", and Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for "Lonely Boy". Auerbach was honored as Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for co-producing "El Camino" and producing records by Hacienda and Dr. John. The Black Keys also received nominations for Album of the Year for "El Camino" and Record of the Year for "Lonely Boy".


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: In December 2011, The Black Keys announced a 2012 concert tour, their first playing arenas as a headlining act. The tour opened in Europe on January 23, 2012, with three weeks of shows, before visiting North America from March to May. The tour made multiple return visits to Europe and North America throughout the year, while also visiting Australasia from October through November. In total, the group played 112 shows in 2012. Among the support acts that accompanied the band were Band of Skulls, Arctic Monkeys, and Tegan and Sara. After tickets went on sale, The Black Keys' concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City sold out in 15 minutes, resulting in the addition of a second date at the venue to satisfy demand. The tour grossed $12.7 million in 2012, and after 129 shows, it ended on July 13, 2013.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: Just as it did on its previous tour, the group added bassist Gus Seyffert and keyboardist/guitarist John Wood as touring musicians in order to perform songs as close to their studio arrangements as possible. Auerbach explained the decision for the expanded live band: "It wasn't about the size of the venue. It was just that we could afford to do it and our songs deserved it. We wanted to finally present the songs like we'd written them." During the middle portion of each concert, Auerbach and Carney played older material as a duo without the backing musicians. Many critics singled these performances out as the shows' highlights.


title: El Camino (The Black Keys album)

text: The concert stage used a setup with a lighting system and video projections designed by Karl Lemieux. The lighting comprised four banks of on-stage vintage spotlights, along with two disco balls and a lighted sign bearing the band's name that were lowered for the encores. Lemieux's video, which was projected onto a white sheet at the stage's rear, incorporated black-and-white footage of junkyards, deserts, and open highways. Carney explained that the band was aiming for a retro aesthetic, saying, "We kind of wanted to make the whole stage look like an old-school rock 'n' roll show, as much as possible. We're referencing bands in the '70s, what they were doing when they were playing arenas." Moreover, the footage was meant to pay homage to the group's origins. Auerbach said, "We wanted it to represent our music and the Midwest where we're from, the Rust Belt and open spaces. We find that stuff beautiful and uplifting."


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that about 58.4% of all American homes subscribe to basic cable television services. Most cable viewers in the U.S. reside in the suburbs and tend to be middle class; cable television is less common in low income, urban, and rural areas.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: According to reports released by the Federal Communications Commission, traditional cable television subscriptions in the US peaked around the year 2000, at 68.5 million total subscriptions. Since then, cable subscriptions have been in slow decline, dropping to 54.4 million subscribers by December 2013. Some telephone service providers have started offering television, reaching to 11.3 million video subscribers as of December 2013.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: It is claimed that the first cable television system in the United States was created in 1948 in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania by John Walson to provide television signals to people whose reception was poor because of tall mountains and buildings blocking TV signals. Mahanoy City was ideally suited for CATV services, since broadcast television signals could easily be received via mountaintop antennas and retransmitted by "twin-lead" or "ladder-lead" cable to the valley community below (where broadcast reception was very poor). Walson's "first" claim is highly disputed, since his claimed starting date cannot be verified. The United States Congress and the National Cable Television Association have recognized Walson as having invented cable television in the spring of 1948.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: A CATV system was developed in the late 1940s by James F. Reynolds in his town of Maple Dale, Pennsylvania, which grew to include Sandy Lake, Stoneboro, Polk, Cochranton, and Meadville.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Even though Eastern Pennsylvania, particularly the counties of Schuylkill and Carbon in the anthracite coal region, had several of the earliest CATV systems, there were other CATV entrepreneurs scattered throughout the United States. One was James Y. Davidson of Tuckerman, Arkansas. Davidson was the local movie theater manager and ran a radio repair business on the side. In 1949, he set up a cable system to bring the signal of a newly launched Memphis, Tennessee station to his community, which was located too far away to receive the signal with set-top antennas alone.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons built the first cable television system in the United States that used coaxial cable, amplifiers, and a community antenna to deliver television signals to an area that otherwise would not have been able to receive broadcast television signals. In 1948, Parsons owned a radio station in Astoria, Oregon. A year earlier he and his wife had first seen television at a broadcasters' convention. In the spring of 1948, Parsons learned that radio station KRSC (now KKNW) in Seattle – 125 miles away – was going to launch a television station that fall. He found that with a large antenna he could receive KRSC's signal on the roof of the Hotel Astoria and from there he ran coaxial cable across the street to his apartment. When the station (now KING-TV) went on the air in November 1948, Parsons was the only one in town able to see television. According to MSNBC's Bob Sullivan, Parsons charged a $125 one-time set-up fee and a $3 a month service fee. In May 1968, Parsons was acknowledged as the father of community antenna television.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: In 1950, Robert Tarlton developed the first commercial cable television system in the United States. Tarlton organized a group of fellow television set retailers in Lansford, Pennsylvania, a town in the same region as Mahanoy City, to offer television signals from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania broadcast stations to homes in Lansford for a fee. The system was featured in stories in "The New York Times", "Newsweek" and "The Wall Street Journal". The publicity of this successful early system set off a wave of cable system construction throughout the United States, and Tarlton himself became a highly sought-after consultant.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Tarlton used equipment manufactured by a new company, Jerrold Electronics. After seeing the success of the Tarlton system in 1950, Jerrold president (and future Pennsylvania governor) Milton Shapp reorganized his company to build equipment for the now-growing cable industry. In 1952, Tarlton went to work for Jerrold, helping to construct most of the major systems built by that company in the 1950s. Tarlton was also responsible for training many of the major operators of cable systems in the 1950s. In 2003, Tarlton was inducted in the Cable Television Hall of Fame for his work building the first widely publicized cable television company in America.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: The rise of free broadcast television during the 1950s greatly threatened the established entertainment industry by offering an alternative to the common practice of regularly paying to see films. The possibility of turning free television viewers into paid television viewers was discussed early on. For example, after 25 million American televisions tuned to a musical version of "Cinderella" in 1957, executives calculated that had the network received 25¢ for each television tuned to the show, it would have earned more than $6 million without distribution costs. However, due to many legal, regulatory and technological obstacles, cable television in the United States in its first 24 years was used almost exclusively to relay terrestrial commercial television stations to remote and inaccessible areas. It also became popular in other areas in which mountainous terrain caused poor reception over the air. Original programming over cable came in 1972 with deregulation of the industry.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: During the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s freeze on television licenses from 1948 to 1952, the demand for television increased. Since new television station licenses were not being issued, the only way the demand was met, even in communities with one or more operating broadcast stations, was by Community Antenna Television (CATV), as early cable was known (so named because of the literal sharing of a very large receiving antenna by an entire community).


title: Cable television in the United States

text: On August 1, 1949, T.J. Slowie, a secretary of the Federal Communications Commission, sent a letter to a Parsons requesting that he "furnish [to] the Commission full information with respect to the nature of the system you may have developed and may be operating." This is the first known involvement of the FCC in CATV. An FCC lawyer, E. Stratford Smith, determined the Commission could exercise common carrier jurisdiction over CATV. The FCC did not act on this opinion, and Smith later changed his mind after working in the cable industry for some time. Further, Smith's decision was influenced by his experiences testifying several times in United States Senate committee hearings. Senator, and future FCC commissioner, Kenneth A. Cox attended and participated in these hearings. He prepared a report for the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce against CATV and supporting the FCC policy of a television station in every community.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: In 1959 and 1961, bills were introduced in Congress of the United States that would have determined the role of the FCC in CATV policy. Chief architect of some of these bills was attorney Yolanda G. Barco. She was one of the first female executives in cable, described as the "principal attorney for cable television interests during the industry's formative years". The 1959 bill, which made it to the floor of the Senate, would have limited FCC jurisdiction to CATV systems within the contours (or the broadcast range) of a single station; however, the bill was defeated. The 1961 bill proposed by the FCC would have given the Commission authority over CATV as CATV, and not as a common carrier or broadcaster. The Commission could then adopt rules and regulations "in the public interest" to govern CATV in any area covered both by CATV and broadcast television. No action was ever taken on this bill.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: More important than Congressional action in determining Federal Communications Commission CATV policy were court cases and FCC hearings. In "Frontier Broadcasting Co. v. Collier", broadcasters tried to compel the FCC to exercise common carrier authority over 288 CATV systems in 36 states. The broadcasters maintained that CATV went against the FCC's Sixth Report and Order, which advocated at least one television station in every community. In 1958, the FCC decided that CATV was not really a common carrier since the subscriber did not determine the programming. Carter Mountain Transmission Corp., a common carrier that already transmitted television signals by microwave to CATV systems in several Wyoming towns, wanted to add a second signal to two of the towns and add two signals to a previously unserved town. A television station in one town opposed this and protested to the FCC on the grounds of economic damage. A hearing examiner supported Carter Mountain, but the Commission supported the television station. The case was taken to appeal, and the Federal Communications Commission won. "The fact that no broadcaster has actually gone off the air due to CATV competition at the time the government moved to expand its authority (nor have any since) did not stay the momentum for the expansion of regulatory authority. That some economic impact was merely plausible sufficed as the basis for government concern and government action". The FCC overruled a hearing examiner in favor of broadcasters again in the "San Diego Case". The CATV systems in San Diego, California wanted to import stations from Los Angeles, some of which could be seen in San Diego; the television stations in San Diego did not want the signals to be imported. The television stations won, not allowing the signals on future cable lines in San Diego and its environs. The FCC's reasoning was to protect existing and future UHF stations in San Diego. (One of the pioneers of cable TV was KSA-TV)


title: Cable television in the United States

text: In the First Report and Order by the Federal Communications Commission on CATV, the FCC gave itself the power to regulate CATV. This Report and Order was designed to protect television stations in small towns. It did this by imposing two rules, which slightly altered form: one requires that a CATV system carry all local stations in which the CATV system is in the A- (best reception) contour of the station. The second prohibits the importation of programs from a non-local station that duplicates programming on a local station if the duplication is shown either 15 days before or after its local airing. This 1965 report reasoning is as follows: 1) CATV should carry local stations because CATV supplements, not replaces, local stations; and, the non-carriage of local stations gives distant stations an advantage since people will not change from the cable to the antenna to see a local station; 2) non-carriage is "inherently contrary to the public interest"; and, 3) CATV duplication of local programming via distant signals is unfair since broadcasters and CATV do not compete for programs on an equal footing; the FCC recommended "a reasonable measure of exclusivity".


title: Cable television in the United States

text: The 1966 Second Report and Order made some minor changes in the First Report and Order and added a major regulation. This was designed to protect UHF stations in large cities. The new rule disallowed the importation of distant signals into the top 100 markets, thus making CATV at that time profitable only in cities with poor reception. In 1968, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's right to make rules and regulations concerning CATV. In its decision on "United States v. Southwestern Cable", the "San Diego Case", it said "the Commission's authority over 'all interstate ... communications by wire or radio' permits the regulation of CATV systems."


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Carriage refers to the agreement under which a cable provider rebroadcasts a television channel on its network. The Federal Communications Commission puts various requirements on these agreements, which may include channels cable providers are required to carry, and moderates disputes over the fees and conditions of any particular agreement.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: In 1969, the FCC issued rules requiring all CATV systems with over 3,500 subscribers to have facilities for local origination of programming by April 1, 1971; the date was later suspended. In 1972, Dean Burch steered the FCC into a new area of regulation. It lifted its restrictions on CATV in large cities, but now put the burden of more local programming on CATV operators. In 1976, the FCC used its rule-making power to require that new systems now had to have 20 channels, and that cable providers with systems of 3,500 subscribers or more had to provide Public, educational, and government access (PEG) services with facilities and equipment necessary to use this channel capacity.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: During the early 1980s, various live local programs with local interests were rapidly being created all over the United States in most major television markets. Before there was public access TV, one of Time Inc.'s pioneering stations was in Columbus, Ohio, where Richard Sillman became the nation's youngest cable television director at age 16.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Cable television programming is often divided between basic and premium television. Basic cable networks are generally those with wide carriage on the lowest service tiers of multichannel television providers. In the era of analog cable television, these channels were typically transmitted without any encryption or other scrambling methods. These networks can vary in format, ranging from those targeting mainstream audiences, to specialty networks that are focused on specific genres, demographics, or niches. Basic cable networks depend on a mix of per-subscriber carriage fees paid by the provider, and revenue from advertising sold on the service, as their sources of revenue.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: One of the first "basic cable" networks was TBS—which was initially established as a satellite uplink of an independent television station (the present-day WPCH-TV) in Atlanta, Georgia. TBS would serve as the starting point for other major basic cable ventures by its owner, Ted Turner, including CNN—the first 24-hour news channel. Another early network was the CBN Satellite Service, a Christian television service launched by televangelist Pat Robertson in April 1977 as the television ministry of his Christian Broadcasting Network, that was delivered by satellite as a more efficient way to distribute the programming. For years, the CBN Satellite Service (later renamed CBN Cable Network in 1984) mixed religious programming with reruns of classic television series to fill out its 24-hour schedule. The network changed its name to The CBN Family Channel in 1988 (revised to The Family Channel in 1990 once CBN spun it out to an indirectly owned for-profit company, International Family Entertainment). It was subsequently renamed Fox Family in 1998 after it was acquired by a partnership between Fox Entertainment Group and Saban Entertainment, then ABC Family after its 2001 sale to ABC parent The Walt Disney Company, and finally to its current name, Freeform in 2016.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: The origins of premium cable lie in two areas: early pay television systems of the 1950s and 1960s and early cable (CATV) operators' small efforts to add extra channels to their systems that were not derived from free-to-air signals. In more recent years, premium cable refers to networks–such as Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix, Starz, MoviePlex, and Epix–that scramble or encrypt their signals so that only those paying additional monthly fees to their cable system can legally view them (via the use of a converter box). Because their programming is commercial-free (except for promotions in-between shows for the networks' own content), these networks command much higher fees from cable systems. Premium services have the discretion to offer the service unencrypted to a certain number of participating cable providers during a short-term free preview period to allow those who do not receive a premium service to sample its programming, in an effort for subscribers to the participant provider to consider obtaining a subscription to the offered service to continue viewing it following the preview period.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: HBO was the first true premium cable (or "pay-cable") network as well as the first television network intended for cable distribution on a regional or national basis; however, there were notable precursors to premium cable in the pay-television industry that operated during the 1950s and 1960s (with a few systems lingering until 1980), as well as some attempts by free-the-air broadcasters during the 1970s and 1980s that ultimately folded as their subscriber bases declined amid viewer shifts to receiving premium television content delivered by cable providers that had begun operating in metropolitan areas throughout that period. In its infancy, following its launch over Service Electric Cable's Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, system on November 8, 1972, HBO had been quietly providing pay programming to CATV systems in Pennsylvania and New York, using microwave technology to transmit its programming to cable and MMDS providers. In 1975, HBO became the first cable network to be delivered nationwide by satellite transmission. Although such conversions are rare, some present-day basic cable channels have originated as premium services, including the Disney Channel (from 1983 to 1997), AMC (from 1984 to 1988) and Bravo (from 1982 to 1994); some of these services eventually switched to an advertiser-supported model after transitioning to an unencrypted structure. Other fledgling premium services (such as early HBO spin-off efforts Take Two and Festival, Home Theater Network and Spotlight) have lasted for a few years, only to fail due to the inability to compete against established premium services that had broader distribution and higher subscriber totals.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Since cable television channels are not broadcast on public spectrum, they are not subject to FCC regulations on indecent material. Premium networks generally offer broader portrayal of profanity, sex and violence; some premium services–such as Cinemax and The Movie Channel (which have carried such programs as part of their late-night schedules) as well as Playboy TV, one of the first adult-oriented premium cable services–have even offered softcore pornography as part of their programming inventory.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: While there are no FCC rules that apply to content on basic cable networks, many self-regulate their program content due to demographic targeting, or because of viewer and advertiser expectations, particularly with regard to profane language and nudity. In recent years, however, some networks have become more lenient towards content aired during late-primetime and late-night hours. In addition, some channels, such as FX, have positioned themselves with an original programming direction more akin to premium services, with a focus on more "mature" and creator-driven series to help attract critical acclaim and key demographic viewership. Turner Classic Movies has also aired uncut prints of theatrical films that have featured nudity, sexual content, violence and profanity, as had the now-ad-supported SundanceTV and IFC, the former of which began as a premium service, spun off from Showtime. Commercial-free basic channels have tended to rate their film presentations using the TV Parental Guidelines, instead of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings system.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Since the early 21st century, some have advocated for laws that would require cable providers to offer their subscribers their own ""à la carte"" choice of channels. Unlike the standardized subscription packages being offered currently, an à la carte model requires the customer to subscribe to each channel individually. It is not clear how this might affect subscription costs over all, but it would allow a parent to censor their child's viewing habits by removing any channel they deem objectionable from their subscription. Offering such individualized subscriptions would have been relatively complicated and labor-intensive using analog cable, but the widespread adoption of digital cable & IPTV technologies have now made it more feasible.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Analog technology allowed cable providers to offer standardized subscription packages using low-pass filters and notch filters. A low-pass filter lets lower frequency signals pass while removing higher frequency signals. Using such filtering, the cable provider offered "economy basic" subscriptions (local channels only; these appear at the lowest frequency signals, denoted by the lowest channel numbers) and "basic" subscriptions (local channels plus a handful of national channels with frequencies just higher than the local stations). Notch filters were used to filter out a "notch" of channels from an analog cable signal (for example, channels 45-50 could be "notched" out and the subscriber still receives channels below 45 and above 50). This allowed cable providers to open standardized ranges of premium channels to the subscriber, but notch filtering was not a feasible way to offer each subscriber their own individual choice of channels.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: To offer "à la carte" service using an analog signal, a cable provider would most likely have to scramble every channel and send a technician to each subscriber's home to unscramble their choice of channels on their set-top box. Each change an analog cable customer made in their subscription would then require an additional home visit to reprogram their set-top box. Offering the customer their choice of channels à la carte has become more cost-effective with the advent of digital cable, because a digital set-top converter box can be programmed remotely. IPTV (i.e., delivering TV channels over an internet or IP-based network) is even less labor-intensive, delivering channels to the consumer automatically.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Currently, digital cable and satellite delivery systems with standardized subscriptions are providing an opportunity for networks that service niche and minority audiences to reach millions of households, and potentially, millions of viewers. Since à la carte could force each channel to be sold individually, such networks worry they could face a significant reduction in subscription fees and advertising revenue, and potentially be driven out of business. Many cable/satellite providers are therefore reluctant to introduce an à la carte business model. They fear it will reduce the overall choice of viewing content, making their service less appealing to customers. Some believe the à la carte option could actually increase overall sales by allowing potential subscribers a less expensive entry point into the cable marketplace. Some cable/satellite providers might wish to sell channels à la carte, but their contracts with programmers often require the more standardized approach.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Starting in the late 1990s, advances in digital signal processing (primarily Motorola's DigiCipher 2 video compression technology in North America) gave rise to wider implementation of digital cable services. Digital cable television provides many more television channels over the same available bandwidth, by converting cable channels to a digital signal and then compressing the signal. Currently, most systems offer a hybrid analog/digital cable system. This means they offer a certain number of analog channels via their basic cable service with additional channels being made available via their digital cable service.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Digital cable channels are touted as being able to offer a higher quality picture than their analog counterparts. This is often true, with a dramatic improvement in chroma resolution (120 lines for NTSC versus 270 for digital). However, digital compression has a tendency to soften the quality of the television picture, particularly of channels that are more heavily compressed. Pixelation and other artifacts are often visible.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Subscribers wishing to have access to digital cable channels must have a special cable converter box, (or, more recently, a "Digital Cable Ready" television) and a CableCARD to receive them. AllVid is a CableCARD replacement proposed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), U.S.A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), intended to provide bidirectional compatibilities such as interactive programming guides, video-on-demand and pay-per-view, since retail CableCARD-ready devices are unable to access such systems.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Cable television systems impose a monthly fee depending on the number and perceived quality of the channels offered. Cable television subscribers are offered various packages of channels one can subscribe to. The cost of each package depends on the type of channels offered (basic vs. premium) and the quantity. These fees cover the fees paid to individual cable channels for the right to carry their programming, as well as the cost of operating and maintaining the cable television system so that their signals can reach subscribers' homes. Additional cable television franchise fees and taxes are often tacked on by local, state, and federal governments.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Most cable systems divide their channel lineups ("tiers") into three or four basic channel packages. A must-carry rule requires all cable television systems to carry all full-power local commercial broadcast stations in the designated television market on their lineups, unless those stations opt to invoke retransmission consent and demand compensation, in which case the cable provider can decline to carry the channel (especially if the provider feels that the rate of carrying an existing service would result in an increase of the average price of a tier to levels to which it could result in a subscriber possibly dropping the service).


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Cable television systems are also required to offer a subscription package that provides these broadcast channels at a lower rate than the standard subscription rate. The basic programming package offered by cable television systems is usually known as "basic cable" and provides access to a large number of cable television channels, as well as broadcast television networks (e.g., ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, NBC, PBS), public, educational, and government access channels, free or low-cost public service channels such as C-SPAN and NASA TV, and several channels devoted to infomercials, brokered televangelism and home shopping to defray costs. Some providers may provide a small number of national cable networks in their basic lineups. Most systems differentiate between basic cable, which has locals, home shopping channels and local-access television channels, and expanded basic (or "standard"), which carries most of the better-known national cable networks. Most basic cable lineups have approximately 20 channels overall, while expanded basic has channel capacity for as many as 70 channels. Under U.S. regulations, the price of basic cable can be regulated by local authorities as part of their franchise agreements. Standard, or expanded basic, cable is not subject to price controls.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: In addition to the basic cable packages, all systems offer premium channel add-on packages offering either just one premium network (for example, HBO) or several premium networks for one price (for example, HBO and Showtime together). Finally, most cable systems offer pay-per-view channels where users can watch individual movies, live events, sports and other programs for an additional fee for single viewing at a scheduled time (this is generally the main place where pornographic content airs on American cable). Some cable systems have begun to offer on-demand programming, where customers can select programs from a list of offerings including recent releases of movies, concerts, sports, first-run television shows and specials and start the program whenever they wish, as if they were watching a DVD or a VHS tape (although some on demand services, generally those offered by broadcast networks, restrict the ability to fast forward through a program). Some of the offerings have a cost similar to renting a movie at a video store while others are free. On-demand content has slowly been replacing traditional pay-per-view for pre-recorded content; pay-per-view remains popular for live combat sports events (boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling).


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Many cable systems operate as "de facto" monopolies in the United States. While exclusive franchises are currently prohibited by federal law, and relatively few franchises were ever expressly exclusive, frequently only one cable company offers cable service in a given community. Overbuilders in the U.S., other than telephone companies with existing infrastructure, have traditionally had severe difficulty in financial and market penetration numbers. Overbuilders have had some success in the MDU market, in which relationships are established with landlords, sometimes with contracts and exclusivity agreements for the buildings, sometimes to the anger of tenants. The rise of direct broadcast satellite systems providing the same type of programming using small satellite receivers, and of Verizon FiOS and other recent ventures by incumbent local exchange carriers such as U-verse, have also provided competition to incumbent cable television systems.


title: Cable television in the United States

text: Many cable channels charge cable providers "subscriber fees," in order to carry their content. The fee that the cable service provider must pay to a cable television channel can vary depending on whether it is a basic or premium channel and the perceived popularity of that channel. Because cable service providers are not required to carry all cable channels, they may negotiate the fee they will pay for carrying a channel. Typically, more popular cable channels command higher fees. For example, ESPN typically charges $10 per month for its suite of networks ($7 for the main channel alone), by far the highest of any non-premium American cable channel, comparable to the premium channels, and rising rapidly. Other widely viewed cable channels have been able to command fees of over 50 cents per subscriber per month; channels can vary widely in fees depending on if they are included in package deals with other channels.


title: 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates

text: Candidates associated with the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 United States presidential election:


text: Candidates who are on the ballot in a minimum of fifteen states. former Vice President Joe Biden became the presumptive presidential nominee by amassing enough delegates to secure the nomination. The nomination was made official at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


text: Candidates who were major candidates who withdrew or suspended their campaigns after the Iowa caucuses or succeeding primary elections.


text: Candidates who withdrew too late to remove their names from several state ballots and remained on at least two:


text: Candidates who were major candidates who withdrew or suspended their campaigns before the 2020 Democratic primary elections began and are not on the ballot for the presidential primaries anywhere.<section begin="withdrew" />


text: Over 1,200 people filed with the FEC declaring that they were candidates; however, very few actually made the effort to get their names on the ballot anywhere. The following persons were listed on at least one primary ballot:


text: The following individuals who did not meet the criteria to become major candidates either formally terminated their campaigns or did not attempt to get on the ballot in a single contest:


text: These individuals had been the subject of presidential speculation, but publicly denied or recanted interest in running for president.


title: Speed Kills

text: Speed Kills is a 2018 American crime drama film directed by Jodi Scurfield and starring John Travolta. It is based on Arthur J. Harris's book of the same name about the life of Donald Aronow, fictionalized as "Ben Aronoff".


title: Speed Kills

text: The film has approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews, with an average rating of . Barbara Shulgasser-Parker of Common Sense Media awarded it one star out of five. Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com awarded it half a star. Powerboat Racing World website told their readers to 'prepare for disappointment'.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Lone Pine is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. Lone Pine is located south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of . The population was 2,035 at the 2010 census, up from 1,655 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the Owens Valley, near the Alabama Hills and Mount Whitney, between the eastern peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east. The local hospital, Southern Inyo Hospital, offers standby emergency services. The town is named after a solitary pine tree that once existed at the mouth of Lone Pine Canyon. On March 26, 1872, the very large Lone Pine earthquake destroyed most of the town and killed 27 of its 250 to 300 residents.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Paiute Indians inhabited the Owens Valley area from prehistoric times. These early inhabitants are known to have established trading routes which extended to the Pacific Central Coast, delivering materials originating in the Owens Valley to such tribes as the Chumash.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: A cabin was built here during the winter of 1861–62. A settlement developed over the following two years. The Lone Pine post office opened in 1870.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: On March 26, 1872, at 2:30 am, Lone Pine experienced a violent earthquake that destroyed most of the town. At the time, the town consisted of 80 buildings made of mud and adobe; only 20 structures were left standing. As a result of the quake, which formed Diaz Lake, a total of 26 people lost their lives. A mass grave located just north of town commemorates the site of the main fault. One of the few remaining structures pre-dating the earthquake is the 21-inch-thick "Old Adobe Wall" located in the alley behind the Lone Star Bistro, a coffee house.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: During the 1870s, Lone Pine was an important supply town for several nearby mining communities, including Kearsarge, Cerro Gordo, Keeler, Swansea, and Darwin. The Cerro Gordo mine high in the Inyo Mountains was one of the most productive silver mines in California. The silver was carried in ore buckets on a strong cable to Keeler, and then transported four miles northwest to smelter ovens at Swansea. To supply the necessary building materials and fuel for these operations, a sawmill was constructed near Horseshoe Meadows by Colonel Sherman Stevens that produced wood for the smelters and the mines. The wood was moved by flume to the valley, where it was burned in adobe kilns to make charcoal, which was then transported by steamships across Owens Lake to the smelters at Swansea, about 12 miles south of Lone Pine.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Railroads played a major role in the development of Lone Pine and the Owens Valley. In 1883, the Carson and Colorado Railway line was constructed from Belleville, Nevada, across the White Mountains to Benton, and then down into the Owens Valley where it ended in Keeler. The arrival of the C&C rail line, with its engine "The Slim Princess", and the stagecoach in Keeler were a major economic boost for the area. Twice a week, passengers arrived on the evening train, spent the night at the Lake View Hotel (later renamed the Hotel Keeler), and then took the stage the following morning to Mojave. A short line to the north connected with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad line at Mound House, Nevada.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: In 1920, the history of Lone Pine was dramatically altered when a movie production company came to the Alabama Hills to make the silent film " The Round-Up". Other companies soon discovered the scenic location, and in the coming decades, over 400 films, 100 television episodes, and countless commercials have used Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills as a film location. Notable films shot here in the 1920s and 1930s include "Riders of the Purple Sage" (1925) with Tom Mix, "The Enchanted Hill" (1926) with Jack Holt, "Somewhere in Sonora" (1927) with Ken Maynard, "Blue Steel" (1934) with John Wayne, "Hop-Along Cassidy" (1935) with William Boyd, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936) with Errol Flynn, "Oh, Susanna!" (1936) with Gene Autry, "Rhythm on the Range" (1936) with Bing Crosby, "The Cowboy and the Lady" (1938) with Gary Cooper, "Under Western Stars" (1938) with Roy Rogers, and "Gunga Din" (1939) with Cary Grant.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: In the coming decades, Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills continued to be used as the setting for Western films, including "West of the Pecos" (1945) with Robert Mitchum, "Thunder Mountain" (1947) with Tim Holt, "The Gunfighter" (1950) with Gregory Peck, "The Nevadan" (1950) with Randolph Scott, "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955) with Spencer Tracy, "Hell Bent for Leather" (1960) with Audie Murphy, "How the West Was Won" (1962) with James Stewart, "Nevada Smith" (1966) with Steve McQueen, "Joe Kidd" (1972) with Clint Eastwood, "Maverick" (1994) with Mel Gibson, and "The Lone Ranger" (2013) with Johnny Depp. Through the years, non-Western films also used the unique landscape of the area, including Alfred Hitchcock's "Saboteur" (1942) with Robert Cummings, "Samson and Delilah" (1949) with Hedy Lamarr, "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989) with William Shatner, "Tremors" (1990) with Kevin Bacon, "The Postman" (1997) with Kevin Costner, and "Gladiator" (2000) with Russell Crowe.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The most important movie filmed in and around Lone Pine is director Raoul Walsh's "High Sierra" (1941), starring Humphrey Bogart as Roy Earle in the role that moved Bogart from respected supporting player to leading man. Cast and crew lodged in Lone Pine, and Walsh shot various scenes in and around Lone Pine. For the film's mountain chase scenes, Walsh took everyone to nearby Mt. Whitney, where pack mules lugged camera equipment up the mountainside: "filming began just outside Lone Pine ... on August 5, 1940. ... On a slope at the side of Mt. Whitney, ... a group of twenty men from the studio worked for four days to clear a path so that mountain-trained mules, packing cameras and other equipment, could get up to the shooting area. ... Bogart had to run three miles up a mountainside for two days ... Walsh ordered all the big boulders removed from the path of [Bogart's] final fall, but the little ones remained, and Bogart complained about that plenty ... Bogie especially did not want to trek up that mountain. This was the shoot on which Walsh gave him the nickname 'Bogey the Beefer'". John Huston wrote the screenplay, and Ida Lupino co-starred.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that required people of Japanese ancestry living along the Pacific coast to be placed into relocation camps. One of these camps, Manzanar, was built 7 miles north of Lone Pine.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Lone Pine is situated in the Owens Valley with the picturesque Alabama Hills lying to the west. Their unique appearance has attracted many film companies over the years. The hills were named in 1862 by Southern sympathisers, commemorating the victories of the Confederate ship CSS "Alabama".


title: Lone Pine, California

text: As the crow flies, Lone Pine is 95 miles due east of Fresno. However, there is no road crossing the Sierra Nevada to provide access from Lone Pine to Fresno. As a result, the closest accessible large city is Bakersfield, nearly 170 miles away.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 19.2 square miles (49.8 km), of which 19.0 square miles (49.3 km) is land and 0.2 square mile (0.5 km) (0.94%) is water.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Lone Pine and most of the Owens Valley have a high desert climate characterised by hot summers and cold winters. January temperatures range from the middle fifties to the upper twenties. July temperatures range from the upper nineties to the lower sixties. Low humidity is prevalent, with average annual precipitation averaging less than six inches (152 mm). Snowfall varies greatly from year-to-year, averaging only five inches annually. The nearest official National Weather Service co-operative weather station is in Independence where records date back to 1893. The National Weather Service has added an automated weather station in Lone Pine, which provides observations on its website, weather.gov.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Lone Pine had a population of 2,035. The population density was . The racial makeup of Lone Pine was 1,334 (65.6%) White, 6 (0.3%) Black, 205 (10.1%) Native American, 17 (0.8%) Asian, 1 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 376 (18.5%) from other races, and 96 (4.7%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 694 persons (34.1%).


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Census reported that 1,972 people (96.9% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalised group quarters, and 63 (3.1%) were institutionalised.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: There were 831 households, out of which 254 (30.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 374 (45.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 95 (11.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 46 (5.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 53 (6.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 5 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 276 households (33.2%) were made up of individuals, and 107 (12.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37. There were 515 families (62.0% of all households); the average family size was 3.04.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The population was spread out, with 492 people (24.2%) under the age of 18, 136 people (6.7%) aged 18 to 24, 442 people (21.7%) aged 25 to 44, 580 people (28.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 385 people (18.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.9 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.1 males.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: There were 1,004 housing units at an average density of , of which 831 were occupied, of which 452 (54.4%) were owner-occupied, and 379 (45.6%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 7.1%. 1,030 people (50.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 942 people (46.3%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 1,655 people, 709 households, and 448 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 867 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 83.2% White, 0.1% Black or African American, 2.7% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 8.1% from other races, and 4.9% from two or more races. 26.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: There were 709 households, out of which 29.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.4% were married couples living together, 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.88.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 24.6% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 22.5% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 20.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The median income for a household in the CDP was $29,079, and the median income for a family was $35,800. Males had a median income of $30,813 versus $22,778 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $16,262. About 16.5% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.9% of those under age 18 and 9.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Lone Pine Indian Reservation is home to Owens Valley Paiute and Shoshone members of the federally recognized tribe, the Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Lone Pine Community of the Lone Pine Reservation. The tribe traditionally lived in sedentary villages in the valley due to the suitable climate and abundant food supply. These people have been living here for several thousands of years. The reservation is along the south side of town on both sides of US395.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Much of the local economy is based on tourism, as the town is between several major tourist destinations, such as Mount Whitney, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Mammoth Mountain, Death Valley National Park, and Yosemite National Park; many motels line the main road through town.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Manzanar National Historic Site (formerly the Manzanar War Relocation Center), a Japanese American internment camp during World War II, is located on Highway 395 north of Lone Pine and south of Independence. Manzanar (which means "apple orchard" in Spanish) is the most infamous of the 10 camps in which Japanese Americans, both citizens (including natural-born Americans) and resident aliens, were encamped during World War II. Manzanar has been identified as the best preserved of these camps by the United States National Park Service which maintains and is restoring the site as a U.S. National Historic Site.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Lone Pine Film History Museum, supported by Beverly and Jim Rogers, highlights the area's frequent appearances in Hollywood feature films. The Alabama Hills west of town are frequently used as a filming location for Western movies. Since the early years of filmmaking, directors and their production units have used the Lone Pine area to represent the iconic American West. Approaching the 100th anniversary of "The Roundup" (1920), the first documented film produced in the area, Lone Pine has played host to hundreds of the industry's best-known directors and actors, among them directors William Wyler, John Ford, George Stevens, and William Wellman, and actors John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Clint Eastwood, Barbara Stanwyck, and Jeff Bridges. The Whitney Portal road was used in the film "High Sierra" (1941) with Humphrey Bogart, which culminated with a shoot-out between Bogart's character and the police, at the foot of Mount Whitney. The classic "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955), starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan and Anne Francis, was also filmed in and around the Lone Pine area. Lone Pine is also the location of several scenes in "Iron Man" (2008), depicting Afghanistan, and in the "Godzilla" (2014) remake, as a temporary military forward operating base ("FOB").


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Barbara Stanwyck in accordance with her wishes had her cremated remains and ashes scattered from a helicopter over Lone Pine, California, where she had made some of her western films.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Forum Theater is a theater-cafe that hosts live music, theater, and films at weekends. The Lone Pine Film Festival has been held every year since 1989 to celebrate the rich heritage that filmmakers have brought to the area over the years.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The Alabama Hills Recreation Area is directed by the Bureau of Land Management for public recreation.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: From 1971 through 1981, Lone Pine was the site of the annual Lone Pine International Chess tournament. Winners of the Lone Pine tournament included world champion Tigran Petrosian, world championship finalist Viktor Korchnoi, and U.S. champions Arthur Bisguier, Walter Browne, and Larry Evans.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Serving the area with a runway, Lone Pine Airport (FAA identifier: O26) is located approximately one mile southeast of town at .


title: Lone Pine, California

text: The community is located on U.S. Route 395, north of State Route 136. Owens Dry Lake is just over six miles (10 km) south of town on US 395.


title: Lone Pine, California

text: Lone Pine has one high school, Lone Pine High School. It is located at the south end of town along Highway 395. Lo-Inyo elementary school is located at the north end of town, just off 395.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Bradley Edwin Guzan (; born September 9, 1984) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club Atlanta United FC.


title: Brad Guzan

text: A college soccer second-team All-American for the South Carolina Gamecocks, Guzan was second overall pick in the 2005 MLS SuperDraft, signing for Chivas USA, with whom he was the 2007 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. In July 2008, he joined Premier League club Aston Villa for a fee of $1 million, where he made 171 total appearances across eight seasons. After a brief spell at Middlesbrough, he returned to MLS with Atlanta United in January 2017.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Guzan made his senior debut for the United States national team in 2006, earning over 60 caps. He was named in their squads for two FIFA World Cups and four CONCACAF Gold Cups, winning the latter in 2007, 2017 and 2021. He also featured for them at the 2008 Olympics, the 2007 Copa América, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the Copa América Centenario.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, Guzan, who is of Polish-American ancestry, played in his youth at the Chicago Magic Soccer Club and for the varsity soccer team at Providence Catholic High School in Illinois, from which he graduated in 2003. He went on to play two seasons in NCAA competition as a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks men's soccer team, where he was a second-team All-American in his sophomore season.


title: Brad Guzan

text: After spending two years with the Chicago Fire Reserves in the USL Premier Development League, he chose to forgo the rest of his college years, signing a Generation Adidas contract with Major League Soccer (MLS). Chivas USA later drafted Guzan with the second overall pick of the 2005 MLS SuperDraft. On November 7, 2007, Guzan was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. During his time at Chivas USA, Guzan was affectionately nicknamed "El Gusano."


title: Brad Guzan

text: On July 11, 2008, Aston Villa agreed a transfer fee in the region of £600,000, or $1 million, with MLS and Chivas USA to sign Guzan, significantly less than the £2 million agreed to in Aston Villa's failed move for the keeper in January 2008, the difference this time being that Guzan would have been out of his contract at the end of the 2008 season in November, allowing him to sign for Aston Villa during the January transfer window on a free transfer.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On August 1, 2008, Guzan was granted a work permit by the Home Office, allowing him to complete his move to Aston Villa. He was due to be officially introduced by Aston Villa after competing for the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Guzan was the second American goalkeeper called Brad to be signed during the summer by Aston Villa, following the capture of Premier League veteran Brad Friedel.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Guzan made his Aston Villa debut in September 2008 in the League Cup at home to Queens Park Rangers. He made his European soccer debut in the UEFA Cup game away at Slavia Prague on November 6, 2008. The match finished 1–0 to Aston Villa, with Guzan making several saves to keep a clean sheet. His performance led to his manager Martin O'Neill describing him as a "class goalkeeper in the making." He also started in Aston Villa's first leg against CSKA Moscow in the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup at Villa Park on February 18, 2009, also later appearing as a substitute against Liverpool after Friedel's red card.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Guzan played in every game that Aston Villa won during their success in the 2009 Peace Cup, against Atlante, Porto and Juventus. He then helped Aston Villa overcome the Italians in the final, most notably in the penalty shootout during which he saved the attempts of Vincenzo Iaquinta and Alessandro Del Piero. The only game that Aston Villa did not win (in the group stages against Málaga) was the one in which Guzan did not feature.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Despite having a successful pre-season period, Guzan was dropped from the first team in favor of Friedel for Aston Villa's opening game of the 2009–10 season against Wigan Athletic. On October 27, 2009, Guzan saved four penalties in one match, one in normal time and three more in a penalty shoot-out win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in the last 16 of the League Cup. Despite these heroics, however, Friedel replaced him in goal for the final against Manchester United.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On December 31, 2010, Guzan was loaned to Football League Championship side Hull City on a one-month loan deal. He made his debut for Hull on New Year's Day 2011, a 1–0 loss to Leicester City. His second appearance for the club ended on a higher note, as his team went on to win 2–3 at Portsmouth. He kept his first clean sheet for the club against Barnsley in a 2–0 win for Hull.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On January 25, Guzan extended his loan until the end of February. He made a total of 11 league appearances for Hull before returning to Aston Villa on February 28.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On March 8, however, Hull re-signed Guzan on an emergency loan deal due to an injury to goalkeeper Vito Mannone. Guzan's first appearance back at the club was in a home match against Burnley. Guzan's last game for Hull City came in a 1–2 win away at Watford on April 9, 2011, after which he returned to Aston Villa.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On December 3, 2011, Guzan made his second Premier League appearance for Aston Villa, coming on for the injured Shay Given against Manchester United. Given had been ruled out for a month with a torn hamstring so Guzan retained his place in the first team, giving him an extended run in Aston Villa's first team.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Guzan was released by Villa at the end of his contract in June 2012. However, he was linked with a return to the club over the summer in a situation similar to that of fellow Aston Villa goalkeeper Andy Marshall in 2010. On July 16, 2012, Guzan was included in new manager Paul Lambert's 25-man squad for Aston Villa's tour of the United States and on the same day, the player confirmed via Twitter that he had renewed his contract and rejoined the club.


title: Brad Guzan

text: He made his return for Aston Villa against Newcastle United putting in a Man of the Match performance in a 1–1 draw at St James' Park. He kept Villa's first clean sheet of the season in a 2–0 win against Swansea City and performed well enough to keep his position in the starting lineup. At the end of the 2012–13 Premier League season, he was voted the Aston Villa Player of the Year thanks to his large contribution to Villa's bid to avoid relegation. On July 6, 2013, Guzan was rewarded for his play and signed a four-year contract extension with the Midlands club.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On July 18, 2013, Guzan stated that he hoped to give Aston Villa the best years of his career and said that signing a new contract was a "no-brainer."


title: Brad Guzan

text: On September 28, 2013, Guzan remarkably earned an assist on an Andreas Weimann goal in a 3–2 win over Manchester City in which Paul Lambert praised Guzan's distribution technique for goal kicks.


title: Brad Guzan

text: During the 2014–15 season, Guzan was dropped by new Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood after a high-profile error against Manchester City gifted Sergio Agüero the opening goal in a 3–2 defeat on April 25, 2015, with Shay Given taking his place for the final games of the Premier League season. Guzan also missed out on Aston Villa's run to the 2015 FA Cup Final, with Given playing in every round.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On July 29, 2016, Guzan signed a two-year contract with newly-promoted Premier League club Middlesbrough, joining on a free transfer, after Aston Villa were relegated to the Championship. He made his league debut for the club in a 2–1 win away at Sunderland.


title: Brad Guzan

text: On January 26, 2017, it was confirmed that Guzan had signed a contract with recently formed MLS team Atlanta United on a free transfer, and would return to the United States following the conclusion of the 2016–17 Premier League season, after nine years in English football. He left Middlesbrough on June 10, 2017. For the remainder of the 2017 MLS season, Guzan wore the number 1 shirt. Guzan made his Atlanta United debut on July 24, 2017, a 1–0 road victory against Orlando City SC. During the 2017 MLS season, Guzan started 14 games, posted a 6–1–7 record, and kept eight clean sheets. He led the MLS in save percentage (79.2%) and won MLS Save of the Week three times. In 2018 Guzan won the MLS Cup with Atlanta United after a 2–0 victory over the Portland Timbers.


title: Brad Guzan

text: Guzan made his United States national team on February 19, 2006 in a friendly 4–0 win over Guatemala in Frisco, Texas. He played the first 80 minutes before being replaced by fellow debutant Zach Wells. He was a non-playing member of the side that won the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He was called up for the 2007 Copa América in Venezuela, where he played in a 1–0 loss to Colombia for his next cap on July 5.