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Nagy again an
early riser
Former WHTZ-FM morning drive team member Christine Nagy is back to the wake-up shift at Clear Channel in New York, but now on sister station WLTW-FM. She's joined the "106.7 Lite FM Morning Show," with Bill Buchner and weatherman Nick Gregory.

Coats joins
Research Director
Formerly of D&R Atlanta and Arbitron, Eric Coats has joined Research Director Inc. as Account Manager. The company provides ratings analysis for over 350 radio and TV stations.

Two upped at TASCAM
Rick McClendon has been promoted to TASCAM Division Manager, replacing Jim Mack, who has resigned. In addition, John Larabee has been promoted to a newly created position as Director of Product Development and Marketing.

Laird named
Journal CTO
Andy Laird is the new VP/Chief Technology Officer for the Journal Broadcast Group. He replaces Randy Price who retired yesterday. Prior to joining the Journal Broadcast Group in 1998, Laird was VP/Engineering, Radio for Heritage Media Corporation.

Newberry to chair RAB2006

"Pirate" is another AM talker...

RTNDA terrorism
workshop hits Denver

NYSB offering 10 grand
for pro-radio spots

Springer disses Brit TV
Jerry Springer is getting lots of attention in the UK for declaring that British television is 10 years behind the US. He did allow as how the Brits do great documentaries, but said the rest of what's on the tube on the other side of the pond is stuck a decade in the past. No doubt, he figures they'll be able to learn something from his own show, which is going to air in the UK on ITV1. Springer did have some criticism for US television, saying American TV news is "sensationalistic, inaccurate, not important, teasing." His own show, he said, should not be judged by the same standard, because it is entertainment and "a circus." Not surprisingly, some in the UK are taking Springer to task for his comments. The Manchester Evening News noted that two of the biggest hits on US TV in recent years, "American Idol" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," were British imports. And the paper says Britain can hold its own against American dramas as well. "For every ER and NYPD Blue, there's a State of Play, Casanova or Cutting It. And just look at the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, led by Manchester-based Russell T Davies. Scripts so intelligent and entertaining, they're warp speed ahead of anything Star Trek had to offer," wrote columnist Ian Wylie.

2005 Radio forecast goes Lower
Half way to closure in '05 the number guru's begin to play spin the wheel of fortune. "Although there have been some markets with promising revenue growth, we continue to see the same disappointing growth rates of the past two years. While there have been efforts to bolster the prospects of the radio industry, it will take some time for these initiatives to sufficiently impact stronger industry growth," BIAfn VP Mark Fratrick who was obviously alluding to Clear Channel's Less is More initiative. RBR observation: Through Q1, RAB reported that radio revenues were up 2% overall, with national up 3% and local up 2%. Although Universal McCann's Bob Coen is the most closely watched media forecaster, we're hard-pressed to see how radio is going to get to the 5% growth he's forecast for this year. Fratrick''s projection seems more likely and it's more in line with what Wall Street analysts are now expecting. Coen will be revising his numbers next month, so we'll be waiting to see if he hangs tough at 5%. Last key piece of advice is getting your business plans in focus for 2006 as the question is - 'Will you be able to compete next year if you don't properly fix problems right now because the clock is ticking.' 05/31/05 RBR #106

Ray Warren on the TV upfront
As the saying goes or question - what runs down hill? Ray had some comments that back up what we've been hearing--that cable didn't get off to quite a good start this time around as last year: "There were some cable deals done early, but I thought cable came out a little hot and we need to let them cool off a little bit."
05/31/05 RBR #106

Research guru discusses
XM ratings report
We asked a well-known industry research guru about XM's "Custom Listening Study" from Arbitron, sent to agencies for a year or so now. A radio buyer had sent the report to the researcher, who looked it over for both of us. "They're rating XM listening based on interviewing what they call the 'primary user.' They have some good methodologies approaches-they're using random selection of the sample. Someone has to be a subscriber for at least 60 days. It's telephone interview, which is good. But what they're doing is asking the household to define the primary user of XM. Which raises the interesting question of how can a household determine this? In other words do they ask everyone in the household to vote on the primary user, do they simply ask the person who answers the phone, or do they ask the person who's listed as the subscriber?" RBR observation: Satellite radio will be put under the microscope as business tightens. Radio operators your key is to stay focused and be Local and be seen in your communities with remotes. Real People not a satellite.
05/31/05 RBR #106

On 12/31/08,
kiss analog TV good-bye
The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet entertained a panel of no less than 11 witnesses as it discussed the Staff Discussion Draft of the DTV Transition Act of 2005. At this point, nothing is set in stone, much less ink. We witnessed it personally as RBR was there and we viewed the audience and did not seem to be a single person who objected to setting 12/31/08 as the last day for analog TV broadcast. TVBR observation: Don't buy a new TV set, LCD or DTV monitor until 2008.
05/27/05 RBR #105


Anonymous on the TV upfront
Right now there are very preliminary kinds of conversation. Everyone is saying, sit tight. We'll call them and ask if anything is going on...anything happening, can we do anything? No, just sit tight, we're trying to get our budgets, etc. I think they all want to know what the networks are doing because the networks are obviously sending a signal that they're going to be very accommodating this year. So if that's still the linchpin, and regardless of what everyone says in the trades, it is the linchpin of your national buy as far as television is concerned, you've got to do that first. 05/27/05 RBR #105

Stern will have fewer commercials
Zen Master Mel Karmazin says fewer commercials than the 20 minutes per hour that his show currently carries on Infinity. any other big personalities going to be signed by Sirius? Don Imus? "He's very greedy," Karmazin said, suggesting that he'd like to have the "I-Man," but doubted that the math would work. 05/26/05 RBR #104

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