Radio News ®

Jim Pastor named GM of WZZN-FM,
WMVP-AM Chicago after shake-up
Jim Pastor, an ABC Radio exec since 1993, has been named President and GM of both WZZN-FM and WMVP-AM Chicago. Pastor assumes his new position as part of a management restructure involving all four ABC Radio stations in the Windy City. The restructure was announced after ABC reportedly fired WMVP station manager Bob Snyder, and Zemira Jones resigned as President and GM of WLS-AM, WZZN and WRDZ-AM (Radio Disney). He announced he's taken a great position at a yet-unnamed company. Snyder, before working for ESPN Radio, was GM of Sports WTEM-AM DC. Pastor previously served as VP/Sales and Marketing for Radio Disney since 2000. He has also held positions as Director of Sales for Radio Disney and an AE for ABC Radio Networks. No word yet who takes the reins of WLS or WRDZ.

King of horror sounds off
on King of All Media
Stephen King was interviewed by Infinity/Viacom's WZGC-FM Atlanta recently, and sounded off on the FCC's indecency crackdown. The horrormeister's comments of 6/8/04 included the following: "I think it's nonsense. What I think about it is a word that I don't want to use on the radio or I'll get you guys in trouble. It makes me angry and its silly and what happened to Howard Stern is silly." He continued, "I don't listen to him - - I think he's silly - - but at the same time I think he ought to have the right to be silly on the radio. This is America. It's a free country and we're supposed to have the right of free speech. "The way that works in America, or the way it's supposed to work in America, if he's saying stuff on the radio that you don't like, if it offends you, you got a hand, you reach out, take hold of the knob, turn it off. He's gone - - good bye. You don't need a politician in your living room to say you got to put a band-aid over that guy's mouth." Kings's Zone Corp. owns a pair of radio stations in the Bangor ME market.

Broadcast, print news consumption trending downward
Local TV news leads all categories when it comes to regularly used news sources, according to the latest study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. However, it has been eroding over the past decade. 77% of Americans used it regularly in 1993, a figure which has dwindled to 59% in 2004. Newspaper, second with 42%, has also dropped - - it stood at 58% as recently as 1994. Radio is in third place as a regular source at 40%. It too has declined since 1994, but not as severely as newspaper - - it stood at 49% back then. Online has been the one of the big gainers - - it is now a regular source for 29% of the population, and cable news has been making major strides as more and more services take to the wires. Here are the current rankings: (1) Local TV news (59%); (2) Newspaper (42%); (3) Radio (40%); (4) Cable TV news (38%); (5) Nightly network news (34%); (6) Online news (29%); (7) Network TV news magazines (22%); (7) Network morning news (22%); (9) Call-in radio shows (17%); (10) NPR (16%); (11) News magazines (13%); (12) Business magazines (4%); (13) Literary magazines (2%); (13) Political magazines (2%).

Roy Disney sues for Eisner pay disclosure
Dissident ex-director Roy Disney has gone to court in an effort to win public disclosure of board of director documents about how Disney CEO Michael Eisner's level of compensation was determined. Roy Disney and fellow ex-director Stan Gold have already been allowed to look at the documents in question, but they are bound by a confidentiality agreement not to disclose their contents. The two dissidents have now asked a Delaware judge to void that confidentiality and allow public disclosure. Roy Disney and Gold have charged that the board of directors didn't' exercise sufficient oversight of how much Eisner was paid. For its part, Disney notes that the two former directors voted to keep such documents out of the public view when they were on the company's board.

Parmer retires from SBS board
The just-filed proxy for the annual shareholders' meeting at Spanish Broadcasting System reveals that veteran broadcaster Carl Parmer - - who was a co-founder of Heftel Broadcasting Corporation, which became Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, which became Univision Radio - - is leaving the SBS board of directors, effective with the June 30th annual meeting. Also stepping down is Jack Langer, former Managing Director and Global Co-Head of the Media Group at Lehman Brothers Inc. Nominated to fill the two seats are Antonio S. Fernandez, founder and former head of the International Investment Banking Department at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., and Jose A. Villamil, CEO of The Washington Economics Group Inc. If you're keeping track of how the International Church of the FourSquare Gospel is doing with the kicker from its $250 million sale of what's now KXOL-FM Los Angeles, the proxy shows that the church is still holding 2.7 million warrants to purchase shares of SBS at $9.77 each. The stock has lately been trading below that strike price. The church had received the warrants for being patient in collecting the record-breaking sale price.

Political air war driving rates
An article in the St. Louis Business Journal notes that broadcast advertising rates are rising fast, for all categories, thanks to the early intensity of the political matchup. Missouri is a battleground state, and the pressure being put on inventory is kicking in ancient supply/demand scenarios which are resulting in increased rates for everybody. "The prices are now rising not only for politicians but for everything - - soft drink advertisers and car dealers - - because of the demand," professor Haim Mano of the University of Missouri-St. Louis told the Journal. "This is pure economics here - - supply and demand." It's not just the presidential campaign, either. The article mentions a 58% increase in CPP being reported by candidates for governor and the US House of Representatives. But clearly the presidential campaigns are primary causes of the rise. One local sales manager noted that with the state's battleground status has come attention not only from the candidates themselves but also from a slew of 527 organizations. One said it started in February and seems likely to run clear through to November.

The war is over at the NAB
Back at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, it looked like a battle royale was shaping up for next week's NAB Radio, TV and Joint Board meetings. But in the two months that have intervened, NAB Joint Board Chairman Phil Lombardo, President of the Citadel Communications TV group, has been mending fences and it now looks like he will be easily re-elected next Tuesday. Eddie Fritts is getting a two-year renewal as NAB President and CEO, with the search now beginning for a successor as he heads into retirement. | More... |

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BBDO taps David Lubars as Chairman, CCO
Omnicom has hired David Lubars, from Publicis' Fallon Worldwide, as chairman and chief creative officer of its BBDO North America. At the same time, BBDO announced that Ted Sann is leaving the agency. These are first big moves for BBDO under Andrew Robertson, who became CEO BBDO Worldwide on 6/1. BBDO is Omnicom's largest agency and serves such clients as Pepsi, FedEx, NYSE and Office Depot. Lubars, 45, had been President of Fallon Worldwide and Executive Creative Director of Fallon North America. He was head of BBDO West before joining Fallon in '98. Sann's career at BBDO stretched 34 years, with the last 11 with direct responsibility for the creative work at BBDO NY.

JWT scores with Jenny Craig
J. Walter Thompson has won creative on Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers' $45M account after a review that reportedly included Gotham, Heil-Brice Retail Advertising and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Incumbent Johnson + Ukropina Irvine, CA did not participate in the review.

Media, Markets & Money tm

Washington Beat

Transactions

$73.5M WXNT-AM/WTIP-FM & WZPL-FM Inidanapolis (Indianapolis, Greenfield IN) from Mystar Communications Corp. (Michael S. Mauer) to Entercom Indianapolis License LLC, a subsidiary of Entercom Communications Corp. (David J. Field et al). $5M escrow, balance in cash at closing. Existing duopoly. LMA 6/1/04. [File date 5/5/04.]

$43.25M WGBA-TV from Aries Telecommunications Corp. (Mary A. Dean) to Journal Broadcast Corp. (Douglas G. Kiel et al). N/A. Includes LMA of WACY-TV Appleton, owned by Ace TV Inc. [File date 5/6/04.]

$63K WYTH-AM Madison GA from Central Georgia Broadcasting Co. (James F. Small, Annie Lee Small) to Craig Baker and Debra Baker. Note. [File date 5/4/04.]

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