Radio News ®

Clear Channel fires back with $3M countersuit
against Infinity and Stern
The best defense is a strong offense, so Clear Channel is going on the offensive in its legal battle with Viacom's Infinity over Clear Channel bouncing "The Howard Stern Show" from six of its stations. Infinity and Stern sued Clear Channel for $10 million, so Clear Channel has fired back by countersuing for $3 million, claiming that it was really Infinity and Stern who breached their contracts by refusing to make the Stern show comply with federal law and FCC regulations. Clear Channel wants back the $495,000 it paid the FCC to settle indecency complaints about Stern broadcasts, plus damages for lost ad revenues and a refund of what it paid Infinity while the Stern show was suspended by Clear Channel before it was cancelled altogether on those six stations.

RBR observation: We note that one of the allegations that Clear Channel denies in its response to the Infinity lawsuit is the claim that Clear Channel's suspension of Stern's show was politically motivated - - coming a day before Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan was due to testify on Capitol Hill about indecency penalties. But we all know this is more about politics than anything else. Viacom/Infinity has decided to stand up and fight the FCC over its erratic and unpredictable enforcement of the indecency statute, while Clear Channel has decided to roll-over and do whatever it takes to make peace with the FCC. But, of course, Clear Channel also doesn't want to pay Infinity any more money than it has to, so this lawsuit and countersuit will likely drag on in the courts for years to come. | More... |

Burns moves to undo McCain's LPFM bill
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is trying to push through more low-power FM stations with a bill due to be marked-up this morning by the Senate Commerce Committee, but the only former broadcaster in the Senate, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), is having none of it. Burns is introducing an amendment to McCain's bill (S. 2505) which would force the FCC to go back and actually do the LPFM interference study that Congress previously ordered it to do - - and provide $800,000 to pay for it. As it seeks support for the Burns amendment, the NAB has been circulating an audio recording of third-adjacent channel interference on Capitol Hill. | More... |

Give us your tired, your bored, your disgruntled masses
"Are you hearing the same old song and getting tired of the same old format everywhere you go on the radio dial? This homogenization could only get worse, since the Federal Communications Commission loosened the rules governing media ownership so that the giant media companies can get even bigger." So says FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein in the San Jose Mercury News. The Commissioner was drumming up interest in the FCC's hearing on localism, held in Monterey, an adjacent (and overlapping) media market to SJ.

RBR observation: If you think radio playlists are mindless and repetitive, you can't blame Telecom 1996, because the mindless repetitive trend, in our humble opinion, was always with us to some extent and took over for good in the early 80s. Bottom line, you can make a lot of arguments against broadcast consolidation, but it's hard to support an argument blaming it for the deterioration of radio programming. It seems to us that diversity is up, and quality is flat, so at least in this particular, consolidation may have resulted in a slight net gain for listeners. | More... |

Arbitron reworking small markets
Big changes like Internet-based diaries and the Portable People Meter are still in the future, but Arbitron Radio Advisory Council Chairman Steve Goldstein of Saga reports that the ratings company is moving ahead with changes to produce 12-month rolling averages for its 108 condensed markets, beginning in fall of 2005. The Council wrapped up three days of meetings yesterday. "It would create more stable data," Goldstein said of the change in small market ratings. "There would be fewer high highs and fewer low lows." Also of note: Arbitron is looking at whether to start morning drive at 5:00 am, rather than 6:00. | More... |

Sirius heading toward 1M subscribers
It was just last week that Sirius Satellite Radio hit the half-million mark in subscribers, but in his Q2 conference call yesterday, CEO Joe Clayton predicted that the company would get to one million by the end of this year. By comparison, XM announced at the beginning of this month that it had surpassed 2.1 million subscribers. A lot of that difference is due to heavy selling of factory-installed XM receivers by General Motors. While Sirius is now available in some Ford, Chrysler and other models, Clayton assured analysts that his company is working closely with its main auto partner, Ford, to have Sirius receivers available in many more models for the 2006 model year. Clayton said that over time, Sirius' subscriber adds will shift from being primarily after-market receivers to having the bulk of its new subscribers coming from factory-installed original equipment in cars and trucks. One area where Sirius is hoping to get a jump on XM is in offering a video component to its service. It looks like that is coming next year, with Clayton saying there will be an update on his company's video efforts at next January's Consumer Electronics Show.

A Fool and his money are soon invested?
Seth Jayson of Motley Fool's fool.com website thinks Clear Channel's decision to drastically limit its spotload is crazy. What??!! Cut off your main source of income??!! Jayson says it's crazy, all right - - perhaps just crazy enough to work. "I am pretty much lost, as a consumer, to any of Clear Channel's advertisers," wrote Jayson. "I cannot stand the short-attention-span theater that is contemporary radio," he said just before endorsing XM and Sirius for car-bound commuters. "By putting a ceiling on the numbers of commercial minutes allowed and reducing the number of interruptions, Clear Channel hopes to keep listeners happy, and that should make advertisers happy." Although near-term results for radio in general appear to be continuing a lack-luster pattern, Jayson expects that this necessary strategic move will make Clear Channel a good long-term investment.

Conference Calls, Q2 2004

Sirius revenues up triple digits
But then, triple digit gains in revenues are to be expected as Sirius Satellite Radio continues to ramp-up sales of satellite receivers and chase rival XM in subscriber numbers. Compared to a year ago, Sirius' revenues were up 529% to $13.2 million, which was in line with analysts' expectations. The company's net loss of $136.8 million worked out to a loss per common share of $0.11 - - a penny more than the Thompson One Analytics consensus. What Sirius executives focused on in their conference call, though, was subscriber growth - - up 37% over Q1 of this year and 347% ahead of a year ago. As noted in a related story (see Radio News), CEO Joe Clayton is now predicting that Sirius will have one million subscribers by year's end.

RBR observation: With the emphasis on building subscriber momentum for a still-new business, Sirius can still post a net loss ten times greater than its revenues for the quarter and not have Wall Street analysts bat an eye. Of course, that can't go on forever - - but it can still go on for a few more quarters. In the meantime, analysts on the conference call were relieved that Sirius had gotten its churn rate down to a manageable 1.6% in Q2. RBR had cautioned for years that subscriber churn was likely to be the undoing of the business plans of both Sirius and XM, but it will be several years yet before we really know how much of a problem it really will be.

Adbiz ©

Premiere launches PIMG
Clear Channel lets loose NTR ability previously reserved for CC Radio: Premiere Radio Networks has launched "Premiere Innovative Marketing Group (PIMG), a new division dedicated to creating customized marketing and sales promotion solution for radio and TV stations, as well as cable services. PIMG's marketing programs, previously available only to CC Radio stations, include custom publishing, custom format-specific CDs sponsored by advertisers, listener loyalty programs, affinity cards and customer incentives. Over the past three years, PIMG has developed more than 1,000 programs for CC stations. PIMG says it aims to enhance brand identities for all stations in their communities and provide deeper strategic partnerships with advertisers. Services include accenting local market events, selling interactive websites, enhancing local cause-marketing initiatives and developing turnkey opportunities that drive P1 listeners to ask for more. PIMG programs offer local and national advertisers competitive advantages by extending their broadcast messages through affiliations with targeted community events. Among the ongoing programs: sports guides tied to all major pro, college and motor sports seasons, sponsorships and participation in the summer concert touring season. Jay Freedman is heading the division, as PIMG VP for Tactical Marketing at Premiere.

Taco Bell achieves highest sponsorship exposure in MLB all-star game
Nielsen Sports, a unit of VNU Media and Measurement Information, launched its Sponsorship Scorecard (4/26 RBR Daily Epaper #81) this month, a new service measuring sponsored placed media in all televised sporting events. The Sponsorship Scorecard results of the MLB All-Star Game reported that Taco Bell achieved the highest exposure with nine minutes and 30 seconds across 83 unique exposures. Rounding out the top-5 was Miller Lite, MasterCard, Bank of America and Minute Maid. Nielsen aims to make the service available for the fall 2004 sports season. The online system measures in-stadium occurrences, duration and location of all sponsorship media. This includes audio and visuals inside the venue, in-game audio and promotions. The initial tests had ads on dugouts, scoreboards, bases, billboards, on-screen graphics and in-stadium and national broadcast promos.

"The Advert Channel" launches in the UK
A new UK TV net has launched with a new genre of "programming": not infomercials, but advertisements, according to The Scotsman. And the twist: its ads are supported by ads. The aptly-named Advert Channel is not just another shopping channel but actually concentrates on the adverts "as a form of entertainment, culture and from an artistic and creative aspect". Programs include one where presenters chat live about the top TV adverts. Another looks at ads making the news. There will be behind-the-scenes specials on how top adverts are made. And nostalgic shows on historic commercials from the Sixties. There's even some reality programming viewers are being challenged to make their own ads (not longer than 60 seconds) and send them in. The winners get prizes.

Media, Markets & Money tm

Clutter Control: The New Limits

Washington Beat

Sales

Engineering

RCS Mobile's Director Nick Iatropoulos
on text messaging for radio
We've been covering the emerging text messaging market for radio more and more over the last few months in both our RBR print and Daily E-papers. Mobile messaging as a marketing tool is well-developed in Europe and Asia, but is still only emerging in the US. In fact, in many other countries, consumers send and receive far more text and visual messages - - including video with sound - - over their mobile phones than they do voice messages. But that may be changing. From a recent RBR print issue, Nick Iatropoulos, Director/RCS Mobile, talked about the SMS (Short Message Service) industry and how radio can capitalize on it. Here, we have the interview in full (more in tomorrow's RBR epaper): | More... |

Programming

Bill Cunningham inks syndication deal
Bill Cunningham, Winner of the 2001 Marconi Award for Large Market Personality of the Year has signed with Burbank Creations of Cleveland to begin syndication of a daily Talk/Entertainment show slated to launch September 14 in the 9pm-12 Midnight ET timeslot. "Nighttime will again be the right time," remarks Cunningham on the launch of his national show. "It will be current, irreverent, and humorous and challenging to each listener as the day's events are dissected, dissolved, and decimated in 'Willie's cuisinart.' Guests, features and commentary will light up the evening skies from the fur-filled forests of Washington through the corn filled fields of Kansas, on through the sandy beaches of Florida. God Bless America!" No stranger to the national spotlight, Cunningham has spent much of the last 4-5 years as a frequent contributor to Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, as well as fill-in host for Premiere Radio Network's Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck Program. Cunningham's local show at WLW-AM Cincinnati will remain in its current time slot of 12:30pm-3pm Monday through Friday.

Transactions

$3.375M KHFX-FM & KLAA-FM Alexandria LA (Ball, Tioga LA) from Cajun Communications of Texas Inc. (Roger W. Cavaness) to Opus Broadcasting of Alexandria LLC (Richard Linhart). $168,750 escrow, balance in cash at closing. $10K allocated to non-compete. Superduopoly with KEZP-FM, coming in separate concurrent transaction. [File date 6/21/04.]

$1.825M KEZP-FM Alexandria LA (Bunkie LA) from Owensville Communications LLC (Marcus D. Jones) to Opus Broadcasting of Alexandria LLC (Richard Linhart). $91,250 escrow, balance in cash at closing. $10K allocated to non-compete. Superduopoly with KHFX-FM & KLAA-FM, coming in separate concurrent transaction. [File date 6/21/04.]

Stock Talk

Radio Stocks