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Volume 23, Issue 155, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Thursday Morning August 10th, 2006

Radio News ®

Big drop at WW1 still
beats expectations
CEO Peter Kosann sees another tough quarter ahead for Westwood One after reporting Q2 revenues down 9%, with the network radio business flat and the local/regional business of Metro Networks, which supplies local traffic and news to radio and TV stations, down 15%. Kosann called it a "choppy marketplace" and said to expect Q3 to be similar, with revenues down in the high single to low double digits. Since Wall Street had expected WW1 revenues to be down 10%, the 9% drop actually gave a boost to the company's stock. It also produced earnings of 14 cents per share - three cents ahead of the Thomson/First Call consensus. Following recent layoffs of 100 staffers and other cost-cutting measures, Kosann assured investors that WW1 is moving "full steam ahead" on three initiatives: "upgrade the quality and distribution of our core broadcast programming; second, digitize our content to offer terrestrial radio and television affiliates compelling content for their HD and Web platforms; third, expand our distribution of our digital content, specifically our traffic content, to non-broadcast outlets." In his Q&A with analysts, Kosann said ratings declines for CBS Radio O&Os (post-Howard Stern) were not impacting Metro Network sales, since CBS's big News/Talk stations were not affected, but he said the lower ratings did have some impact on the WW1 network business.

RBR observation: From comments made by WW1 executives on the conference call with analysts, they expect the long-pending deal by Citadel Broadcasting to acquire ABC Radio from Disney to be called off. So, are they still interested in acquiring the ABC Radio Networks business? Sure, but they also noted that the pricing on the networks built into the Citadel-ABC deal as its stands would place a multiple on the ABC Radio Networks well above the current valuation of WW1's stock.

New fund set to foster noncom acquisitions
Public Radio Capital, an advisory firm specializing in noncommercial broadcasting, is being tasked with managing a capital fund which will enable non-profit broadcasters to act quickly when a station acquisition target comes on the market. It's being called the Public Radio Fund, and it already has pledges of 4.5M to work with, including 3M from the Calvert Foundation and another 1.5M from the Ford Foundation. PRF is aiming to reach 15M within the next six-twelve months. PRC's Marc Hand explained, "Beginning this fall, the Public Radio Fund will help public broadcasters all over the U.S. gain access to short-term capital on an affordable basis, and move more quickly and aggressively when an opportunity to compete for a valuable channel comes on the market." The idea is that stations become available without notice. The fund will help public broadcasters get access to capital swiftly, and will also help them in hard-to-finance sub-1M dollar deals, all the way down at least into the low six-digits. The entire radio spectrum is considered fair game, both AM band stations and stations on both sides of the FM reserved and commercial divide. The fund is also expected to be used to help existing noncommercial operators expand within a market by getting a second or third signal, presenting the opportunity to offer multi-formatted clusters, such as News/Talk, Classical and Jazz, or any other traditional noncom style not generally found on the commercial side. Hand said the fiscal solvency of the loan applicant will be a consideration, but they will be given a reasonable period of time to repay or refinance the loan, anywhere from one to five years. The point is to get access to cash as quickly as possible when an attractive radio station hits the market.

RBR observation: The focus on noncommercial consolidation is particularly intriguing in an environment in which the laws of formatics has forced numerous standalone noncoms to abandon music programming tucked in between sought-after NPR News and Talk fare. That works no better in the noncom world than does block programming in the commercial world.

Don't look for a Google mega-deal
at Disney; Radio sale on track
Rupert Murdoch may have committed Fox Interactive to a 900 million bucks plus Internet ad deal with a single partner, Google (8/8/06 RBR #153), but Bob Iger wants to play the field. In his quarterly conference call, the Disney CEO told analysts not to expect his company to do a mega-deal with a single Internet player. Rather, he said Disney is in talks with various Web companies on potential deals. While there was talk in the Westwood One conference call of rumors that the agreement to sell ABC Radio to Citadel Broadcasting is about to fall apart, Disney officials say it is still on track. Disney CFO Tom Staggs told analysts that he expects Disney to complete the divestiture of ABC Radio by the end of this calendar year. Radio, by the way, was not a stellar performer for Disney in its most recent quarter (fiscal Q3). Staggs said radio revenues were down in the single digits and the current fiscal Q4 is pacing pretty much the same. The ABC O&O TV stations group had a good quarter, though, with revenues up in the mid single digits, although Staggs said the current quarter is pacing flat.

Elevation down on traditional media
With 1.9B to spend and high-profile investor Bono of U2 fame on its roster, Elevation Partners is making inroads into the media, entertainment and tech fields. According to BusinessWeek online, it's invested in a game developer, and has put 250M-300M into the acquisition of Forbes stock with an eye toward helping the magazine grow on the Internet. What media is it not interested in? Co-founder Roger McNamee told BusinessWeek, "Traditionally private equity was really active in big media companies: cable, cellular, TV, radio, billboards, all that kind of stuff. But that's not what we're doing. We're only interested in content." That's because Elevation believes that consumers increasingly control the where and when, and even the price aspects of media. So the company is looking for content success stories "...ready to embrace all the opportunities that the Internet allows."

RBR observation: We believe there is ample room for traditional media in the modern world, but there can be no doubt that it needs to change with the times and adapt to ever-increasing waves of new competition from just about every conceivable source, from the ubiquitous Internet right on down to ridiculous but growing trends like tattooed foreheads. Pack light, embrace change, and make sure you're making effective use of that Internet yourself.

CEA, RIAA lock horns over flag
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is taking the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to task for its failure to participate in interdisciplinary talks on a workable solution to the problem of copyright protection in the digital era. The trick is to allow consumers to retain the right to make fair-use copies of copyrighted material they purchase, while preventing mass bootlegging. According to CEA, RIAA indicated in a letter to Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) that it would not participate in the Copy Protection Technical Working Group, which is searching for a technical solution to the problem. CEA charged that "...RIAA's interest lies solely in preserving its existing ways of business, with the hope that it can maximize profits by limiting innovation and undermining long-standing consumer rights." It goes on, saying, "The recording industry's campaign over disaggregation is nothing but a thinly veiled attack on lawful, private, noncommercial, in-home consumer recording practices." CEA, of course, wishes to retain its right to provide innovative products to consumers, and to that end, wants consumer's rights to making home copies preserved, and promises to fight for consumers as the Capitol Hill battle over the issue continues.

Wall Street Media Business Report TM

Q2 2006 Conference Calls
Tough quarter for Westwood One
However, not as bad as many had expected, so the stock was up yesterday. Q2 revenues for Westwood One fell 8.9% to 129.2 million. CEO Peter Kosann hailed the network radio sales force for hustling to achieve flat revenues in a tough market, while local/regional revenues for Metro Networks fell 15%. Operating income plunged 31% to 26.7 million. On the bottom line, net income fell to 12.2 million, or 14 cents per share. That was down sharply from 23 cents a year ago, but still three cents ahead of the Thomson/First Call consensus expectation of 11 cents.

Lincoln National gains from merger
Lincoln National Corporation CEO Jon Boscia had good news to report to shareholders for the first quarter since the insurance company acquired Jefferson-Pilot. Net income in Q2 jumped to 349 million, or 1.23 per share, compared to 197.9 million, or 1.13 per share for Lincoln National alone a year ago. Of course, our readers are most interested in Lincoln Financial Media, the former Jeff-Pilot Communications. The company reported that income from operations for the radio/TV group of 11.9 million, down about three million from a year earlier, which was attributed mostly to expenses associated with stock options and the amortization of merger-related intangible assets. Lincoln National also provided some details for Q2 and RBR/TVBR looked up the Jeff-Pilot Communications results from a year ago for comparison. Revenues were up 0.5% to 57.5 million, but costs were higher as well, so broadcast cash flow slipped 0.4% to 27.7 million.

DG Fastchannel Q2 up 1.1 million
DG Fastchannel's Q2 revenue was up from 15.2 to 16.3 million. EBITDA was up 107%--from 2.1 to 4.3 million and net income was up from a loss of 400,000 dollars to a gain of 1.1 million (-.05 to +0.12 cents per diluted share). DG completed the merger with FastChannel Network on 5/31. Operating results include one month of operations of FastChannel and the 1 for 10 reverse stock split effective on 5/30. The company reduced operating expenses to 12 million from 13 million in the quarter as well. Said Scott Ginsburg, DG FastChannel CEO: "Second quarter results confirm the financial benefits of the company's strategy to constantly improve our technology platform and consolidate complementary businesses under one roof. The quarterly numbers show revenue gains, reduced operating expenses, and improved cash flow. [OUR] Universal Deployment initiative, placing highly sophisticated Spotbox servers in TV stations, cable systems, and TV and Cable networks, is an example of the positive results we provide to our customers. The numbers speak for themselves: 90 percent of our video traffic was delivered electronically during this calendar quarter, an improvement from 82% just a year ago, and 65% two years ago."

Fiscal Q3 2006 Conference Call
Strong showing for Disney
Revenues were right on target with a 12% gain to 8.62 billion, but Disney surprised Wall Street by wringing out 53 cents per share of profits, beating expectations by nine cents. Movies led the way, with revenues up 17% and moving from an operating loss a year ago to operating income of 240 million. Media Networks provided the most operating income, 1.15 billion, up 5% from a year ago while revenues gained 10% to 3.74 billion. Within that, cable networks, primarily due to ESPN growth, saw revenues jump 12% to 2.16 billion and operating income rise 15% to 969 million. Higher programming expenses for ABC Television reduced broadcasting operating income by 28% to 183 million. Broadcasting revenues were up 8% to 1.58 billion.

Executive Comment

Here are my insights into the :30s discussion.
I come from the school of thought that an Interruption is an Interruption is an Interruption. When Clear Channel first announced their :30s initiative, I launched a study with Bill Moyes to prove Clear Channel wrong. We measured the Public's perception of running 4 one minute commercials in a Pod versus 4 thirties and 2 sixties. Each Pod had a total of 4 minutes of commercials. The results came back that the public could not detect the difference. This was so unsettling to my basic beliefs that we redid the study a month latter with a different set of people. The results came back with the same answer, that the public could not detect the difference. I now publicly admit that I was wrong. Based on this research I am convinced that number of commercials in a Pod are immaterial to the listener. I do have a caveat. We don't know how the public would react if you ran 8 :30s or 16 :15s in lieu of 4 :60s. I think that this should be researched. An interesting study funded by the NAB came out in July by Dr. David Allen of St. Joseph's University on the effectiveness of :30s. Dave was formerly Vice-President of Operations for Clear Channel in the Philadelphia Area. The study shows that :30s work as well as :60s if you are in the reminder phase of an Ad Campaign. The study shows that :30s are 50% as effective as :60s in getting the messaged recalled. I think that we should be very careful in our selling of :30s. If we use them in the Reminder Phase of an Ad Campaign and charge 70% to 80% of the minute rate, we win and the Advertiser wins.

I have enclosed the study done by Dave Allen.

All the best,
Jerry Lee
WBEB-FM Philadelphia

Ad Business Report TM

The CW to hit the mall
in major promo effort
Getting the word out for its debut this fall, The CW will launch a national "Mall Domination" tour, a large promotional initiative featuring the interactive CW Lounge, appearances by CW stars and a major campaign blanketing numerous malls in major markets around the country. Each week beginning 8/12, The CW Lounge, a multimedia interactive experience, will travel to 11 Westfield Malls around the county, as well as the Grove in LA, introducing consumers to The CW shows and brand identity. Stars from The CW's series will visit each location, meeting their fans in The CW Lounge and signing autographs. Inside the Lounge, consumers can create their own customized t-shirts with the new slogan "Free to Be," filling in the blank to express exactly what they're "Free to Be." Photographers will be on hand at each CW Lounge location to take pictures of consumers and their friends, which could also appear in CW promo spots. Each CW Lounge will be outfitted with laptops, where consumers can log on to www.cwtv.com and join the CW Lab Online Community, as well as plasma screen TVs, which will air footage from upcoming series. Additionally, CW will have a massive ad presence in 35 Westfield Malls, including the 12 featuring the CW Lounge - beginning in August and running through the 9/20 launch. Breaking the effort down, CW spokesperson Paul Hewitt says in each of the 12 malls with the CW Lounge and star presence, local CW affiliates will be finding local radio station partners. Affiliates will also be running on-air spots and discussing this on their local news programs (where present). It will be promoted online via websites and email blasts. The malls will be promoting the events in and outside the malls will all available signage. In malls without the lounge and star presence, major signage will be used to hype the programming only.
| See dates, locations and stars here |

Radio ideal for stimulating domestic auto sales
Domestic auto manufactures may be more effective in stimulating sales if they increased their advertising investment in radio - that's the finding of a study by The Media Audit, which along with its research partner, Ipsos. The telephone study of 17,395 adults planning to purchase a vehicle in the next year showed that better than 1 in 5 planned purchasers are heavy radio listeners. Of all the major media, radio had the highest proportion of planned vehicle purchasers. "Radio stations and the amount of time consumers spend with each of the other media are a reflection of a person's lifestyle" explained Jim Higginbotham head of research and Chairman of The Media Audit. "So too, automotive preference is a reflection of a lifestyle. Thus it is not surprising that there is a correlation between media consumption and product consumption. There's a definite media skew for advertisers to consider. In the auto category, heavy radio listeners are skewed towards domestic vehicle purchases while heavy internet users are skewed towards foreign vehicles purchases."
| View the Charts |

Media Business Report TM

NBC takes on the world
Well, it's taking on the Land Down Under, at any rate. Australian interests are wondering why China has scheduled certain prime events for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games for the morning, a very noticeable break with their more traditional evening slots. They could not help noticing that the prime events would then be available during prime time in the USA. According to Reuters, the 3.55B NBC has invested into three years worth of Olympics is the reason Australians suspect the scheduling change was made. One Australian Olympian said it was "pandering to the American dollar." The schedule is only in draft form and was revealed via a leak, and is not final.

Media Markets & Money TM

Close encounter in Saginaw
Or to be more precise, the Bay City portion of the Saginaw-Bay City-Midland Arbitron market. Greg Guy of brokerage firm Patrick Communications reports that noncommercial K-LOVE programmer Educational Media Foundation has closed on its 800K acquisition of WTRK-FM. The seller, Beyond The Bay Media Group, exits the radio business. The station is a Class A safely tucked into the lower reaches of the reserved band at 89.1 mHz.

Washington Media Business Report TM

Outside groups affecting elections
MoveOn.org is claiming a share in the victory of challenger Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman (D-CT) in the Democratic primary to run for the US Senate from that state. And over in Michigan, Club for Growth is credited with having a hand in ousting incumbent Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-MI), and replacing him with challenger Tim Walberg as the Republican standard-bearer for the 7th District seat. While the MoveOn effort took more of a grassroots, volunteers-on-the-phone approach, the Club for Growth was behind the purchase of airtime, causing further media buying in defense of Scharz.

RBR observation: In 2004, it seemed that after some initial battleground expansion, the trend was to refine it downward as certain areas became less competitive. Current conditions seem to favor additions rather than subtractions from the battleground list. The lesson is that if for any reason your district gets on somebody's hot spot list, watch out. Media money may start to roll in, but with it may come some unexpected pressure on your inventory which just may damage relationships with clients you need to do business with during the many months when some political post is not up for grabs. So enjoy the political windfall, but as much as possible, proceed with caution, mindful of the fact that politicians have written the advertising laws to favor as much as possible their own purchase of airtime.

Group Owners

Another run for Yager
Long-time TV veteran Jim Yager is back again, building another new company from scratch. What does he see in the business that the Wall Street guys don't? And where is he looking for acquisitions to keep filling out the station portfolio of Barrington Broadcasting? Yager is out to do it all again. After so many decades in the television business, no one would have thought it strange if after handling the transition from selling the Benedek Broadcasting group to Gray Communications (now Gray Television), Jim Yager had decided to devote his time to the golf course. But that idea didn't appeal to him, so he jumped right back in to start a new TV group. Thus was born Barrington Broadcasting.

Why does he keep working instead of taking it easy?
"You know, before my wife passed away she kept asking me the same question, 'Why don't you just stay home,' and today I am delighted I did not do that. She was healthy as could be on the Friday before Labor Day in 2003; had a little pain in her side, we took her to the doctor the next week and she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in 13 weeks," Yager said. Even before that emotional upheaval, Yager had been talking with some of his key Benedek associates about starting a new company. After losing his wife, he went full-bore on the project. "I've got great kids, but they're all grown and live in different parts of the world, so I was really saying, boy I think it's time I really get engaged and build a company with a strong foundation, so that's what I did," he explained. And, yes, he does have a golf course condo in Arizona - not that he's been there even a single day this year. Yager has been too busy with the biggest deal yet to grow his new company, the $262 million acquisition of 12 stations in nine markets from Raycom, tripling the size of the Barrington group. That big acquisition came after Yager had been building Barrington slowly, in part because there was so little inventory available. The company acquired two former Benedek stations from Chelsey Broadcasting in early 2004, along with one from LIN, and added one from Mel Wheeler Inc. later in the year. 2005 brought two more acquisitions from New Vision Group and Diversified Communications. So the portfolio stood at six stations when the Raycom spin-offs became available. Once the Raycom deal closes, Barrington will have 18 stations in 13 markets ranging in size from #65 to #199.

Tomorrow: We ask Yager how big does he want to get and what size of markets he's interested in being in.

Transactions

4M KRRV-FM/KZMZ-FM/KDBS-AM & KKST-FM Alexandria LA (Alexandria, Oakdale LA) from Capstar TX LP, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications Inc. (Mark Mays) to Cenla Broadcasting Company Inc. (Taylor C. Thompson, Charles J. Soprano). 200K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Superduopoly with KSYL-AM/KQID-FM. LMA 8/1/06. [File date 7/20/06.]

775K KCRG-AM Cedar Rapids IA from Cedar Rapids Television Company (Joseph F. Hladky III) to KZIA Inc. (Eliot A. Keller, Robert K. Norton, Robert N. Downer, Peter C. Vanderhoef). 4K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Combo with KZIA-FM. Buyer must change call letters. [File date 7/20/06.]

Stock Talk

How low will we go?
If strong earnings from Cisco Systems and the decision the previous day by the Fed to stop raising rates can't get Wall Street traders into a buying mood, what will? The Dow Industrials fell another 97 points, or 0.9%, to end the day at 11,076.

Radio stocks took another hit. The Radio Index fell 0.847, or 0.6%, to 131.420. Salem skidded 5.9% and Entravision was down 5.2%. Westwood One rose 5.9% after reporting a quarter that was bad, but not as bad as expected.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Wednesday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		35.32	-0.33	Hearst-Argyle	HTV		20.56	-0.44
Beasley	BBGI		7.17	+0.30	Journal Comm.	JRN		10.41	-0.02
CBS CI. B	CBS		26.25	unch	Lincoln Natl.	LNC		56.80	+0.16
CBS CI. A	CBSa		26.27	+0.01	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		5.70	-0.27
Citadel	CDL		8.87	+0.16	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		5.79	-0.16
Clear Channel	CCU		27.41	-0.59	Regent	RGCI		4.09	-0.02
Cox Radio	CXR		14.44	+0.06	Saga Commun.	SGA		7.36	unch
Cumulus	CMLS		8.80	+0.01	Salem Comm.	SALM		10.75	-0.67
Disney	DIS		28.83	-0.15	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		3.88	+0.01
Emmis	EMMS		11.15	-0.19	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		4.34	unch
Entercom	ETM		22.84	-0.29	Univision	UVN		33.45	+0.01
Entravision	EVC		6.71	-0.37	Westwood One	WON		6.85	+0.38
Fisher	FSCI		39.23	+0.25	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		10.95	-0.29
Gaylord	GET		38.29	-0.66	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to radionews@rbr.com

Your article caught my eye (8/3/06 RBR #150). For many years of my sales career, I traveled throughout the US and into Canada with the companies for whom I worked. Being a woman, I was observant of any activity around me in parking lots and secluded areas I'd have to visit. Many times I didn't arrive at my motel/hotel until after dark. I would never rent a car that had even had a sticker with the rental company logo on it. As a matter of fact, car rental companies stopped placing any indication that the car was rented for the safety of persons traveling in their vehicles. What a target for break-ins will those billboard cars be, not to mention beacons on the highway saying 'I'm from out-of-town, I have a camera, money, and other valuable stuff, follow me!!!' I admire Mr. Malloff's creativity but this idea wasn't very thoroughly thought out in my opinion.

MaryLynn Krueger -
Marketing Consultant
WROE & wroe.com/Midwest Communications
Appleton-Oshkosh, WI

Below the Fold

Wall Street Media Business Report
Tough quarter for Westwood One
Not as bad as many had expected by hustling to achieve flat revenues...
Strong showing for Disney
Revenues were right on target with a 12% gain...
Lincoln National gains
From merger of Jefferson-Pilot as net income jumped to 349 million...

Executive Comment
Jerry Lee, I now publicly admit
that I was wrong. His insights into the :30s discussion...

Ad Business Report
CW to hit the mall
Mall Domination tour, major promo effort for Fall line up...

Media Markets & Money
Close encounter in Saginaw
Or to be more precise, the Bay City portion...

Washington Media Business Report
Outside groups affecting elections
MoveOn.org claiming a share in victory...

Stations for Sale

CD Border 25kw FM
Profitable competitive op.
Small/dual market FM with huge upside for turnaround operator.
595K 781-848-4201 or salesgroup@beld.net

Radio Media Moves

Upped at NAB
Dennis Wharton has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Media Relations, at the National Association of Broadcasters. He has been at NAB since 1996 and was most recently Sr. VP, Corporate Communications.

More News Headlines

Viacom in Web buy
The MTV Networks division of Viacom announced an agreement to acquire Atom Entertainment Inc., a portfolio of four online destinations for casual games, short films and video, for 200 million bucks. MTV Networks said acquiring Atom Entertainment advances the company's multiplatform strategy of building an engaging universe of music, gaming, entertainment, news and interactivity for targeted audiences. Atom Entertainment is a pioneer in online entertainment with four leading brands in both games and video: Shockwave.com and AddictingGames.com are two of the Internet's largest casual gaming sites, offering nearly 1,500 free and downloadable games. AtomFilms.com and AddictingClips.com are two film and video sites for short-form comedy, animation, drama and user-generated content. "This acquisition is right on the money with our digital strategy. It adds great scale with users, improves our growing casual gaming position, and brings a world-class digital video library and a fantastic management team," said Viacom CEO Tom Freston.

Mort Crim and lifestyle talkradio resolve dispute
Lifestyle TalkRadio Network and Mort Crim Communications have amicably resolved their dispute based upon Mort Crim's departure from the net. As part of this resolution, it was agreed that affiliates are free to choose between Crim and David Weiss programming as they see fit.

July RBR/TVBR
Digital Magazine

Take a look at what's in the July RBR/TVBR Solutions Magazine:
July is our annual sports media and marketing issue. This year, Basketball News Services' lead NBA analyst and Five-Star Basketball Report host Steve Kyler provides opinions on what works and what doesn't work in sports radio; AND1 Brand Marketing Manager Taylor Duffy talks about marketing and branding his company's basketball shoes; Emmis Sports Marketing's David Barnett talks about making money off of sports programming; and Entercom's WEEI Boston Director of Programming and Operations Jason Wolfe writes about how he's helped build WEEI into such a powerhouse.

We interview Magna Global
CEO Bill Cella.

In Media, Markets and Money, the logjam has finally broken and station trading is picking up, in both radio and television. Some prominent brokers tell RBR/TVBR what has changed - and why.

Read RBR/TVBR in 2 simple steps:
1.Create a simple account with Zinio and download the Zinio Reader.
2. You can then download the
July Issue of RBR/TVBR

RBR Radar 2006

Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

Hogan insists that listeners
don't hear spots as units
Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan isn't buying the argument from Cox Radio CEO Bob Neil and others that radio needs to hold down units per hour to attract listeners.

RBR observation: The jury is still out on whether Less is More accomplished all it was supposed to. Is clutter coming back by packing more, but shorter spots into each pod? Wall Street analysts are trying to get a handle on whether Clear Channel is succeeding in putting upward pressure on pricing now that Less is More has been fully implemented for over two quarters. RBR noticed as we listened to the conference call, that whenever an analyst asked a question about just how many units are airing vs. a year ago, Hogan and Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark Mays managed to talk a lot about other questions, without ever getting around to answering that one.
08/09/06 RBR #154

Earnings rolling fast but
Not keeping pace
Radio stocks may be taking a beating as second quarter reports not showing radio in a good light. Citadel is planning to make some divestitures when it completes its pending acquisition of ABC Radio from Disney. Salem Communications is projecting Q3 2006 revenue of 57.9M-58.4M, compared to 53M during the same period in 2005. SBS is talking like a buyer instead of seller. Emmis' stock takes a nosedive trading volume shot up to about seven times normal as traders bailed out of Emmis stock. Radio One President/CEO Al Liggins told the story yesterday of why Q2's revenues were down 4%. Salem breezes past benchmark. Revenues up slightly for Regent. Fisher turns to profit. Complete details
08/08/06 RBR #153

Advertisers launch eBay experiment
RBR first reported in May that an advertising industry taskforce was working on a pilot program to test online buying and selling of advertising - and we reported hints that it would involve eBay 5/11/06 RBR #93. Sure enough, the task force announced Friday that it has launched a website for interested participants to sign up - admarketpilot.com - and is working with eBay to develop and manage the framework. Advertisers already committed to participate include Wal-Mart (whose Julie Roehm was an early advocate of the project), Toyota, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Home Depot.

RBR observation: There are certainly Internet-based advertising buying and selling sites already in operation for various media. What is different about this one is who is running it - the advertisers and agencies, who obviously will be seeking a system designed to do business the way they want to do business. That's not necessarily a bad thing for broadcasters, but they should want to offer some input on how the platform should function as viewed from the other side.
08/07/06 RBR #152

The Art of the Interview:
"Hiring the Best"
Hiring 'the best' employees has to be the single most important and most challenging responsibility facing media sales management today. It sets you and your company up for maximum performance in an ever-changing competitive environment. Read your first steps in RBR
08/07/06 RBR #152

Talk Radio Network
Seeking professionals in three areas to join our TRN team. First: Executive Producer on topical subjects, Second: Board Operator with 2 years experience with Telos call-screening software and Third: Staff Engineer that can take initiative. This is a fast paced high pressure environment, must be able to think and act professionally in emergency situations. EOE. For complete details all three positions
See Radio Careers

General Manager
Saga Communications, a top of the line radio and media company really has a rare opening at Rock 102 and Lazer 99.3. Saga carefully reviews all GM applicants but this opportunity necessitates being extra picky. Considering only GM's with a documented reputation for effective leadership and management to oversee these facilities that are accustomed to high standards at all levels. Excellent facilities, benefits and quality of living in Springfield, MA. Saga a top of the line company committed to excellence in media today. EOE.
See Radio Careers

Director of Sales
Needed for radio cluster in Mid-Atlantic region. 5 years plus experience as DOS a must, with successful track record. Must be able to develop sales talent into a winning team. Excellent benefits & compensation plan.
See Radio Careers

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