Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 21, Issue 180, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Wednesday Morning September 15th, 2004

Radio News ®

First reported here in Tuesday's Bulletin
Consolidation within the consolidator:
CCU merging Premiere and CC Advantage operations into Katz
You read it here first - - in Tuesday's RBR/TVBR Bulletin that Clear Channel is putting Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Advantage under Katz Media Group CEO Stu Olds. Premiere will keep its name, but CEO Kraig Kitchin will report to Olds. CC Advantage will merge with Katz Dimension, with the whole thing to be called Clear Channel Katz Advantage. It's not really a complete merger, but a lot is changing. See inside for the details.

RBR Observation: Katz has no history in programming. The original TranStar Radio Network (now part of Westwood One) was lost on Stu Olds' watch. CCU has still never successfully consolidated all the pieces of their empire - - Outdoor, Internet, network radio, concerts and spot. Perhaps this is another attempt at it. CCU is the only company that has the potential to compete on a national level with the Yahoos, the MTVs, etc, in order to put demand-side pressure on the inventory. Until they can do this, this industry is going to flounder. The question: are Stu Olds and Bonnie Press the people who can do this? | More... |

Greater Media CEO says radio has a greater mission
Greater Media CEO Peter Smyth isn't taking an attack on the radio industry by Barron's magazine (8/30/04 RBR Daily Epaper #169) lying down. Smyth has sent the magazine a letter stating that he and many other broadcasters haven't been complacent, as the article alleged, in the face of technological and demographic changes. And he says that radio broadcasters are still developing new formats and working to better serve their local communities. Read his letter to the Barron's editor.

RBR observation: Barron's has already printed two letters responding to the article - - and the vote is an even split J.R. Landers agreed with the glum assessment of radio, saying "Radio has no programming these days - - just talk shows, traffic reports and sports programming (all relatively cheap to deliver)." Taking the other view was Daniel Anstandig, VP of McVay Media. The radio consultant said that Barron's had overstated the importance of the Internet, iPod and satellite radio as challengers to radio. "Radio's strength is reaching listeners on a personal emotional level," he said.

Congressional races bring new turf into play
Seats up from grabs in the Senate and House of Representatives are hard to come by, and they do not necessarily parallel the states which are considered to be in play in the presidential race. Some races are attracting national dollars to places otherwise ignored by Bush and Kerry. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the election committees of both houses of both parties are funneling money into campaigns where they think they have a shot at an upset, or a defense to mount. Three states have had early infusions, only one of which is a presidential battleground. That is Florida, where the GOP has sent nearly 660K dollars. The Republicans have also sent 1M to California, where they are hoping to oust Sen. Barbara Boxer. The Democrats have sent even more money to the decidedly non-battleground state of Alaska. Although George W. Bush isn't expected to have any trouble carrying the state, the same cannot be said of GOP senatorial candidate Lisa Murkowski, who faces a spirited challenge from Tony Knowles, Alaska's former governor. The Dems have already invested 1.3M there. According to CPI, $13.5M dollars had flowed from Capitol Hill to local races. That number is expected to be a mere tip of the iceberg by the time November 2 rolls around.


NABTP confab in the offing
The National Association of Black Telecommunications Professionals three-day session, "Telecommunications - - Moving Messages, Lifting Communities," is about to kick off. Emerging technologies and public policy and regulatory issues will be hot topics. It runs from 9/16-18/04 in Washington DC. Particular attention will be paid to the upcoming FCC FM Auction 37 and Wireless Auction 58. A seminar 9/17/04, from 8:30 AM-12:00 noon, will cover the following topics:

* Upcoming auctions and their economic potential
* FCC rules and procedures governing auctions
* Assembling and structuring a company to bid in an auction
* Raising capital for an auction bid
* Engineering to plan and support auction bids
* Bidding strategy

Speakers include the FCC's John Muleta and Thomas Nessinger, Francisco Montero of the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, Ari Fitzgerald of Hogan & Hartson, S. Jenell Trigg of Leventhal Senter & Lerman, Raymond Quianzon of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth and Jack Mullaney of Mullaney Engineering.

S&P has brighter outlook for Salem
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it hasrevised its outlook on Salem Communications to "stable" from "negative," based on the company's improving financial profile, and affirmed Salem's "B+" long-term corporate debt rating. The Religious radio specialist had total debt outstanding of approximately 284.4 million dollars as of June 30, S&P said. "The outlook revision recognizes Salem's lower leverage following an approximately 66 million dollar equity-financed reduction of debt," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Alyse Michaelson. "Pro forma debt to EBITDA was 5.65x at June 30, 2004, compared with leverage closer to 7x prior to the financing," the ratings company said. "Credit measures have also strengthened through steady growth in EBITDA, notwithstanding radio advertising's muted recovery. Salem has a comfortable cushion of financial covenant compliance under the 7.25x leverage covenant contained in its bank agreement. The company is expected to continue its growth plans prudently in order to accommodate a tightening leverage covenant on Dec. 31, 2004, and again at year-end 2005." S&P said its rating and outlook incorporate the expectation that Salem's ongoing acquisition activity will proceed at a "more reasonable pace" than it has historically.

Brokaw to keynote RTNDA awards
As he prepares to retire from anchoring the "NBC Nightly News" after the November election, Tom Brokaw has been tapped to deliver the keynote speech to the RTNDA Awards Dinner October 4th in New York. And it looks like his friendly rivals will be there as well to wish Brokaw well. Both CBS' Dan Rather and ABC's Peter Jennings are also scheduled to speak.


Adbiz ©

Millward Brown:
Marketing, media budgets to be up in 2005
Millward Brown announced the results of Marketing & Media Snapshot: 2004, its industry study about marketing and media decision-making. The research, which was conducted among senior-level marketing executives across a wide range of industries, covers trends in marketing and media decision-making, perceptions about media and marketing channel performance, media and marketing spending patterns, and the integration of digital and online media into the marketing mix. The findings from the Millward Brown study, which was sponsored by Advertising.com, was presented by Mary Ann Packo, chief client and marketing officer, Millward Brown North America, at the iMedia Brand Summit in Deer Valley, Utah. | More... |

Lifetime launches new
Get-Out-The-Vote PSA effort

Lifetime Television is launching a trio of humorous new PSAs encouraging women to vote this November as part of its year-long non-partisan "Our Lifetime Commitment: Every Woman Counts" public education campaign to empower women of all ages and diverse backgrounds to become part of the democratic process as voters and future candidates. The 20 second spots, which run through 11/2, Election Day, focus on 'decisions' a woman might face: selecting a wedding gown, naming her baby or choosing a new hair style. In each situation, the woman allows someone else to make the decision and then regrets it later. In reality, few women would let someone else make these decisions for her and the PSAs stress that they also should not leave the critical decision of who will be President up to anyone else, either.


Media, Markets & Money tm

Look out Clear Channel and Viacom!
NBC is in the outdoor business
In a surprise move to expand into a new industry, NBC Universal has announced a joint venture from France's JCDecaux to bid for the street furniture advertising contract with the City of New York. The joint venture is called NBCDecaux. It has filed its bid for the city's contract to design, install and maintain up to 3,500 bus shelters, 330 newsstands and other public amenities throughout New York City. "NBC is to in-home advertising what JCDecaux is to out-of-home advertising - - we both create first-class environments that enhance the messages our advertisers want to deliver," said Bob Wright, Chairman and CEO of NBC Universal. "WNBC is the leading television station in the New York market. Putting the strength of WNBC and Telemundo's WNJU, our New York Spanish-language station, together with JCDecaux will allow NBCDecaux to better serve the public and give advertisers some extremely desirable settings in which they can reach a wide cross-section of New Yorkers."

Hartstone at NABOB on the art of the deal
If you don't a thorough understanding of all aspects of a prospective broadcast deal before going to the money people, "You're going to miss the strike zone by a country mile." So said Joel Hartstone of Stonegate Capital at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters session of station trading and finance last week (9/10/04). Here are the ducks he feels need to be in their appropriate row.

RBR observation: If you want to become a station owner, this is the kind of advice you need to pay attention to. Over the years we've seen many people who know a lot about radio run into a brick wall when they tried to become a station owner - - because they didn't learn how the finances of ownership work before they tried to put together a deal. Worse yet, we've seen some who managed to buy a station without really understanding the financial equation and, as a consequence, saw their dream implode. Don't let that happen to you. | More... |


Washington Beat

Radio One deal under attack
Robin M. Rothschild has challenged the license renewals of several Radio One properties in Ohio, and while that challenge is lending, is further challenging the group's qualifications as a suitable assignee of WABZ-FM Albemarle NC, which it has filed to acquire from Susquehanna and move into the Charlotte market. Rotchshild, though counsel Lee Shubert of Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman, charges that license subsidiaries of Radio One "...have lacked candor and misrepresented facts in connection with the License Renewal Applications" of a quartet of stations in the Dayton market. The stations in question are WDHT-FM Springfield, WGTZ-FM Eaton, WING-AM Dayton and WRNB-FM West Carrollton. Rothschild's charges Radio One with violating the public file requirement. She says that on three separate visits to the stations, the files were either incomplete or entirely unavailable. Then, "...just three days after the License Renewal Applications were filed, Mr. Rothschild discovered the Local Public Files for all the Dayton Stations to essentially be reconstituted." "Given that for months preceding the filing...the Local Public Files were in a shambles, and then, almost miraculously, were reformed, demonstrates that [Radio One] knew that the Local Public Files..." had not been maintained per regulation. The objection to the WABZ deal is that Radio One cannot receive the new license until it has been cleared in the Dayton case; and if it is not cleared in the Dayton case, it cannot receive WABZ period. Radio One has filed to acquire the station from Susquehanna for $11.5M (7/30/04 RBR Daily Epaper #148). Licensed to Albemarle NC, it holds a CP to move to Indian Trail NC, reducing its distance from Charlotte from 45 miles to 15 miles.

FM auction taking shape
There are 363 confirmed bidders eligible to participate in Auction No. 37, with another 308 applicants with a few more questions to answer. The possible pool of 671 will be competing for 288 available FM CP frequencies. The auction is scheduled for 11/3/04 (the day after Election Day). Another 26 applicants were rejected. The FCC noted that many of these were disqualified because they checked the "noncommercial educational" box on the application, an act which was prohibited in this particular auction. Noncoms were handled separately when the current crop of frequencies was put up for grabs. Filers of incomplete applications have been advised of their deficiencies and have been given an opportunity to correct them. They have until 9/24/04 to accomplish this.


Ratings & Research

Valdosta gets a slot on the Arbitron roster
Valdosta, Georgia, situated on the state's border with Florida about 6 miles northeast of Tallahassee, will be one of the 290+ markets measured by Arbitron this fall. Its 102.7K residents aged 12 or older will place it on the #267 rung on the market ranking chart. Radio group RTG Media is behind the addition of the market. "Having Arbitron rate the market is just another step in RTG's Media's commitment to Valdosta and the surrounding counties," said RTG's Bob Ganzak. "It will be one of the faster growing markets in Georgia."


Transactions

WQIS-AM Camden SC from GHB Jazz Foundation to Jeff Andrulonis.

KQYN-AM Twentynine Palms CA from Three D Radio Inc., Debtor-in-Possession to Morris Communications Co.

| More Details |


Stock Talk

All that buying and selling to go nowhere
Stock prices were little changed Tuesday, as traders digested the negative news of a disappointing retail sales report and higher oil prices. The Dow Industrials did manage to edge up three points to close at 10,318.

Radio stocks were slightly lower. The Radio Index was off 0.813, or 0.4%, to 217.749. Cumulus was down 2.6% as the biggest mover.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Tuesday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

39.09

+0.04

Jeff-Pilot

JP

49.49

-0.49

Beasley

BBGI

16.00

+0.02

Journal Comm.

JRN

17.70

+0.02

Citadel CDL
13.19 -0.06

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

14.57

-0.09

Clear Channel

CCU

33.35

+0.16

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

14.52

-0.08

Cox Radio

CXR

15.76

-0.20

Regent

RGCI

6.02

unch

Cumulus

CMLS

13.80

-0.37

Saga Commun.

SGA

17.92

+0.18

Disney

DIS

23.25

-0.07

Salem Comm.

SALM

25.34

-0.16

Emmis

EMMS

18.60

-0.10

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

2.90

+0.08

Entercom

ETM

35.75

-0.29

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

8.65

+0.07

Entravision

EVC

8.18

+0.05

Univision

UVN

32.88

+0.54

Fisher

FSCI

48.29

-0.70

Viacom, Cl. A

VIA

35.29

+0.04

Gaylord

GET

31.05

+0.08

Viacom, Cl. B

VIAb

34.99

+0.20

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

25.00

-0.15

Westwood One

WON

21.39

-0.40

Interep

IREP

0.71

-0.14

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

29.16

-0.27

International Bcg.

IBCS

0.01

unch

-

-

-

-

-


Have a news story you'd like to share? [email protected]

Bounceback

We want to
hear from you.

This is your column, so send your comments to [email protected]

The story is in today's Washington Beat, but we already have a comment from a reader.

The FCC has finally released the list of applicants for the new FM channels in Auction 37. Well... sort of. The way the Public Notice is written, it can take hours of research just to find out how many applicants filed on a particular channel. Why couldn't they put out a list by market showing the applicants? And why is it that almost half of the applications are listed as incomplete? Could it be that the auction process is so convoluted that even high-priced D.C. attorneys can't figure it out? My application was listed as incomplete because it had a post office box. But that's the only addresses we have in American Samoa. There are no street names and no numbers. I guess I could put down "next to the big coconut tree", but that's not a deliverable address either. There has got to be a better way to do this!

Larry Fuss, President
South Seas Broadcasting, Inc.
KKHJ-FM & WVUV-AM
Pago Pago, American Samoa


Stations For Sale

Rated New Mexico Market AM
Fabulous Potential!
Cliff at Clifton Gardiner & Co
(303)758-6900
[email protected]


Upped & Tapped

Stone gets Duluth nod
Clear Channel Radio has named Ron Stone as General Manager of its four stations in Duluth, MN. He was previously VP of Affiliate Sales and Midwest Regional Manager for Traffic Pulse Network.


More news Headlines

Competing Media

BofA analyst goes negative on TV
Belo, Hearst-Argyle and LIN are saw their stock prices fall yesterday after Banc of America Securities analyst Jonathan Jacoby cut them to "neutral" from "buy." Jacoby said this year's election dollars are already priced into the stocks and there's a risk that some groups not in battleground states could come up short on political revenue expectations. | More... |


NAB Day Time Planner


The following brokers will be attending the NAB. Call or email to make your appointment in advance.

American Media Services,
Todd Fowler, Office 843-972-2200, Manchester Grand Hyatt, [email protected]

Cobb Corp.,
Denis LeClair [email protected]
Joel B. Day
[email protected]
Office 202-478-3737,
Manchester Grand Hyatt

Gordon Rice Associates,
Gordon Rice,
Office 843-884-3590,
Manchester Grand Hyatt,
[email protected]

John Pierce & Company LLC,
John Pierce, cell 859-512-3015,
Jamie Rasnick, cell 513-252-1186, Office 859-647-0101,
Manchester Grand Hyatt,
[email protected]

Kozacko Media Services,
Dick Kozacko,
Office 607-733-7138,
Cell 607-738-1219,
Manchester Grand Hyatt, [email protected]

Patrick Communications,
Larry Patrick, Office 410-740-0250, Manchester Grand Hyatt, [email protected]




August Digital Magazine

Complimentary Report
No more Forward Pacing Reports.
We have the economic, political, and close up look at your 4th quarter of business
and what must be done to hit budget by year's end.

GM of Cadillac,
Mark LaNeve
tells it like it is on where he
spends ad dollars.

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


RBR Radar 2004
Click on these issues for Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

RBC warns investors of
soft radio revenues
David Bank is warning investors that radio revenues are pacing behind his previous expectations for Q3 - - and that Q4 is worrisome as well. In a note which headlined that Q3 for radio came in "like a lamb" and appears to be going out the same way.
RBR observation: Heads up people because the fourth Q is at risk. Now you can not point any finger at Naples, FL or Barron's or Forbes. Best read further on.
09/14/04 RBR #179

Olympics send Gannett
TV revenues soaring
Talk about getting a bump from the Summer Olympics! 13 of Gannett's 21 TV stations are NBC affiliates, so it saw TV revenues jump 36.9% in August, with local up 27.8% and national 54.5%. Including recently acquired Captivate (an elevator TV screen ad business), August revenues for the TV division were up 37.5% to 77 million dollars. Based on current pacings, Gannett said it expects Q3 TV revenues to be up in the mid to high teens.
TVBR observation: With those results wonder how NBC really made out on both sides of TV - their affiliates and O&O's plus the cable outlets. Viewers saw many events via cable that they only heard about before like badminton and lots of volleyball. But this bump is once every four years. But it demonstrates the need for content and presentation. 09/14/04 TVBR #179


TV editor
Do you know the business of television? While other trade publications are cutting back, we're growing. Television Business Report (TVBR) is the hottest new electronic daily, backed by over 21 years of success at Radio Business Report. If you know who's who and what's what in TV & Cable, send resumes to [email protected]
Find Your Radio Career
Post Your Companies Job Openings

Other Links
Cancel RBR's Daily Epaper

State Associations
Contact Us

©2004 Radio Business Report/Television Business Report, Inc. All rights reserved.
Radio Business Report 6208-B Old Franconia Rd. Alexandria, VA 22310 - Phone: 703 719 9500