RBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 21, Issue 199, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Tuesday Morning October 12th, 2004

Radio News®

Sinclair stirs up another
political hornet's nest
TV group Sinclair Broadcasting is planning to air an anti-John Kerry documentary called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" across its multi-market, multi-network station group before the election 11/2. The move, to say the least, is not popular among those supporting Kerry. In fact, the Democratic National Committee is filing with the FEC to block the airing of the program, calling it an "illegal in-kind contribution to the Bush-Cheney campaign."

RBR observation: The "Nightline" and "SH:WTNH" episodes share one characteristic: They are both blatantly political, completely lacking any subtlety at all. The are also contradictory. In the first case, Sinclair ordered its affiliates not to broadcast a program because it was propaganda, even though most observers said it was not, including at length John McCain (R-AZ). Now, in the second instance, it's ordering its stations to air as news a program most would call propaganda, and at the most highly-charged point of a hotly-contested election. If Sinclair is doing anything, it is fueling the movement to revive the Fairness Doctrine, not to mention efforts to turn back the clock on broadcast ownership consolidation. | More... |

Indecency hike off. No, on. No, off. No, on?
As key watchdogs urge their constituents to blanket Capitol Hill with virtual messages to keep 500K dollar fines for broadcast indecency alive, various senators are working to satisfy their demands. According to numerous reports, relatively unburdened, standalone legislation will have been introduced by the time you read this, fixing the maximum indecency fine at 500K dollars. Original senatorial sponsor Sam Brownback (R-KS) is being joined by John Ensign (R-NV) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND), both of whom were players when the bill was a rider on a DoD authorization bill. The presence of Dorgan is key, since it telegraphs that this time a repudiation of the FCC's 6/2/03 ownership ruling will not be attached, making the measure palatable to conference committee members from the House of Representatives. Parents Television Council and Morality in Media are targeting Senate leaders Bill Frist (R-TN) and Tom Daschle (D-SD), urging them to get the bill on the floor and put to a vote as soon as possible.

RBR observation: If a version of this bill, stripped of excess baggage, ever gets a vote, it'll enjoy an overwhelming bipartisan victory. It may or may not happen now. It may or not happen during a lame duck session. It may not happen until after the 109th Congress is seated. But it's going to happen.

Jones Media Networks and Air America Radio strike ad sales deal
Jones MediaAmerica announced it will be representing Air America Radio for ad sales, effective immediately, ending the previous relationship with Interep. This, after Jacqui Rossinsky, EVP/Sales and Marketing and others left the company last spring in what was called a major restructuring. (4/28 RBR Daily Epaper #83) and shortly thereafter Chairman Evan Cohen, Vice-Chairman/investor Rex Sorensen (5/7 RBR Daily Epaper #90) "We are thrilled that Air America Radio has entrusted Jones with their ad sales," said Susan Love, VP Advertising Sales and Marketing, Jones MediaAmerica. "JMA has a tremendous track record of building brands, and we expect that success to continue with our partners at Air America Radio." Doug Kreeger, CEO of Air America Radio states, "We have achieved extraordinary ratings in every market that Air America Radio has launched. We are extremely excited to have Jones MediaAmerica working with us, connecting advertisers with our successful affiliates across the country."

Hot campaigns as E.D approaches
There are a number of individuals seeking a seat in the US Senate or a billet in the governor's mansion of their state who are in a race still too close to call. That means they are likely races to attract at least one more cloudburst of national campaign cash. First, a little bookkeeping. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, with a hot month of fundraising in September, taking the lead over its Republican counterpart for this election cycle, according to the Associated Press. DSCC pulled in 11.2M dollars, bringing its total since 1/1/03 to 66.6M. In the same month, RSCC raised 6.5M, taking its election cycle total to 65.7M. Still, Republicans have more to work with at the moment, starting October with 17.2M, compared to 8.8M for the Democrats. About a fourth of the Senate races still appear to be up for grabs. Look for national committee money to find its way to Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota. Only 11 governorships are up for grabs, and six are thought to be one-sided. However, five states are hosting competitive races.

Trick or treat: Agency ad masquerades as news story
The Health and Human Services Department released a plug-and-play "news story" last March touting the controversial new Medicare drug program, only to have it declared an illegal advertisement by the General Accounting Office (GAO). Now the Education Department has been hit with an identical charge. It had put out a video press release touting "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), using a actress to play reporter Karen Ryan, just as in the HHS release. The problem is that the piece never makes it clear who was responsible for the production. According to the Associated Press, the Education ad was produced by PR firm Ketchum and paid for in 2003, and was uncovered via the Freedom of Information Act when a watchdog sought an explanation for the 700K expenditure. The Ketchum contract also sought research on the effectiveness of the NCLB campaign as reflected in newspaper coverage, but requested answers specifically relating not to the program but to the Bush administration. For example, it requested counts of the number of mentions the Bush administration received as being "strong on education." Watchdogs are charging that the material produced for the NCLB campaign is propaganda, not PR, the same problem HHS had with its own video press releases.

NAB Marconi Award winners named
The winners of the 2004 National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Radio Awards were announced last night at the annual NAB Marconi Radio Awards Dinner & Show. The event was held in conjunction with The NAB Radio Show. The prestigious awards recognized radio's outstanding personalities and stations in 22 categories. An independent task force selected the finalists and ballots were sent to members of the NAB Marconi Radio Awards Selection Academy in August. The ballots were tabulated by RSM McGladrey. A complete list of winners follows: | More... |

Publishers Perspective

NAB Radio Show
How do you rebuild a quality product?
I had a group exec call me in San Diego who had attended most of the sessions. He said everything we had printed in "Naples is Calling" forecasted what's going on today in radio five months ago. "Jim," he said, "You need to collaborate this. We need this pacing. You gave us a wake-up call five months ago and nobody listened to you. But look what happened to you. Those big media moguls chastised you, they made you Christ on the cross. They nailed your ass to the slats. Now, you're right. What you said is coming true and they are scurrying to make it happen. Stern moving to the satellite. This is going to be a wake-up call, where Les Moonves has already said his radio division is starving for money. The GM has had the worst job of cut, cut, cut, slash, slash, slash." | More... |

Adbiz©

Volkswagen launches review
Volkswagen of America has launched a review for its U.S. buying account for VW and Audi. The review includes incumbent MPG and MediaCom. The two brands spent a total of 430 million in measured media last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

Mediaedge:cia grabs Paramount Media Business
Paramount Pictures has awarded its 480 million planning and buying account to Mediaedge:cia after a review. The shop bested Initiative Media, PHD and the incumbent MediaVest.

NY Times looks at ANA's "Masters of Marketing"
The NY Times' Stuart Elliott gave a review of the ANA's "Masters of Marketing" meeting last week. Excerpts: "The official theme of the 94th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers was "Masters of Marketing," but it might have been more bluntly, and more accurately, summarized as "Change or Die." Speakers at the conference warned the more than 700 attendees that executives who oversee the estimated 300 billion a year spent on consumer marketing in the US must become more accountable, innovative and creative or be doomed to failure. | More... |

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Taking stock of your dividend
Make that, Taking stock AS your dividend. That's how XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. is working it for shareholders of record of its Series B Preferred Stock as of 10/22/04. Those lucky ducks will get 1.0313 dollars worth of Class A Common Stock for every Series B share they hold,, payable 11/1/04 and with fractional amounts paid in cash. The Class A value will equal 95% of the stock's average value for the ten days up to and including 10/18/04.

Washington Beat

Legal eagles try to choke off NJ LPFMs
The New Jersey Broadcasters Association (NJBA) and four of the attorneys of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice (WCS&R) think the Garden State has been subjected to enough indignities by the FCC without the added insult of a new LPFM service, and have instituted a rulemaking to try to head off the low power sticks within the state. The proximity of New Jersey to major cities in New York and Pennsylvania resulted in its own merely large cities getting short shrift when it came time to dole out full power commercial FM stations. Instead, it has 46 FMs, mostly Class As and substandard Class Bs. And as if that isn't enough, 18 of them are tucked away in the relatively sparsely-populated Atlantic City/Cape May portion of the state, leaving just 26 stations to handle 7.5M citizens. The NJBA filing points out that a typical low power FM would have an effective range of about 12 and a half miles in terms of audience reception. However, it could interfere with Class A stations over 126 miles away. That number rises to 245 miles for Class B stations. "In New Jersey," they argue, "this would result in cannibalization of the already limited existing FM service." WCS&R's Gregg Skall is hoping to get a rulemaking for his state association client, and to that end would welcome any expert comment supporting his cause. The NJBA petition can be seen here. | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV |

Programming

Elic Thomas named 10,000 winner
in Radio Comedy Competition
Elic Thomas was named the grand prize winner in the Radio Comedy Competition Friday at the NAB Radio Show in San Diego. Thomas claims a 10,000 cash award. He was evening personality on country formatted WXBQ-FM, Bristol, VA when he entered his parody of GM's Onstar commercial, called Blondestar, which can be heard at here. The First Annual Radio Comedy Competition (RCC) was co-sponsored by Hollywood-based All Comedy Radio and Carmel, California's New Radio Star.

RBR observation: This is funny, creative, and is radio. Give us More of that and radio will get More of this - dollars. All CEO's got to listen and get creative.

Engineering

KOMO-AM launches News Podcast
For everyone who has an iPod, they can now download and play some of the more fascinating stories on Fisher's KOMO-AM Seattle News. The service allows users top download them and dump them to their iPod automatically. The station has set up an RSS feed that can be set up to be checked by iTunes, which will download the clips and load them onto the iPOD with the next sync. Podcasting is a new take on syndicated content feeds like RSS and Atom. But instead of pushing text from blogs and news sites to various content aggregators like FeedDemon and Bloglines, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or other MP3 player. To get audio feeds, users connect their MP3 player to their computer, go online, and subscribe to feeds like iTunes they want the podcasting service to provide. Audio content is then pushed from the original source to an aggregator and then to the subscriber. To some, podcasting is one of the most exciting innovations to come along in quite awhile. They see it opening up an endlessly varied universe of audio content to anyone who wants it at any time. More about Podcasting in last Friday's MediaMix.

Transactions

KYBE-FM Frederick OK from Tomar Broadcasting Co. Inc. to LKCM Radio Group LP.

New AM Tri-Cities WA (Burbank WA) from F&L Broadcast Development Corporation to Alexandra Communications Inc.

| More... |

Stock Talk

Most boats float
Broadcasting stocks generally moved up, at least marginally, as a generally optimistic mood took hold on the Street in anticipation of better-than-expected quarterlies. The question is, will broadcasting companies be participating in that crowd, given the lackluster results we've seen so far?

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Monday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		37.13	+0.07	Jeff-Pilot	JP		49.30	-0.10
Beasley	BBGI		14.97	-0.05	Journal Comm.	JRN		17.38	+0.03
Citadel	CDL		13.22	+0.12	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		13.97	+0.17
Clear Channel	CCU		30.95	-0.10	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		13.86	+0.17
Cox Radio	CXR		14.34	-0.29	Regent	RGCI		5.51	-0.03
Cumulus	CMLS		14.05	+0.05	Saga Commun.	SGA		17.01	+0.21
Disney	DIS		24.90	+0.05	Salem Comm.	SALM		24.60	+0.19
Emmis	EMMS		18.39	+0.17	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		3.52	-0.18
Entercom	ETM		31.85	-0.35	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		10.33	+0.14
Entravision	EVC		7.65	+0.05	Univision	UVN		30.88	+0.06
Fisher	FSCI		47.42	+0.31	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		35.00	-0.21
Gaylord	GET		31.16	+0.06	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		34.46	-0.15
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		25.03	+0.06	Westwood One	WON		20.56	+0.44
Interep	IREP		0.82	+0.02	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		28.61	+0.44
International Bcg.	IBCS		0.02	unch	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

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Upped & Tapped

John Gallagher named GM for WLS, WRDZ
Replacing Zemira Jones who left in July to become VP/Operations at Radio One, John Gallagher, a 19-year ABC vet, has been named President and GM of WLS-AM and Radio Disney WRDZ-AM Chicago. The promotion, effective immediately, was announced by Mitch Dolan, President of the ABC Radio Station Group. Gallagher most recently had been DOS at WJR-AM Detroit. ABC also owns ESPN Radio WMVP-AM and active rock WZZN-FM Chicago, both of which are managed by James Pastor.

More News Headlines

Michael Reagan challenges John Kerry to stem cell debate

KY station taken off air
by runaway truck

September Digital Solutions Magazine

Complimentary Report

Quarterly Deals:
4.1 Billion spent on broadcast properties since the thaw
RBR/TVBR Observation:
Where is the action? We got it.

Less is More
CCU's already meaning less with syndicators and nets.

September Zinio Solutions Magazine
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 September 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.

San Diego: Politics, Stern and continuing challenges for radio
The NAB Radio Show in San Diego wrapped up Friday with a political focus - - appropriate since it was the same day as the second presidential debate. But the week was dominated, as he'd obviously planned, by talk of Howard Stern's move to satellite in 2006. RBR observation: 2005 all the signs NAB had up point the road back to Philly. This road for many next year will be very rocky as the Publisher Perspective below tells it like it is and will be not just for radio but television as well. Now we would like to hear word from the NAB Executive on the process of finding the successor to Mr. Eddie Fritts. 10/11/04 RBR #198

The thawful truth:
Deal freeze is over
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has cleared the new FCC applications, signalling an end to the freeze on deals which began last month. The new forms - - FCC 301, FCC 314 and FCC 315 - - are online and available for immediate use. The latest deal freeze, the third since the stalled FCC rulemaking of 6/2/03, came about when the FCC was unexpectedly allowed to implement a portion of its court-delayed proposals. 10/11/04 RBR #198

Indecency fines scrubbed DoD bill
A rider to a Department of Defense authorization bill which would have raised FCC indecency fines to a cap of 500K dollars was taken out due to disagreement over the Senate's inclusion of language reversing the FCC's 6/2/03 ownership ruling. It was indeed the poison pill.
RBR observation: It seems extremely unlikely that anything can be put on the books before Election Day. However, another in a long series of lame-duck sessions is expected to be necessary this year, and it is possible an attempt to get a clean bill through will be made at that time. Bottom line. It is possible that parts of the bill, especially huge fines against non-licensees, may fail to pass court scrutiny. Indeed, it is possible that the FCC's entire body of indecency regulation and enforcement may be gored on the horns of the judiciary. Regardless, somehow, sometime Congress is going to get something on the books - - support on the Hill is nearly universal. 10/11/04 RBR #198

Commissioners back off
on news indecency
Some TV and radio stations have already been using delay systems for live news coverage in order to avoid any FCC citation for an indecent comment hitting the air, but two Commissioners appearing at the NAB Radio Show in San Diego insisted that those fears are unwarranted. 10/08/04 RBR #197

Eddie Fritts warns
of license challenges
Warned that groups targeting broadcasters have "raised the decibel level in Washington" and that organized attacks on radio and TV licenses are taking place as never seen before. "Bottom line - - these groups are out for your licenses, or at the very least to affect the program content of your stations - - and they aren't going away anytime soon. 10/08/04 RBR #197

Gary Fries: Get out of the bunker
While the economy may be slow, he insists that radio is not losing ground and the industry should be working on building share. "There is no erosion. There is no cancer," insisted that the gloom and doom is overstated, but did say there are challenges that the radio industry does need to address. One, of course, is spot loads, which he said is "critical" and is one of the top issues today in radio. "We need better creativity," Fries warned. If we don't solve these problems we could become a secondary medium," 10/08/04 RBR #197

Group heads bristle at
Stern flacking Sirius
Howard Stern irritated his current affiliates by spending a of time show on what was essentially an infomercial for Sirius. That did not go unnoticed in the group head session at the NAB Radio Show in San Diego. With three Stern affiliates, Citadel is one of the largest affiliate groups outside Infinity. Citadel COO Judy Ellis was clearly irked by Sterns actions and said she was evaluating how much time Stern spent flacking for Sirius outside his show's allotted spot load. "I'm gonna charge them," 10/08/04 RBR #197

General Sales Manager
Los Angeles. Opportunity of a lifetime. 5 years radio sales management experience. EEO. Reply to: [email protected]

Local Sales Manager
Cumulus Broadcasting of Shreveport seeking a LSM. The person hired for this very important position will have the ability to train, motivate, write and supervise proposals, close sales with A/E's and hit or exceed monthly and quarterly local sales budgets.

See Radio Careers for more info on this once in a lifetime shot.

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