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Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 23, Issue 212, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Tuesday Morning October 31st, 2006

Radio News ®

Q4 pacing up nearly 9%
for Clear Channel Radio

As good as Q3 was for Clear Channel Communications, CEO Mark Mays told investors and analysts that Q4 is looking even better. Radio revenues are pacing up 8.8%, with automotive and entertainment as strong sectors. That is coming on top of a 5% gain in radio revenues in Q3 to 962 million bucks. "The radio segment saw growth across all its revenue streams, including local, national, network, traffic and the Internet. National was stronger than local during the quarter. While our third quarter was strong, September was weaker than the other months," Mays said. In his Q&A with analysts, the CEO insisted that it is not just easy comps from last year making the gains possible, but that the company is getting better at managing its inventory each quarter and the troops are executing extremely well. While he expects political advertising to add 12-15 million to Q4 revenues, he noted that is only 100-150 basis points of the 8.8% (880 basis points) revenue gain that is expected. "It is clearly a wind to our back, but not a major component," Mays said. Asked about inventory and demand, Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan said fewer minutes of commercials ran on CCU stations in Q3 of 2006 than a year earlier, but produced better yield per minute. With Less is More nearly a year old, Hogan said CCU is now seeing better pricing for all lengths of spots, with demand increasing for shorter spots. Asked if there was any negative aspect to LIM, Hogan said yes, that Clear Channel didn't do it sooner.

RBR observation: You can certainly see why the Mays family thinks Wall Street is undervaluing CCU stock and why they see upside in taking the company private. One metric that CCU management particularly likes is OIBDAN, which is sort of like broadcast cash flow, but more specifically is defined as operating income before depreciation & amortization, non-cash compensation expense and gain (loss) on disposition of assets - net. Anyway, radio OIBDAN in Q3 was up 6% to 394 million on that 5% revenue growth. But with radio largely a fixed cost business, more cash drops to that OIBDAN line as revenue growth accelerates. With Q4 revenue growth heading toward 9%, analyst Victor Miller at Bear Stearns notes that OIBDAN growth could be in double digits - the first time that has been the case for Clear Channel Radio since Q4 of 2002, a year after 9/11 depressed Q4 2001 revenues.

Windfall or not?
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal portrayed the coming buyout of Clear Channel Communications as a "windfall" for the Mays family, with Lowry in line to receive more than a billion bucks for his stake and sons Mark and Randall about 100 million combined. Not to mention golden parachutes of 18 million for Mark and 17 million each for Lowry and Randall, plus accelerate stock options worth over 10 million each. The article also noted that the Mayses may not be cashing out, but could reinvest with the private equity firms bidding for the company.

RBR observation: A billion bucks is big money any way you look at it, but the Mays family stake in Clear Channel was worth twice that a few years back, so we doubt that they would consider the payout any windfall. Missing from the WSJ story was any mention of the other Clear Channel co-founder, Red McCombs, who has always served on the board but never participated in day-to-day management. He and his family also stand to collect a billion or so from the coming sale.


Tribune bidding called "lukewarm"
That analysis comes from the Los Angeles Times, which has a keen interest in the potential sale of its parent company. If private equity bids submitted Friday offered little or no premium over the current stock price, the board at Tribune Company is likely to explore breaking the company into pieces for sale. It appears quite likely that only two initial non-binding bids were submitted to buy all of Tribune. As previously reported, those bids were coming from Bain Capital and a combined effort by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Texas Pacific Group (10/30/06 RBR #211). An unnamed partner at another equity firm was quoted by the LA Times as saying it was unlikely any bid would hit 40 bucks a share. (Tribune has been trading in the mid-30s.) Tribune had already been cutting costs and potential bidders were said to be unable to identify opportunities to wring out much more in cost savings or to raise revenues significantly.

RBR observation: The board of directors at Tribune has set no timetable for completing the effort to maximize shareholder value. However, if the bids for the whole thing were unimpressive, we should soon start hearing rumors of a wider range of potential bidders begin invited to submit offers for various pieces of the Tribune Company. CEO Dennis FitzSimons may yet be able to realize his dream of doing a management buyout of the choice properties in the biggest markets after selling off everything else.

A must read for Clear Channel
and Tribune staffers

Employees of Clear Channel Communications and Tribune Company who are waiting to find out which private equity firm (or consortium of private equity firms) will be their new owner might want to pick up this week's issue of BusinessWeek with the cover story "Gluttons At The Gate." As the title indicates, it is a critical piece on the private equity field. Author Emily Thornton questions whether the private equity firms really do much to earn the huge fees they take out of companies they have invested in - sometimes taking a public company private and then selling public stock again after just a short period of ownership. In some cases, the heavy debt loads taken on in going private - and to pay the private equity owners' fees - have led to bankruptcies. And there are allegations of fraud by some investors. None of those involve any of the firms believed to be involved in the current bidding for CCU and TRB, but the horror stories could be some scary Halloween reading for concerned employees at those companies.

RBR observation: Like most things, private equity funds are neither all good nor all bad. When they buy an out-of-favor public company, they are able to provide financial flexibility for restructuring. Sometimes, of course, that restructuring is painful to some employees, who either lose their jobs or see their division sold to yet another buyer. It is pretty clear that a lot of Tribune assets are going to change hands, no matter who ends up with the company. That divestiture process had already begun before the company was put on the block. Likewise, Clear Channel had already been selling some non-core stations. The end-game is the big question for both of these buyouts-to-be. Will investor interest in the newspaper and radio sectors improve in the next few years so the private equity buyers can take profits via the IPO route? That is a tough call. But we certainly don't see the potential for buyout firms taking either of these companies private and then selling stock again in a matter of months. These look like long-haul investments.


FEC non-ruling may
still insulate broadcasters

If you think the issue of providing lowest unit cost (LUC) to an errant candidate is thorny at the station level, perhaps it will provide a small measure of comfort to learn that the Federal Election Commission itself could not resolve the issue. But it may have provided enough guidance to see broadcasters through the last pre-election week. The latest round of the ongoing battle concerns the case of Bill Casey Jr. (D), running for one of the Pennsylvania seats in the US Senate v. Rick Santorum (R-PA). In a nutshell, Casey's campaign caught Santorum's in a BCRA "stand-by-your-ad" omission, and held that Santorum was no longer entitled to LUC. Previous rulings seemed to indicate that a station could still offer rule-following Santorum ads at LUC as long as it did the same for all candidates without it amounting to an in-kind contribution to Santorum from the station. Casey's people said fine, then we get to run a ad without a disclaimer to keep things even. Attorney Gregg P. Skall of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, fighting the good fight on this on behalf of a consortium of state broadcaster associations, looked for a declaratory ruling on grounds that broadcasters were becoming a political football caught between increasingly vicious rival political campaigns. Although FEC commissioners failed to agree on a ruling, a trio of them agreed with the political football characterization, and stated that a broadcaster's only obligation is to treat all candidates equally. Another trio thought that the discount after a BCRA violation would only be acceptable if it was offered to all advertisers, not just all political advertisers. However, they thought liability would not fall on broadcaster for making an in-kind contribution, but would on the campaign for receiving one. It stressed getting certification from the campaign that the advertisement is compliant as a safeguard for the broadcaster airing the ad.

RBR observation: Is that clear? We didn't think so. The FEC commissioners were able to agree on one thing, though, according to Skall: they have no jurisdiction over the Communications Act, nor do they have jurisdiction to judge whether ads are compliant or not. What becomes crystal clear is that if the Federal Election Commission cannot figure it out, it is absolutely nuts to think broadcasters are going to be able to make a determination on the fly in the heat of battle, especially since many of these ads are placed at the last possible second. When the heat is off after this election, it would be a very good idea for somebody in the government to figure out how these types of advertising issues are to be adjudicated, and in particular, to get the referee stripes out of the broadcast wardrobe where they do not belong. Because it would be an excellent idea, we feel quite confident that it will never happen.

Here are the state associations pushing for a resolution to this problem
All broadcasters stand to benefit from the work of these groups: Arizona Broadcasters Association, California Broadcasters Association, Illinois Broadcasters Association, Louisiana Broadcasters Association, Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Minnesota Broadcasters Association, Missouri Broadcasters Association, New Jersey Broadcasters Association, Oregon Association of Broadcasters and Washington State Association of Broadcasters.

Westwood sued over stock options
Stull, Stull & Brody, a class-action law firm which has filed shareholder lawsuits against numerous public companies, announced late yesterday that it has filed suit against the directors and executive officers of Westwood One. The complaint alleges that they manipulated the prices of stock options granted to certain employees. The SEC has been investigating a large number of firms for possible back-dating of stock options. Stull, Stull & Brody didn't spell out any details of its claims against Westwood One, but indicated that it is fishing for employees to bought WW1 shares via their 401(k) accounts to join in the lawsuit.

RBR observation: Given what has happened to Westwood One's stock price in recent years, it is hard to imagine that there are very many stock options out there which are not currently worthless. It is going to be hard to prove that any harm was done to shareholders by the backdating of stock options which are now worth zero.


Wall Street Media Business Report TM
Q3 conference calls
Clear Channel beats expectations...
and 2004

For the first time since Less is More implementation, Clear Channel Radio booked quarterly revenues in Q3 that not only beat last year, but also Q3 of 2004, before LIM. Radio revenues for Q3 were 962 million, up 5% from 919 million last year and up a bit from 960 million in Q3 2004. Radio OIBDAN (operating income before depreciation & amortization, non-cash compensation expense and gain (loss) on disposition of assets - net) rose 6% to 394 million. As good as the quarter was for radio, the rest of Clear Channel did even better. TV and Katz Media Group are lumped together in the "other" category, where revenues rose 10% to 144 million and OIBDAN shot up 30% to 29 million. Outdoor advertising (CCU owns 90% of Clear Channel Outdoor) revenues rose 8% to 720 million and OIBDAN gained 18% to 219 million. Companywide revenues were ahead 7% to 1.8 billion and overall, Clear Channel Communications beat the Thompson/First Call analysts' consensus by a penny, with earnings per share of 38 cents.

Philly and Miami tough for Beasley
Q3 results for Beasley Broadcast Group were in line with Wall Street expectations, but5 those were negative expectations. Net revenues were down 3.6% to 31.1 million and station operating income fell 6.7% to 9.4 million. CFO Caroline Beasley said revenues were down 9% in Philadelphia - which was described as a tough market, although the Beasley cluster outperformed the market in local sales - and off 10% in Miami, due to soft sales for WPOW-FM and the Florida Marlins baseball games on WQAM-AM. Meanwhile, revenues jumped 12% in Las Vegas and the company has only just acquired KDWN-AM to expand its cluster. Looking ahead, Beasley is projecting that Q4 will be better, with revenues up 5%, including KDWN and WJBR-FM Wilmington, DE, which has been LMA'd bending actual purchase adjacent to the Philly cluster. On a same station basis, revenues are expected to be down 2%, owing to continued weakness in Miami and for the Central Carolina cluster, which is heavily dependent on auto advertising.


Ad Business Report TM

Limbaugh's jabs at Michael J. Fox may cost ad dollars
We're hearing Rush Limbaugh's recent jabs at Michael J. Fox's pleas for stem cell research and his subsequent imitations (seen on his studio cam) of Fox's debilitating disease (Parkinson's) may cost the show some ad dollars - especially pharma.

Said a source: "There's been a lot of client backlash to the Rush Limbaugh thing with Michael J. Fox. One client called with some profanities from a buyer, saying his father has Parkinson's. He was absolutely out of his mind, he couldn't believe this happened. I think Rush went too far here. Michael J. Fox is a very beloved guy; Parkinson's is a very serious disease. Limbaugh was taunting him, impersonating Fox's illness on his video feed...Clients are really, really livid about this. One said, 'How can any pharmaceutical company put any money into the Rush Limbaugh show after he taunted someone with a serious disability?' I think this is going to have a big impact on him, especially going into the upfront."
| Read More... |

Girl Scouts chooses Lowe New York
As part of its multi-year transformation, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) has chosen Lowe New York after a review to reposition its brand and create a compelling, contemporary image of Girl Scouting for the 21st century. GSUSA will partner with Lowe New York to create a comprehensive campaign that will help refine its new organizational brand and communicate the positive impact Girl Scouting has on girls' lives in a powerful and relevant way. GSUSA made the selection after extensive review in which several agencies competed over six months. According to Kathy Cloninger, CEO of GSUSA, "While we met with many impressive agencies, the team at Lowe New York stood out for their sensitivity to our history as well as their insight into our future. Most important, Lowe's CEO Nancy Hill and her agency believe in our mission and the incredible impact it has on a girl's life." GSUSA's search for a new agency comes on the heels of an internal audit that spanned two years and asked thousands of girls and adults throughout the Girl Scout community what they want and need from Girl Scouting today. The organization is streamlining its council structure from 312 regional councils to 109 in order to send more resources to the grassroots level, better serve local communities and reach more girls.


Media Business Report TM
Dow Jones sells six local papers
Selling newspapers seems to be in vogue these days. Dow Jones & Co. is the latest to shed part of its portfolio, selling six papers to Community Newspaper Holdings for 282.5 million. The newspapers changing hands are: the News-Times of Danbury, Conn.; The Daily Star of Oneonta, N.Y.; the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh, N.Y.; the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, Calif.); The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa.; and the Traverse City Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.). Dow Jones says it will use the cash to complete its purchase of the remainder of the Factiva business information web site from partner Reuters and pay down debt with what is left. ''This sale and the pending acquisition of Factiva are the latest examples of our commitment to transform Dow Jones from a company heavily dependent on print publishing revenue to a more diversified company capable of meeting the needs of its customers across all consumer and enterprise media channels, whether print, online, mobile or otherwise. By selling these papers for more than 11 times EBITDA and buying the remaining 50% of Factiva for an effective price after tax benefits and cost synergies of about 4 times EBITDA, we are efficiently redeploying capital from print to faster growing digital publishing,'' said Dow Jones CEO Rich Zannino. If Community Newspaper Holdings and its CEO Donna Barrett seem familiar to you, that is not surprising. A related company, Southeastern Media Holdings, has been buying TV stations, all of which have been put into shared services agreements with Raycom Media.


Media Markets & Money TM
Crawford scions off on Dallas deal
One way to look at the sale of KAAM-AM, which serves Dallas-Ft. Worth from its city of license of Garland TX, is that it is from Dontron Inc. to DJRD Broadcasting LLC. Another is that it is from Donald B. Crawford to Donald B. Crawford. Oh yeah, add a Jr. to the second iteration. Crawford the younger is getting the station for 8M, 7M of which is for the station assets and 1M of which is for the real estate. It'll make a group owner out of him, going along with his pair of AMs in the Colorado Springs market. The entire amount of the deal will be paid pursuant to promissory notes.

RBR observation: We always wonder if these all-in-the-family deals can be paid off, in part, by mowing the lawn, washing the car or providing other above-the-call-of-duty household services. We certainly offer our own children such opportunities when they're looking to us for cash or material goods. Of course, our dealings with our children very rarely veer into multimillion dollar territory.

WAZE and means committee?
The television holdings of minority owned broadcasting companies is about to inch higher, following an agreement for the sale of a CW affiliate in the Evansville IN market. It'll be the fourth or fifth market for Roberts Broadcasting Company, depending on how you like to count CPs. According to Kalil & Co., Roberts is getting WAZE-TV, licensed across the state line in Madisonville KY, from John D. Engelbrecht's South Central Communications Corp. The station comes with three related LPTVs licensed to Evansville. Documents filed with the FCC peg the price tag at 1M cash. Roberts is headed by brothers Steven and Michael. It owns an FM radio station/television station cross-combo Jackson MS, TVs in St. Louis and Columbia SC, and holds a CP for another television station in Boulder CO, part of the Denver DMA.


Washington Media Business Report TM
NAA pushes for cross-ownership
It is not particularly surprising that of the many issues under FCC review as it considers the court remand of media ownership rules, the only one of interest to the Newspaper Association of America is that of broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership. In a lengthy 108-page filing on the matter, it points out that the FCC has "...amassed an enormous record demonstrating that repeal..." of the ban will serve the public interest. It further notes that the Third Circuit bought the argument that such combinations can exist without damaging diversity and actually held promote localism. Given that, NAA argues that the FCC must focus on the court's major objection, perceived flaws in the Diversity Index, "...and its related criticisms of the specific three-tiered Cross-Media Limits..." In particular, it says the FCC should find a way to document the ever-increasing impact of the Internet on the news-gathering habits of US citizens, and the effect of this on more traditional media, saying "...the FCC should have no difficulty on remand establishing that this remarkable medium now plays a vital role in the local news and informational marketplace."

Governator refuses
to co-sign for KOCE

The long saga of non-commercial KOCE-TV took another twist recently. Coast Community College District has been trying to sell the PBS affiliate for some time, but only to a group which would keep it with PBS. A Foundation was set to acquire it, but was outbid by Daystar Television Network, a non-com which would likely take the station into a Religious program schedule. The problem is that the community college districts, as entities of the state, are required to sell to the highest bidder, and Daystar's claim to the station has been upheld twice in court now, according to the Los Angeles Times. The California legislature stepped in and passed a bill which would make an exception out of Coast and KOCE-TV. However, the bill ran straight into the veto pen of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said it fails to protect the public interest when it comes to selling off public property.

RBR observation: The keep-it-PBS camp is licking its wounds and considering its next move, which may involve another legislative attempt (apparently some believe the latest attempt was too narrowly focused). Whatever happens, it does not appear that their next move involves selling the station to Daystar. Stay tuned.


Entertainment Media Business Report TM
Greater Media Boston
announces five multicasts

Greater Media announced its five Boston radio stations are now officially broadcasting in High Definition (HD) digital radio and have launched companion independent multicasting channels for 105.7 WROR, 92.9 WBOS, WMJX 106.7, 99.5 WKLB and 96.9 FM TALK. "Nothin' But The 70's" is a celebration of the music and pop culture of the 1970's. "The Over Easy Café" is a carefully blended selection of music from heritage adult-alternative rock acts like Van Morrison, Chris Isaak, and Joni Mitchell, along with music from some of today's great singers and songwriters, like David Gray, Sheryl Crow, and Ben Harper. "Magic 106.7 HD-2" is a smooth blend of instrumentals and vocals from artists like Kenny G, Brick Braun, Diana Krall, Grover Washington, Anita Baker, Najee, Luther Vandross and Sade, plus a smattering of Smooth Jazz Legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Dave Brubeck. "WKLB's Classic Country HD-2" is the greatest country songs from 15-50 years ago. "96.9 Classical" features a variety of classical music from Brahms to Vivaldi, the London Symphony to the Boston Pops Orchestra.


Ratings & Research
ACNielsen buys The Modeling Group
ACNielsen announced that it has acquired The Modeling Group (TMG), a leading marketing-mix modeling provider to the consumer packaged goods industry. The Modeling Group will become part of ACNielsen's Analytic Consulting global business unit. By combining TMG with its existing large and growing marketing mix modeling business, ACNielsen Analytic Consulting becomes the largest global provider of marketing mix modeling services to the consumer packaged goods industry. Marketers commonly use marketing mix modeling services to help them to improve the return on their marketing investments. The Modeling Group's two principals, Sharon Ameri and Dipita Chakraborty, will take on senior leadership positions within ACNielsen Analytic Consulting and report to Dennis Moore, ACNielsen Analytic Consulting's senior vice president for North America. The Modeling Group is based in Stamford, Connecticut with an office in Cincinnati. The company employs 60 people and has client relationships in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.


Transactions
4.75M KZLZ-FM Tucson AZ (Kearney AZ) from Todd Robinson Inc. (Todd P. Robinson) to KZLZ LLC (10%, Todd P. Robinson, Victor A. Michael, JonE. Robinson); (90% CSVJ Inc., Ronald M. Cameron, Ted L. Snider). Cancellation of promissory note. Todd Robinson filed to acquire station from Entravision 5/17/06. [File date 10/16/06.]

1.5M KEVT-AM Tucson AZ (Cortaro AZ) from One Mart Corporation (Armando Zamora) to Slone Broadcasting LLC (James C. Slone, Norma Slone). 15K option/lease agreement, 150K escrow, balance in cash at closing. [File date 10/13/06.]


Stock Talk
Broadcast stocks beat the market
Stock prices closed mixed as the government reported weak consumer spending in September and Wal-Mart issued disappointing same store sales figures. The Dow Industrials slipped four points to 12,087. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were up slightly.

But radio stocks were hot. The Radio Index rose 3.319, or 2.2%, to 153.936. That was largely credited to strong Q4 guidance from Clear Channel signaling good news for other radio companies. Clear Channel, however, declined 0.7% following its recent run-up. Entercom jumped 6.3% and Cox Radio 5% as Stanford Group upgraded them to Buy on buyout possibilities.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Monday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

42.11

+0.61

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

25.43

+0.14

Beasley

BBGI

7.05

+0.10

Journal Comm.

JRN

11.87

+0.12

CBS CI. B CBS

29.00

+0.03

Lincoln Natl.

LNC

64.08

+0.34

CBS CI. A CBSa

28.97

+0.05

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

6.94

+0.14

Citadel CDL
10.28 +0.18

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

6.90

+0.09

Clear Channel

CCU

34.47

-0.23

Regent

RGCI

3.66

+0.06

Cox Radio

CXR

16.96

+0.80

Saga Commun.

SGA

8.30

+0.19

Cumulus

CMLS

10.85

+0.34

Salem Comm.

SALM

13.32

unch

Disney

DIS

31.86

+0.13

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

3.79

-0.06

Emmis

EMMS

12.60

+0.26

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

4.73

-0.06

Entercom

ETM

28.42

+1.68

Univision

UVN

35.13

+0.12

Entravision

EVC

7.49

+0.21

Westwood One

WON

8.01

+0.06

Fisher

FSCI

42.66

-0.02

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

11.40

-0.54

Gaylord

GET

46.66

-0.02

-

-

-

-

-


Bounceback

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Below the Fold
Ad Business Report
Advertiser backlash
Rush Limbaugh's recent jabs at Michael J. Fox's campaign ads for pro-stem cell research candidates may cost Rush ad buys.

Media Business Report
Dow Jones sells six local papers
Selling newspapers seems to be in vogue these days. Dow Jones & Co. is the latest to shed part of its portfolio.

Media, Markets & Money
All in the family
The sale of KAAM-AM Dallas-Ft. Worth is a father and son deal.

Entertainment Business Report
More choices in Beantown
Greater Media Boston has given listeners five new choices, assuming they have an HD Radio receiver.

Stations for Sale

Southern Small Markets
FMs and AM-FM Combos
Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi, South Carolina
Call Gordon Rice @ 843 884-3590
[email protected]




Radio Media Moves

Fox News ups
Kevin Magee

Kevin Magee has been named EVP of Fox News, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO, Fox News and Chairman, Fox Television Stations. Magee will continue to report directly to Ailes. In addition to continuing oversight of Foix News Radio, Magee will now be responsible for the syndicated morning show with Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick on Fox Television Stations. He will also serve as the executive in charge of the proposed business channel in the event distribution is secured for its launch. In making the announcement, Ailes said, "Kevin's successful television programming background and his remarkable performance in building Fox News Radio will be instrumental in his new role of extending the Fox News brand into the future."

Steve Harris named VP/Radio Operations for Reach Media
Reach Media announced Steve Harris will join the company as VP/Radio Operations, working with the growing number of urban syndicated radio programs, including working with the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Harris played a key operational role in the development and success of the Tom Joyner Morning Show, which launched in 1994. He now oversees radio ops and production, which involves the morning show, Tom Joyner's Right Back at Cha' weekend show, special programming and affiliate station resources. Most recently, Harris was VP/Multicultural Programming at ABC Radio and ABCRN.

Cox moves in Houston
Cox Radio has named Rob Hienaman General Sales Manager of KLDE-FM Houston, effective next week. He joins the company from Clear Channel in San Antonio. Also at KLDE, VP/GM Mark Krieschen announced that Jim Dyer has been named Local Sales Manager after serving as acting sales manager.

Return to KNX
Rosemary Hernandez has returned to CBS-owned KNX-AM Los Angeles as General Sales Manager. Since leaving the station in 1994 she had been GSM of KFI-AM LA, then helped launch a radio station in Warsaw, Poland, and has most recently been heading KCBS Marketing in LA, working for its FM sister while also doing some projects for KNX.




More News Headlines

Will FCC move
on move-ins?

The bright rays of the latest FCC sunshine notice have exposed a long-pending item, a revision of the rules governing changes the FM Table of Allotments and a station's city of license. The commissioners will consider the item first thing Friday morning. The agenda plank is called "Revision of Procedures Governing Amendments to FM Table of Allotments and Changes of Community of License in the Radio Broadcast Services." Numerous radio station owners and communications engineers are anxious to have new rules on table so they can get back into the business of finding stations that can be improved and taking the steps to do so. Also on the agenda is titled, "In the Matter of the Effects of Communications Towers on Migratory Birds." Two other issues involve wireline competition, including a declaratory ruling on a broadband-over-power-line matter and, most significantly for the commissioners (but not so much for broadcasters), a second try on the proposed AT&T acquisition of BellSouth.

WSJRN hits
100 affiliates

The Wall Street Journal Radio Network announced its morning business-news radio show, 'The Wall Street Journal This Morning,' is now syndicated on 100 stations. New additions to the lineup include: WGST-AM Atlanta, WWL- AM/FM New Orleans, WTAR-AM Norfolk, WLAC-AM Nashville, KCOL-AM Ft Collins, WBUV-FM Biloxi and WCME-FM Portland, Maine.

Porsche renews
with XM

XM has reupped as the exclusive satellite radio provider for Porsche under a new long-term deal starting next year. XM is a factory-installed feature on the Cayenne SUVs and will be offered as an option in other models with a free three-month trial subscription. XM will also develop data services like NavTraffic service for Porsche.

Sirius signs with Bentley
Sirius has signed to be the exclusive satellite radio provider for Bentley vehicles starting in select models in the mid-2007 model year. Sirius will be available in the Continental GT, Continental GTC and Continental Flying Spur vehicles starting in the 2008 model year. The cars will come with lifetime Sirius subscriptions.


RBR Radar 2006
Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

Clear Channel, Hey
You Can't Be a Little Bit Pregnant
A couple of Wall Street analysts have been holding onto the position that after exploring "strategic alternatives" with the folks from Goldman Sachs, the board of directors at Clear Channel will decide to stay public and go with a restructuring plan, rather than sell the company. Perhaps they are confused because of what happened with Emmis, but this is not the way the world works. Once you have hung out the For Sale sign, the auction is underway.

Publisher note: Read the total RBR analysis on this very important issue because for years it has been said under breath 'So goes Clear Channel So goes Radio.' Have feedback send your comments and a photo to [email protected]
10/30/06 RBR #211

Clear Channel What is it Worth?
But, sale will create lots of station inventory
The answer is whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay. Wall Street analysts are debating the ultimate price, with estimates running mostly in the mid to high 30s, although at least two see a possibility of 40-plus. Clear Channel has 496 million shares outstanding. At 35 bucks that works out to 17.4 billion. At 40 it goes to 19.8 billion. Add in 7.9 billion of debt and the total deal value works out to a range of 25.3-27.7 billion - a hefty price tag that means only very big players will be able to participate in this game. Wallstreet is all over this issue. Regardless of who buys Clear Channel Communications, lots of radio stations will be going on the market for divestiture. We are not just talking about the smaller market clusters that the company has been slowly selling off to use up 1.5 billion in tax loss carryforwards. Some quite desirable larger market stations will also have to be divested once a sale or management buyout is agreed to. That's because Clear Channel has lots of markets with large clusters that were OK under the FCC ownership rules based on contour overlaps established in 1996, but not since a federal appeals court approved the new Arbitron/BIA market definitions adopted in 2003.

RBR observation: Whether the Mays team or a rival consortium snares the prize, job one for the winning bidder is going to be reducing debt quickly. Either will have to put lots of radio stations up for sale, both to comply with FCC rules and to rationalize the overextended portfolio. For example, having already cut a deal to sell its Fargo cluster, it is hard to see a reason for Clear Channel to remain in other North Dakota markets. And if the non-Mays team wins it will be more likely to divest non-core assets such as Clear Channel Television, RCS and Inside Radio/M Street Publications. Another easy way for the winner to raise cash and pay down debt is to sell more of Clear Channel Outdoor to the public. With its super-voting shares, Clear Channel Communications can sell off a lot of its 90% stake in the billboard company and still retain voting control. Those super-voting shares beco! me regular shares the moment they are sold to anyone else. So, while buying Clear Channel Communications from its public shareholders will require a big chunk of debt, there are options available to quickly reduce that debt load by billions and billions, while still retaining lots of cash flow.
10/27/06 RBR #210

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