RBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 24, Issue 227, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Tuesday Morning November 20th, 2007

Radio News ®

Morris wants to talk trade-offs
Arbitron has yet to say anything publicly about the letter sent last week by four large radio groups demanding larger sample sizes to get PPM in-tabs up to targets (11/16/07 RBR #225), but RBR has received a copy of an email that Arbitron CEO Steve Morris, pictured, sent to the four group heads. In it, Morris proposes having Arbitron President of Sales and Marketing Pierre Bouvard meet with them to hear just what they want in the new ratings service "and how you would rebalance the trade-offs." Morris's email stated that "trade-offs vs. costs" were among the things discussed extensively during the time that PPM was being developed. "It seems clear from your letter, however, that we need to go back and revisit previous assumptions about how the service is to be built, and to make sure that we are doing this in a way that serves your needs," Morris told the four broadcasters - Lew Dickey of Cumulus Media, John Hogan of Clear Channel Radio, Alfred Liggins of Radio One and Bob Neil of Cox Radio.

At least one of the broadcasters is not impressed by the response from Morris. "We don't need to have a meeting. We need to see a comprehensive plan that describes how, and when Arbitron will begin to start hitting their sample targets. We need to know about the MRC process in Philly and give us some expectations for when they expect to be accredited. I've had many of these meetings with Arbitron people over the years, and it's been a gigantic waste of time. Fix the sample. Give us what we've paid for. The time for meetings and spin is over. The time to get it fixed is now," Cox Radio's Bob Neil told RBR last evening.
| Read the email.|

RBR observation: Have to agree with this statement from Bob Neil, “Again, I stress….no one is fighting electronic measurement. That train is gone.” The time is right now to slow this train down before there is a massive accident which will not be pretty to watch. From the seat we are sitting in the legal department at Arbitron is working overtime. Recommend for all to read the email as this issue is not going away any time soon. Have a comment send with photo to radionews@rbr.com

CBS News writers authorize strike
CBS News writers authorized their union leaders to call a national strike, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced yesterday. 500 CBS News TV and radio writers in NY, LA, DC and Chicago have been working under an expired contract since 4/05. In a vote held last week, the WGA said 81% of the writers who participated gave WGA negotiators the power to call a strike. The workers involved in the dispute are writers for both the network news operation and local O&Os. "Writers Guild members are sending their CBS bosses an irrefutable message of solidarity: we will do whatever it takes to get what we have earned and deserve," said Michael Winship, president of WGA East, in a statement. The parties had not been at the negotiating table since January. In 11/06, the WGA rejected what CBS had called its final offer. The employees turned down a wage package that offered TV and network radio workers higher pay than local radio writers. The WGA also rejected CBS News to assign nonunion staff certain writing duties currently reserved for union employees. CBS argues that declining ad revenues at local radio stations means lower increases in employee pay.

RBR observation: The strike is being labeled by some as a solidarity move with the current WGA writers strike for comedy and drama TV shows (add that to the Broadway/IATSE Local One strike and you've got a real mess on your hands in NYC traffic). We wonder if this critical mass will cause the studios, production houses and network bosses to cave, or just fire them all and hire non-union folks. Almost impossible, but we wonder if it's on the table right now high up in the top floor conference rooms. It would take a long time to hire non-union folks for all of those positions. In the meantime, we'd be watching a lot of British television and reality shows-everything from school-kid pranks to nursing home nightmares.

Martin has Trib scratching its head
Sam Zell, pictured, is trying to save potential fees and tax benefits by getting the Tribune privatization done by year's end. His crew is said to be "bafffled" at the unforeseen resistance coming from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. So says an article in the Chicago Tribune itself. Zell will need a twenty day window between final approval of financing and closure, so even if the FCC were to approve Martin's plan on December 18 it would not be soon enough for the Tribune deal to move forward. In short, Zell needs waivers in place to keep the company's existing broadcast/print combinations together. But Martin has balked at issuing them. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt speculated that the large numbers of waivered combinations out there make a mockery of the rules against them, and Martin is avoiding giving his opponents new waivers to use as an argument against the relaxation of the rules; and that he's avoiding issuing waivers to force the issue (a tactic Hundt applauded as a necessary tool in an FCC chair's belt).

RBR observation: The rule change, or at least the timetable for it, may be in trouble anyway. It has attracted almost no unqualified support that we're aware of, instead drawing attacks from all sides, including those who think it goes to far and those who think it does not go far enough. It faces threatened stalling action from Capitol Hill and is a strong bet to head back to court, one way or the other. The issue is far from decided, and likely will still be far from decided, on 12/18/08. Tribune should not be held hostage, as even Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein have said. Zell should be able to pursue his proposed transaction based on its merits, not Kevin Martin's tactical needs.

DC OpEd backs satcaster wedding
The Washington Times gave some space to a pair of Competitive Enterprise Institute members who made the case for allowing the XM/Sirius merger to go through. Interestingly, the same paper published a study opposing the merger back in August. The authors are Wayne Crews and Alex Nowrasteh. Their take on the arguments that XM and Sirius have agreed to sufficient safeguards that the merger should be allowed to go is unique. They say one of them, agreeing to cap their subscription prices, is actually bad for consumers. Calling it a self-imposed price control, they argue, "...price controls hurt consumers: A low price is not good if it means inferior service or discourages needed investment and innovation." They say prevention of the merger amounts to "corporate welfare" for those the services would compete with. Over the summer, two other collaborators, J. Gregory Sidal and Hal J. Singer, had a different take, writing, "It is a knee-jerk reaction among conservative commentators to bless most mergers under the belief that these transactions reflect the salubrious workings of the market. But conservatives should also reject the idea of taking two unregulated competitors and creating in their place a brand-new regulated monopoly through the merger approval process."

RBR observation: We always thought that the problem with monopolies was that they didn't need to worry about such mundane issues as customer service, investment in product or innovation. The reason there are two satellite audio services is to preserve those very things. The one and only reason to grant this merger is if one or both are about to go under. They say that is not the case, so the case should be closed.

XM targets inactive receiver owners
XM Satellite Radio announced a three-months-free offer to try to lure back people with inactive XM receivers. There is a catch - you have to subscribe for at least six months to get the three free months. Beginning this Friday, November 23rd, anyone with an inactive XM radio purchased at retail can take advantage of three free months of XM service no matter when the radio was purchased or received. The value of the three months of service is applied over the first six months of a subscription when activating by the end of this year.

RBR observation: Smart business move. (Which is not something we have said often about the management of the satellite radio companies.) There are millions of inactive satellite radio receivers out there, both XM and Sirius. The only thing we don't understand is why this is limited to after-market radios from the retail side, which has been the weakest side of the business lately for both companies. Why not dormant OEM receivers as well? A subscriber is a subscriber, right?

"A Tale of Two Regimes"
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell spoke at the Media Institute yesterday and expressed his wonderment that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was embarking on a plan to loosen broadcast/print ownership while at the same time "laying the foundation for unprecedented regulation of the cable industry." On the loosening of cross-ownership restrictions in the top 20 markets, he said broadcasters in smaller markets "...don't seem too excited by the Chairman's proposal." On the cable side, he questions the assertion that cable penetration suddenly reached a critical 70% benchmark (based on a just-as-sudden change in measurer and methodology), and that it lacks competition at a time with satellite video services are growing and telco entrants are closing in on 1M subscribers themselves. He said Nielsen and Kagan data pegs cable penetration at 60% and studies see it sinking from there -- only the new Warren Communications numbers put the number at 70%. He wondered about the implications of this abrupt shift on the cross-ownership proposal, as well as review of XM/Sirius. "How do we reconcile decades of data showing more convergence and more competition among more delivery platforms with this sudden reversal?"

On ownership, he noted that broadcasters have "prioritized...opposition to the XM-Sirius merger and the use of TV white spaces" to asking for less regulation, and suggests that their opponents have used this as a window of opportunity to impose more regulation on them. He said a Congressional presumption in favor of eliminating rules seems to have been lost in recent debate. He also noted the difficulty of tightroping the desire to increase minority/female ownership and surviving court challenge. Regarding the pace of the proceeding, he said, "...we are rushing toward a decision in media ownership the way a slug races across a garden," and later quoted an anonymous analyst who compared the process to "a runaway glacier."

RBR observation: So it looks like Martin has a vote for his limited dereg unless McDowell objects that it doesn't go far enough, and has a strong same-party skeptic when it comes to cable. It seems there is always room for more flies in this ointment.

Wall Street Business Report TM

Up month for the Gray Lady
Radio is a tiny portion of the New York Times Company, so we don't know how WQXR-FM New York did specifically, but the overall company managed an up month, if only by 1% growth in revenues to 327.7 million bucks. Ad revenues for the New York Times Media Group, which includes the lone radio station, rose 1.6% in October to 13.5 million. For the entire company, ad revenues declined only 0.7% to 215.1 million, but that was largely because ad revenues for the About Group, which is strictly online, rose 45.8% to 10.8 million. For the main newspaper business, including radio and the related online sites, national was the only bright spot, up 6.6%. Retail ad sales were down 4.7% and classifieds fell 15.6%. Within the News Media Group, Internet ad revenues were up 19% for the month.

Tough sell for Univision Music Group?
Univision may end up getting less than expected from selling its Spanish record labels. The New York Post reports that bidders have been cutting their offers because of worries about artist contracts, advertising access to the Univision networks, payola allegations and pending lawsuits. So, instead of 250-300 million, the Post story says bidders are more likely to pay around 200 million. About a half dozen bidders are reportedly still involved, with Universal Music Group the most likely buyer, but SonyBMG and Warner Music Group still in the thick of it. When Saban Capital, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners and Texas Pacific Group took Univision private this year, they indicated that they expected to get about a half billion bucks from selling off Univision Music Group and some non-core radio stations.

Ad Business Report TM

Study: POP radio reaches the masses
Westwood One announced a recent study conducted by Edison Media Research validated impressive audience numbers for POP Radio, LP (Point-of-Purchase Radio). 14.2 million people ages 12+ were shown to be reached by POP Radio in grocery stores each week, while 5.4 million were reached by POP Radio in mass merchandiser stores. The study also concluded that the vast majority of the 3+ Million Grocery and Mass Merchandiser shoppers reached daily are aware of messages delivered through POP Radio. "We are extremely encouraged that the Edison study provides independent confirmation that POP Radio delivers such a solid audience and provides a powerful reach and frequency of consumers directly in the store," said Paul Gregrey, EVP, Sales at Westwood One, POP Radio's exclusive sales rep.
| See the report here |

ReachMD XM Channel 157 and Sermo partner
Another example of how XM makes money with advertising and cross-promotions: ReachMD XM Satellite Radio (Channel 157) and Cambridge, MA-based Sermo announced a partnership in which ReachMD's medical programming will be linked to Sermo's online physician community. The partnership will enable physicians from across the country to access selected segments of ReachMD's medical programming directly from Sermo and discuss them in real-time. Also, ReachMD XM 157 will broadcast ongoing reports on physician opinions about the content that's discussed. As part of the partnership, ReachMD listeners and the nearly 40,000 physicians on Sermo will be able to discuss ReachMD programs within the Sermo community.

Trusted ID drops Michael Savage
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Trusted ID, an identity theft protection company, has joined OfficeMax and Citrix Systems in dropping advertising on Michael Savage's nationally-syndicated radio program because of the host's anti-Muslim commentary on his 10/29 show.

Media Business Report TM

Valuing the billboards
at Entravision
Wall Street applauded last week when Entravision said it was looking into selling its outdoor advertising division (11/16/07 RBR #225). So, just what are those 10,400 billboard and poster faces, mostly in the New York and Los Angeles metros, worth? At Bank of America, analyst Jonathan Jacoby says the outdoor division, which operates as Vista Media, could fetch 115-125 million bucks. He also figures that Entravision would pay little or no tax on the sale, since it has a pretty high basis and some available NOLs. "The reason for the sale is simple; 1) EVC has underperformed the outdoor industry's revenue growth over the last few years, and 2) EVC's outdoor segment margins at ~10-12% (2008E) are significantly below the ~40% industry average. We believe that prospective buyers will look at essentially the stick value for these assets (as opposed to a cash flow multiple). We would not expect EVC to have a problem selling these assets, and while there has always been speculation that some of the EVC boards may have some zoning issues, we do not believe that EVC is alone in this regard (it is something that we hear about many operators in large urban markets)," Jacoby told clients.

Analyst Victor Miller at Bear Stearns is a little more conservative in his estimate, saying he expects Entravision to get about 100 million for the outdoor division, and also that there will be little or no tax bill due. Who are the potential buyers? "Entravision competes with CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel Outdoor, Van Wagner and Regency Outdoor. Each of these operators could be a prospective buyer, as an acquisition would be considered a 'tuck-in' acquisition. With roughly 70% of Entravision's outdoor revenues coming from New York, we believe CBS, CCO and Van Wagner are the more likely buyers," Miller said.

Washington Business Report TM

2008 races taking shape
A prominent Virginia Republican confirmed a bid for the Senate, a former Speaker of the House is opting for early retirement and a purple district New Jersey house seat is opening up. In Virginia, a battle of the ex-governors is shaping up. Mark Warner (D-VA) is expected to square off against Jim Gilmore (R-VA), who most recently abandoned a long-shot campaign for president. Warner is currently the odds-on favorite. The former speaker, Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has announced he'll be out of office before year's end, opening the possibility of a special election in conjunction with the presidential primary being held in the state on Super Duper Tuesday, 2/5/08. Candidates already in the running for the seat which was expected to open up in time for the regular November election are expected to enter the fray for the warm-up contest. Hastert was re-elected by a 60-40 margin in 2006, but before then scored support levels in the 70%-75% range. In New Jersey, Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) becomes the latest exiting Republican. The candidate he defeated 53%-46%, Linda Stender (D-NJ) is already in the running again, but in this case the Republicans may have an especially strong replacement for Ferguson in Tom Kean Jr., who is minority leader in the state Senate and lost a spirited battle for the US Senate to Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in 2006.

Media Markets & Money TM

Doubling up on the Mississippi
Tom D. Gay has a deal in place for KPXS-FM in Vidalia LA. He'll pay 150K cash for the station to Vision Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Foster Charitable Foundation headed by David L. Greenwald. It'll form a pair with KFNV-FM Ferriday LA. The stations are in unrated territory on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from Natchez MS.

Entertainment Business Report TM

ABC News Radio announces Thanksgiving programming
ABC News Radio will offer three one-hour specials for use over the Thanksgiving Holiday. The programs include: "The ABC's of Shopping for Kids: Making the Best Buys for the Holidays," "The ABC News Radio / Consumer Reports Holiday Buying Guide 2007," and "The ABC Holiday Movie Guide 2007."

Westwood One offering
"Thanksgiving with Garth
& Trisha"
Westwood One presents the "Garth & Trisha At Home" special. Part of Westwood One's Country Six Pack series, the 3-hour special will air Thursday, November 22 to Sunday, November 25. The special will highlight the personal side to the superstar couple, as they talk about their life at home in Oklahoma, how Garth recently surprised Trisha on her birthday, how the couple celebrated their wedding night and their favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

TRN welcomes Ted Edwards
Talk Radio Network recently announced the addition of Ted Edwards, Affiliate Consultant, to their Staff covering the Central U.S. Region. Edwards has been in the radio industry for over 20 years, including a 9-year stay at KGB-FM in San Diego. "With over two decades of programming stations in New York City, Houston, San Diego, Kansas City, MO; New Orleans and Long Island, he knows the industry, the markets and the talent," says Jim Watkins, Affiliate Director for Talk Radio Network.

Ratings & Research

Coors Field is World Series champion, says Nielsen
The Boston Red Sox may have won the World Series ball game, but Coors Field won the World Series sponsorship game, The Nielsen Company said. Using a new digital measurement system, Nielsen Sports reported that during Game 2 at Fenway Park and Game 4 at Coors Field of the 2007 World Series: Coors Field delivered 2.4 billion gross sponsorship impressions during Game 2 for the top five sponsors, while Fenway Park delivered 791,000 gross sponsorship impressions for its top five sponsors. Fenway Park consistently delivered center-of-screen location presence for the top five sponsors while the Coors Field locations were more diversified.

GM achieved high sponsorship visibility in both stadiums, not only in terms of its number of televised sponsorship impressions, but also by garnering nearly triple the on-screen sizing presence than that of the other sponsors. As expected, Coors Field performed well in Game 4 due to its naming rights, particularly by leveraging its fixed home plate signage. Gatorade and New Era leveraged the dug-out just as effectively as a home plate location in terms of their gross impressions and logo sizes on-screen. The digital recognition program measures streaming video in real time, not only for the presence of logos, but also their size and location on-screen. It is currently being introduced on a custom basis and will be launched into the Nielsen Sponsorship Scorecard service starting in March 2008 with Major League Baseball.

Transactions

3M WPRR-AM, WBHV-AM/WLKH-FM & WCCL-FM Johnstown PA (Johnstown, Somerset, Central City PA) from 2510 Licenses LLC (Nicholas A. Galli) to Forever Broadcasting LLC (Donald J. Alt, Kerby E. Confer, Carol B. Logan, Lynn A. Deppen). Cash. Daisychain superduopoly with WNTJ-AM/WFGI-FM/WKYE-FM/WJHT-FM Johnstown, WNTW-AM Somerset & WRKW-FM Ebensburg PA. [File date 11/1/07.]

250K KGLN-AM Glenwood Springs CO from Colorado West Broadcasting Inc. (Gabe Chenoweth) to MBC Grand Broadcasting Inc. (Richard C. Dean et al). Cash. [File date 10/31/07.]

Stock Talk

Stocks take a beating
Stock prices plunged after Goldman Sachs downgraded large banks and said it expected Citi to have to take 15 billion in write-downs due to the credit crunch. When the bloodletting was over for the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 218 points, or 1.7%, to close below the 13K level at 12,958.

Radio stocks were almost all lower. The Radio Index is moving back to where it began nearly 10 years ago. It was down 4.138, or 3.9%, yesterday to 102.388. Hardest hit was Radio One, with its Class A down 12.9% and Class D 12.8%. Emmis fell 7.8%.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Monday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		51.36	-0.45	Google	GOOG		625.85	-7.78
Beasley	BBGI		7.03	+0.14	Hearst-Argyle	HTV		19.92	-0.81
CBS CI. B	CBS		26.57	-0.61	Journal Comm.	JRN		8.77	-0.22
CBS CI. A	CBSa		26.60	-0.60	Lincoln Natl.	LNC		58.29	-1.47
Citadel	CDL		2.24	-0.17	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		2.16	-0.32
Clear Channel	CCU		33.50	-1.00	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		2.18	-0.32
Cox Radio	CXR		12.05	-0.42	Regent	RGCI		2.15	unch
Cumulus	CMLS		9.29	-0.32	Saga Commun.	SGA		6.91	-0.21
Debut Bcg.	DBTB		0.80	unch	Salem Comm.	SALM		7.49	-0.18
Disney	DIS		31.25	-1.28	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		3.51	-0.01
Emmis	EMMS		3.93	-0.33	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		1.90	-0.12
Entercom	ETM		17.20	-0.89	SWMX	SMWX		0.02	unch
Entravision	EVC		7.30	-0.03	Westwood One	WON		2.06	-0.08
Fisher	FSCI		43.00	-0.31	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		14.11	+0.13

Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
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Below the Fold

Ad Business Report
Study:
POP radio reaches the masses...

Media Business Report
Valuing the billboards
At Entravision just what are those billboard and poster faces worth...

Media Markets & Money
Doubling up on the Mississippi
There is a deal in place for KPXS-FM...

Washington Business Report
2008 races taking shape
Year of many changes on the way...

Stations for Sale

Seller Financing Available
Mississippi FM
Buy or Lease Studios, Tower
Gordon Rice Associates
(843) 884-3590
or E-mail Gordon Rice

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Contact
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Radio Media Moves

New VP/GMs
at CBS Radio Sales
Nicky Cassidy and Adrienne Pabst have both been promoted to the position of Vice President/General Manager from Vice President/Director of Sales at Interep's CBS Radio Sales. Cassidy is based in the Dallas office and Pabst in Los Angeles. In addition to announcing the Cassidy and Pabst appointments, CBS Radio Sales President Jana Cosgrove said that Mary Butler will continue her role in the New York office as Vice President/General Manager for CBS Radio Sales.

Donohue named
SVP/DOS at
CBS Radio NYC
Jennifer Donohue has been named Senior Vice President and Director of Sales for CBS Radio's six stations in NYC. She also takes GSM for WCBS-FM. In a related announcement, Maire Mason has been appointed VP/GM WCBS-FM in addition to her comparable role at Fresh 102.7 WWFS-FM. Maire returns to the station she previously managed from 1990-2003.

JRN's Powers upped
Jones Radio Networks announced Walter Powers will expand his current role as Director of Client Services for the Seattle-based programming and consulting division to include the Denver-based formats division. Powers' promotion was effective 11/1. Powers just celebrated his 14-year anniversary working for Jones Radio Networks. Prior to JRN, he was the VP/Director of Operations for Bonneville.

More News Headlines

RAB announces roadblock for Generous Nation PSA campaign
Following the success of the 2006-2007 Radio Roadblock in support of the Ad Council's Generous Nation PSA campaign, the RAB is urging Radio stations to participate again this year and use the power of radio to influence Americans to give. Produced by the Ad Council, the campaign seeks to inspire the public to get involved in helping those in need through a variety of local or national charitable options. The message is simple: "Don't almost give-Give." Last year, the RAB's Generous Nation Radio Roadblock, which ran from 12/06 though 1/07, resulted in nearly 7 million in donated Radio time, and contributed to 600,000 visits to the campaign website, DontAlmostGive.org.

KCRW signs
with Ando Media
Ando Media and KCRW-FM LA, one of the leading public radio stations in the United States, announced an agreement where KCRW.com will utilize Ando Media's Webcast Metrics, audience measurement and PodFuse, a podcast measurement program for all of its internet radio streams. KCRW will have access to actual audience metrics for all of its internet radio streams including live, on-demand and podcasts. KCRW.com offers three streaming channels that reach a global audience with over 1.5 million hours of streaming per month; and 26 different podcasts with monthly downloads exceeding 1.8 million.

AOL introduces
video ticker ads
AOL announced the availability of "video ticker ads," a new interactive video ad solution that serves as a creative alternative to pre-roll ads. AOL's video ticker ad is a graphic banner ad integrated within a streaming video, but without obstructing the video viewing experience. When clicked on by a consumer, the ticker expands to launch a video ad, or an interactive Flash ad, within the video player window. These ads will run across the AOL Network of video content within the newest version of the AOL Video media player platform.

RBR Radar 2007

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

Ferguson back to Arbitron
I read Arbitron Sr. VP Thom Mocarsky's comments (11/15/07 RBR #224) about the issues we've had with Arbitron in Northern Michigan with great interest. His response was, in short, pure double speak. The central issue is Arbitron has a responsibility to insure the purity of its data sample and provide software that works properly. (see RBR Executive Comment)
11/19/07 RBR #226

How bad can it get?
The current Wall Street consensus is that October radio revenues fell about 3%, but CL King analyst Jim Boyle now thinks the drop will be more like 5%. He says the long-time weakness in the top 25 markets continues, with mid-size markets down 6% and small markets off 3%. The gap that Boyle had been tracking for some time between the large and small markets continues, but it has become narrower - and not because business got better in the big markets, because it got worse in the smaller ones.

RBR observation: What! Hard work, good programming, investment and promotion? Say it ain't so, Jim! We would also add sales training, recruitment and retention. It really comes down to getting back to the basics that built radio in the first place. Everyone pays lip-service to the need to invest in the product and people, but some of the largest companies haven't been doing much more than the lip-service part.
11/19/07 RBR #226

Uncertainty in cross-ownership land
When FCC Chairman unveiled his cross-ownership proposal, it looked like good news for combos in the top 20 markets, but we also noted its potential problems for similar pairings in the vast majority of markets outside of the elite group. It turns out we weren't the only ones with questions: Multimedia company Media General is also waiting "for the FCC to provide clarity." The rub comes from Martin's comments to reporters that even as the rules are relaxed in big markets, in smaller markets with generally fewer media voices, the current restrictions would remain on the books and when waiver applications are before the commission in those locales, the presumption would be against approval.

RBR observation: Watchdogs have been trying to bust up existing cross-owned combinations, and they aren't just issuing press releases. The FCC has been peppered with petitions to deny just about every time an applicable television license has come up for renewal. So what is the presumption, against waivers or for grandfathering? Stay tuned. (Note: For a Legal view see Washington Business Report section)
11/19/07 RBR #226

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