Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 23, Issue 70, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Monday Morning April 10th, 2006

Radio News ®

Seller's a Feller in Backyard deal
Barry Drake's Backyard Broadcasting is expanding in Sioux Falls SD. It has a deal with Feller Broadcasting to acquire three stations - - KSQB-AM, licensed to Sioux Falls, KSQB-FM Dell Rapids and KWSF-FM Flandreau. Drake will be adding to the five stations (two AMs, three FMs) it already bought in the area for 28.5M from Midcontinent back in 2004 (10/21/04 RBR #206). Backyard is also active in Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Two brokerage firms, Kalil & Co. and Patrick Communications, had a hand in arranging the transaction. The value of the Feller deal was not immediately disclosed. According to documents filed with the FCC, Feller acquired the stations during the summer of 2004 for 100K (8/4/04 RBR #151) from a seller looking to pay off indebtedness to the IRS.

RBR observation: The devil's in the details in this one, and the measurement system will be contours, since Sioux Falls fell off the Arbitron wagon a few years back. Were it still a market and if all of these stations were considered by Arbitron/BIA to be a part of it, this combination would likely be a no-go. However, Dell Rapids and Flandreau are both a bit of a hike to the north of Sioux Falls. The applicability of the old contour system will no doubt grease the wheels for this one to move forward.

Adelstein weighs in on VNRs
The pet issues of FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein are payola and plugola, so the new study on VNRs by the Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press is right in his wheelhouse. He said there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the VNRs in the study, items from corporations produced to resemble television news items. The problem is that they were run without being sourced. "The concern arises when deception replaces disclosure - - and when there is a failure to identify the source of the broadcast material," he said. "That is a betrayal of the public trust and the law. I wonder how many of these local stations will apologize to their viewers for misleading them." He went beyond expressing concern, however - - it sounds like he's ready to start going after those caught in the act. "It certainly appears that the industry is incapable of effectively regulating itself. It is now incumbent on the FCC to take the necessary steps to protect the viewing public." He is also talking serious money, as well as jail time. "If the Commission determines that a licensee has violated the law, we may impose monetary fines of up to $32.5K per violation, and initiate license revocation proceedings. In addition, the failure to disclose is a crime, carrying a penalty of up to $10K, and as much as one year imprisonment."
| Read Adelstein's full statement here |


VNU buyout bid under attack again
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) doesn't publicly distribute its corporate proxy vote recommendations - - you have to pay big bucks for that advice, and lots of major institutional investors do. But Knight Vinke Asset Management is making sure that everyone knows what ISS has advised for the April 18th annual shareholder's meeting at VNU, parent company of Nielsen Media Research and a number of media trade publications, including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. ISS says it has "concerns" about the nine billion bucks bid to buyout VNU shareholders by a group of private equity funds - - AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Thomas H. Lee Partners (3/9/06 RBR #48). The buyout itself isn't up for a vote at the April 18th meeting, but rather is the subject of a tender offer running through May 5th. But ISS is advising clients to vote against electing new VNU directors proposed by the equity funds and against corporate amendments up for votes to facilitate the buyout. ISS also doesn't like the previously announced plan by VNU to make no dividend payment to shareholders prior to closing the buyout. It says the dividend should be paid, regardless of the buyout consortium's offer. And finally ISS advises against granting discharge to VNU management and its supervisory board - - an annual vote of approval not seen in US proxies - - because that could limit shareholders' future rights - - a hint that lawsuits are in the offing, no matter what happens with the buyout bid.

RBR observation: Knight Vinke isn't VNU's largest shareholder, but it is the most public in opposing the company's current management - - first in leading the fight to kill its proposal to acquire IMS Health and now in opposing the buyout bid. Unless there are dramatic changes in attitude in the next few weeks, it appears likely that the buyout tender will fall far short of the required 95% acceptance. What then? Knight Vinke, which is partly owned by the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), late last week proposed a new "Plan B," which would let certain shareholders cash out of VNU now by selling a 30% stake to the private equity group. Other VNU shareholders would remain as the majority owners with their 70% stake. All current shareholders would receive a dividend of 0.43 euros per share. Then the 30% stake would be sold to the new investors for 28.32 euros per share - - the buyout bid price of 28.75 per share, minus the dividend. VNU would then get a new name, new management and new directors, with only long-term investors committed to building shareholder value. It's not likely that the private equity firms will accept the 30% offer at this point, since they are committed to the 100% buyout tender that runs through May 5th.


More Good Karma for Madison
The FCC Friday gave approval for a city of license change and power upgrade for News/Talk WTTN-AM, 1580 kHz. Craig Karmazin's Good Karma Broadcasting can now move the station from Watertown, WI to Columbus, WI and boost daytime power from 1kw to 4.7kw. The move will give Good Karma its third station in the Madison, WI Arbitron market. The others are FMs - - Sports/Talk WTLX and Rhythmic CHR WKPO.

FCC a la carte
restudy challenged

The Kevin Martin FCC said that its original report, done under his predecessor Michael Powell, was flawed, and put out its own purportedly corrected version. Now, a study from an independent research firm called Economists Incorporated is suggesting that the correction of the flawed report is itself flawed. Dr. Bruce Owen led the study, which challenged both the way the new study was done and the conclusions drawn from it. Owen said, "It would be a mistake for regulators to use that document to guide policy. Bundling of goods or services is a universal marketing practice. Nothing that the FCC has presented in the report leads me to believe that their initial 2004 recommendation against a la carte should be reversed. In fact, the report does not even consider the impact of a la carte on the diversity of programming and viewpoints available to consumers. Mandatory unbundling of video services will reduce the diversity of programming available to viewers, undermining a policy goal that has been critical to the FCC and Congress for the past half-century." Owen concluded that deep-sixing channel bundling would drastically harm competition in the program production industry - - a major US export with effects reaching further into the general economy. Further, contrary to the FCC's new conclusion, he says a la carte would practically guarantee both price increases and a loss of diversity. He blamed the FCC for cherry-picking "...selective hypothetical examples to merely assert that some consumers may be better off with a la carte, but does not analyze the likely effects on consumers as a whole, which he believes would almost certainly be negative, or the fact that many consumers would have to pay more."

RBR observation: Before you go running off waving this study at your local FCC field agent and congressional representative, get out the salt shaker - - be aware that it was sponsored by Viacom, a well-known owner and operator of cable channels. But we think it's correct. We will augment it with this observation, purely from an end-user standpoint. One of the reasons a la carte is said to be a good deal is because we tend to mostly watch the same 12-17 channels. That may be true, but don't you occasionally find yourself, like a hunter/gatherer of old when game (in the form of acceptable programming) is scarce, broadening the scope of your search to a much broader area? If you are male and honest, you just answered that question with a resounding "Yes," and we'd bet most females did as well. At our home, the remote control is trained to stop at a good 40-50 channels, if only for a second or two to see if anything good is happening there. For example, the Sci-Fi Channel is on the remote cycle - - we don't often watch it, but if they happen to be showing "Plan Nine From Outer Space," we're there. Bundling is good. If you don't like a channel, block it.


Ad Business Report TM

AHAA gets new chairman, CEO
The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) announced today the transition of leadership to new Chairman Carl Kravetz, chairman/chief strategic officer of cruz/kravetz:IDEAS and the election of Chair-Elect Jackie Bird, president/CEO of winglatino. The AHAA Board of Directors created and approved a new board seat, Vice Chair, to ensure continuity in the association leadership and Jose Lopez-Varela, vice president/managing director of abece was elected to the position. The association was served by Alex Lopez Negrete, president and CEO of Lopez Negrete Communications for the past 12 months. Additionally, the board announced that the immediate past chairman will assume the chairmanship of the Hispanic Advertising Agencies Foundation (HAAF) the research entity for the industry. Lopez Negrete will take leadership of the research efforts exploring complex issues related to Latino identity and benchmarking the value that Hispanic advertising agencies provide in generating return on investment and shareholder value for clients, Kravetz says. HAAF plans to reveal new research in September at the 21st semi-annual AHAA conference in Miami.

Watchdog criticizing A-B's MobiTV ads
Alcohol industry watchdog groups are accusing Anheuser-Busch of marketing beer to underage drinkers after it struck a deal with MobiTV to advertise on its cellphone service. The deal will allow it to advertise to the mobile TV network's 1 million subscribers. MobiTV provides TV programming from ESPN, Fox, ABC and MSNBC to U.S. Sprint, Cingular and Alltel. The campaign will market Bud Light and Budweiser Select via 18 ads per hour across MobiTV's channels. A spokesman for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog, accused the brewer of attempting to skew even younger. "Anheuser-Busch profits heavily from underage drinking, so it's no surprise they're advertising on the ultimate teen accessory," he told AdAge. The Beer Institute's marketing guidelines say brewers must confine their ads to magazines, TV and radio where at least 70% of the audience is expected to be adults of legal drinking age. A MobiTV spokesman told AdAge most of the service's users were between 18-40 years old. "We're definitely way below [the 70% threshold]," he said. "We're aware of the issues and are sensitive to it."


Media Markets & Money TM
Mortenson sells his monogrammed FM
Can you guess why Jack M. Mortenson put the call letters WJMM on his Lexington KY FM station? (Did the headline give it away?) He's sold that station and two AMs to Jon Yinger's Christian Broadcasting Systems. According to John Pierce, the pricetag is 4.5M. The AMs are WCGW-AM and WWFT-AM. Yinger will not have to start from scratch on the format front - - Mortenson took WJMM-FM into the Religious realm back in the early 70s. According to Pierce, Mortenson will remain active in Kansas City, Dallas and Huntington-Charleston.


Washington Media Business Report TM
Senators want competitors to have a sporting chance
The top Republican and Democratic on the key Senate Commerce Committee, along with one of the Committee's loudest minority members, are urging the FCC to do something about the stranglehold held by the cable industry over local sports broadcast rights. Last month, Verizon - - a telco which is trying to compete with cable, complained about its difficulties in getting so much as a dialogue on the topic with cable interests in New York and Massachusetts. Now satellite MVPD competitor DirecTV has weighed in on the occasion of Ted Stevens (R-AK), Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) for going to bat for them with the FCC to make the "must-have" programming accessible under fair terms to all distributors. The fear is that satellite and telco will not be able to compete on equal terms if they have such key holes in their program lineup. DirecTV VP/Government Affairs Susan Eid said, "Chairman Stevens, Sens. Dorgan and Daniel Inouye recognize that regional sports is must-have programming, and by denying their competitors access to regional sports networks, cable monopolies are depriving fans of the right to root for their home team."

RBR observation: How muddy is this issue? Extremely muddy. It involves refereeing the battle between a minimum of three competing MVPD services over contracts negotiated by privately-owned sports franchises which are not under the jurisdiction of the FCC. Maybe cable companies will just swallow hard, give the programming to and take the money from their competitors. If not, we'd hate to be the federal court that finds this tangled mess in their docket.


NAB Day Time Planner

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

EQUIPMENT
Les Kutasi, Sales Manager; Stainless, Booth #C2447, 215-631-1313, [email protected]

BROKERS
Todd Fowler/David Reeder/Gene Ferry, American Media Services, Bellagio, 843-972-2200, [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

Cliff Gardiner,
Clifton Gardiner & Company,
303-758-6900, The Wynn Hotel, [email protected]

Andy McClure/Dean LeGras,
The Exline Company, The Wynn Hotel,
415-479-3484, [email protected]

Frank Boyle, Frank Boyle & Co., LLC, Hilton Grand Vacations Villa,
703/765-8300, [email protected]

Gordon Rice, Gordon Rice Associates,
843-884-3590, Treasure Island, [email protected]

John L. Pierce, John Pierce & Company LLC, Mirage Hotel,
859-647-0101, cell 859-512-3015, [email protected]

Jamie Rasnick,
John Pierce & Company LLC, Mirage Hotel,
859-647-0101, cell 513-252-1186, [email protected]

Dick Kozacko/George Kimble,
Kozacko Media Services, The Wynn Hotel,
office 607-733-7138, cell 607-738-1219, [email protected]

Elliot Evers/Brian Pryor/
Adam Altsuler/Tim Beach

Media Venture Partners, LLC, 415-391-4877,
[email protected], [email protected]

Larry Patrick/Greg Guy,
Patrick Communications, Bellagio,
410-740-0250, [email protected]

Glenn Serafin, Serafin Bros.,
Aladdin Hotel, office 813-885-6060,
cell 813-494-6875, [email protected]

LAWYERS
Gregg P. Skall
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC 202-857-4441, Wynn Hotel [email protected]

Internet Media Business Report TM
WFAN to launch live streaming
CBS Radio's WFAN-AM, the nations most listened to Sports radio station, will begin live streaming of its programming tomorrow. Top-rated shows from the station's well-known personalities, including Imus, Mike and the Mad Dog, Joe Benigno and Steve Somers, among others, will be made available to listeners across the country at www.wfan.com. WFAN favorites Mike and the Mad Dog will host a special "for streaming only" inaugural broadcast beginning at 3:00PM, ET on April 11, which will only be accessible to online listeners. With this move, WFAN becomes CBS RADIO's sixth sports radio station to launch on-line. WSCR-AM in Chicago, WIP-AM in Philadelphia, KILT-AM in Houston, WXYT-AM in Detroit and WFNZ-AM in Charlotte began audio streaming in June of last year.

RadioIO.com closes in on one million listeners
IOWorld Media announced that its subsidiary Radioio.com is now the second most listened-to network on Webcast Metric's list of web-based radio stations. Over 800-thousand listeners logged on to one of radioio.com's genre-specific, high impact stations during the month of February - more than twice the number of the next largest group in the survey. Radioio.com is quickly closing the gap on one million listeners. Radioio.com founder and President Mike Roe waited until this week's Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) conference in Las Vegas - where most of his company's wireless suppliers are on site - to make the February audience gains announcement. "Our wireless partners are one of the big reasons radioio.com is gaining listeners. With our partner SelectRadio - tagged 'The Cure for Playlist Fatigue"- handheld listeners have one-touch preset access to any of our 20 radioio.com channels. Many of our mobile and cell listeners found us on the TreoBits site at www.smartphonetools.com or through links to that site at NormSoft's www.pocket-tunes.com, maker of the Pocket Tunes audio player for Treo smartphones from Palm. LiquidAirLabs' spodradio site takes us overseas with its German-based, multi-lingual podcast offerings including radioio.com."


Ratings & Research
Less is more, market definition division
Roy Henderson thinks that Arbitron's Northwest Michigan market covers too much turf - - he says it has a wingspan of over 100 miles. He is therefore signing up for a new, more tightly-defined Eastlan version encompassing the five counties in the Traverse City-Petoskey area. The counties in the newly defined market will include Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Benzie, and Antrim. Measurement is scheduled to kick off just about immediately, with results to be released for Spring 2006.

RBR observation: This was one of those far-flung markets where clusters were super-sized under the old contour-based market definitions. Few if any stations could cover it, so despite the relatively sparse population, "local" station groups were assembled which were impossible in even the largest markets. We suppose that under the new Arbitron-geographical definitions they are now at risk if the owner ever wants to sell - - they'd have to be whittled down to a seven-station max with no more than four FMs. If Eastlan's new approach is more logical, meaning that outlying stations could in fact remain co-owned with those which truly serve Traverse City and Petoskey, it still won't matter, since the FCC for some reason did not choose to include Eastlan markets along with Arbitron's on the market definition menu.


Monday Morning Makers & Shakers

Transactions: 2/27/06-3/3/06
Volume was up, and value was up - - how could it not be, with two whole deals worth under 2M dollars? 41 stations changed hands - - well, sorta. 11 of them went cash free from Citadel to a trust in case they need to be spun in anticipation of the ABC Radio acquisition. For all the action, though, the average price per stick was under 1M.

2/27/06-3/3/06

Total

Total Deals

20

AMs

10

FMs

30

TVs

1
Value
38.072M
| Complete Charts |
Radio Transactions of the Week
Results Radio sells in Santa Rosa twice
| More...
|
TV Transactions of the Week
Big Easy DTV CP moves out of bankruptcy
| More...
|


Transactions
1.5M KWSZ-FM Santa Maria-Lompoc CA (Lompoc CA) from Mapleton Communications LLC (Adam Nathanson) to Emerald Wave Media (George A. Ruiz). 50K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Duopoly with KIDI-FM Guadalupe, KTAP-AM Lompoc CA. Seller retains KTME-AM Lompoc and KUHL-AM Santa Maria. [File date 3/22/06.]

N/A New FM Indianapolis (Danville IN) from Calvary Chapel of Crawfordsville (David Keesee) to Horizon Christian Fellowship of Indianapolis Inc. (William Goodrich, Mark Canada, Ronald Ewing, Jack Norton, Mike Hudson). Donation. CP is for Class B1 on 88.1 mHz with 10 kw @ 410'. [File date 3/21/06.]


Stock Talk
Down, down, down we go
Virtually all radio stocks were lower on Friday as inflation worries sent most stock prices lower on Wall Street. The fears were encouraged by new jobs data from the government, which showed March jobs growth that was a bit better than expected. That's good for the folks who found work, but could keep the Fed in its rate-raising mode. The Dow Industrials fell 96 points, or 0.9%, to 11,120.

The Radio Index dropped 2.047, or 1.3%, to 159.523, a year-to-date low. Of the 15 component stocks, only two were up for the day. Salem rose 0.3% and Saga gained 0.2%. The biggest loser was Beasley, which fell 8.6%.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Friday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

33.09

-0.04

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

23.05

-0.08

Beasley

BBGI

10.10

-0.95

Journal Comm.

JRN

12.07

-0.17

CBS CI. B CBS

25.14

-0.33

Lincoln Natl.

LNC

56.81

-0.45

CBS CI. A CBSa

25.16

-0.38

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

7.45

-0.07

Citadel CDL
10.68 -0.05

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

7.40

-0.11

Clear Channel

CCU

29.06

-0.24

Regent

RGCI

4.35

-0.14

Cox Radio

CXR

13.54

-0.06

Saga Commun.

SGA

9.03

+0.02

Cumulus

CMLS

11.30

-0.02

Salem Comm.

SALM

14.81

+0.05

Disney

DIS

27.53

-0.15

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

5.31

-0.10

Emmis

EMMS

15.45

-0.06

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

5.30

-0.21

Entercom

ETM

28.63

-0.07

Univision

UVN

34.78

+0.01

Entravision

EVC

8.80

-0.19

Westwood One

WON

10.56

-0.02

Fisher

FSCI

42.53

-0.32

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

23.30

-0.64

Gaylord

GET

43.52

-0.97

-

-

-

-

-


Bounceback

Send Us Your OpinionsWe want to
hear from you.

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

On the subject of smaller markets doing better then some of the bigger ones (4/7/06 RBR #69), it's the difference between hitting the streets and waiting around for an advertising agency to make a buy! Larger markets rely so much on agency business while smaller markets bread and butter is local direct. My advice, large or small, is hit the streets and bring the client some advertising that works. Be a consultant and develop campaigns for your clients that bring dollar spending customers in the door. Agencies buy ratings, local direct clients buy results!

Bill Pressly
Station Manager
KDEZ/KDXY/KJBX
Jonesboro, AR




Below the Fold

Washington Media Business Report
Senators want competitors
Do something about the stranglehold held by cable over local sports..

Ad Business Report
Watchdog criticizing A-B's MobiTV

Accusing Anheuser-Busch of marketing beer to underage drinkers...

Media Markets & Money
Mortenson sells
His monogrammed FM can you guess why...


Arbitrends

Arbitron
Market Results
| Greenville |
| Huntsville |
| West Palm Beach |

NBA Minute


Radio Media Moves

Baton Rouge shuffle
Donnie Picou is moving crosstown in Baton Rouge, LA to become VP and Market Manager of Clear Channel's six stations, succeeding and reporting to Dick Lewis, now Regional VP and New Orleans Market Manager. Picou had been VP and market Manager of Citadel's Baton Rouge cluster.

Sales moves at Cox
Cox Radio announced a series of changes in sales management. Kitty Malone, who had been General Sales Manager of WJMZ-FM Greenville, SC has moved to WVEZ-FM Louisville, KY as GSM. Succeeding her as GSM of WJMZ is David Abel, who had been GSM of WHTZ-FM, also in Greenville. Chris Saglian, who had been a Sr. AE, is now Sales Manager of WHTZ.

Roberts
on First

John Roberts - - the veteran radio programmer, not the US Chief Justice - - has joined Dallas-based First Broadcasting in the newly created position of Group Program Director, including day-to-day programming responsibilities for KFXR-AM and KMGS-AM Dallas. Roberts was previously a VP/Programming at Clear Channel Radio.

West goes east
Not very far east, but Salt Lake City is a little bit east of Seattle, where Bill West had been PD of Sandusky's KLSY-FM. Effective in mid-April, he'll be Program Director of Bonneville's KSFI-FM Salt Lake city.

Steve meets Ethel
Ethel is XM's modern rock channel. It's now being programmed by Steve Kingston. In addition to being PD of Ethel, Kingston continues as Sr. Director of Label Relations for XM and remains based in New York.




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

Radio is indeed proving that
it can stand the test of time

By Natalie Swed Stone
The digital revolution and all that accompanies it - - has forever changed attitudes, expectations and content. The competition is now infinite. Media companies, once defined by their distribution strength, are striving to maintain their share in an ever-expanding sphere by crossing over into new platforms. Companies who once had a handle on their competition today do not easily know just who their competition is
04/07/06 RBR #69

Double trouble in Q1
It's rare for both of radio's biggest markets to be soft at the same time, but Bear Stearns says it looks like both New York and Los Angeles saw radio revenue declines in Q1. By his count, New York was down 12% for the quarter and LA 4%. On the plus side, he says May is looking stronger and he hopes sluggishness in April won't lead to any rate panic for Q2. Miller sees a "Let's Get Small" theme for Q1, with groups having most of their stations in smaller markets doing better than those in the big markets. Some major TV national ad categories are still soft
04/07/06 RBR #69

Inventories down 5.9% in March
Harris Nesbitt analyst Lee Westerfield's monthly number crunch of Media Monitors data shows radio spot loads down 5.9% for the top 10 markets. The good news is that the yield-per-minute is up 7-8% over a year ago, but Westerfield is becoming worried that some groups may miss their Q1 guidance. Looking for a leveling off now that Less is More is more than a year old, while the 5.9% decrease for March was a modest improvement over the 7-10% declines of recent months, Westerfield says he doesn't yet see any indication of an upturn in radio ad growth overall. Outlook: there could be some negative surprises from several radio groups when they report their Q1 revenues - - "notably Entercom and Emmis."
04/06/06 RBR #68

End to cross-ownership ban
The Third Circuit affirmed the FCC's decision to allow broadcast properties to be owned in conjunction with newspaper assets in a single media market. That's the message FCC Chairman Kevin Martin delivered to the Newspaper Association of America. Martin wonders if a easing on cross-ownership restrictions may have been allowed if the issue had been addressed separately from the many other issues included in predecessor Michael Powell's omnibus ruling approach. For more and Martin's comments see
04/05/06 RBR #67

RBR News Analysis
Is Stern missing the point?
In Howard Stern's just-released interview with Entertainment Weekly, he was asked if it bothered him that most of his fans haven't followed him to Sirius from terrestrial radio? He responded: "It's insulting to me that everyone hasn't come with me. I take it personally...I want to say to my audience in this article, ''F--- you!
04/04/06 RBR #66



Good news, more good news and...oops
RAB/Miller Kaplan & Arase numbers, February national radio sales made gains over the same month in 2005. And non-spot revenue enjoyed a double-digit surge. However, the categories were not strong enough to overcome a 3% drop in local business and prevent an overall plunge into the red ink....Again.

RBR observation: Weak February results were no surprise if you've been listening to quarterly conference calls. It didn't seem like anybody at all was happy with the way the month was going. There was more optimism looking ahead, but others see more gray clouds. It's going to take hard work and out-of-the-box thinking to turn this around - - maybe the silver lining will be lessons learned will ultimately strengthen the industry.
04/04/06 RBR #66

Most radio stocks fell in Q1
With radio pacings still struggling against what were supposed to be easy comps from 2005, it's hardly surprising that the public radio stocks didn't perform well in Q1 of 2006. Of the 28 terrestrial and satellite radio stocks in RBR's chart, only six were up for the quarter. Read and weep
04/04/06 RBR #66

Slow growth? Get used to it
Radio revenues will grow more this year than last year's almost no-growth pace, but only 2.2%. if you're waiting for radio to return to "normal" growth in the mid single digits, he doesn't see that happening any year this decade. Blaming it on increased competition for listeners and, in some cases, advertising dollars, from iPods, satellite radio, the Internet and other new digital devices - - a trend is expected to continue.

RBR observation: Recommendation is to track your pacing is always to compare comparable markets. Review the data and print the chart from this report.
04/0/3/06 RBR #65



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