Radio News ®

Coming to a senator near you: The PTC
Brent Bozell is mobilizing his forces in an effort to get the Decency Enforcement Act of 2004 dislodged, onto the Senate floor for a vote, and eventually over to that big desk in the Oval Office. Visitors to the website of the Parents Television Council are being urged to urge their senator to get S. 2056 passed. RBR observation: We are rapidly getting to the point where we need a new standard to measure the level of public outrage. In the not-so-distant past, when snail mail ruled the world, a 1,000 letter protest was a firestorm - - to get that many people to type or pen a letter, look up a distant address, write it on an envelope, lick a stamp and get it into the postal system was really a special event. Are 100,000 mouse clicks equal to 1,000 real letters? We don't know. But we do know this: The clickers do not have nearly the impact of writers, and we need a new standard before we feel we should be expected to be duly impressed.
| Full Story Click Here | RBR Observation |

Franken eyes a seat on Capitol Hill
Al Franken's career detour to radio may be just temporary. The Associated Press reports that the Air America host has been talking seriously with his family about returning to his boyhood home state of Minnesota to run against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in 2008. Franken's family is said to be mostly supportive, except his 19-year-old son Joe, who is worried that he'll see less of his father. Franken even joked to an AP reporter that he has asked Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for advice how to run for office in a state "where you haven't lived for a while, or in your case, ever."
RBR Observation: Al, which job do you really want? Radio or politics? Let your affiliates know something besides a stand up routine. Air America do you have an answer or are you asking the same question?

Could Steve Jobs fix Disney's problems?
If ex-directors Roy Disney and Stan Gold succeed in their effort to expel CEO Michael Eisner from the company, someone will have to take over. Asked who that might be, Gold was quick yesterday with the name of one candidate - - Steve Jobs, founder of both Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios. | Full Story Click Here |

Measuring the Media Moguls

Beasley Broadcast Group:
George Beasley, Chairman & CEO

2003 stock performance: +38.29%
2003 CEO pay: -3.34%

Beasley Broadcast Group is very much a family-run operation and the big payoff is in the Beasley family's large stock holdings. Chairman & CEO George Beasley got a small salary increase last year, but that was more than counteracted by a decline in the company's payment on his life insurance policy. | Full Story Click Here |

Conference Calls, Q1 2004

Revenues rise at Beasley
Beasley Broadcast Group reported that Q1 revenues were up 6.3% to $26.1 million - - about a million ahead of Wall Street expectations. Station operating income was up only 2.2% to $7.1 million, due to the recent reformatting of WRDW-FM Philadelphia. CEO George Beasley said revenue gains were particularly strong in Miami and Ft. Myers-Naples. National outpaced local sales gains at Beasley. Excluding NTR, President and Co-COO Bruce Beasley told analysts that spot sales were up 4.9%, with local up 4.6% and national 6%. All Beasley clusters were up for the quarter, except for Philadelphia, which has the new FM running a limited spot load.

All eyes on Clear Channel
Radio's 800-pound gorilla, Clear Channel, reports its Q1 results this morning. According to Thompson One Analytics, Wall Street analysts are expecting revenues to be up 3% to $1.84 billion. The target for earnings per share is $0.14, up two cents from a year ago.

Revenues up double digits for Cumulus
Q1 revenues were up 12.9% to $65.5 million at Cumulus Media, beating Wall Street expectations by a million bucks or so. Station operating income rose 13.3% to $19.2 million. To break that down and exclude the impact of acquisitions, CEO Lew Dickey told analysts that same station revenues (for 53 of the company's 61 markets) were up 5.2%. Looking ahead, Dickey said the company is giving "conservative guidance that Q2 same station revenues should be up 5-6%. He said April was up 5%, May is pacing 8% ahead and June is "slightly better" than May. Cumulus never really got out of buying more stations as some other groups did during the economic downturn, but Dickey is indicating that the acquisition market is going to heat up soon.
He said Cumulus is poised to be a buyer.

Adbiz ©

Cable readies for best upfront ever - - Part II
The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau (CAB), while agreeing this is going to be one hot upfront for cable, isn't giving out any specific predictions or numbers. Last year, cable took in about $5.4B in upfront spending. Some say this year's could hit $6.4B. In part two of this "mini-series," we hear more from CAB CEO Sean Cunningham and PHD CEO Steve Grubbs. | Full Story Click Here |

Interep kicks in additional
$50K to RAEL
Interep announced the pledge of an additional $50K to the RAB's Radio Advertising Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) to help further the industry's research on radio effectiveness and ROI. Interep was one of the initial funding sponsors for the RAEL, contributing $100K at its inception in 2002, and again in 2003. The additional $50K brings the company's total sponsorship to $250K. Interep says if each broadcaster contributes one-quarter of 1% of total national revenue, roughly one-third of total RAEL funds would come from Clear Channel Radio, one-third would come from Infinity Broadcasting, and one-third would come from the other independent radio broadcasters combined, resulting in a fairly equal representation within the industry. RBR talked to RAB CEO Gary Fries earlier this year and it looks like the industry is being asked to contribute a total of $3M-$4M for the latest push (1/8 RBR Daily Epaper #4).

Sheraton spending $12M
on new TV, print effort
Sheraton and its parent, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, launched a $12M print and television campaign designed to spotlight the brand's new signature Sheraton Sweet Sleeper Bed. Created by Deutsch, the effort features a rendition of the classic lullaby "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and brings attention to Sheraton's newest star - - the plush, nine layer custom-designed Sheraton Sweet Sleeper Bed. The campaign includes lighthearted TV spots that were directed by Pucho, an acclaimed South American director, and feature guests of all ages leaping and diving into Sheraton's new, luxurious confection of comfort to the classic tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Sung by accomplished musician Danya Kurtz, the re-mixed song includes strands of jazz, blues and folk to deeply connect and add an emotional richness to the commercial. The second verse of the famous lullaby that is used in the new TV spots couldn't be more appropriate as it specifically relates to traveling away from home. As part of the media plan, the campaign makes its debut in cable on CNN, A&E, ESPN, TLC, The Food Network, as well as local presence on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. Print ads are running nationally in USA Today, The New York Times and in Canada's Globe & Mail.

Cars.com to launch first national effort
Cars.com announced its largest media campaign in company history. Building upon extensive brand promotion in local markets across the cars.com network, cars.com will extend its reach with the launch of its first national TV effort on 5/3.
| Full Story Click Here |

Media, Markets & Money tm

Washington Beat

Programming

Transactions

$4,750,000 WQBH-AM Detroit from Queen's Broadcasting Corporation to Salem Communications Corp.

$2,000,000 KVIQ-TV Eureka CA from Ackerley Media Group Inc. to Sainte Partners II LP.

$37,500 KNCR-AM Eureka-Arcata CA (Fortuna CA) from Miller Broadcasting Company Inc. to Del Rosario Talpa Inc.

| Full Details Click Here |

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