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Volume 23, Issue 156, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Friday Morning August 11th, 2006

TV News ®

CBS exposing itself
to six-figure fines
That's so it can air a update of previously-aired documentary "9/11," narrated by Robert de Niro, that avoids doing what the filmmaker's believe would be a disservice to the heroic fire fighters who responded to the attack on the World Trade Center. Gideon Naudet, Jules Naudet and James Hanlon were working on a documentary about the life and times of a rookie firefighter when events turned the production into something much bigger. CBS feels that the gravity of the occasion demands that the events be aired precisely as they were captured that day, harsh language and all. CBS said, "Due to the sensitive content and graphic language that appears in parts of the program, the broadcast also will include both audio and visual warnings to viewers, as well as an introduction by De Niro alerting viewers to the content of the program." Versions of the film have previously aired, when the top drawer indecency fine much lower. It was 27.5K, and was increased to 32.5K before getting a ten times increase this year to 325K. Even at the old rate, a per-utterance approach to fining the stations could add up to serious money. Another way to get stratospheric would be to follow an established precedent of fining each and every affiliate that airs the program individually. It's on the schedule for Sunday, 9/10/06 from 8:00PM-10:00PM ET/PT.

Up month for Scripps
Political revenues are continuing to build as November draws nearer and several states hold summer primaries. Political ad revenues totaled 1.7 million in July for the Scripps TV group, compared to only 600K a year ago, helping to boost total revenues for the month by 6.9% to 22.9 million. In addition to the political bucks, local sales were up 4.3% to 13.8 million. However, national was soft, falling 2.5% to 6.6 million. Once again, the cable TV network business was red hot, with Scripps Networks revenues up 24% to 81.9 million, with ad revenues up 21% and affiliate fees up 20%. The original business of the E.W. Scripps Company, newspapers, had a flat month, with total revenues at 56.6 million just like a year ago, held back by declines in circulation and "other" revenues. Ad revenues, however, were up 1% to 45.5 million, with preprints up 9.1% and classified up 1.2%, while local was down 1.6% and national plunged 17.8%.

Andrew says no deal
Equipment maker Andrew Corporation will remain independent. It has dropped a planned merger with ADC Telecommunications and rejected a buyout offer from CommScope as well. The ADC deal had been on shaky ground since it was announced in June 2005. The stock-swap merger was billed as being valued at two billion bucks, but Wall Street reacted by driving down the value of ADC stock, which lowered the value. ADC then encountered some problems meeting its financial projections and its stock took another hit, further devaluing the proposed merger. That prompted CommScope to ring in this week with its own all-cash bid totaling 1.7 billion (8/8/06 TVBR #153). Andrew and ADC have now agreed to scrap their merger, with Andrew paying ADC 10 million to walk away - plus another 65 million should Andrew be sold or merged within the next 12 months. That's not likely to happen, since the board at Andrew has also rejected the offer from CommScope as "wholly inadequate." CommScope issued a statement that it was disappointed, but indicated that it too would go on building its business alone, so don't look for it to come back with a topper to its own bid of 9.50 per share.

FMC, CWA drive the localism bandwagon
And the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) and Communication Workers of America (CWA) go on to tie job losses to a reduction in localism and diversity in local markets. They charge that the effects of allowing bigger local clusters and limitless national aggregations tends to nationalize playlists, leads to talent-sharing at the expense of local staffing and has made local radio news a relatively rare commodity. FMC Executive Director Jenny Toomey said, "Consolidation in radio ownership hasn't just homogenized music formats, it has devastated the broadcast profession and virtually eliminated the ability of radio stations to provide unique coverage of local news, music and community issues. Before the FCC moves forward to further loosen already weak ownership limits, it should understand the impact that deregulation has had on jobs and communities." Newspaper Guild/CWA President Linda Foley added, "This study by FMC once again shows what news professionals know about consolidation of media ownership: It results in fewer newsroom jobs and, as a result, fewer resources devoted to reporting the news. No wonder radio news, once the primary source of local news and information, has all but disappeared from the American landscape." The FMC report cites job losses and stagnant wages among DJs, broadcast journalists and technicians, and blames that result on cost-cutting by "...centralizing some operations in distant markets, such as on air DJs, programmers, reporters, and engineering or broadcast-technician jobs." They say practices such as voice tracking damage a station's ability to be in touch with the local music scene on the one hand, and impede the ability to provide effective emergency broadcast service on the other. They called for the FCC to complete its proceeding on localism before moving on to the media ownership proceeding.

TVBR observation: This is more of a radio issue at the moment, but it's something for TV to consider as it pushes for relaxed local caps. You could read these charges and say, duh...one of the chief benefits of consolidation is efficiency, and one facet of that is getting the job done with less employees. However, if over-the-air broadcasting's main advantage in fending off the ever-mounting onslaught of competition is being local, it seems penny-wise and dollar-foolish to cede that advantage by operating a station by remote control. We often hear that the DJ talent pool is drying up. Duh...what were once off-prime time training shifts are now mostly automated, and until somebody figures out how to grow Rick Dees, Cousin Brucie and Howard Stern on trees, there isn't enough of an investment in developing tomorrow's voices. We also hear from time to time that the engineering talent pool is drying up. And consider this. Locally, a station just underwent a format change in our market recently, and we sampled it. Admittedly this happened over the weekend, which is perhaps not entirely fair, but it's not our job to be fair, it's the station's job to make us love it. But all we got was a format already being offered on a competing station, with information-free self-promoting voiceovers and commercials. Local information? Zero. Human interaction? Zero. We haven't been back.

FCC goes to war with Quad Cities buccaneers
You have to give pirate FM station "Power 103" credit for originality. When on 4/18/06, an FCC field agent, acting on a complaint, traced the station to the Northwest Bank Building in Bettendorf IA, he was subsequently introduced to Matthew H. Britcher, called in by the building's manager. Britcher informed the agent that the station was operating legally pursuant to the "War Powers Act." Also, while being videotaped by an unknown third party, Britcher refused the agent's request to inspect the station, which beamed from a roof-mounted antenna, due to lack of a warrant, and despite the agent's statement that a warrant was not required. The station was still operating the next day. Subsequently, Jason L. Duncan called the FCC's Kansas City office and identified himself as the cameraman. Britcher and Duncan both began to claim that the station had applied to operate under rules allowing the FCC to grant temporary authority under "...extraordinary circumstances requiring emergency operation to serve the public interest." Pirate stations are usually hit with a 10K fine. Power 103 has left that figure in the dust. Britcher has been hit with the standard 10K fine for piracy plus another 7K for refusing to allow the inspection, and Duncan was also hit with a 10K piracy fine for a grand total of 27K.

TVBR observation: We're still waiting to hear about a TV pirate. Anyway, if this station's programming was as entertaining as its bureaucratic dealings, it might have been worth a listen...

Coming Next Week...

Media Markets and Money:
New owners: What makes them tick?
New owners just venturing into radio and/or TV-why are they getting into it? What do they see that others that are bailing out don't?

....and

OneonOne: David Kennedy
After a long career that took him to the CEO position at Susquehanna Media, David Kennedy is now wrapping up loose ends after selling off the company's radio and cable assets for the founding family. What's next for this well-known radio veteran? Inquiring minds want to know.

Ad Business Report TM

Yellow Book search to feature
David Carradine in new spots
Search engine Yellow Book USA is developing a television campaign created by Trahan, Burden and Charles (TBC), while continuing the brand awareness efforts for the directory's print publications and local search engine. The campaign, which will feature television and film star David Carradine, will include multiple spots that focus on the Yellow Book search engine, as well as the traditional print directory. Carradine plays a guru enlightening a young seeker. In one spot, the guru explains, ''Everyone is searching for something... after all, it is a material world; and with yellowbook.com, you ...just type in what and where.'' The spot concludes with the young seeker realizing that www.yellowbook.com is a source of ''infinite information.''

Media Markets & Money TM

Sinclair filing delayed
Sinclair Broadcast Group has told the SEC it will be delayed in filing its quarterly 10-Q report for Q2. The holdup is the SEC itself. Sinclair has asked the Commission for a ruling on how it has to account for last year's exchange of an issue of preferred stock for 6% convertible debentures. The exchange was recorded one way last year, but now Sinclair's auditor, Ernst & Young, has changed its mind and says it should be treated another way. So, Sinclair has asked the SEC to decide. It promises to file the 10-Q on Monday (8/14), apparently assuming quick action by the government agency.

Washington Media Business Report TM

Station fails to meet the poverty threshold
M.B. Communications' WYLF-AM in Penn Yan NY, near Rochester, is probably not taking the FCC's positive opinion as to its financial health as a complement. It was charged with a pair of violations, running with excessive power (comprehensively, we might add, with citations for day, post-sunset and night included), along with failing to secure its tower. The total bill was 11K. M.B. did not dispute the violation, but it did plead inability to pay, and unlike many who take that route, it actually appended the necessary tax documentation. Going by gross revenues, the FCC determined that the station is bringing in enough cash to pay the fine.

TVBR observation: Time and again we see stations pleading poverty and letting it go at that, without providing any evidence. The pleadings of these stations are invariably ignored. At least M.B. gave itself a chance, but obviously the evidence was not compelling enough.

Entertainment Media Business Report TM

You're never too old...
He may be 88 years old and, at least in theory, semi-retired, but Mike Wallace is still scoring big for CBS. He managed to win an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - a coup reminiscent of his 1979 interview with Ayatollah Khomeini during the Iran hostage crisis. Portions have aired this week on the "CBS Evening News" and the entire interview is scheduled for Sunday on "60 Minutes." In the interview the Iranian President accuses the Bush Administration of talking down to his country and declares that hatred against the US President is growing every day.

DIY looking for new show host
DIY Network, the cable source for do-it-yourself enthusiasts, is searching nationwide for the next home improvement expert. Go-to-guys and go-to-girls who think they know the difference between a nut and a bolt could be the next DIY home improvement host. The winner of DIY's Stud Finder Search will be chosen "live" on a national morning show in October and will land a starring role as host of a DIY home improvement series in early 2007. The Stud Finder Champion will also be profiled in a one-hour special in early 2007. Hosted by DIY host Amy Matthews, the program will feature other top finalists, and a few of DIY's resident experts.

Internet Media Business Report TM

User-generated content drives half
of Top 10 fastest growing web brands
Nielsen//NetRatings announced user-generated content sites, platforms for photo sharing, video sharing and blogging, comprised five out of the top 10 fastest growing Web brands in July. Image hosting site ImageShack ranked No. 4 among July's fastest growing Web brands, increasing 233%, from a unique audience of 2.3 million to 7.7 million. Heavy.com, a video sharing site, took the No. 5 spot, increasing 213%, from 965,000 to 3.0 million unique visitors. Photo sharing site Flickr followed at No. 6, growing 201% from 2.1 million to 6.3 million unique visitors. Other user-generated content sites that made it into the top 10 fastest growing Web brands were MySpace, with a 183% year-over-year increase, and Wikipedia, with a 181% year-over-year increase. Among the top 10 Web brands overall, MySpace was the No. 1 fastest growing, increasing 183%, from 16.2 million unique visitors in July 2005 to 46.0 million in July 2006. Google ranked No. 2, growing 23%, from a unique audience of 76.2 million to 94.0 million. eBay rounded out the top three, increasing 13%, from 51.1 million to 57.8 million unique visitors.

Ratings & Research

Judge Judy flying high
"Judge Judy" is connecting with summertime TV viewers, tying "Everybody Loves Raymond" for second place in the latest syndie ratings supplied by the Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA), based on data from Nielsen Media Research. Of course, "Wheel of Fortune" was still #1.
| Here is the top 10 list |

Study: CNBC most watched by affluent
In a recent survey by Phoenix Marketing International's Affluent Marketing Service, findings reveal CNBC is, by far, the station that affluent households watch most frequently for investment or financial information. Among the total affluent market that watch TV for investment information (42%), 32% selected CNBC as the station they watch for financial news. MSNBC is a distant second (16%), followed by CNN at 13%. If you put gender in the equation, affluent females selected CNN first for investment information (27%), followed by MSNBC (21%) and CNBC (17%). The data was collected in June 2006 via an online survey among a sample of affluent households with investable assets in excess of 250,000 and/or an annual income in excess of 150,000.

Stock Talk

Stocks up despite terror fears
Sometimes the market is just surprising. The expected big sell-off didn't occur following arrests in a terrorist plot to blow up airliners. Rather, oil prices eased on speculation that people would reduce air travel. The Dow Industrials finished the day up 48 points, or 0.4%, to 11,124.

TV stocks also managed gains. Scripps shot up 4.8% as it reported strong revenues for July. Gray Television jumped 4.5% in a delayed reaction to its Q2 results the previous day.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Thursday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		5.18	-0.02	LIN TV	TVL		6.36	+0.10
Belo	BLC		16.09	+0.34	McGraw-Hill	MHP		56.85	+0.03
CBS CI. B	CBS		26.50	+0.25	Media General	MEG		37.03	+0.10
CBS CI. A	CBSa		26.45	+0.18	Meredith	MDP		46.83	+0.65
Clear Channel	CCU		27.70	+0.29	News Corp.	NWS		19.71	-0.19
Disney	DIS		29.58	+0.75	Nexstar	NXST		4.50	-0.04
Emmis	EMMS		11.43	+0.28	NY Times	NYT		22.48	+0.36
Entravision	EVC		6.81	+0.10	Ion Media	ION		0.97	+0.01
Fisher	FSCI		39.17	-0.06	Saga Commun.	SGA		7.33	-0.03
Gannett	GCI		54.68	+0.57	SBS	SBSA		4.41	+0.07
Gen. Electric	GE		32.67	+0.39	Scripps	SSP		42.85	+1.95
Granite	GBTVK		0.15	+0.03	Sinclair	SBGI		7.85	-0.05
Gray	GTN		6.26	+0.27	Time Warner	TWX		16.04	+0.20
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		6.81	+0.01	Tribune	TRB		29.64	-0.04
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		21.12	+0.56	Univision	UVN		33.46	+0.01
Journal Comm.	JRN		10.56	+0.15	Wash. Post	WPO		736.75	+8.75
Lincoln Natl.	LNC		57.34	+0.54	Young	YBTVA		2.71	-0.09

Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to tvnews@rbr.com

TV Media Moves

ABC News forms
"ABC News All Media"
ABC News is merging its long-form documentary unit with its production unit to form ABC News All Media, a team that will produce content for various platforms both inside and out of the network, ABC News President David Westin announced today. Rudy Bednar will serve as Executive Producer and Director of ABC News All Media. He will report to Phyllis McGrady, SVP of ABC News Morning, Primetime and Development. ABC News All Media will continue to develop and produce programs for the network and for cable clients; it will also work with ABC News Digital to produce programming for all of ABC News’ digital platforms. Lisa Zeff will continue as Executive Producer of ABC News Productions and report to Bednar.

Expansion at SWMX
SWMX Inc. announced that Pam McWilliams has been named Director of New Business Development for SWMX Radio and SWMX Television, focusing on the direct response marketplace. Prior to joining SWMX, McWilliams served 21 years as Executive Vice President of Bee Alive Inc., a direct marketing health and beauty company she helped grow from a three-person operation to a 150-employee organization with millions in annual sales.

Below the Fold

Media Markets & Money
Sinclair filing delayed
Asked the Commission for a ruling...

Group Owner
Another run for Yager
Keeps working instead of taking it easy and growing...

Internet Media Business Report
User-generated content drives half
Of Top 10 fastest growing web brands...

Entertainment Media
Business Report
DIY looking for new show host
Searching nationwide for the next home improvement expert...

Ratings & Research
Judge Judy flying high
Syndie ratings as she ties Raymond for second place...

Stations for Sale

For Sale 100+ Market
Spanish TV
Network Affiliate $1,500,000
100,000 watt FM $1,200,000
$2,500,000 combo price
or sold separately
barbaraboff@bellsouth.net

New York City
2 LPTVs reaching 12 million people.
$8mil & $4 mil. or $10 mil for BOTH
Kozacko Media Services
georgewkimble@aol.com
520-465-4302

More News Headlines

Redstone family
feud continues
Round one goes to Brent Redstone. A judge in Maryland has refused to dismiss the lawsuit he filed against the family-owned National Amusements (2/15/06 TVBR #32), seeking to dissolve the company through which his father, Sumner, and sister, Shari, control both CBS and Viacom. National Amusements dismissed the judge's action as merely procedural, but the company will now have to defend itself at trial in October. Brent claims he has been frozen out of decision making. He wants National Amusements broken up, which would give him direct control of his one-sixth stake and make him a significant shareholder of both CBS and Viacom.

July RBR/TVBR
Digital Magazine

Take a look at what's in the July RBR/TVBR Solutions Magazine:
July is our annual sports media and marketing issue. This year, Basketball News Services' lead NBA analyst and Five-Star Basketball Report host Steve Kyler provides opinions on what works and what doesn't work in sports radio; AND1 Brand Marketing Manager Taylor Duffy talks about marketing and branding his company's basketball shoes; Emmis Sports Marketing's David Barnett talks about making money off of sports programming; and Entercom's WEEI Boston Director of Programming and Operations Jason Wolfe writes about how he's helped build WEEI into such a powerhouse.

We interview Magna Global
CEO Bill Cella.

In Media, Markets and Money, the logjam has finally broken and station trading is picking up, in both radio and television. Some prominent brokers tell RBR/TVBR what has changed - and why.

Read RBR/TVBR in 2 simple steps:
1.Create a simple account with Zinio and download the Zinio Reader.
2. You can then download the
July Issue of RBR/TVBR

TVBR Radar 2006

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

Don't look for a Google
mega-deal at Disney
Rupert Murdoch may have committed Fox Interactive to a 900 million bucks plus Internet ad deal with a single partner, Google, but Bob Iger wants to play the field. Disney is in talks with various Web companies on potential deals. While there was talk of rumors that the agreement to sell ABC Radio to Citadel Broadcasting is about to fall apart, Disney officials say it is still on track.
08/10/06 TVBR #155

Executive Comment
Here are my insights
into the :30s discussion
Jerry Lee, WBEB-FM Philadelphia. I come from the school of thought that an Interruption is an Interruption is an Interruption. When Clear Channel first announced their :30s initiative, I launched a study with Bill Moyes to prove Clear Channel wrong. I now publicly admit that I was wrong. Based on this research I am convinced that number of commercials in a Pod are immaterial to the listener. I do have a caveat. We don't know how the public would react if you ran 8 :30s or 16 :15s in lieu of 4 :60s. I think that this should be researched.

RBR observation: There is a lot more comment and a research study to what Jerry Lee is discussing and RBR highly recommends you review the study, print it out and digest it. See this report in
08/10/06 RBR #155

Commissioner #5 weighs in;
Kicks must-carry to The Hill
Robert McDowell held his first meeting with the press on the occasion of his 69th day in office...he called it a Q&D session (question and dodge).

TVBR observation: This is a laundry list of topics so best check out TVBR for complete details.
08/09/06 TVBR #154

Hogan insists that listeners
don't hear spots as units
Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan isn't buying the argument from Cox Radio CEO Bob Neil and others that radio needs to hold down units per hour to attract listeners.

RBR observation: The jury is still out on whether Less is More accomplished all it was supposed to. Is clutter coming back by packing more, but shorter spots into each pod? Wall Street analysts are trying to get a handle on whether Clear Channel is succeeding in putting upward pressure on pricing now that Less is More has been fully implemented for over two quarters. RBR noticed as we listened to the conference call, that whenever an analyst asked a question about just how many units are airing vs. a year ago, Hogan and Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark Mays managed to talk a lot about other questions, without ever getting around to answering that one.
08/09/06 RBR #154

Regional Account Executive
LIN Television West Michigan is looking for a Regional Sales professional for WOODTV8, WOTV 4 and WXSP TV. Candidate must have proven success in retaining solid client relationships and ability to target accounts and strategize rate and share increases. Time management and organizational skills a must. Knowledge of VCI, One Domain, Marshall Marketing a plus. No Phone calls but Send resume.
See TV Careers

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