ExxonMobil taps Phil Mickelson
for corporate comm.
Exxon Mobil and PGA Tour star Phil Mickelson announced a new partnership that will include participation in select ExxonMobil corporate communications activities. Mickelson and his wife Amy will work with ExxonMobil to develop new programs to improve science and math education in elementary schools. "Our partnership with the Mickelsons furthers ExxonMobil's long tradition of seeking to improve student achievement in science, mathematics and technology," said Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil's chairman and CEO. "By continually improving the methods by which teachers are trained, we can impact the science and math education students receive -- and as a result, their future employment prospects." Mickelson and ExxonMobil will work together to launch innovative programs to help elementary school teachers improve their instruction in math and science and thereby increase student interest and achievement in these disciplines. The programs will offer advanced training in science and mathematics instruction for elementary school teachers chosen from the communities around the country where Mickelson will be playing tournaments.

Big four get behind Ad-ID
The four major broadcast nets announced they've embraced the Ad-ID tracking standard, which uses an XML-based system to assign and track unique ID codes for marketing assets across all media, including online. ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX are now all fully Ad-ID compliant, according to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and 4As. The Ad-ID initiative is designed to replace the TV-only Industry Standard Coding Identification (ISCI), which has too few digits (eight) and doesn't allow for the added data the 12-digit digital Ad-ID system makes possible. "Top tier TV network acceptance is adding yet another ring to the ripple effect that Ad-ID has started within the advertising industry," said Bob Liodice, ANA CEO. "Ad-ID is continuing to pick up more and more media companies and advertisers, firmly establishing the system as an industry-standard practice for driving marketing accountability." Ad-ID offers additional ad data such as the creator, the ad schedule, cross-media campaign tracking, analysis of ROI and real-time accountability verification that the ad ran when it was supposed to. More than 100 marketers, including P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Con Agra, Ernst & Young, Pepsi, Ford and Wachovia, have signed on to the system.

TV stocks were up almost across the board. Gray Television soared for the second straight day, with still no news to account for the movement. Its common stock rose 7.4% and Class A 7.2%. The biggest mover, though, was ACME, up 10.7%. Nexstar rose 7.5%.

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Now that Hurricane Charley has cut a swath through Florida, it's likely that several broadcasters are among the local businesses who suffered damage from the storm's high winds and flooding. We were informed, for example, that Genesis' WHOO-AM Orlando lost two towers in the midst of its broadcasting emergency information. If your station suffered hurricane damage and is in need of equipment to get back on the air, please notify us by email, tvnews@rbr.com, so we can post the need and see if another broadcaster is able to come to your assistance. Be sure to include contact information.

Bernstein working late
NBC has promoted Nick Bernstein from Manager to Director of Late Night and Primetime Series, NBC Entertainment. He'll work with Sr. VP Rick Ludwin to oversee all late-night programming, including "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Saturday Night Live" and "Last Call with Carson Daly." He also will be involved with the upcoming primetime "Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash" and "Saturday Night Live: The First Five Years" specials.

Pruitt gets GM stripes
Nexstar Broadcasting Group has named Chris Pruitt Vice President and General Manager of KMID-TV (Ch. 2, ABC) Midland-Odessa, TX. He has been serving as interim GM since March and was the station's General Sales Manager before that.

Vallen heads to LA
PricewaterhouseCoopers has named Randall Vallen, who previously managed its Arizona and Nevada offices, as the firm's Southern California Assurance and Entertainment, Media and Technology Practice Leader, based in Los Angeles. (Should need an oversize business card for that one!)

Boyle bullish on radio clutter cutting
Back when Clear Channel Radio announced its "less is more" initiative to reduce advertising clutter, Wachovia Securities analyst Jim Boyle said he would have to study the plan before deciding whether he concurred with management's claim that it would be able to keep growing revenues while selling fewer minutes. Well, Boyle is now a believer, although he's warning investors that there could be a tough patch in Q1 of next year. | More... |

Analysts' conclusion: Infinity blinked
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in radio or on Wall Street who believed that Infinity's refusal to renew its ratings contract with Arbitron in June was the final word on the matter. But many had expected a longer hold-out by Infinity. Based on the revised financial guidance that Arbitron issued after bringing Infinity back into the fold, the consensus is that Arbitron had the stronger hand - - and played it well.

RBR observation: If you bought Arbitron's stock back in June, figuring this is exactly what would happen, it looks like you made about 3.4% over less than two months. But if you were lucky enough to buy in at the recent low just last week, your profit was over 18% if you sold yesterday. Not a bad return either way. Analysts Kit Spring and Alissa Goldwasser tell it like it is.
| More... |

Newspapers face circulation
inflation conflagration
In a way, broadcasters are lucky. A station may wish to wring the necks of the good folks at Arbitron, Nielsen and Eastlan when facing a decline in audience, but at least someone the temptation to take matters into their own hands are nonexistent. They can't physically count the tune-ins occurring in the market.
TVBR observation: Newspapers face another problem - - the availability of news and info on the Internet. There will still be ferocious competition between print and broadcast. Bottomline, newspaper's problems are broadcasting's gain. The scandals are another arrow in the quiver for broadcasting's street forces.
08/18/04 TVBR #161

Infinity signs multi-year
deal with Arbitron
By bringing a good offer to the table, what it is we just are not sure yet, but whatever it is Infinity decided it was fair. RBR had stated the hard posturing from Infinity, may have been, but was, a bluff and wouldn't last a quarter. In fact, many in the industry said they knew this was all a "joke" from the start.
RBR observation: Infinity's biggest problem with Arbitron was and always will be price.
08/18/04 TVBR #161

Telemundo seeks rulemaking
to move into Phoenix
Holbrook AZ is over 200 miles away from downtown Phoenix, a location NBC Telemundo Phoenix finds to be an ineffective staging area in its effort to compete with Univision for the eyes and ears of the Arizona capital's Hispanic population.
08/17/04 TVBR #160

Broadcasters responded to
changing Charley
Broadcasters jumped into action and fulfilled their most important role - - informing the public - - as Hurricane Charley devastated Florida. The Olympics took a back seat to storm coverage for NBC affiliates and just about every station - - AM, FM, TV and local cable - - pulled out all of the stops to deliver emergency information to viewers and listeners. TVBR observation: This was broadcasting at its best. Radio coverage was less impressive, for the most part, given the limited scale of radio news operations in recent years, but at least they were providing useful information - - even if, in some cases! That meant carrying audio from a better-staffed TV partner. For NBC affiliates, general managers had to decide on Olympic coverage and they made the right decisions. Read the total report. 08/16/04 TVBR #159

Hearst-Argyle ready to go private
Anyone who follows broadcasting stocks knows that Hearst Corporation has been a voracious buyer of Hearst-Argyle stock on the open market. Hearst has continued to be the company's largest shareholder throughout those seven years. TVBR observation: They have the right idea and if they go private Hearst just may be the leader some public companies, especially in radio, need to get the heck out of that Wall Street rat race. We've heard the saying - 'If Wall Street doesn't Love us then we will buy back our stock' - can't continue saying it forever. 08/16/04 TVBR #159

Emmis assents to consent,
agrees to pay
Enriching the US Treasury by 300K dollars following in the footsteps of Clear Channel, but not leaving anywhere near as large a footprint in payment. It will also scrub clean the radio group's file. As part of the deal, Emmis admitted that is broadcast at least some actionably indecent material. TVBR observation: There must've been something at least mildly juicy in the hopper.
08/13/04 TVBR #158