TVBR First
Mark LaNeve, GM's
new VP/Marketing and
Advertising speaks
As we promised, GM's new VP/Marketing and Advertising Mark LaNeve, spoke to TVBR about his new position, upped from GM of Marketing for Cadillac since 2001. LaNeve, as head of Cadillac, is interviewed in our current September and August issues of RBR. (Call April McLynn to subscribe and get the issues 703-719-9500). This is the first in a series that will continue into next week.
Photo: Mark LaNeve and Jim Taylor | More |

Toyota's Indiana Plant featured in latest corporate ad
Toyota Motor North America announced that Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana (TMMI) will be featured in the third print execution of its new corporate advertising campaign, initially launched in July (7/27 RBR Daily Epaper #145). Entitled "Good Business," the campaign emphasizes Toyota's long-term commitment to the U.S. market, which has resulted in the creation of 190K jobs including dealers and suppliers. The plant produces a total of 300K units annually of the Tundra pick-up truck, Sequoia SUV and Sienna minivan. The head reads, "Our blue-sky scenario: more U.S. manufacturing jobs, cleaner U.S. manufacturing plants." The accompanying photo is of the plant's main entrance showing the large scale of the plant and a vast blue-sky in the background. The ad copy mentions TMMI's receipt of the Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence in 2002 and 2003, Toyota's longstanding manufacturing presence and job creation in the U.S. and the company's two new state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities being built under strict environmental standards. The first two ads in this campaign featured Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas and Alabama. Upcoming ads will include Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance, CA, site of the largest "green" building complex in the US, as well as Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky (Georgetown) and West Virginia (Buffalo). The campaign is running in more than 40 national publications, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time and others. In addition, the ads will appear in local business publications in the communities surrounding some of the featured operations.

Gray day for Charlottesville CBS affil
WCAV-TV 19 in Charlottesville VA is now officially a full-fledged asset in the Gray Television portfolio. Gray acquired the station for the relatively modest price of 1M dollars earlier this year - - but most buyers expect to get a break on price when they have to build the property themselves, as was the case with this station. It has a new GM, Bill Varecha, and a 10-year contract with CBS, to help it get started.

TV stocks went lower with the market. Paxson led the retreat, falling 12.8%. Granite lost 6.3%. After two unexplained days of soaring, Gray Television gave back a bit - - its common shares were down 1.9% and its Class A shares declined 3.2%.

08/20 - Get the feel of what you are scrolling down and reading... Listen to this morning's AudioCast and
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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.

Sloan trades networks
TLC production boss Chris Sloan, who was responsible for the cable channel's hit "Trading Spaces," has moved to CBS Entertainment as Vice President of Alternative Programming.

Court TV hires
Marc Juris
Court TV has tapped Cablevision's Fuse President Marc Juris to be GM/Programming and Marketing. Juris will likely take Court TV into even spicier and more entertainment-oriented territory. More Cops and robbers and investigative shows, less courtroom coverage.

RAEL releases first study: How Radio Ads Affect Consumers
The RAB's Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) released the first of several major new research studies yesterday in NYC that identify how radio and radio advertising works with listeners, how to maximize ROI and how radio ads can improved upon for effectiveness. "I've asked the captains of our industry to come together in a sign of unity to show this is an industry effort," said RAB CEO Gary Fries in opening the event that was well-attended by most radio groups. "They all believe in radio and are joined together to show the industry how effective the medium is...We don't want to just present this research, but to embed it, present this documented information to the ad community. It's completing the circle. We are putting forth an unprecedented marketing effort. We have a team to get the message out, take it to the streets to the advertising community." | 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.
TVBR 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.
08/19/04 TVBR #162

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