Thrifty kicks off new effort
with 'Book Smart' theme
Thrifty Car Rental kicks off a new multi-million dollar advertising campaign this week encouraging customers to "Book Smart" with Thrifty. Showcasing the disastrous (and often hilarious) events that happen to customers who don't plan their trips wisely, Thrifty capitalizes on its low-cost, high-value position to persuade travelers to use the Thrifty.com website, when planning. | More... |

IPG announces management transition at Lowe
Tony Wright has been named Worldwide CEO and President of Lowe & Partners Worldwide. Wright, 43, joins Lowe from Ogilvy & Mather, where he had been Worldwide Chief Strategy Officer, charged with leading the strategic process for key multinational clients, as well as for global new business development. He assumes his new responsibilities from Jerry Judge, the agency's current CEO. Judge will continue as CEO of The Partnership division of Interpublic, which encompasses a number of agency brands.

RAB presenting "Focus On Radio-A Series for Advertisers and Agencies" at Advertising Week in NYC
The RAB announced a Focus On Radio Series for advertisers and agencies as part of Advertising Week in New York City, September 20 to 24. The Radio Series includes three seminars at the Museum of Television & Radio:
* Arbitron PPM Reveals Radio's Unique Contribution to the Media Mix - Monday, 9/20, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
* Life In The Slow Lane: The Arbitron/Edison Media/SCBA In-Car Studies -9/23 , 9 to 10:30 a.m.
* Personal Relevance; Personal Connections: How Radio Ads Affect Consumers, the recently released Wirthlin Worldwide study from the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) - 9/23, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Strata Marketing unveils spot EDI in Rochester, NY
Strata Marketing unveiled its EDI software in Rochester, NY last week with Spin Marketing, the first of Strata's clients to install the system that handles spot TV buying. Strata is planning on extending its EDI offering to other upstate New York firms, then to the Midwest. The company reportedly hopes to offer the software nationwide over the next few months.

Fisher selling 150M in notes
Fisher Communications is refinancing some of its existing debt by selling 150 million dollars in new 10-year senior notes via a private placement. At the same time, Fisher plans to enter into a new senior secured credit facility which will allow for future borrowings of up to 20 million. Fisher intends to use the net proceeds from the private placement to repay outstanding debt under its existing credit facilities and to terminate and/or settle its obligations under its existing variable forward sales transaction covering shares of Safeco Corporation common stock owned by Fisher Communications.

MediaNews Group refinances
MediaNews Group says it has entered into a new bank credit facility with a group of lenders headed by Bank of America. The new package provides for borrowings of up to 598.8 million dollars, consisting of a 350 million revolving credit facility and two term loans for 148.8 million and 100 million. The new facilities replace previous facilities totaling 600 million, of which 393.8 million was drawn.

TVBR observation: The SEC filing by MediaNews Group doesn't spell out whether it will save interest costs by doing this refinancing, but the attractive margins would seem to indicate that is the case. Also, the company has the option of picking between Eurodollar or base rates as the benchmark for the interest it pays, giving it flexibility as rates fluctuate. The company incurred costs of 300,000 in doing the refinancing.

DG Systems acquires Source TV
DG Systems announced it has acquired privately-held Source TV to expand its media asset management services to advertising agencies and has named its founder, Pamela Maythenyi, SVP. Source TV provides agencies, advertisers and production houses with a complete online resource and has a searchable database of over 350,000 TV commercials, both on a subscription and per-transaction basis. Source TV users have access to the industry's largest database of television advertisements and the professionals and agencies responsible for their creation. Source TV allows users to search for spots by keywords, product, product category and more. Directors, production and production services companies can be identified through name, style, specialty, location and other searches. Spots are viewable online and hundreds of new spots are added to the Source TV database regularly.

TV stocks were also mixed again. Granite, a penny stock, rose 6.7% and Nexstar rose 2.8%. Entravision was down 1.6% and Young 1.2%.

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Reorg at Arbitron
Arbitron has reorganized its US Media Services operation, putting all US marketing under Scott Musgrave as Sr. VP of Marketing. He had been Sr. VP & GM of Arbitron Radio. Carol Hanley has been names Sr. VP of Sales, US Media Services, leading sales efforts for US media. She had been Sr. VP of Advertiser, Agency and Cable Services. Both will report to Owen Charlebois, President of US Media Services at Arbitron.

O'Brien back at CPB
Peggy O'Brien, who had been Executive Director of Cable in the Classroom, has returned to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as Senior Vice President of Educational Programming and Services.

Clear Channel's stock take
is half of 22.6M

New directors for Museum of Broadcast Communications

Complimentary Report
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We have the economic, political, and close up look at your 4th quarter of business and what must be done to hit budget by year's end.

GM of Cadillac, Mark LaNeve
tells it like it is on where he
spends ad dollars.

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Toyota and NBC cut commercial-free deal for Pride debut
"Father of the Pride" on NBC, you may have noticed a distinct lack of commercials. That wasn't because NBC couldn't sell the spots, but rather because Toyota agreed to buy sole sponsorship of the debut of the animated series and have it run commercial-free - - with Toyota spots only before the beginning and after the end. TVBR observation: We said it before so lets say it again - Content is King and clients will pay for it but the price is big. That is how network TV will compete against Cable. 09/01/04 TVBR #171

More outrage at Forbes
from broadcasters
Radio broadcasters who are boiling mad over the cover story in Forbes magazine that depicts broadcasters as "bullies" who've used their Capitol Hill clout to erect unfair barriers to hold back competition from satellite radio operators. Quite the contrary, says Bill O'Shaughnessy, who says it's XM Satellite Radio that has "run rings" around the NAB in Washington. RBR observation: First isn't just questionable, it's downright false. 09/01/04 RBR #171

Analyst applauds broad
core growth in TV revenues
It's not just political advertising that's fueling television's strong growth. After going over the Q2 figures reported by the TVBR, Wachovia Securities analyst Jim Boyle is telling investors that TV is enjoying growth over a broad core of its major advertisers. Hearst-Argyle and Gray Television because they have lots of leading news stations - - and news leaders get the lion's share of political spending. TVBR observation: Stick with news leaders."
08/31/04 RBR #170

Now, Forbes attack has
broadcasters riled
Barron's on Monday, see below, now Forbes paints terrestrial radio station owners as "Broadcast Bullies" holding back satellite radio via Capitol Hill muscle has some broadcasters fighting mad. President and CEO Eddie Fritts has accused the author of regurgitating "satellite radio industry propaganda."
RBR observation: It's one thing to criticize radio with factual information. You've certainly seen some strong words from this publication, such as Publisher Jim Carnegie's "Naples is calling" treatise. Barron's has a largely negative story on radio which, while painful to many in this business, was well researched. Not so the Forbes story and sidebar, which took at face value the claims of terrestrial radio's critics and seemed to devote no effort whatsoever to determining whether those claims were true.
08/31/04 RBR #170

McCain viewed as winner
in attack ad debate
Press accounts hailed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as the winner for persuading President George W. Bush (R) to join in efforts to shut down the 527s via the courts or legislation and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to withdraw one of his ads. TVBR observation: Give us a break! Why is McCain emerging as some sort of hero in this mess? He's the one who created it! Shame on Sen. McCain for creating this mess. Rather than claiming credit for trying to make Bush and Kerry play nice, he and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) ought to have the cohones to admit that they screwed up big time a! nd sponsor new legislation to repeal their badly-flawed campaign finance law. 08/30/04 TVBR #169

Barron's digs at radio
Is a scathing attack on radio stocks as a place to invest. After noting the skyrocketing values that followed the 1996 deregulation of radio, the article notes that "the stocks came back to earth with a thud." RBR observation: Sound familiar? Then you've probably read Jim Carnegie's "Naples is Calling" Publisher's Perspective in May RBR Solutions Magazine, if not, here's your chance to read the infamous article that set the ball rolling. Check it out here. Clear Channel's "More is Less" campaign is a step in the right direction, but there are some deeper problems that the big groups aren't addressing. Unless local managers are given the tools and time to refocus on making their stations relate to their local listeners and creative people are encouraged to get into radio and experiment with new ideas, radio is going to continue to fade away into the dull, lifeless medium that critics accuse it of already having become. 08/30/04 RBR #169

TV revenues grew 7.1% in Q2
Based on reports from the public companies, it was clear that Q2 was going to be good for broadcasters and the TVB has numbers to prove it - total TV revenues were up 7.1%, with revenues at the station level (local and national spot) up 8.3%, network up 4.7% and syndicated TV up a whopping 18.4%. One big factor, of coursew, was political ad spending. TVBR has the 2nd quarter summary local broadcast: top 100 market Chart. We have the chart to print out. 08/27/08 TVBR #168

TV Warning Clear Channel's "Less is More" gets feedback
Since our write-up over the last two days about CC Radio's "Less is More" strategy and its impact on syndicators, networks we've been hearing a bit more from folks in the industry - - again off the record, of course: "Quick observation on 'Less is More.' The sales managers and AEs aren't so worried about the spot count. What's scaring everyone is the limitation on 'promos.' Promos have become a euphemism for the 21st century version of the old Bonus Spot. They're a big part of schedules. 08/27/08 TVBR #168

TVB: Broadcast takes
99 out of 100 top July shows
in the month of July, 99 of the top 100 primetime programs, based on HH rating, aired on the broadcast networks. "CSI" on CBS took the top spot, with a 9.7 HH rating; this was followed by Fox's telecast of the MLB All-Star Game, and a special episode of CBS's "CSI: Miami" which each delivered an 8.8 HH rating to tie for second. TVBR observation: Remember July is rerun month - nothing real big unless you missed a favorite program. But we have the chart to print out.
08/27/08 TVBR #168

General Motors pulls Corvette ad
Showing a young boy driving wildly through city streets after safety advocates complained. We had just discussed the ad, ironically this week with Mark LaNeve, GM's new VP/Marketing and Advertising. 08/26/04 TVBR #167

Belo sued over circulation inflation
Now that it has determined that refunds to advertisers for inflating circulation numbers at the Dallas Morning News is going to cost the company 26 million dollars, a trio of class action lawsuits have been filed claiming that shareholders were defrauded as well.
TVBR observation: Time may be on Belo's side. 08/25/04 TVBR #166