Wall Street snaps up broadcast bonds
Stock prices may be soft, but Wall Street is still hot for broadcast bonds. Both Clear Channel and Fisher Communications priced new bond issues yesterday with single digit yields. Demand was so strong that Clear Channel upped its planned 500 million dollar issue to 750 million in 10 year notes and priced it to yield 5.556% with a 5.5% coupon. Joint book-runners were Citigroup Global Markets and Wachovia Securities. Fisher's offering of 150 million in 10 year notes was priced at par with a coupon of 8.625%. Wachovia Securities was the sole manager.

BroadCap looks at station investments
Hank Torbert, the EVP/COO of Broadcast Capital Inc., appeared at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters session of station trading and finance last week (9/10/04), and provided a wealth of information on the ins and outs of financing station acquisitions in particular, and, really, anything in general. This will be a return to Fin101 for some, but for you PDs and for anyone else with nothing to do during the latest deal freeze, lets go through some of Torbert's info. Every once in a while we hear about layers of financing. Torbert has provided a guide to just what those layers are. The first two are equity only (based on future cash flows); the others can be equity of debt (based on existing cash flows). Here goes:

* Seed: Research, assessment, concept development money
* Start-up: Product development, initial marketing
* Expansion: Growing an existing business or acquiring existing broad assets
* Turnaround: Fixing up an existent but underperforming property
* Management buy-in: Outsiders bring in cash for a share of the business
* Management buy-out: Current management brings in existing properties
* Bridge finance - - IPO: Going on the market, from private to public
* Replacement capital: Transferring shares in a company from one investor to another
More tommorow.

Television stocks followed the market lower, spurred on by this week's negative report on the TV sector by Banc of America Securities and a similar thumbs down for radio yesterday from Lehman Brothers. Granite plunged 17.5% and Entravision fell 4% as the poorest performers.

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Martha heading to jail

Congressman wants probe of CBS

Lehman analyst
drops radio forecast
Yet another Wall Street analyst has cut back his forecast for radio revenue growth this year and next - - and they're big drops. Lehman Brothers analyst Bill Meyers now expects growth of only 2.7% this year, not the 3.7% he had previously forecast. And for 2005 Meyers has cut his growth estimate to 2% from his previous 4.5%. Meyers says radio hasn't been able to deliver revenues from all of the growth drivers it was supposed to have this year - - and next year is looking even worse.
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First reported here
in Tuesday's Bulletin
Consolidation within the Consolidator: CCU merging Premiere and CC Advantage operations into Katz
Clear Channel is putting Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Advantage under Katz Media Group CEO Stu Olds. Premiere will keep its name, but CEO Kraig Kitchin will report to Olds. CC Advantage will merge with Katz Dimension, with the whole thing to be called Clear Channel Katz Advantage. It's not really a complete merger, but a lot is changing. Here's how it's going down: Premiere Radio Networks is not going away, but will have more interaction and direction from Katz Radio Group. RBR Observation: Katz has no history in programming. The original TranStar Radio Network (now part of Westwood One) was lost on Stu Olds' watch. CCU has still never successfully consolidated all the pieces of their empire - - Outdoor, Internet, network radio, concerts and spot. Perhaps this is another attempt at it. CCU is the only company that has the potential to compete on a national level with the Yahoos, the MTVs, etc, in order to put demand-side pressure on the inventory. Until they can do this, this industry is going to flounder. The question: are Stu Olds and Bonnie Press the people who can do this? 09/15/04 RBR #180

BofA analyst goes negative on TV
Belo, Hearst-Argyle and LIN all saw their stock prices fall yesterday after Banc of America Securities analyst Jonathan Jacoby cut them to "neutral" from "buy." Jacoby said this year's election dollars are already priced into the stocks and there's a risk that some groups not in battleground states could come up short on political revenue expectations. 09/15/04 TVBR #180

Look out Clear Channel and Viacom! NBC is in the outdoor business
In a surprise move to expand into a new industry, NBC Universal has announced a joint venture from France's JCDecaux to bid for the street furniture advertising contract with the City of New York. The joint venture is called NBCDecaux. It has filed its bid for the city's contract to design, install and maintain up to 3,500 bus shelters, 330 newsstands and other public amenities throughout New York City. "NBC is to in-home advertising what JCDecaux is to out-of-home advertising - - we both create first-class environments that enhance the messages our advertisers want to deliver," said Bob Wright, Chairman and CEO of NBC Universal.
TVBR observation: This should be fun to watch in the Big Apple. The outdoor fight between Viacom and Clear Channel now NBC.
09/15/04 TVBR #180

Radio One deal under attack
Robin M. Rothschild has challenged the license renewals of several Radio One properties in Ohio, and while that challenge is lending, is further challenging the group's qualifications as a suitable assignee of WABZ-FM Albemarle NC, which it has filed to acquire from Susquehanna and move into the Charlotte market.
09/15/04 TVBR #180

Olympics send Gannett
TV revenues soaring
Talk about getting a bump from the Summer Olympics! 13 of Gannett's 21 TV stations are NBC affiliates, so it saw TV revenues jump 36.9% in August, with local up 27.8% and national 54.5%. Including recently acquired Captivate (an elevator TV screen ad business), August revenues for the TV division were up 37.5% to 77 million dollars. Based on current pacings, Gannett said it expects Q3 TV revenues to be up in the mid to high teens.
TVBR observation: With those results wonder how NBC really made out on both sides of TV - their affiliates and O&O's plus the cable outlets. Viewers saw many events via cable that they only heard about before like badminton and lots of volleyball. But this bump is once every four years. But it demonstrates the need for content and presentation. 09/14/04 TVBR #179

RBC warns investors of
soft radio revenues
David Bank is warning investors that radio revenues are pacing behind his previous expectations for Q3 - - and that Q4 is worrisome as well. In a note which headlined that Q3 for radio came in "like a lamb" and appears to be going out the same way. RBR observation: Heads up people because the fourth Q is at risk. Now you can not point any finger at Naples, FL or Barron's or Forbes. Best read further on.
09/14/04 TVBR #179

Auto analyst: Big three have a marketing problem
Detroit is facing a new problem - - how to keep moving cars now, since there's no pent-up demand and rising rates will soon put an end to 0% financing. Morgan Stanley auto analyst Steve Girsky said the US car makers face a marketing problem. "..you look at who is increasing incentives at a faster rate, you have Nissan at 50% and Audi at almost 60%, Land Rover 45% - - a lot of the foreign are increasing incentives at a much greater clip than the domestic brands." TVBR observation: Girsky sees local dealers struggling to hit a profit this year. TVB's Rohrs sees this as an opportunity for local TV to move local inventory. TVBR agrees with Rohrs as TV doesn't have the 'Less is More' issue and can sell new or used autos better than radio. The question for radio is can it move local inventory with a 30 second spot? The Big Three "Implied" Retail Inventory Days of Supply chart is worth printing for your local sales staff. 09/13/04 TVBR #178

Scandal nixes Belo bonuses
Belo Corporation Chairman and CEO Robert Decherd has sent employees a letter stating that he and other top Belo executives won't be getting any bonuses this year because of the scandal over inflated circulation figures at the Dallas Morning News - - and no increase in their base salaries next year. Check it out the personal letter. 09/13/04 TVBR #178

Homeland security issues tied
to DTV transition
FCC Chairman Michael Powell told Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the rest of the Senate Commerce Committee that he thinks it is time to establish a hard deadline for the transition to digital television broadcasting, a move which will free up spectrum for use in homeland security operations, particularly for first responders in the event of an emergency, whether it be natural or man-made. Powell endorsed the controversial Ferree plan
09/13/04 RBR #178