Note: These are only generalities and actual prices will vary based on the demand for any property which comes on the market. This article appears in its entirety in the November issue of RBR Solutions magazine. To subscribe to the all new January debut issue of Radio and Television Business Report - The Real Business Magazine, see below to receive it - - or call April McLynn here to get your free copy: 703-492-8191.

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The man whose nickname is the 'Zen Master'
Mel Karmazin has returned and crossed the commercial fence to get real serious by taking the CEO position of Sirius Satellite Radio and has filed the purchase of 1.5M shares for 7.08M dollars of personal cash to get into the Sirius game. Now do you really think for a minute we got suckered into writing this? Wrong-O but listen for Zen Master's first live interview and comments from his mouth on the real details. Courtesy and in conjunction with our colleagues at Fox News Channel and Neil Cavuto.

Listen to the Karmazin interview.

Details on he who laughs last...
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We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments to tvnews@rbr.com

A reader is less than pleased with the FCC's recent blanket dismissal of unamended 301s, 314s and 315s.

Dear Editor:
One again, common sense suffers a blow at the hands of bureaucracy. One of the dismissed applications was mine. We filed, as the owner of a standalone AM station with no other broadcast interests in the market, to buy an FM in the same market. No amendment to our application should have been necessary as AM/FM combos have ALWAYS been permissible, even in the tiniest markets. Furthermore, we did not receive notification that an amendment was required. I guess the Commission thinks that everybody reads every word in the Daily Digest on an everyday basis. A quick look at the application would have revealed that it was perfectly acceptable as-is, but I guess that's too much to ask of government employees. This is asinine!

Larry Fuss, President
Contemporary Communications LLC
Las Vegas NV

New news boss for CNN
Former CBS News executive Jonathan Klein is coming back to television as President of the US news operation at CNN. He replaces Princell Hair, who had only been heading the news operation (and with the lesser title of Exec. VP) for 14 months. Hair has been named Sr. VP of program and talent development for CNN News Group. Klein, who once oversaw "60 Minutes" at CBS, is the founder and CEO of The FeedRoom Inc., an Internet broadband news streaming site. He says that experience will help him in his return to television. "Six years steeped in the digital information industry have helped me understand today's news consumers in ways never before available to media executives," he said.

New Homeland Security PSAs

Gorman leaving Arbitron board

Pulitzer on the block
Another big newspaper sale appears to be in the offing. Pulitzer Inc. announced that it has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. to advise it on "strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including a possible sale of the company. It's expected the company could bring one and a half billion or more. Its biggest dailies are the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star. Pulitzer spun-off its broadcasting division in 1998 for a 1.85 billion merger with Hearst-Argyle. The later divested the radio properties, but still owns the former Pulitzer TV stations. Members of the Pulitzer family still own several million shares of Hearst-Argyle stock.

Who Will Sit on the Throne?
The election -What is in it
for Broacasters?

One On One
with PHD's Patrick McNew -
The man that over sees spot
for Chrysler Group.

Engineered For Profit
'05 budgets and capital expenditures, our close up look at who's planning to buy what next year.


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Clear Channel does not
blame Letterman
For what we don't know but during Howard Stern's appearance 11/18/04 on CBS's "The Late Show with David Letterman," Letterman himself referred to a "Rolling Stone" article on Clear Channel which was less than flattering. In a statement, the radio giant said, "Clear Channel does not blame David Letterman for being duped by poor journalism." Appended to the CCU statement was a refutation of the article, which was sent to Rolling Stone as a letter to the editor which it says went unpublished. RBR observation: Like it or not, Clear Channel is light years bigger than the next-largest radio group. In its letter to the Rolling Stone, it claims 9% of all US stations and 18% of US radio revenue. "Neither come close to satisfying any accurate definition of dominance," it wrote. Nonetheless, it is so big that whenever anyone takes a shot at radio in general, Clear Channel cannot help but get hit. Publisher note: Stern's vertical smile went horizontal. 11/22/04 TVBR #228

TV, Where are multiples these days? Still high - - Part 7
If radio prices are too rich for your blood, you may want to look at TV - - but you won't find any bargains there, either. "We've got a lot of television deals to judge by." Just as in radio, multiples in a couple of Top 10 market TV deals in recent years have been through the roof. "Sometimes in large markets, people just kill to own them," he noted. "Despite all this bad press about radio lately, TV is still trading at a significant discount to radio just because people perceive more issues in the industry." So TV multiples outside the Top 20 markets are in the 10-12 range, which is less than you'd have to pay for a cash-flowing radio station in the same market.
11/22/04 TVBR #228

NBC Universal in mega-pact
with Nielsen
An unprecedented contract for Nielsen to provide audience measurement data to the full range of NBC Universal's national and local TV businesses - - including the NBC Television Network, NBC Enterprises/NBC Universal Domestic Television, Telemundo, the cable networks Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, and SciFi, the 13 NBC-owned-and-operated television stations, and the 11 Telemundo television stations.
TVBR observation: Fact, NBC had been a consistent supporter of the LPM roll-out in the top 10 markets. It is important, though, for Nielsen because NBC is supporting a lot more than LPM. It's also putting its money behind the huge expansion of the National People Meter sample that was announced last year and NBC Universal has committed to encoding for the Active/Passive meters that Nielsen plans to introduce next year. Those updated meters will measure time-shifted DVR viewing as well as live viewing - - and while Nielsen can identify most programs through digital signatures, the new meters are more accurate when encoding is used. 11/19/04 TVBR #227

Sirius news:
Karmazin is new CEO
Did Sirius Satellite Radio get even more than the "King of all Media" when it signed its half-billion-buck contract with Howard Stern? Mel Karmazin becomes Da Man.
TVBR observation: Karmazin- nicknamed the 'Zen Master' can now go back to that souvenir year 1978 when the number 1 song was Night Fever by The Bee Gees, drive a VW Bus, grow that long hair again with a perm to boot. In reality, this should speed up Howard's early termination of his Infinity contract and debut on Sirius. What remains to be seen is whether the team of Mel and Howard can work their magic again in satellite as they did in terrestrial radio. Joe Clayton took a company whose product launch was behind schedule and whose finances were in a mess and got it back on track. But he was a telecom guy. Now Mel is taking over to focus on what he knows - - how to build audiences and revenues. But he faces quite a challenge. Not only is Sirius still playing catch-up to XM, but the jury is still out on whether the satel! lite radio business will ever produce a dime of profit at either company. By the way Mel, feel free to call our Executive Editor, Jack Messmer, if you ever want to listen to his theory of why the churn rate for both satellite radio companies will have to be at least twice what's built into their business plans.
11/19/04 TVBR #227

Publisher Observation
Stern all smiles with Letterman
The "King of All Media" was the opening act for David Letterman, I was expecting the F word, Stern's normal radio act and anti-everything thinking this is going to be good but even I got surprised. Nope it didn't happen. Letterman was a not funny interviewer but a knowledgeable one on Clear Channel, Stern's Fines, and of course comparing Stern to Oprah's content. Oprah can do and Stern can't but if he does he gets fined. In short - a great commercial for Sirius Satellite Radio with Stern being the official spokesperson. 11/19/04 TVBR #227

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