TVBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 24, Issue 247, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Thursday Morning December 20th, 2007

WGA Strike Central: Day 46

Jimmy Kimmel goes back live 1/2
And the late night talkers are all coming back now: New episodes of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" return to air 1/2 (12:05-1:05 a.m., ET). "Though it makes me sick to do so without my writers, there are more than a hundred people whose financial well-being depends on our show. It is time to go back to work. I support my colleagues and friends in the WGA completely and hope this ends both fairly and soon," said Kimmel. Meanwhile, the WGA is talking about making a deal with David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, so his CBS show can return with its writers. "We are willing to agree to the writers' demands that are within our control, so we have no reason to believe that an interim agreement can't be achieved with the WGA," Rob Burnett, Worldwide Pants CEO, said in a statement.

Networks looking at other options for new series
With WGA-AMPTP negotiations at a standstill, the impact is now extending to the 2008-09 season, beginning with the Q1 pilot season where networks fund single episode ideas for potential series. According to an AP story, it's a process that may have had its day, say two execs at a major network, speaking off-record. Pilots are more expensive than ever to produce, reaching 6 million or more for complex action dramas. This year's results were unimpressive, with a number of anticipated new series -- ranging from NBC's "Bionic Woman" to ABC's "Cavemen" -- failing to get the ratings. Instead, networks are considering taking pitches straight to series, especially when a show comes from road-tested producers. A prolonged strike would force the issue, pushing broadcasters up against the fall season production deadline. "The strike is forcing us to look at the way we all do business and to make choices that were tough when business was as usual," said NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker. "This is allowing us to make the tougher choices." We've already discussed how the strike is making the next upfront look more and more like just a series of meetings, rather than the usual pomp and circumstance: (12/13/07 TVBR #242).

Late night talker viewers
keep watching tube during strike
Talk may be cheap in some parts of the country, but in Hollywood right now it is one of the most valuable commodities as the writers' strike enters its seventh week. The effects of the strike are most visible during the 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. timeslots as the late night talk shows rerun popular shows from the past. A report from Integrated Media Measurement shows that viewers who are used to watching the late night talk shows can't unglue themselves from the television despite the lack of new content. Before the strike, regular late night talk show viewers watched an average of 21.7 minutes of late night television. The average during the strike period remained statistically identical at an average of 20.8 minutes. The report also showed that while viewers watched almost the same amount of television, they used their remotes eight percent more, flipping around to watch a variety of programming including syndicated sitcoms, movies, sports and news. The wandering late night talk show viewers watched a broad range of show types and titles with no significant migration. The IMMI data also revealed that regular late night talk show viewers did not pursue other activities, such as listening to radio, going to the movies, watching a DVD, reading a book or going to sleep.

TV News ®

Q3 station revenues down 8.7%; total TV off 4.1%
Reflecting the absence of political and Olympic revenues, local broadcast television ad revenues were down 8.7% in Q3 of 2007, according to Susan Cuccinello, Sr. VP of research for the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), based on estimates supplied by TNS Media Intelligence in the top 100 markets. Network TV was flat in the quarter and syndicated TV was down 3.3%. Combined with local, that translates into a 4.1% decline for total broadcast television in Q3. 17 of the Top 25 advertising categories in local broadcast TV were down in Q3. Government & Organizations, which includes political spending, was down 67.5%. The biggest category, Automotive, was down 7.5%, and #2 Telecommunications was up 11.0%.

3rd QUARTER 2007 SUMMARY

	3rd Qtr 2007	3rd Qtr 2006	% Change
Local Broadcast TV	4,286,005,100	4,694,180,500	-8.7
Syndicated TV	1,032,675,500	1,067,425,500	-3.3
Network TV	5,100,495,200	5,101,707,300	0.0
Total Broadcast TV	10,419,175,800	10,863,313,300	-4.1

JAN-SEPT 2007 SUMMARY

	Jan-Sept 2007	Jan-Sept 2006	% Change
Local Broadcast TV	12,174,000,000	12,977,565,700	-6.2
Syndicated TV	3,030,346,500	3,176,556,900	-4.6
Network TV	18,423,809,200	18,907,134,000	-2.6
Total Broadcast TV	33,628,155,700	35,061,256,600	-4.1

*Includes both local and national spot activity in the 100+ markets measured by TNS/MI. Source: TVB, TNS Media Intelligence

Dorgan attacks FCC from Senate floor
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) took to the floor of the Senate yesterday to condemn the FCC's decision to relax cross-ownership rules in the top 20 markets, and promised to reprise the Resolution of Disapproval on the Senate floor in the very near future. He particularly attacked the underpinning justification that there is much more competition now than in 1975 due to new media. "We have more voices, the same ventriloquist." He then proceeded to pull out organization charts for the top communications companies, like News Corp., GE, Disney/ABC, showing how they tend to dominate across all of these media outlets. "It was unbelievably arrogant, what they did yesterday," said Dorgan, pointing out that the FCC allowed Americans 90 days to discuss the relationship between birds and towers, but only 28 days for the cross-ownership rule. He said it was unbelievable that the FCC thinks we need more media consolidation. He repeatedly attacked the practice of "voice-tracking" as the antithesis of localism, and once again brought up the Minot train derailment and the lack of an overnight Clear Channel employee at that company's six-station cluster to help get work out to local citizens.

TVBR observation: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin would argue that Americans had much more opportunity to voice their opinion on media ownership than they did on birds and towers, but at this point, that would hardly seem to matter. The media ownership issue has reached a boiling point in which opponents seem to have zero-tolerance for even the slightest further relaxation.

FitzSimons a short-timer;
Michaels on deck
Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons announced that he will exit the end of this month as the company goes private. There is no official word yet on who will be the key executives as Sam Zell becomes Chairman, but the Wall Street Journal reported that Randy Michaels will have some role at Tribune. The Chicago Tribune then reported that Zell himself might assume the CEO title, with Michaels heading the broadcast and Internet operations at Tribune. Michaels was CEO of Jacor Communications, the only previous media investment (and a profitable one) by Zell. He is currently CEO of Local TV LLC. Zell had earlier indicated that closing on the final phase of the two-step buyout was expected today, but that schedule may not be met. The Chicago Tribune reported that some of the banks involved in the deal were uneasy, fearing they would not be able to resell the debt in the current tight credit market.

In the company announcement of the change at the top, FitzSimons and Zell had glowing quotes to offer about each other. "Sam Zell is an entrepreneur with a phenomenal track record. He has made a significant investment in Tribune that indicates his strong belief in the value of the company's media assets. It was Sam's creativity, personal commitment and investment that made this transaction possible," said FitzSimons. "Dennis FitzSimons has provided Tribune with outstanding leadership through a challenging environment," said Zell. "He helped build the company into one of the nation's premier media businesses, and has been instrumental in guiding Tribune to the closing of this historic transaction. I wish him much success in the next phase of his career," said Zell.

TVBR observation: It would be unusual, but not unthinkable, for Randy Michaels to hold major jobs at both companies. Local TV has bid on other things, but to date only owns the nine TV stations it bought from the New York Times Company. Besides, he has Bobby Lawrence as President and COO to run the operation on a day to day basis. We know that Randy had been visiting the Tribune properties, as we expected, to advise Zell. Who else would he turn to for advice on a media transaction? Now we wait to find out if Sam and Randy can work their magic again at Tribune and put it back on track as they did at Jacor.

Big November drop for Journal
Without much political advertising this year, TV revenues dropped 26.3% in November at Journal Broadcast Group to 11.46 million. The company said a 5.13 million decline in political and issue advertising was partially offset by increases in local and national spot sales. Radio revenues declined 9.6% to 6.92 million, with a decline of 670K in political and issue ad revenue and weakness in local advertising partially offset by an increase in national. So, for the entire Journal Broadcast Group, November revenues were down 20.8% to 18.38 million. Meanwhile, the newspaper side of Journal Communications also had a down month, with revenues off 5.9% to 21.62 million. Ad revenues for the flagship Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were down 4.7% to 13.67 million, with retail up 1.9%, but classified down 15.5% and national off 12.7%.

FCC vote cussed and discussed
"We're not done with this, not by a long shot," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in comments about the FCC vote relaxing cross-ownership rules in the top 20 markets. Dorgan has a bipartisan posse representing over a quarter of the Senate ready to take action to nullify the FCC's 3-2 party-line vote. Meanwhile, the NAB praised the same move, but expressed serious doubts about the FCC's proposals to promote localism. Like Dorgan, the NAB promises a serious review of the measures passed through the Commission. So far, there have been few ringing endorsements of the FCC actions. One came from Interep's Sherman Kizart, who was very pleased by the broadside fired by the Commissioners at no-Urban and no-Spanish dictates. And over at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, they were very happy to finally have a serious action aimed at their particular goals, although they were not happy with the definition of the businesses which would benefit from the FCC's action. The Newspaper Association of America was pleased with the top-20 rule relaxation but felt it didn't go far enough. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association felt it dodged the a la carte bullet but is generally upset about the regulatory attention it's getting from FCC chairman Kevin Martin. And labor unions, other watchdogs and other Democrats in Congress were highly displeased with much of the action. We will provide statements under the click for those interested in checking them out. Today, NAB, Dorgan, Dingell, Interep, MMTC & CWA.
| Comments here |

Coming to a Capitol Hill office near you

Following the FCC's Tuesday vote, watchdog Stop Big Media didn't lose any time getting a click and send letter ready for its constituents to fire off to their own members of Congress. SBM is hoping for 100K signatures attached to the message. Here's the text of the letter bound for Capitol Hill:

Dear Members of Congress,
We write to you today to ask you to act swiftly to overturn the FCC's Dec. 18 vote to relax media ownership rules. We have spoken out against media consolidation in every way we know how: attending hearings, writing letters, submitting comments. However, on Dec. 18, the FCC ignored this widespread public opposition -- just like it did in 2003. The FCC has turned its back on its mission and its mandate. Their decision to let Big Media get even bigger will erode localism, diminish minority ownership, and decrease competition. Please take action now to overturn the FCC's reckless action.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

TVBR observation: Note to click and senders: Nobody is impressed by your ability to click and send. Your message is much more effective if you write it yourself. Just trying to help.

Wall Street Business Report TM

DG FastChannel to acquire Vyvx ad service operations
DG FastChannel has entered into a definitive agreement with Level 3 Communications to acquire the Vyvx advertising services business including its distribution, post-production and related operations. DG FastChannel will pay Level 3 129 million in cash. Said Scott Ginsburg, DG FastChannel CEO: "Vyvx's blue chip customer base will gain access to DG FastChannel's omnipresent, state-of-the-art electronic network...The business combination we are announcing today will expand our opportunities to establish unified digital marketing solutions for multiple video platforms being developed for broadcast, cable, Internet and mobile advertising...During the next 14 months, U.S. television and cable operators are converting to a digital broadcast and an HD environment. As they do, DG FastChannel will have the resources necessary to deploy an 'HD Extreme' network and fulfill the demands of transmitting HD advertising content to broadcast-based media outlets." Vyvx is expected to generate 36 million of revenue and 11 million of EBITDA for the year ending December 31, 2007. DG FastChannel expects to act on 7 million to 9 million of identified operational synergies within one year of the closing.

Ad Business Report TM

CBS in deal with
Gas Station TV
CBS has teamed with Gas Station TV, a leader in digital gas station media, to provide viewers with a mix of daily updates and customized content. The move replaces a previous deal with ABC. GSTV will deliver its viewers breaking news and headlines from CBS News as well as entertaining and informative segments from CBS's programming lineup. "Gas Station TV provides an excellent new outlet for CBS in the fast growing category of digital out-of-home media," said George Schweitzer, President, CBS Marketing. "The viewing experience and reach they provide dovetails perfectly with our strategy of finding unique ways to reach a captive audience for our content when viewers are out of their homes." Gas Station TV has more than 30 million viewers a month in over 300 cities across the U.S.

Backchannelmedia demos platform
linking TV advertising to the net
Backchannelmedia, a digital television ad serving and response capture company, announced it has demonstrated the first televised click-through where a viewer can interact through a standard TV remote control with a television ad and automatically pass the viewer product or content interest into an e-commerce site linked to the viewer's personal home page web site. The company also announced they will begin trials of the technology, which has been under development for 10 years in anticipation of the 2009 digital conversion, with at least one major market affiliate during Q2 of 2008.

Media Business Report TM

Viacom, Microsoft strike content, ad partnership
Viacom and Microsoft announced a broad-based, strategic alliance under which both companies will collaborate on advertising, content distribution, event promotions and games over the next several years. Microsoft will license long and short-form content from across Viacom's MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Paramount Pictures for use on Microsoft properties such as MSN and Xbox 360. Microsoft's Atlas division will become the ad server for Viacom's U.S. websites and Microsoft will have the exclusive right to sell remnant display ad inventory on those sites. Microsoft will buy advertising on Viacom broadcast and online networks over a five-year period and the companies will work together on promotions and sponsorships for MTV Networks and BET Networks award shows. Viacom will also work with Microsoft to become a preferred publishing partner across Microsoft's gaming platforms.

Microsoft will provide Viacom with its proprietary ad serving solution, known as Atlas AdManager. AdManager is an offering that Microsoft obtained upon completion of its of aQuantive in August. AdManager -- which operates within Microsoft's newly created Advertiser & Publisher Solutions division -- will providing an ad serving solution, optimization features, inventory forecasting, real-time reporting and precise audience advertising targeting. Viacom will provide unsold display ad inventory on its digital sites for Microsoft to sell and serve through both Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions (MDAS) and DRIVEpm. Revenue generated by Microsoft will be shared between the two companies. The deal has a projected base value of 500 million in financial considerations and business services between the two companies over the initial five-year length of the agreement.

Media Markets & Money TM

Pappas puts some stations on the market
Pappas Telecasting announced that it has retained Moelis & Company to assess strategic alternatives for the company, which Pappas says could lead to the sale of some of its stations. The company isn't saying which stations it hopes to sell. "Due to the favorable results from our first round of strategic review activities in the spring involving our Spanish-language television assets, the company has retained Moelis & Company to assist with a strategic review of all of the company’s TV assets. We contemplate that this review will result in the sale of a number of our television station assets," said Harry J. Pappas, Chairman and CEO of Pappas Telecasting. "After more than 40 years in the broadcast industry, the time has come to simplify my life and spend more time with my family," he added. Pappas Telecasting owns 27 TV stations and operates four others under LMAs.

Washington Business Report TM

Reps vow to fight
Berman royalty bill
The "Performance Rights Act of 2007," introduced by Howard Berman (D-CA) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) will not go unchallenged. Gene Green (D-TX) and Mike Conaway (R-TX), pictured, are planning to dig in and defeat it in favor of their own "Local Radio Freedom Act" that was introduced back in October. The duo claims 127 backers in the House.

Conaway said, "Time and time again the recording industry has attempted to place this costly and destructive fee on our local radio stations. Fortunately, Congress has repeatedly refused to implement this fee that would disrupt the mutually beneficial relationship between local radio stations and recording industries. Local radio provides an invaluable service in the community by relaying important weather information, national emergency information and important news that will affect the community. This 'performance fee' will place an unnecessary and devastating burden on the small local broadcasters and will inevitably hurt our communities."

"Local radio is the best promotional tool performance artists have," added Green. "During this year's Country Music Awards, we heard numerous country artists thank country radio for getting their music out to the public. If listeners like what they hear on the radio, they will go buy that track on CD or pay to download it online. Congress should not upset this balance by imposing additional fees on free, over-the-air broadcaster radio stations that not only promote musical artists, but keep our communities connected with other costly programming such as local news, weather and emergency information."

Ratings & Research

NBC News claims "massive" lead
Racking up another weekly win in the TV evening news battle, the Peacock net says the "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" beat ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" by a "massive" 438,000 viewers. NBC crows that its news is ahead of ABC season-to-date in total viewers and is the only network newscast to be growing in the 25-54 demo. For the most recent week, NBC's newscast averaged 9,301,000 viewers, with ABC at 8,863,000. Far back was the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," claiming an audience of 6,824,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. By the way, the new "voice" of the "NBC Nightly News" turned out to be Michael Douglas. Since Monday the noted actor-producer has introduced Brian Williams at the start of each newscast.

Week 12: Broadcast 92, cable 8
Broadcast networks had 92 of the top 100 shows in the key 18-49 demo for the most recent week, based on the number crunch by TVB of Nielsen Media Research data to combine broadcast and cable/satellite ratings. As usual, the top cable show was ESPN's "Monday Night Football," but it was well back this week at #24 overall.
| See the top 100 |

Stock Talk

Stocks close mixed
Continued credit worries gave Wall Street a mixed day. The Dow Industrials were down 25 points to 13,207. The S&P 500 was also off, but the Nasdaq Composite posted a small gain.

TV stocks were mixed as well. Gannett was the best performer, up 2.8%. The worst was Clear Channel, down 3%.

Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on** **Wednesday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Acme	ACME		2.40	-0.07	Lincoln Natl.	LNC		57.77	+0.69
Belo	BLC		16.64	+0.22	LIN TV	TVL		12.41	-0.03
CBS CI. B	CBS		25.84	-0.23	McGraw-Hill	MHP		44.72	-0.80
CBS CI. A	CBSa		25.78	-0.29	Media General	MEG		20.98	-0.37
Clear Channel	CCU		34.86	-1.09	Meredith	MDP		55.44	-0.41
Disney	DIS		32.26	-0.76	News Corp.	NWS		20.87	-0.14
Emmis	EMMS		4.22	-0.06	Nexstar	NXST		9.00	+0.02
Entravision	EVC		7.74	+0.09	Ion Media	ION		1.26	+0.01
Equity Media	EMDA		2.89	-0.05	Saga Commun.	SGA		6.29	-0.09
Fisher	FSCI		35.11	-0.30	SBS	SBSA		1.94	+0.10
Gannett	GCI		37.55	+1.01	Scripps	SSP		43.20	-0.31
Gen. Electric	GE		36.57	-0.23	Sinclair	SBGI		8.99	-0.07
Google	GOOG		677.37	+4.02	SWMX	SWMX		0.01	unch
Gray	GTN		8.71	+0.08	Time Warner	TWX		16.36	-0.29
Gray, C1. A	GTNa		9.00	+0.14	Tribune	TRB		33.07	-0.24
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		21.73	+0.13	Wash. Post	WPO		770.22	+1.22
Journal Comm.	JRN		8.95	+0.13	Young	YBTVA		1.00	unch

Bounceback

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Below the Fold

Media Business Report
Viacom, Microsoft
Strike content, ad partnership a broad based, strategic alliance for ad content...

Ad Business Report
CBS in deal with
Gas Station TV to provide daily mix of updates and customized content...

Media Markets & Money
Some stations on the market
Pappas Telecasting announced that it has retained Moelis & Company...

Ratings & Research
Week 12: Broadcast 92, cable 8
Broadcast networks had 92 of the top 100 shows in 18-49 demo...

NBC News claims
Massive lead, racking up another wkly win in the TV evening news battle...

Stations for Sale

Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.

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Jim Carnegie
jcarnegie@rbr.com

TV Station Auction

WTVE-TV 51 / DTV25
Philadelphia DMA
Full-Power Commercial Independent. Licensed to Reading, PA. Carried on nearly 2 million households

The auction of WTVE will take place at 9:30 AM EST on January 3, 2008 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 900 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

Qualified bids are due on December 21, 2007. The minimum bid price is $12 million and a refundable deposit of $200,000 is due on that date. A copy of the Sale Motion, Bidding Procedures and/or Bidding Procedures Order may be obtained by written request:

J. Scott Victor
Senior Managing Director
(610) 940-5802
jscott.victor@nationalcity.com

Michael J. Gorman, Associate
(610) 940-3615
michael.gorman@nationalcity.com

Ryan C. Cole, Analyst
(610) 940-2619
ryan.cole@nationalcity.com

More News Headlines

So which markets
are in the top 20?
Here, courtesy of Nielsen Media Research, are the Top 20 DMAs, where -- at least for the time being -- conditional print/broadcast cross-ownership enjoys the presumption of legality. (1) New York; (2) Los Angeles; (3) Chicago; (4) Philadelphia; (5) Dallas-Ft. Worth; (6) San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose; (7) Boston; (8) Atlanta; (9) Washington; (10) Houston; (11) Detroit; (12) Phoenix; (13) Tampa-St. Petersburg; (14) Seattle-Tacoma; (15) Minneapolis-St. Paul; (16) Miami-Ft. Lauderdale; (17) Cleveland-Akron; (18) Denver; (19) Orlando; and (20) Sacramento.

Nielsen and INVIDI strike deal for measurement of targeted ads
The Nielsen Company and INVIDI Technologies announced a multi-year agreement to share data and explore ways to measure personalized television ads targeted at specific viewers. Nielsen will provide INVIDI with demographic data that will enable it to refine and improve its advanced software engine - called Advatar -- to track addressable advertising for digital television providers. "Nielsen is anxious to create metrics for measuring targeted advertising, and this agreement with INVIDI is an important step forward," said Scott Brown, Nielsen's SVP/Media Product Leadership - Digital Platforms. "The new digital landscape is changing the way advertising is placed. Working with the industry, we expect to discover more effective ways to measure and confirm advertising success, which is increasingly critical to the needs of both ad buyers and sellers." The move builds on Nielsen DigitalPlus, a division that works with set top box data from MSOs and satellite providers to create new insights and services for clients by integrating set top box data with other Nielsen information. The news comes days after WPP's GroupM invested 25 million in Invidi, with GroupM CEO Irwin Gotlieb joining the INVIDI board (12/14/07 TVBR #243).

TVBR Radar 2007

Television News you won't read any where else. TVBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

WGA Strike Central, Day 45
Writers in talks to
launch web start-ups
A group of striking writers are working on plans to produce programming for the Internet independent of Hollywood studios/AMPTP. They're turning to venture capitalists, looking to circumvent Hollywood and reach viewers directly online. Also Directors to share negotiation data with WGA - WGA rejects waiver requests for Golden Globes, Oscars.

TVBR observation: Complete details in this report of TVBR
12/19/07 TVBR #246

FCC and Martin
rumble in the Jungle
Everything hit the fan and the mediums are in a spin. FCC approves top-20 crossownership as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin got his 3-2 party-line vote to eliminate the crossownership ban in the top 20 Nielsen DMAs. A newspaper owner will be allowed to own a television station outside the market's top four, or a radio station, as long as eight independent voices remain and as long as the cross-owned entities maintain separate news operations. Plus, the Commission moved to impose localism requirements on television stations, requiring submission of a standardized form quarterly detailing various elements of local programming. It is now looking at extending these requirements to radio. Also they FCC moved to increase minority/female ownership.

TVBR observation: Now we wait to see how long it will take for a legislative response, and how loud it will be. Elsewhere, the volume knob is already turning up toward the maximum level. Meanwhile, broadcasters are steamed about the potential imposition of new and onerous regulation and the Newspaper Association of America is already complaining about the restrictive nature of the loosened rule. TVBR outlines complete reports in this issue. It is a jungle inside the beltway.
12/19/07 TVBR #246

Performance Royalty bill
introduced in Congress
The long-threatened bill to force radio stations to pay royalties to record companies was introduced yesterday in both the House and the Senate. The "Performance Rights Act of 2007" was introduced in Senate. See the complete report in RBR.

RBR observation: Berman is right about one thing, and only one, from his speech - there should be parity for AM, FM and Internet radio. To that end, Congress should revise the digital copyright law - which, after all, was supposed to be about digital downloads, not streaming - and stop RIAA from making Internet radio operators pay for the privilege of helping the record labels sell records.
12/19/07 RBR #246

WGA Strike Central, Day 44
Leno and Conan to return
January 2nd
After two months of repeats, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" will resume broadcasting all-new episodes beginning Wednesday, January 2, 2008.
12/18/07 TVBR #245

TVBR expands; Kaufman on board
RBR/TVBR publisher Jim Carnegie announces that Dave Kaufman has joined the RBR/TVBR staff in our Sales/Marketing department. Kaufman, a 36-year front line broadcast executive, most recently spent the past five years as VP of Affiliate Relations for ABC Radio Networks and, prior to ABC, seven years with Westwood One as VP/GM and VP Affiliate Relations Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services. His experience also includes 25 years on the station rep side, 23 of which were with Major Market Radio Sales, a rep firm of Interep.

TVBR note: For many of you that know Dave Kaufman, he can be reached at DKaufman@rbr.com or at 973-839-8151.
12/18/07 TVBR #245

Don't fire until you see the whites...
Oh, go ahead and fire
Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is not waiting around to see what FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has up his sleeve before going public against it. In fact, he's rounded up a 24-member bipartisan posse of senators, including four Republicans and one independent, informing Martin that if he goes ahead with his plan to remove cross-ownership restrictions in the top 20 markets, they will "immediately move legislation that will revoke and nullify the proposed rule.

TVBR observation: Ok if you were waiting for something interesting out of DC then now you have it. TVBR will keep a close on FCC boss Martin as the - you know what hits the fan.
12/18/07 TVBR #245

WGA Strike Central, Day 43
WGA files unfair labor practices complaint
The Writers Guild of America has filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claiming studios violated federal law by breaking off negotiations. The WGA demanded in a statement Thursday that AMPTP return to the bargaining so the six-week strike can be ended.
12/17/07 TVBR #244

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