Radio News ®

Sirius confirms shock jock aspirations
At yesterday's annual shareholders meeting, Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Joe Clayton confirmed that his company is talking to Opie & Anthony and a number of other radio shock jocks, who might be less inhibited on a radio service that's free of the FCC's indecency rule. The unanswered question, though, is whether Sirius or XM can afford to hire any of the really big names.
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O&A counting down the days
The NY Daily News points out that Opie and Anthony, off the air since their 8/02 "Sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral" stunt could be days away from returning - - their contract with Infinity expires 5/31. Their website is counting down the few days until they'll return. Most bets say "Cringe Radio" will be back be on XM, Sirius or both. XM and Sirius (see related story) radio both say they're looking for hosts like O&A who could raise their profile and draw additional paying customers, but no contracts have been announces - - yet. Sirius, where Opie and Anthony have been seen paying visits, is considered by most to be the front-runner. O&A's old WNEW PD, Jeremy Coleman, works there.

Edwards going after pharma ads
Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) is introducing legislation to control the content of broadcast pharmaceutical ads. He wants deceptive advertising curtailed, and would require "fair and balanced information about a drug's side effects and benefits" to be part of the ad's content. Edwards' motivation goes farther than controlling content, however. He thinks in many cases the pharmaceutical argument that high prices are due to the high cost of research and development is false, and that many of these same companies are spending more on advertising and marketing than they do on research. | Full Story |

Viacom sued over Jackson/Timberlake incident
Attorneys for Viacom were in court defending the company in a case revolving around the infamous Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl half time show incident. In fact, the entire show came under attack. However, the venue was not the Supreme Court. It wasn't even Judge Judy. It was a small claims court in Utah, according to Bonneville's KLS-TV. If Viacom loses, it faces a punitive damage payment of up to $5K. That is what local attorney Eric Stephenson is asking the court for on grounds that Viacom is guilty of false advertising. His case is based on the fact that the broadcast was supposed to be a family show, and instead it featured sexual behavior and questionable language, even without taking the Jackson episode into consideration. Viacom is arguing that the show's content is protected under the First Amendment and that the case should be thrown out. Indeed, it's arguing it should be thrown out on grounds of improper venue.

Interep enters JSA with
Global Advertising 1st
Interep announced that it has entered a joint selling agreement with Global Advertising 1st , a sales and marketing firm led by Derrick Hollie, offering advertisers integrated media solutions targeting African-American consumers. Global Advertising 1st will help develop new sources of revenue for Interep client stations targeting the African-American community by providing advertisers with efficient media solutions to deliver their message to the urban market. Hollie founded Global Advertising 1st Inc. in 1996, after serving six years as national sales manager for Radio One in DC: "While working in Urban radio, I saw the opportunity to help advertisers reach the African-American market through lifestyle-oriented campaigns spanning multiple media, including radio, television, cable and Internet. As a result, I formed Global Advertising 1st, comprised of marketing, selling and promotional experts who understand, live and breathe the ultimate strategy for the African-American consumer."

New Yorkers honoring Dan Rather
The New York State Broadcasters Association will honor CBS anchorman Dan Rather as its 2004 Broadcaster of the Year at its annual conference June 21-22 in Lake George, NY. The association's New Yorker of the Year award will go to Jim Boeheim, head basketball coach at Syracuse University. And actor Tony Danza will be on hand to host the Under the Stars Dinner. There will also be business attended to, with panels on advertising against cable, terrestrial vs. satellite radio and trends in syndication, the latter with Danza as one of the panelists.

Measuring the Media Moguls

Saga Communications: Ed Christian,
Chairman, President & CEO

2003 stock performance: -2.47%
2003 CEO pay: -12.26%

Ed Christian saw his cash pay go down last year, while other executives of Saga Communications got small increases. The explanation: The company had been forgiving 20% annually over five years of a loan given to Christian back when Saga was launched in 1990 to cover his investment in the start-up. The loan forgiveness wrapped up in 2002 with $386,235 counted as part of his bonus. So, Christian drew a salary in 2003 of $500,000, a bonus of $425,000 (down from $731,119) and also received life insurance payments of $2,968. In all that's $1,026,968, down 12.26% from $1,170,502 in '02. | Full Story |

Adbiz ©

Jon Mandel: A no-holds-barred take
on media today, Part III
From RBR's May 2004 print edition, continued:
You spoke of more use of multiple TV spots for the same client that reach sub-markets within the target audience. What kind of tweaks are we talking about? Does it have to be major changes?
No and they're not major changes if they think it out and do it at the time they're shooting the commercial. It's not that hard. You just shoot, you edit it differently for younger audiences. Maybe it's faster cuts, maybe there's a product attribute that you play up differently. You know, it's like any other social interaction. There's a right time and a right place to say different things at different times and places-what's appropriate and what's inappropriate. That's true in any human interaction. The advertising is by definition is a human interaction, so why do something inappropriate or something that's a little off-kilter or off-color when you don't have to? | Full Story |

Why cable is so hot right now
A television sales exec spoke to RBR/TVBR on condition of anonymity regarding the upfront. We wanted to know why cable deals are being forged even before broadcast in this upfront. He also gave some frank and candid takes on the marketplace as it's currently heating up: Why are cable deals being struck earlier than network?
The agencies are hedging their bets on network pricing and they're also being smart. Look-if the viewers are leaving network television for cable, then you have to follow the viewers. So they're going to continue to reallocate the money to cable. Now, there is a limit to how much cable they can buy, because you're just buying frequency after a while, you're not really getting any reach. Each advertiser has their own breaking point of where they feel they've gone too much into cable. But in the meantime, it serves two purposes this year-they evolve the audience and it gives them a hedge against pricing on the networks. If they know that they've got good pricing from the cable networks, prior to them doing their network upfront deals, they'll be in a better marketing position.
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Media, Markets & Money tm

Three for Media One makes five
James Embrecia's Media One Group is getting a trio of stations in Jamestown, NY from Vox Radio Group. The addition of WMHU-FM, WQwFX-FM and WKSN-AM to its own WJTN-AM/WWSE-FM combo will give the group a five station superduopoly in this unrated portion of upstate New York. According to brokers Michael J. Bergner and Richard A. Foreman, Vox will be picking up $4.5M in the deal. The seller is headed by Bruce Danziger and Jeff Shapiro. Jamestown is in the extreme southwest corner of New York on the eastern end of Chautaqua Lake. Witness to its proximity to Pennsylvania is provided by WQFX-FM, the only station not licensed to Jamestown. It hails from south of the border in the Keystone State. Russell, PA, to be specific.

Omnicom loads up on credit
The company isn't saying what it might need the money for, but ad giant Omnicom has gotten new lines of credit totaling $2 billion. None of that is going to refinance existing debt, since Omnicom had a zero balance on its previous bank line. Omnicom owns BBDO Worldwide, DDB Worldwide and TBWA \ Worldwide and a number of other agencies and specialty firms.

Washington Beat

Transactions

$9.45M: KAYL AM & FM Storm Lake IA, KSOU AM & FM, KIHK-FM Sioux Center IA (Sioux Center, Rock Valley) and KUOO-FM & KUQQ-FM Spirit Lake IA (Spirit Lake, Milford) from Waitt Radio Inc. to Sorenson Broadcasting Corporation.

$9.45M: KIXX-FM/KDLO-FM/KWAT-AM, KDBX-FM & KKSD-FM Watertown SD (Watertown, Clear Lake, Milbank) and KJJQ-AM/KKQQ-FM Volga SD from Sorenson Broadcasting Corporation Waitt Radio Inc.

$9.45M: KIXX-FM/KDLO-FM/KWAT-AM, KDBX-FM & KKSD-FM Watertown SD (Watertown, Clear Lake, Milbank) and KJJQ-AM/KKQQ-FM Volga SD from Waitt Radio Inc. to Three Eagles of Joliet Inc.

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