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Wolinsky to NYC
Jeffrey Wolinsky has been appointed Local Sales Manager at Infinity's WCBS-AM New York. He most recently served as Regional Account Executive for WTOP-AM Washington, DC.

Premiere ups Bender
Premiere Radio Networks announced Marty Bender has been promoted to vice president of operations for The Bob and Tom Show. He previously served as the executive producer. Based in Indianapolis, he will also continue as the OM for CC Radio's Indianapolis cluster.

Al Sharpton to share airwaves with Rush?
After the announcement that Matrix Media signed Rev. Al Sharpton to host a radio talker, El Rushbo said he'll think about mentoring the minister in the finer points of the medium on his show last Friday: "Let [Sharpton] guest-host the program for, like, 30 minutes at a time while I am sitting here critiquing him." Sharpton told the NY Daily News' Lloyd Grove: "I was a little surprised, but I'm willing to take him up on his speculative offer. I think it would be interesting. It would be something that both of us can learn from. He can learn some of the thoughts of the left, and I can learn some of the techniques of the right. Let's see if he's serious." Limbaugh's producer, Kit Carson, assured Grove he's in earnest. "At this point, Rush is still undecided," Carson said. "He's very flattered that Rev. Sharpton is interested in doing this. Rush is still considering giving him some pointers, some tutoring. "Rush also believes that Rev. Sharpton has the best shot of anyone to be the Limbaugh of the Left. He is also very impressed that he has the humility to admit he has something to learn. ... So we'll see."

Marketron scores
six-year contract
with Cox Radio
Marketron International announced a six-year contract to provide traffic and billing solutions to the entire Cox Radio group of 78 stations in 18 markets. A longtime Marketron client, Cox Radio cited Marketron's proven inventory optimization capabilities and industry leading client services as key factors in its decision to extend its relationship. All stations will manage their advertising inventory and billing with the Marketron Radio Traffic software. Marketron will provide integrated Sales, Traffic and Billing applications.

Analyst: Clear Channel
needs a Plan B
tried to wow Wall Street by announcing a major restructuring -spinning off CC Entertainment, selling 10% of CC Outdoor in an IPO, upping the company's regular dividend and paying a special three bucks per share dividend. But while the stock got a brief bump, it has since been hurt by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst dumping its stake and is now back at its 52-week low. So, Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller says Clear Channel management needs a Plan B. RBR observation: Admittedly unlikely to happen, but an interesting proposition from one of Wall Street's more creative thinkers. One problem, though, is finding someone willing and able to pay 1.5 billion or more for CC Entertainment. Although competitors House of Blues and JAM Productions are reportedly interested bidders, it appears they only want the concert promotion business - - and as we noted previously, it would be very difficult to find buyers at decent prices for some of the other pieces of CC Entertainment. It would have to be all or nothing to make sense for the seller. Millers recommendation see 06/01/05 RBR #107

CBS and NBC want hold
on LPM rollout
Large number of station groups have now asked Nielsen Media Research to put LPMs on hold while the ratings company works on Media Ratings Council (MRC) accreditation in its existing LPM markets. For the first time, both CBS and NBC have joined in the growing chorus of broadcasters calling for a halt to the LPM roll out. As signatories to a letter written by Tribune Broadcasting President Pat Mullen, the list of objecting broadcasters includes long-time LPM opponent News Corp./Fox, along with other major groups. Ms Whiting also spoke with TVBR late last night and stated "LPM will roll forward in DC and Philly as scheduled." As for being perceived as not hearing or wanting to listen to broadcasters concerns Whiting said "Is further from the truth as we (Nielsen) don't want to be at odds with so many large clients and at the same time we are trying to balance reporting information and accomplish the best of all clients concerned." RBR observation: Talk about politics well this is it. First party ready to roll out LPM and move forward to the future with technology and the other side not wanting or ready to improve until they are faced with a crisis then react to the crisis. Bottom line nobody likes change or improvement until a crisis hits them in the face. | The letters: | Broadcasters to Nielsen; Nielsen to Broadcasters; Broadcasters reply to Nielsen. Kicker is the last letter sent to Nielsen by Broadcaster (Mullen) late yesterday, 5/3/1/05, Broadcasters did not wait for a Nielsen reply to which Mullen stated he would be on the next plane to NYC to discuss the issue(s). Instead, Broadcaster just fired off a PR release last night to what you have just read. 06/01/05 RBR #107

Verklin on the TV upfront
I think it's much softer than anyone wants to talk about - - much softer. I've been saying it to you guys in the beginning, that I didn't see the upfront going higher than 3% CPM increases. I think I'm actually high - - I think we'll end up at one or two percent when all the smoke clears. Budgets, are probably down by 10% overall. 06/01/05 RBR #107

2005 Radio forecast goes Lower
Half way to closure in '05 the number guru's begin to play spin the wheel of fortune. "Although there have been some markets with promising revenue growth, we continue to see the same disappointing growth rates of the past two years. While there have been efforts to bolster the prospects of the radio industry, it will take some time for these initiatives to sufficiently impact stronger industry growth," BIAfn VP Mark Fratrick who was obviously alluding to Clear Channel's Less is More initiative. RBR observation: Through Q1, RAB reported that radio revenues were up 2% overall, with national up 3% and local up 2%. Although Universal McCann's Bob Coen is the most closely watched media forecaster, we're hard-pressed to see how radio is going to get to the 5% growth he's forecast for this year. Fratrick''s projection seems more likely and it's more in line with what Wall Street analysts are now expecting. Coen will be revising his numbers next month, so we'll be waiting to see if he hangs tough at 5%. Last key piece of advice is getting your business plans in focus for 2006 as the question is - 'Will you be able to compete next year if you don't properly fix problems right now because the clock is ticking.' 05/31/05 RBR #106

Ray Warren on the TV upfront
As the saying goes or question - what runs down hill? Ray had some comments that back up what we've been hearing--that cable didn't get off to quite a good start this time around as last year: "There were some cable deals done early, but I thought cable came out a little hot and we need to let them cool off a little bit."
05/31/05 RBR #106

Research guru discusses
XM ratings report
We asked a well-known industry research guru about XM's "Custom Listening Study" from Arbitron, sent to agencies for a year or so now. A radio buyer had sent the report to the researcher, who looked it over for both of us. "They're rating XM listening based on interviewing what they call the 'primary user.' They have some good methodologies approaches-they're using random selection of the sample. Someone has to be a subscriber for at least 60 days. It's telephone interview, which is good. But what they're doing is asking the household to define the primary user of XM. Which raises the interesting question of how can a household determine this? In other words do they ask everyone in the household to vote on the primary user, do they simply ask the person who answers the phone, or do they ask the person who's listed as the subscriber?" RBR observation: Satellite radio will be put under the microscope as business tightens. Radio operators your key is to stay focused and be Local and be seen in your communities with remotes. Real People not a satellite.
05/31/05 RBR #106

On 12/31/08,
kiss analog TV good-bye
The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet entertained a panel of no less than 11 witnesses as it discussed the Staff Discussion Draft of the DTV Transition Act of 2005. At this point, nothing is set in stone, much less ink. We witnessed it personally as RBR was there and we viewed the audience and did not seem to be a single person who objected to setting 12/31/08 as the last day for analog TV broadcast. TVBR observation: Don't buy a new TV set, LCD or DTV monitor until 2008.
05/27/05 RBR #105

Anonymous on the TV upfront
Right now there are very preliminary kinds of conversation. Everyone is saying, sit tight. We'll call them and ask if anything is going on...anything happening, can we do anything? No, just sit tight, we're trying to get our budgets, etc. I think they all want to know what the networks are doing because the networks are obviously sending a signal that they're going to be very accommodating this year. So if that's still the linchpin, and regardless of what everyone says in the trades, it is the linchpin of your national buy as far as television is concerned, you've got to do that first. 05/27/05 RBR #105

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