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Volume 24, Issue 123, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
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Monday Morning June 25th, 2007
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Radio News ®
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 The Winner IS: Arbitron's PPM
Clear Channel on board
You read correctly: Clear Channel is on board with PPM in their top 50 markets. News of the deal was posted on the Wall Street Journal website in the wee hours of Saturday morning and, within a few hours, AP and Reuters also declared it a done deal. As for Arbitron, a spokesman told RBR over the weekend that the company as yet had no official comment. But we're expecting Clear Channel and Arbitron to make it official today that they have agreed on a multi-year contract ending a long-running battle between the parties; however, the juiciest details are likely to remain off the public record. Previously, Clear Channel had only signed up for PPM in Philadelphia, just before it became ratings currency for the market. This new deal clears the way for radio to move forward with PPM.
RBR observation: With Clear Channel working on closing their deal to take the company private, it was just a matter of time before this deal was struck. Why? Business dictates and the fact that Technology Waits For No One, including Clear Channel (a company that just does not carry the clout it once did). Ad clients and, more importantly, ad agencies have demanded radio move into the 21st century to electronic measurement. PPM is proving to show a different and new wave of radio audience listening habits which was recently demonstrated with the May Philadelphia PPM data. If you have not reviewed the stats, here they are again. There is a lot of valuable data in this special report in RBR. If you have not reviewed the stats, here they are again (06/21/07 RBR #121). With this deal now radio moves forward.
 The interesting part of this saga
The Media Audit/Ipsos? February 12th, (02/12/07 RBR #29), RBR's headline read: Radio groups to back TMA/Ipsos test. In a nutshell, Media Audit announced at RAB2007 that five radio companies - Clear Channel, Cox, Cumulus, Entercom and Radio One - had agreed to put up millions in cash for a test in Houston of the TMA/Ipsos in competition with Arbitron's PPM. TMA/Ipsos expects to have the first data released by October 2007 and plans to run the test through January 2008. Now the kicker to that announcement was - Once the Houston test results are known, TMA/Ipsos will be looking to the radio industry for a nod to go ahead and deploy, or to abandon the project. Well, we haven't heard much noise since that announcement was made, with the exception that many groups are onboard with PPM. The Media Audit Exec. VP Phillip Beswick told RBR late Sunday that he had confirmed that Clear Channel has signed a contract for PPM, but he remains confident. "I am not privy to the terms and conditions but I can also confirm that Clear Channel is committed to forging ahead with The Media Audit/Ipsos Smart Cell Phone full market study. As I have said before, we understand that our core broadcast supporters, including Clear Channel, Radio One and Cox, have companies to run. Arbitron is forging ahead with PPM in many of their markets and it is in the best interest of these broadcasters to subscribe to the PPM data. We share the industry concern of the significant drop in radio listening that Arbitron has experienced with PPM. We have been working on our technology over the past 1.5 years and are highly confident in the strengths and advantages of the Smart Cell Phone as a data collection device. The Smart Cell Phone initiative is on target to produce ratings in a few of months." Beswick sounds confident, but a lot is riding on keeping CCU onboard. Without CCU as the leader, the effort to fund TMA/Ipsos would likely fall apart.
RBR observation: Time to stop and move forward. It is now an Arbitron electronic measurement game and we are skeptical of whether radio groups will continue putting any more cash into a project that may never see the light of day. It's not that just about everybody else in the radio biz wanting one and only one service- we'd love to see healthy, ongoing competition at the top of the ratings food chain. It's just that to date no entrant into that arena has managed to pull it off, or even come close. If The Media Audit thinks it is the exception that will prove the rule, more power to it, but it will be trying to counter a strong historical current that suggests a tough upstream battle. Media Audit is a solid research company and RBR's recommendation is be the best at what it does now and improve it for tomorrow - electronically.
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RBR Observation
Turn the key OFF: The streams go silent tomorrow
Thousands of radio station and internet-only streaming broadcasters are silencing their streams tomorrow for the national Internet radio "Day of Silence" organized by SaveNetRadio.org. We are calling for not only music streaming but all streaming--Talk sports, news, etc...Radio-internet and otherwise-must stand and go through this together. The more streams that are silenced (actually providing details and directing listeners to contact their Senators and Representatives on the Internet Radio Equality Act), the more clout it will have. We need to give everyone a taste of what things will be like come D-Day, July 15, when the new Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) rates kick in and kill the industry-silence of U.S. broadcasters. The per-performance rate will rise to .08 cents in 2006 and reach .19 cents by 2010, a 250% increase over current rates, with a minimum annual fee of 500 bucks per streamed channel. The new rates, again, are scheduled to go into effect 7/15, with retroactive royalties for 2006 and 2007 due on that date. There isn't much time for Congress to act, so this push is important to you and your fellow broadcasters. We must let The CRB and SoundExchange know they will not be permitted to arbitrarily kill an industry and the thousands of people working for it. If this isn't fixed, it will look like yet another US industry will be exported overseas. All of the servers and stations folks will have to tune to will be outside the US. How stupid is that? And there are plenty of musicians who realize when these streams go silent, their music will too. Please email us at [email protected] with your story-whether you plan on silencing your stream tomorrow and why you stand behind this mission. We'll run the info with your pic in this week's epapers. We want to make a strong representation, as we're going to send this feedback and analysis to Congress as well. More coverage below in Internet Media Business Report.
 Martin a star witness at
CommComm violence session
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be a panel of one when the Senate Commerce Committee sits down to discuss "The Impact of Violence on Children" tomorrow. Other witnesses will come from the watchdog, broadcast, legal, medical and academic communities. Martin is on hand since he forwarded a document to Congress earlier in the spring suggesting it was well within its rights to give the FCC tools to clamp down on broadcast violence, although the FCC study did not venture into the muddy waters of just how this can be accomplished without running afoul of the First Amendment. Committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is planning to offer legislation on the topic at some point. The second panel will include a constitutional scholar, Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School, who has been reported to be on retainer with the NAB to deal with this topic. Also representing the broadcast community will be Peter Liguori, President of Entertainment of Fox Broadcasting Company. Tim Winter, President of the Parents Television Council can be expected to continue pushing Martin's line. Also on hand will be University of Arizona professor Dale Kunkel and Jeff J. McIntyre, Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer, Public Policy Office, American Psychological Association.
RBR observation: As we've stated many times before, if you think obscenity/indecency regulation presents a massive gray area, then you'll love violent content regulation, which only threatens to obliterate the burgeoning clouds that obscure the exact location of the indecency line. Those who think content is too violent have many options, including public shaming of the programming, boycotting the programming's sponsors, and encouraging a massive channel-turning campaign. But trying to come up with rules and regulations on this is nothing more than a windmill tilting campaign and grandstanding opportunity. In the unlikely event that anything escapes from Congress on this topic, other than voluminous quantities of hot air, it will rapidly meet its doom in the courts.
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 Inhofe sounds alarm about fairness
Although the phrase Fairness Doctrine did not come up during the course of a brief exchange between evening talker John Ziegler and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the conversation certainly veered into that territory. The exchange took place over the air on Clear Channel's KFI-AM Los Angeles. Inhofe claimed that Democrats are looking to do something about conservative talk radio. Without identifying the senators involved, Inhofe told Ziegler, "I was going over to vote the other day, and I was walking with two very liberal gals, that didn't pay any attention to me being with them," he said. Something they heard on the air somewhere had them "outraged," possibly something from Ziegler or maybe Rush Limbaugh. According to Inhofe, they said, "We've got to do something about this, these are nothing but far right wing extremists, we've got to have a balance, there's got to be a legislative fix to this. And as we got of the elevator I said, you gals don't understand, this is market driven and there's no market for your liberal tripe." Ziegler guessed that the senators were Boxer and Feinstein, and Inhofe said "You're halfway there. The other one's running for president, you figure it out." Inhofe said that this is common chatter. Ziegler said "So Hillary and Boxer are conspiring to end talk radio." Inhofe, chuckling, said "No, not end talk radio, they just want to influence it." Staffers for each senator said the conversation never took place. From Boxer's office: "Senator Boxer told me that either her friend Senator Inhofe needs new glasses or he need to have his hearing aid checked, because that conversation never happened." From Clinton's office: "Jim Inhofe is wrong. This supposed conversation never happened - not in his presence or anywhere else."
RBR observation: We'll comment on this as though it happened just as Inhofe described, because this is in fact an ongoing issue. When Republicans were running the House in a sometimes heavy-handed, silence-the-opposition manner under Tom DeLay (R-TX), and Bill Frist (R-TN) was trying to limit Senate filibusters, we heard John McCain (R-AZ) say on many occasions that the Republicans should remember that they will not always be in the majority. We don't believe he expected to return to the minority quite as fast as he did, but Democrats should heed his words as well on this occasion. It's no secret that a lot of Democrats would love to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. Maybe that number would decrease if liberal talk radio were more on par with the conservative brand. Some radio programming theorists would probably argue that with the proper mix of experience behind the mic, entertainment value, and patient audience building, that some day liberal talk could catch and even overtake the competition. Right now, the conservative brand has a 15-20 year head start on the liberal brand. If you don't like Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage, the answer is not to attack their free speech, it is to take it head on with your own free speech. To wrap up, the Fairness Doctrine is fatally flawed because it assumes that the other side must be heard on any issue, as if each issue is two-dimensional. There are 18 different candidates for president right now and many others are hovering on the fringes looking for the right moment to jump in themselves, all of whom think they're different enough to have a "side" of their own. Most issues have many more than two sides to them, making the entire concept inherently impractical.
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| Wall Street Media Business Report TM |
Still time to get in on NYT windfall
Wanna earn a shiny new quarter? Well, not quite a quarter. Would you settle for a dime, two nickels and three pennies? The New York Times company is getting ready to pay out a dividend of twenty-three cents on 9/12/07. All you have to have is one share of Class A or Class B common stock. And you have until 9/4/07 to buy it. This will give you a piece of one radio station. If you were looking for television too, you'll have to as Randy Michaels about it - he is now the proud operator of the former NYT television group.
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Ad Business Report TM
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 A snapshot of the 2007
TV ad money upfront
Television's weakening ratings numbers via fragmentation may be a good thing for radio, as the Television bang for the buck isn't what is used to be and is eroding year to year. The major television buyers are talking about the upfront, but off the record due to being in the thick of negotiations. Most everything on the broadcast TV side got done early last week. Overall, the big four are pretty much done except for some bits and pieces. For primetime, the CPM increases were 5-7%. The average of all the dayparts were 4-6% up. But while CPM increases were up, the overall revenue is down from years' past due to overall shrinking ratings points. Primetime money could be flat to slightly up, but no record. "Another big thing this year is not only the demand, but also the capacity-how much inventory there is to sell," a buyer/negotiator told us. "Obviously there was a lot less available inventory because the ratings points were down. It's like cars to an auto maker. If you have less to sell, you have less to sell. They have less to sell. It demonstrates supply and demand. You keep paying more for less." For prime, CBS is reportedly will score 2.45 billion; NBC 1.8 billion; ABC 2.4 billion and Fox 1.8 billion. The CW took in 650 million, 8+% higher than last year. CPMs were up 10%. CBS had CPM rate increases of 8%. NBC was flat, revenue-wise, with CPMs up 5%. It's estimated the primetime upfront total is near 9.15 billion, up about 300 million from last year. Cable is heating up now that the networks are done, but as one buyer said last week, "It's going to take a while. There are a lot of cable networks and syndication out there."
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| Media Markets & Money TM |
The Clear Channel shopping list
Radio and Television. Large market, small market. Intact cluster, partial cluster, orphan. The list of stations being placed in a parking lot trusteeship by Clear Channel has a little bit of everything. There are four TV stations and 71 radio stations. On the television side, the markets range in size from Cincinnati on down to Binghamton NY. A pair of marginal signals that BIAfn attributes to Los Angeles top off the radio chart, with San Francisco close behind. There are substantial clusters in Orlando, Dayton, Santa Barbara, Albuquerque, Cheyenne, Cleveland, Lima OH, New Orleans and the Florida Keys.
| For the full list go here |
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| Washington Media Business Report TM |
Slow turnaround allows MVPD
 to skate on EEO violation
RCN Corporation, which provides bundled CATV, telephone and internet service in several markets, failed to meet its EEO requirements over a two year period. The FCC detailed violations which included lack of records, reporting that EEO procedures were followed despite the lack of mandatory records and procedural failures in recruitment for five of 34 vacancies. But by the time the FCC arrived at these conclusions, the statute of limitations had ticked away. For its part, RCN said that at the beginning of the time in question it had just hired a new human resources director, who "...could not find any documentation concerning recruitment initiatives," and was unable to reconstruct anything to place in the company's records. The FCC was not amused that the company nevertheless indicated compliance when it submitted two Form 396-Cs in 2004 and 2005. On the failure to recruit effectively for the five openings, the FCC said the company's efforts, which it said were limited to posting on its website and an internal database, along with opening the positions to employee referrals, were not broad-based enough. The FCC can levy a fine for such violations, but said that regulation "limits the time period within which the Commission can initiate a forfeiture proceeding against non-broadcast entities to only those violations which occur within one year of issuance date of a notice of apparent liability." Hence RCN gets off with an admonishment, although the FCC said it would have fined it if it could.
RBR observation: All of which points out the need to take special care to address EEO issues whenever you have a change of command in your personnel department. And as with public file regulations, we strongly advise that you have more than one person in the company up to speed on the requirements.
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| Internet Media Business Report TM |
 Tomorrow everyone joins
in "Day of Silence"
Add Greater Media to the list, as it will temporarily take its radio stations' webcasts off-line on Tuesday, June 26th, in support of a "Day of Silence" for webcasters. "We know that our stations have substantial audiences who enjoy the convenience of listening online," said Peter Smyth (pictured), President and CEO of Greater Media. "We are making them aware that we will not be financially able to continue to provide this service if they do not speak up. Broadcasters are willing to pay reasonable online royalties, but this ruling could mean the end of any and all internet radio. The CRB decision is ill-considered and badly timed." Greater Media stations will be urging listeners to support the Internet Radio Equality Act, which would set aside the CRB rate hike and set a transitional rate of 7.5% of revenue for 2006-2010. Versions of the bill are pending in the House and the Senate.
RBR note: If you are joining in and cutting the power tomorrow let RBR know by dropping us a note at [email protected] as we will attempt to post those who participated and some how get the message to the congressional brass inside the beltway.
88Nine RadioMilwaukee Internet Stream
to go silent tomorrow
88Nine Radio Milwaukee's free Internet stream will silent for 24 hours to symbolically demonstrate the impact in just a few weeks of a recent federal copyright ruling. RadioMilwaukee (88.9 FM) will turn off its Internet simulcast all day Tuesday as part of the national "Day of Silence" by web broadcasters across the country to demonstrate how Internet radio will sound in about three weeks - unless Congress reverses the copyright decision. "RadioMilwaukee is participating in the Day of Silence because this is one of the best ways to accomplish two goals: raise awareness of the threat posed to free Internet radio and demonstrate what will be lost if Internet radio is forced to go silent," said J. Mikel Ellcessor, Executive Director of Radio For Milwaukee, which operates 88Nine RadioMilwaukee. "RadioMilwaukee exists to champion southeastern Wisconsin's creative communities, add a diverse, contemporary voice to the noncommercial space and raise awareness of the Milwaukee region's tremendous vitality. Our free Internet stream supports all three of these goals."
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| Ratings & Research |
Black and White and not very read
 According to a recent Harris Poll, in a survey of adults in five European countries, Australia and the US, readership of major daily newspapers today ranges from a low of 6% of adults in Great Britain and Italy to a high of 13% in Spain and Germany. The number one source for each country is TV network news. Looking five years into the future, the lowest percentage of adults who indicate that major daily newspapers will be their source for news and information is in Great Britain and Italy (4% each) while the highest percentage is among German adults (12%), reported The Center for Media Research. Online sites have become the number one source of news and information for the United States, France, Italy, and Spain and are tied for first for Australian adults. TV network news will still be first for adults in Great Britain and Germany.
Across the countries, frequency of newspaper regular readership (5 or more days a week) varies greatly:
48% of Spanish adults are regular readers
46%% of Germans
39% of US adults are regular readers
35% of British adults
34% of Italian adults
33% of Australian adults
26% of French adults regularly read the paper
Lack of time is the number one reason for not reading the newspaper for adults in:
United States (58%)
France (57%)
Germany (56%)
Australia (66%)
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| Monday Morning Makers & Shakers |
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Transactions: 5/7/07-5/11/07
Two weeks ago, we recorded a miniscule trading total of 1.475M. This week, we have a deal that starts out slightly lower than that number, 1.255, except there's a "B" instead of an "M" at the end. And it's not even close to being the biggest transaction for the week. Sam Zell's move to buy Tribune for 4.2B more than edges out the Clear Channel Television sale to Providence we noted above. In short, this week easily beats out the entire 3.05B worth of trading value filed up to this point in 2007.
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Total
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Total Deals
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8
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AMs
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8
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FMs
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12
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TVs
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63
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| Value |
5.555B
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| Complete Charts |
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Radio Transactions of the Week
Tribune leads the pack
| More... |
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TV Transactions of the Week
Tribune leads the pack
| More... |
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| Transactions |
10M KPNZ-TV Salt Lake City (Ogden UT, Ch. 24, indy) from Utah Communications LLC (Donald J. Tringali, mediator) to KRCA License LLC, a subsidiary of Liberman Broadcasting Inc. (Lenard Lieberman). 500K escrow, balance in cash at closing. [File date 5/30/07.]
400K WPLK-AM Palatka FL from Radio Palatka Inc. (Wayne Bullock) to Florida Radio LLC (James E. Martin, Gary S. Smithwick, William G. Brown, Clifton G. Moor). 20K escrow, 180K cash at closing, 200K note. Buyer intends to move station out of Putnam County as soon as reasonably possible; seller is acquiring WIYD-AM Palatka from Hall Communications and will operate out of WPLK-AM site. [File date 5/29/07.]
150K WAYI-AM CP Daytona Beach FL (Bunnell FL) from Flag Radio Inc. (Lynn Hawkins) to Flagler County Broadcasting LLC (James E. Martin, Gary S. Smithwick, WilliamG. Brown, Clifton G. Moor). 10K escrow, balance in cash at closing. CP is for Class B on 1550 kHz with 9.5 kw-D, 520 w-N, DAN. [File date 5/29/07.]
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| Stock Talk |
Look out below
With few exceptions, the radio bean counters had to break out the red ink to record the events of 7/22/07 on Wall Street. A particularly large drop was recorded by Arbitron. Too bad it wasn't able to announce its Clear Channel agreement before trading ceased for the day.
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| Radio Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Friday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
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Arbitron
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ARB
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50.01
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-0.83
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Google
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GOOG
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524.98
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+10.87
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Beasley
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BBGI
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8.35
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-0.11
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Hearst-Argyle
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HTV
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23.93
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-0.56
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| CBS CI. B |
CBS |
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32.51
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-0.25
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Journal Comm.
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JRN
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12.88
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-0.27
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| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
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32.56
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-0.25
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Lincoln Natl.
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LNC
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70.70
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-0.69
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| Citadel |
CDL |
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6.19 |
+0.06 |
Radio One, Cl. A
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ROIA
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7.14
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-0.11
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Clear Channel
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CCU
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37.99
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-0.16
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Radio One, Cl. D
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ROIAK
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7.15
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-0.08
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Cox Radio
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CXR
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14.17
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-0.04
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Regent
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RGCI
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3.35
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unch
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Cumulus
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CMLS
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9.42
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-0.09
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Saga Commun.
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SGA
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10.00
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unch
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Debut Bcg.
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DBTB
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1.56
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unch
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Salem Comm.
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SALM
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10.95
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-0.27
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Disney
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DIS
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34.14
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-0.05
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Sirius Sat. Radio
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SIRI
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3.01
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+0.17
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Emmis
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EMMS
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9.42
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-0.08
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Spanish Bcg.
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SBSA
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4.52
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+0.15
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Entercom
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ETM
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24.12
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-0.33
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SWMX
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SMWX
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0.12
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unch
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Entravision
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EVC
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10.34
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-0.02
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Westwood One
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WON
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7.10
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-0.19
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Fisher
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FSCI
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51.10
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+0.91
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XM Sat. Radio
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XMSR
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11.35
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+0.67
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Bounceback
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 We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to [email protected]
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Below the Fold
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Ad Business Report
Snapshot of this year's TV upfront
So far weakening ratings numbers via fragmentation a good thing for Radio...
Media Markets & Money
The Clear Channel shopping list
Radio, television here is the list of stations being placed in a parking lot trusteeship...
Washington Media Business Report
Slow turnaround
Allows MVPD to skate on EEO violation...
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Stations for Sale
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Radio Print Combo NEast
3 revenue streams AM/FM
print package. Asking 1.75M
Inquiries 781-848-4201 or
e-mail: [email protected]
WEB radiostationsforsale.net
New Denver, CO Metro FM
Interested Parties Please Contact:
Todd W. Fowler,
President American Media
Services - Brokerage, LLC
843-972-2200,
[email protected]
 Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.
Contact
June Barnes
[email protected]
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Radio Media Moves
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Audemat-Aztec ups Sophie Lion Poulain
Audemat-Aztec announced Sophie Lion Poulain has been selected to oversee worldwide PR. She has been responsible for PR for the Americas for the past four years. She will now be in charge of press releases, public relations and all media exposure for the entire company in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world.
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More News Headlines
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Customers say XM didn't let them go without a fight
The Washington Times reports former XM Satellite Radio customers say the D.C. company has made it difficult to cancel their radio subscriptions. The story says XM estimates that about 5,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions in protest of the decision to suspend Opie & Anthony after they aired a nasty segment recently on rape talk re: Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush. But canceling wasn't easy. Nearly a dozen of those interviewed said they encountered hang-ups, arguments from XM reps and unsolicited promotions when they tried to cancel their service.
| Excerpts from the story: |
RBR observation: Reminds us of the trouble AOL subscribers used to have to go through when canceling during the mad rush to broadband. When it comes to customer service, these days it pays to be good at it, as the internet can be used as a massive retaliation weapon. XM got spanked on this one. Too much pressure on customer reps to talk them out of dropping service and talk them into adding more often backfires. Perhaps XM read the tea leaves wrong on suspending O&A, but if they hadn't, we wonder what kind of boycotts from women's groups they'd be experiencing right now. Can you say "Rock and a Hard Place?"
Talkers cherrypick
the news
The latest Project for Excellence in Journalism talker topic index shows them both following and departing from the usual pattern during the week of 6/10-15/07. The usual pattern is for them to take the top stories and amplify them, and they did so at the top of the chart. In a week with no single big story, immigration was #1 with a modest 10%, and talkers dutifully followed the norm by taking that ball and running it up to 17%. But they went off on their own tangent when it came to intramural Palestinian strife, #2 in the news hole with 9%. Talkers knocked it all the way down to #8/3%, focusing instead on the 2008 campaign (15%) and, at a distant #3, Iraq policy 8%, showing that for talkers, it was a diffused week as well.
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TVBR - TV News
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Markey gives industry room to head off regulation
The good news is that Ed Markey (D-MA) recognizes the preference for content management tools over content regulation when it comes to helping parents control what their children experience in the media. However, he noted Friday that there are no tools that block commercial content, and said that legislation already on the books gives the FCC authority to step in if necessary. "I believe 'Big Mother' and 'Big Father' are better able to decide what is appropriate for their kids to watch, rather than 'Big Brother' - but we needed the law to ensure parents had the tools to effectuate these choices," said Markey. "As the House sponsor of the Children's Television Act, I believe parents and children deserve better. And that Act already grants the FCC authority to address many of these issues if the industry does not respond to this problem on its own, swiftly and concretely." The gist of Markey's concern is not programming content. He seems satisfied that blocking tools are available to parents when it comes to the entertainment portion of electronic fare. However, commercials are not blocked under any circumstances, and this seems to be an area where he is willing to seek regulatory measures if his concerns are not address. "There is a terrible inconsistency in policies that require broadcasters to air three hours a week of educationally nutritious programming for kids and then have this programming and other children's shows surrounded by a barrage of junk food ads." Speaking on behalf of broadcasters was Jon Rand of KAYU-TV Spokane. He detailed a campaign his company is doing called "Healthy Choices = Healthy Families" which includes numerous elements, including PSAs (16 unique commercials so far) run seven days a week in all dayparts, focus on the issue during local newscasts, and establishment of a dedicated website.
TVBR observation: Rand also noted that almost all of its children's programming revenue has been lost to cable and its 24/7 children's channels. We have seen other reports that a large proportion of the junk food advertising comes into the home over a wire, not over the air. Regulators should bear that in mind before considering onerous regulations on broadcasters just because of the unbidden-entry-into-the-household thing. Nevertheless, we find it encouraging that Markey is not anxious to legislate on this matter, and even though we aren't quite sure what FCC powers Markey is talking about, it's still a good thing that he views the FCC as a first stop if he's not satisfied with industry initiatives, placing potential legislative remedies even further down the road.
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RBR Radar 2007
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Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.
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Clear Channel makes
some FCC moves
A series of documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission show Clear Channel bidding adieu to a number of radio and television stations, which will in turn be saying aloha to Jeanette Tully. Tully will provide foster care for the diverse group of properties as the Aloha Station Trust LLC. The filing includes television stations about 70 radio stations scattered here and there. The radio stations are a mixed bag of intact clusters, partial clusters and standalone orphans. Most are in Ohio, Florida or California.
06/22/07 RBR #122
NAB battles latest political pickpocket attempt
The Fair Elections Now Act (S. 1285) certainly isn't fair to everybody, and broadcasters can get in front of the line of aggrieved parties. The bill would cut rates, kill scheduling options, expand the pool of advertisers receiving discounts and directly tax broadcasters. NAB is leading the charge to keep such provisions off the law books.
RBR observation: Is the US political system broken? It's not in our mission to get into that debate, but in our humble opinion, more political advertising would not contribute to a solution, it would exacerbate the problem. Is there not enough mudslinging already? Have we not seen enough candidate families? We should select our representatives based on the same techniques used to influence our selection of soft drinks or toilet paper? The last thing we need are more political ads. Read the Text of Rehr's letter here in RBR.
06/21/07 RBR #121
Murdoch looking at an internet deal
Who needs Monte Hall and "Let's Make a Deal" when Rupert Murdoch is around?
TVBR observation: Murdoch is all about reaching an audience, and Yahoo gets to about 100M different people every month. One thing is for sure: Murdoch clearly believes that multimedia is more than broadcast and print. But then, almost every broadcaster we know of is figuring the internet into its plans one way or the other. Key to growth is cross platforming and marketing with the Internet. Get there before the start of 2008.
06/21/07 TVBR #121
Market appears to be flooded
with station inventory
Activity begets activity in the M&A world. With demand so heavy in the sales of the New York Times television group, ABC Radio, some surplus stations at CBS Radio and the ongoing sales of stations by Clear Channel (both radio and its entire TV group), other broadcasters have been drawn into the market. Private equity is backing the principal bidders on every big deal. Multiples remain in double digits for anything in a decent market. It is an interesting cycle, with the new private equity players bidding fiercely, while the publicly traded companies are generally have to stay on the sidelines-except, of course, for those who are in the action on the sell side.
06/20/07 RBR #120
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Local Sales Manager
KFAN, Twin Cities, home of the Vikings and the leader in Sports radio has opening for a Sports Leader LSM. Minneapolis-St. Paul is a Top 20 Metro market (#16) and year after year, in quality of life studies, we are listed as one of the nation’s best. Have what it takes to win when in the Red Zone then join our Sports Team and KFAN-AM 1130 as we go helmet to helmet. Qualifications and where to send resume, cover letter see Radio Careers
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