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Volume 22, Issue 129, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Friday Morning July 1st, 2005

Holiday Schedule:
RBR returns Tuesday, July 5th, following the Independence Day Weekend. There will also be no MediaMix this afternoon. However, the RBR/TVBR newsroom and offices will be open all day today as our staff stays on top of the information you'll need to do business next week.

Radio News®

New rules NPRM about to be teed up
FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy told reporters yesterday that the Third Circuit order remanding the far-reaching 6/2/03 media ownership rulemaking will be dealt with at the Commission's next regularly-scheduled Open Meeting, due to be held 7/14/05 at 9:30AM. It will be a simple, non-controversial laying-on-the-table of the issues brought up by the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit did not tell the FCC what result to arrive at - - it said to either change a given rule or better-justify the 6/2/03 version - - so in each case, the FCC will ask for commentary and, more to the point, evidence as to which course to take. The entire Third Circuit mandate will be dealt with in one agenda item, with a decision on breaking it into smaller pieces reserved for later. A decision on whether another round of public hearings will be held is also reserved. As for her own personal status - - Abernathy's imminent exit has been widely rumored and reported - - she said she will continue on in the absence of any replacements.

RBR observation: This looks like a continuation of Chairman Kevin Martin's apparent strategy - - move ahead where possible, but keep any of the divisive issues off the table while the vote is two-two. But in reality, there really is no choice but to put the issues out there for stakeholders and other interested parties, now that the Supreme Court has made the Third Circuit remand official. Still, we wonder when the White House is going to notice the antsy Republican commissioner in one chair and the absent one in the other...

A look behind Bob Coen's numbers
Before concluding that US advertising spending in 2005 would be significantly lower than he'd earlier predicted, Universal McCann guru Bob Coen analyzed what's been going on so far this year. What he found was that national advertisers were spending somewhat less than he had expected - - and ad demand at the local level was particularly soft. | More on Coen's forecast |

Boortz caller confesses to murder
Police in suburban Atlanta are investigating whether a man who called the nationally syndicated "Neal Boortz Show" and confessed to committing a murder is indeed the killer. The man, identified as Cheo Ash, is currently in a state hospital in Texas, awaiting a hearing on his mental competency to stand trial in a burglary trial. He wants out of the mental hospital so badly that he would apparently prefer to be in prison. To that end, he told Boortz's call screener on Wednesday that he would kill one of the hospital staffers so he could be taken to jail - - and then told her that he had killed a gas station clerk during a 1994 robbery. DeKalb County Police confirmed that they have an open murder case fitting the description, and Boortz said on his show yesterday that the caller had provided details which had not been made public by the police. Yesterday, officers were at the WSB-AM Atlanta studios, from which the program originates, interviewing the staffer and listening to a tape of the call. Although the caller wasn't put on the air Wednesday, Boortz did play segments of the tape on his show yesterday.

Time capitulates in Cooper case
Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, subject to jail time for refusing to reveal sources in the investigation into the White House outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, may be off the hook. Time Inc. has agreed to supply documents, including Cooper's notes on the matter to the special prosecutor holding Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller in contempt - - an act which may take the heat of both. Time was not happy about it however. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine said, "In declining to review the important issues presented by this case, we believe that the Supreme Court has limited press freedom in ways that will have a chilling effect on our work and that may damage the free flow of information that is so necessary in a democratic society. It may also encourage excesses by overzealous prosecutors." The publisher acknowledged that it had to respect the courts. That said, it referred to a big case from the past. "Since the days of Attorney General John Mitchell, the Justice Department has sought confidential sources from reporters as a last resort, not as an easy option. Neither Archibald Cox, the Watergate Special Prosecutor, nor Judge John Sirica sought to force the Washington Post or its reporters to reveal the identity of 'Deep Throat,' the prized confidential source."

| Read Pearlstine's complete statement |

Dorgan ridicules Tomlinson's PBS ideology study
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said it would've been silly if it hadn't been so expensive. He called CPB Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson's study of the political leanings expressed on PBS programming "a little nutty" and a "complete waste of more than 14K in taxpayer funds," which mostly went to an amateur researcher with ties to conservative organizations. Dorgan said, "The raw data make clear this was not an objective study. It was not a professional study. It was an amateur study, based on no standard or objective criteria. It appears to have been cobbled together by an armchair analyst with little or no professional preparation for the task. The report is itself, steeped in deep political bias. This would be silly, if it hadn't been commissioned by the Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and paid for with thousands of tax dollars." He noted that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NV) and former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) were both listed as liberals in the study. Media Matters for America President/CEO David Brock quickly fired off a letter, publicly of course, to Hagel asking what he thought of both his own personal characterization in the study and the expense of its creation.

Quote us on SCOTUS, Part 3
We continue with more commentary from interested parties regarding the Supreme Court's Monday triple play involving Brand X, Grokster and confidential source shielding. Today: Joe Barton (R-TX) and CFA/CU on Brand X; ACU's Stacie Rumenap and Ben Scott of Free Press on Grokster' and RCFP's Lucy A. Dalglish on shield.
| Read comments here |

Adbiz©

Huffy bikes teams with Wal-Mart,
Radio Disney in promotion
The Huffy Bicycle Company's newest kid's bike sensation - - the West Coast Chopper line of bikes designed by Jesse James - - hit the streets at Wal-Mart locations in May and June for a promotion with Radio Disney. Huffy just wrapped up six events aired by Radio Disney, which gave kids a first-hand look at the bikes; see them in action at the stores and win chances to take one home. Events were held May 28 in LA with Radio Disney AM 1110; in Phoenix May 28 with Radio Disney AM 1580; in Denver with Radio Disney AM 1690 June 4; in Orlando June 11 with Radio Disney WDYZ AM 990; June 17 in Little Rock, Arkansas with Radio Disney KDIS 99.5 FM and June 25 in Atlanta with Radio Disney WDWD AM 590.

For 10,000 bucks, woman tattoos ad on forehead
For 10,000, Kari Smith has gone ahead and had her forehead tattooed with the Web address of a gambling site. Bountiful, 30, who sold her unusual advertising space on eBay, said the money will give her 11-year-old son a private education, which she believes he needs after falling behind in school, according to an AP story. "For the all the sacrifices everyone makes, this is a very small one," she said. "It's a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son. To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, 10,000 is like 1 million. I only live once, and I'm doing it for my son," she said. Tattoo artist Don Brouse said he and his staff spent nearly seven hours Wednesday trying to talk Smith out of putting "GoldenPalace.com" above her face. When he did go through with it, he kept the inch-tall letters close to her hairline, where bangs or a hat could provide some cover. Smith's eBay auction attracted more than 27,000 hits and 1,000 watchers. Bidding reached 999.99 before Goldenpalace.com, an Internet gambling company in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Canada, met Smith's 10,000 asking price.

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Media Markets & MoneyTM

Citadel spinner makes Wilkins even further flung
Despite the fact that WQXA-AM York PA has a sibling with similar calls licensed to the same town, it AM is a bit of an orphan. Its big FM sister really belongs with the group's Harrisburg cluster. Citadel has found a suitable foster parent in Robert L. Wilkins, who will be adding the station to his growing national group. The deal, which carries a modest 250K price tag, was brokered by John Pierce & Company on behalf of the buyer. Wilkins belongs to the class of radio group owner which favors multiple, creative licensee names - - it's going with one already in use for its WWNL-AM Pittsburgh - - Steel City Radio Inc. The deal also continuous a judicious acquisitive streak which has featured the 1.5M buy of WBRI-AM Indianapolis (3/24/03 RBR #58), the 775K acquisition of KXKS-AM in Albuquerque (8/5/04 RBR #152) and the still-pending 285K deal for KTIB-AM Houma-Thibodaux-Morgan City LA (3/16/05 RBR #53). The group also features AMs in Omaha NE-Council Bluffs IA, Chattanooga TN, Asheville NC, Augusta GA, Huntsville AL, Greenville-Spartanburg SC and Kansas City.

Close encounter in Colfax
And let's not forget Pullman, a second Washington State town which figures in a two-AM, two-FM deal which has just pulled into the station. According to Greg Guy of Patrick Communications, Rob Prasil's Inland Northwest Broadcasting LLC is not the owner of KZZL-FM in Pullman and KRAO-FM, KMAX-AM & KCLX-AM in Colfax. The formats, respectively, are Country, Classic Rock, Talk and Country again. Documents filed with the FCC peg the deal at 1.2M. The towns of Pullman and Colfax are in the far east portion of Washington near the Idaho border and not near to any Arbitron-rated territory.

Washington Beat

Lotus gets lit up for 10K
A tower light malfunction at the site of Lotus Communications' KWKW-AM in Los Angeles has resulted in a 10K fine, which stands despite the group's attempt to get a rescission or reduction. The outage was first noted by the LAPD, which notified the FCC, which in turn notified air traffic authorities and Lotus, on 3/24/04. Apparently an automatic monitoring device gave Lotus inconclusive information and engineers failed to do a visual check. The FCC found problems - - the outage was not repaired until 4/6/04, but was not recorded in the station log in between the date the group was informed of the problem and when the situation was handled. The usual pleas - - the violation was not willful, we fixed the problem quickly - - were as usual dispensed with. The lights should have been willfully kept in operation; and violations are expected to be fixed with all due speed, which does not in any way excuse the existence of the violation in the first place. Finally, Lotus pointed to its unblemished record of compliance. This is sometimes a dangerous tactic, because the FCC will often turn around and find a blemish. In this case, it had to look no further than the record of the same exact tower, and found other tower and EAS problems as well. Bottom line: the fine stands.

Transactions

650K WHEL-FM Helen GA from Citicaster Licenses LP, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications Inc. (Mark Mays et al) to Radio Seoul Georgia LLC (Earl Kim). 65K escrow, balance in cash at closing. [File date 5/27/05.]

325K KHWK-FM Tonopah NV from Donald W. Kaminski Jr. to Hilltop Church (Vernon Miller et al). 67.5K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Buyer is non-profit entity. [File date 5/31/05.]

Stock Talk

A kick in the teeth from the Fed
Wall Street had hoped that the Federal Reserve would finally stop raising rates - - or at least signal that it was ready to stop. But no, Alan Greenspan and his merry band of Fed governors are determined to stay on the path they've chosen, regardless of the consequences to the economy. That intransigence sent stocks lower on the last day of June. The Dow Industrials fell 100 points, or 1%, to close at 10,275.

Radio stocks suffered along with everyone else. The Radio Index dropped 3.003, or 1.5%, to 202.789. Citadel plunged 5.9% after Smith Barney Citigroup downgraded it to "sell." Cumulus fell 3.1, as did Radio One's Class A stock, while its Class D was down 3%. Regent also fell 3%.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Thursday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		42.90	-0.05	Jeff-Pilot	JP		50.42	-0.49
Beasley	BBGI		14.49	unch	Journal Comm.	JRN		16.80	-0.09
Citadel	CDL		11.45	-0.72	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		12.73	-0.41
Clear Channel	CCU		30.93	-0.02	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		12.77	-0.39
Cox Radio	CXR		15.75	+0.07	Regent	RGCI		5.87	-0.18
Cumulus	CMLS		11.78	-0.38	Saga Commun.	SGA		14.00	-0.17
Disney	DIS		25.18	-0.25	Salem Comm.	SALM		19.84	-0.55
Emmis	EMMS		17.67	-0.19	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		6.48	-0.10
Entercom	ETM		33.29	+0.32	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		9.99	-0.06
Entravision	EVC		7.79	-0.17	Univision	UVN		27.55	-0.64
Fisher	FSCI		47.29	-0.63	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		32.22	-0.63
Gaylord	GET		46.49	-0.06	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		32.02	-0.63
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		24.50	-0.09	Westwood One	WON		20.43	-0.06
Interep	IREP		0.47	+0.03	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		33.66	-0.26
International Bcg.	IBCS		0.01	unch	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments to [email protected]

The Pew Research Center (6/29/05 RBR #127) is not an unbiased observer. Witness that they always find Republicans to be held in lower esteem than Democrats but people keep electing more Republicans. Go figure! The TV News people would get a bigger dose of reality by looking at their ratings than by looking at this study. I hold the Pew Research Center and other wacky non-governmental organizations in lower esteem than almost any of the institutions they studied.

Jay Austin
KIOD / KSWN
McCook, Nebraska

Arbitrends

Stations for Sale

Rocky Mountain
Rated Market
New market FM on the air and ready to go! One of the Rocky Mountain Region's most upscale markets priced to sell! A great opportunity for an aggressive, innovative operator!
Cliff at Clifton Gardiner & Co
(303)758-6900
[email protected]

More News Headlines

Two stations adding HD multicasts

ABC News Radio
details Live 8 coverage

Demand high for rooms in Cheesesteak-land

RBR Radar 2005

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

Back down on ad spending forecast
Universal McCann Sr. VP and Director of Forecasting Bob Coen is no longer as bullish about 2005 ad spending as he was back in December. Instead of 6.4% overall growth, he now expects US ad spending to grow 5.7% this year. Why so slow? Coen points to tough comps as one reason. Another is Sarbanes-Oxley law may be a factor, making national marketers more cautious about how they do business. Coen reduced his 2005 growth estimates for radio and television, but boosted his estimate for cable. RBR observation: Local Local Local is your focus. It's reasonable for Coen to back down some on local and quite a bit on national business expectations. The national cable networks really have their act together this year - - thus, Coen is now predicting 12% growth rather than 7%. If he's right, which appears likely, this will be the first year that the cable nets (all of them combined) have more ad billings than the Big 4 broadcast networks. View the chart and print it out and post it. This is your road map.
06/30/05 RBR #128

Cable upfront dollars
likely to come in down
A different version from Bob Coen as CIBC World Markets is officially cutting its 2005 and 2006 U.S. ad spend forecasts for TV ahead of what it believes will be a flat-to-down upfront for both broadcast (already completed) and cable network spend (not completed but tracking flat to down Yr/Yr)-owed mainly to 5% less inventory sold but also 2% lower CPMs than CIBC had been expecting. While CIBC still expects the dollars to show up in the scatter markets this Fall and for national TV advertising to grow next season.
RBR observation: Focus and train your staffs for - Local Local Local. 06/30/05 RBR #128

Cable industry to reach
47 billion by '09
The survey finds cable has made a vigorous recovery since the ad market meltdown in 2001 and continues to attract attention from investors. The industry posted an estimated 9.0 billion in cash flow in 2004, with a margin of 34.1%. In a market dominated by major media companies, new nets continue to have a difficult time getting off the ground. Limited bandwidth has also changed the competitive parameters for incumbent networks. Source of the data by Kagan.
06/30/05 RBR #128

KXOL heading for a new tower
It looks like the landlord-tenant dispute between Emmis and Spanish Broadcasting System is about to be rendered moot by SBS' KXOL-FM Los Angeles finding a new landlord. In its latest filing in the lawsuit brought by Emmis to evict KXOL from its tower for launching a format that competes with Emmis' KPWR-FM, SBS says it has nearly completed construction at a different tower site, Verdugo Hills, owned by Infinity. According to SBS, the new site should be ready to go by this Friday (7/1) and, once the FCC gives its OK. RBR observation: Loss of a client is loss of money. You pick the winner. 06/30/05 RBR #128

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