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Volume 22, Issue 132, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Thursday Morning July 7th, 2005

Radio News®

David Lee Roth
to replace Stern in NYC, LA?
That's what the editor from NYC/NJ's "Steppin' Out" Magazine Chaunce Hayden told Neil Cavuto on The Fox News Channel yesterday. The former Stern Show regular said he heard from a high level source at Infinity Roth would replace Stern in NYC and LA after Labor Day and the other markets would have to "fend for themselves," meaning find their own syndicated or home-grown talent for mornings. The entertainment magazine man confirmed rumors that Stern would be leaving after Labor Day because "they can't sell him." He stated that the sales department told him they will be going into a Fall Sweep and when that sweep is over, they can't have Stern on the air. "When those Fall books come out, Stern will be on Sirius, so they can't sell that Fall book," Hayden said. Infinity spokesperson Karen Mateo tells RBR/TVBR, "We're talking to a number of people to replace Howard Stern, however, there are no imminent announcements at this time."

RBR observation: We doubt most buyers would agree with that Fall Book assumption. Simple: You can't sell what you don't have on the air. Fall 2005 you have Stern and then the results are out year end and Happy New Year Stern is gone and you have nothing. But, Infinity CEO Joel Hollander has said in the past that Stern will stay on until the contract was up unless "[Sirius CEO] Mel Karmazin comes in with a big check." Logic would be in favor of putting Roth on if he is the presumed Stern replacement and have a product to market and sell during the first half of 2006 with Fall 2005 ratings and build from there. Another major financial blow Infinity on the FM side in NYC needs like a Jill format.

Miller will do time, Cooper decides to talk
Judith Miller of the New York Times decided she'd rather go to jail than reveal sources to a grand jury in the case of the outing of Valerie Plame. The length of her sentence wasn't known at deadline. Time magazine's Matt Cooper, whose situation was rendered moot in some respects by his publisher's decision to turn over documents related to the case, was still called to testify by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, and he's agreed to do so. RTNDA responded immediately, calling for passage of the Free Flow of Information Act-S.340 in the Senate and H.R.581 in the House. "The most effective way for journalists to support Judith Miller is to work for swift passage of a federal shield law," said RTNDA President Barbara Cochran. "We are calling on our members to contact members of Congress and ask them to support the legislation now pending in the House and Senate." Watchdog Free Press was already at work, putting together a petition and starting up an email campaign urging members of Congress to support the pending legislation. "Most states have put similar shield laws into place," reads FP's suggested text. "It's time the federal government took action to protect journalists and their confidential sources from federal prosecution. Please support this legislation and protect journalists' confidentiality and our First Amendment rights." According to Associated Press, the phrase "most states" equals 31, plus the District of Columbia.

RBR observation: Many observers, including the keepers of this e-space, have wondered why Fitzgerald isn't making a point of going after columnist Robert Novak, who wrote the original article outing Plame. After all this time, we have to think that Novak and Fitzgerald must have come to some sort of understanding. We should know eventually what the deal is - - Novak has promised to tell the entire tale once the matter comes to an end, adding his portion to the version that goes into the history books.

Todd Lawley to replace Fig at Citadel?
Citadel/Tucson GM Todd Lawley will be replacing Bill Figenshu at Citadel as West Region President, according to RBR sources. However, we can't confirm yet, as Citadel spokesperson Judy Ellis is traveling and did not return calls at deadline. As we first reported today (7/6 RBR #131), Fig left Citadel to start his own consultancy.

Alcohol ads should limit young impressions
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth wants marketers of alcoholic beverages to lower their standard. Currently, they use a 30% standard cap - - if the audience includes more 12-20 year-olds, they stay away. CAMY says that by lowering the standard to 15%, marketers can both protect children and improve their ROI. According to CAMY, the 30% threshold is equal to the total percentage of the US population under the age of 21. It argues that inclusion of children under age 12 is misleading, since they are unlikely to drink regardless of their exposure to advertising. The at risk group is the aforementioned 12-20 demo. CAMY Executive Director Jim O'Hara explained, "The needed reform is for the alcohol industry to place its ads where the percentage of youth ages 12 to 20 in the audience is 15 percent or less. It's simple math. A 15% threshold matches up with the percentage of 12- to 20-year-olds in the general population and eliminates the concern that underage youth are overexposed to alcohol ads. It maintains the alcohol industry's right to advertise to adult drinkers over 21. In fact, a 15 percent threshold produces more efficient advertising being delivered to those who can legally buy alcohol products." CAMY says adoption of the 15% standard would leave 79% of all national television programming in bounds, including the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards.

I-P-Oh no
The latest Hoover's IPO Scorecard is out, and it is showing a decrease in new market entrants. The Q2 2005 debuts were down 16%, in fact, compared to the same quarter in 2004. Cash raised is down, too. During Q2 2005, 46 companies brought in 7.5B, compared to 55 IPOs/8.9B in Q2 2004. The number of offerings are also down YTD, although by that standard more cash has been raised this year. 2005 comes in at 86 IPOs/17.5B compared to 2004's 91 IPOs/16.7B. Hoover's VP Rachel Brush said, "There's a balancing act going on in the IPO market right now. IPO hopefuls continue to keep their dance card open for a public offering, as well as potential merger and acquisition activity, as long as the price is right. At the same time, wary investors are holding back in part due to the skyrocketing price of oil, plus recent declines in some of the major market indexes." She added that another way to scare off investors was to take IPO earings and either give the proceeds to company insiders or use it to pay down debt.

Rapper Lil' Kim gets
a year in prison in Hot 97 case
Lil' Kim was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in prison and fined 50,000 for lying to a federal grand jury to protect friends involved in a 2001 shootout outside Emmis' Hot 97 FM NY. She was convicted of the charges in March. The rapper told the grand jury she did not notice two of her close friends at the scene of the shootout-her manager, Damion Butler, and Suif Jackson, known as "Gutta." Both have pleaded guilty to gun charges. The gun battle happened outside Hot 97, when Lil' Kim's entourage clashed with a rival rap group, Capone-N-Noreaga. Lil' Kim's group confronted the others about the Capone-N-Noreaga song "Bang, Bang" that contained an insult to Lil' Kim from rival Foxy Brown. One man was hurt in the shootout that followed. At the trial, Lil' Kim testified that she had a falling out after the shooting with Butler and with Antoine "Banger" Spain and James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd, the two witnesses who said they saw her with Butler and Jackson.

Adbiz©

Chrysler offers employee discounts too
Following in the footsteps of General Motors and Ford, Chrysler Group said Wednesday that it too will now offer employee discounts to the general public. Chrysler said its program, which began Wednesday and lasts through Aug. 1, would shave thousands of dollars off the sticker prices of most 2005 models. Dubbed "Employee Pricing Plus," the discount program does not include the hot-selling Chrysler 300 sedan, the Dodge Magnum wagon or the all-new Dodge Charger. The Dodge Viper sports car and vehicles from Chrysler's SRT performance line were also excluded from the discount program.

Chrysler strikes Yahoo! radio deal
DaimlerChrysler is sponsoring four new online radio stations created by Yahoo! Music. The commercial-free channels on the free version of its LAUNCHcast online radio service. Yahoo! dubbed the program "Listen Now!" and is promoting it across its site. Four online stations will present Chrysler-sponsored music programming free of commercial interruption. Chrysler branding appears on the player window and on the LAUNCHcast front page. Additionally, at the start of each audio stream, a 21-second spot identifies Chrysler as the stream sponsor. Listen Now! Launched last month. Each month will feature three or four Chrysler-sponsored channels. For July, the stations include "Classical," sponsored by Chrysler Convertibles, "Today's Big Hits," which has Chrysler SRT branding, and two more stations featuring the Chrysler 300. The program will be promoted across several of Yahoo!'s applications and content offerings, including the Yahoo! Music Engine, Yahoo! Messenger and in the left hand navigation on all LAUNCHcast pages. The initiative marked Yahoo!'s first radio marketing program and one of the company's largest radio buys to date. The Chrysler sponsorship will last until 12/06.

Ogilvy & Mather testing
eye-tracking ad technology
OgilvyOne, part of the Ogilvy & Mather network, recently struck a deal with CA-based Eyetools to test e-mail marketing for clients including IBM, AMEX and Cisco. A camera stealthily embedded in the frame of computer monitors allows it to determine what components of e-mails test subjects are really seeing and what they're ignoring. The eye movement patterns are then depicted in a heat map or diagram that show how eyes moved across the e-mail, explained an AdAge story. Eyetools' founder and chief technology officer, Greg Edwards, said his company's selling point is that it has automated the analysis of the focus group tests so that results are available within a couple of days, and the process is cheap enough that "most people pay with a credit card." One of e-mail marketing's benefits is its low cost, a key factor in OgilvyOne's decision to sign on with Eyetools. The research, which is married with market testing of customers from client databases, has already yielded some surprises for OgilvyOne staffers. They've found, for instance, that the word "free" is often skipped and that the majority of readers see less than half of the copy.

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Media Markets & MoneyTM

KUPA's a keeper for Nathan Drage
A new owner is getting into the radio business with KUPA-AM, which serves Honolulu from it's perch west of town in Pearl City. Nathan Drage's Broadcasting Corporation of America is putting up 650K for the station. The seller is Morgan Skinner, operating as AM Radio 1370 Inc. His better-known group name is Legacy Communications, which retains station holdings in the western part of the US. This will be the only station in the Drage portfolio. According to brokers at Kalil & Co., who handled the deal, the station carries traditional Hawaiian music to the island of Oahu on a 6.2 kW day-and-night signal.

Beacon burns brighter in Youngstown
It was only a few weeks ago when Harold Glunt filed to take over an AM station in the Youngstown-Warren market - - WANR-AM Warren OH - - along with a Greenville PA combo in a debt-assumption deal with an estimated value of 600K. Now, according to broker Jamie Rasnick of John Pierce & Company, he's back in acquisition mode with a 295K deal to acquire WLOA-AM, across the state line from Youngstown in Farrell PA. The seller is Holy Family Communications, headed by Jim Wrights. The stations will not wait for closing to begin operating as a duopoly - - an LMA giving Glunt the reins is already in progress.

Washington Beat

That's a 10K relief
We imagine that radio group owner Mega Communications was more than a bit perplexed when it received an FCC bill for 10K relating to a tower violation. The bill, in the form of a forfeiture order, was issued 6/21/05. However, Mega had simply paid the fine when it was still an NAL, or notice of apparent liability. The 10K was paid 5/11/05. The decision of the FCC to accept that payment as a fulfillment of its obligation must be immensely gratifying.

Programming

CBS Radio News expands updates
CBS Radio News announced effective 7/18 it will provide regularly scheduled one-minute updates, Monday through Friday at 31 minutes past the hour 24/7. These updates will consist of an in depth report on the most interesting, most provocative or lead story of hour. In making the announcement, Harvey Nagler, CBS News, VP/Radio, said "this increase in programming is in direct response to the great enthusiasm that these updates have been met with by our affiliates, who want more and more product from the network." CBS Radio News affiliates will be advised at 10 minutes past the hour as to the subject matter of these updates. There is the possibility that the subject of the update may change if there is a major late breaking story.

Ratings & Research

Susan Whiting interview, Part 3
Nielsen boss hopes to keep Congress at bay

If your broadcast clients like News Corp. continue to insist that there are problems with LPM, but you insist that it is working well, how are you going to keep Congress from getting involved? RBR/TVBR asked Nielsen Media Research President and CEO Susan Whiting in a recent interview.

"I have obviously heard that that's what they're trying to do and we certainly hope that that's not the result. I have spent; our company spent a lot of time on the Hill talking to different people about our business, about how we work with our clients; about how we actually have been responsive to a lot of the different changes that have been recommended through the MRC or directly from clients. And I think that that's the story we go in and tell. We give the facts, we talk about the process that we're changing, we talk about how we do work with our clients with the MRC and the fact that mandatory accreditation or whatever else might be considered here may have the effect of actually slowing down the television business. I don't think there's a big appetite for this, a broad-based appetite, but certainly News Corp. has a lot of friends on the Hill and we certainly have been hearing about this. But my experience has been that many members of Congress have many other things that they are focused upon and they think this is a business to business kind of issue. It doesn't mean News Corp can't make it an issue," Whiting said.

Engineering

Crawford announces HD Radio rollout
Crawford Broadcasting announced it will convert the majority of its stations to HD Radio over the next three years. Crawford has also obtained experimental authority from the FCC to test HD Radio multicasting on all of its FM HD Radio stations. These tests are scheduled to get underway shortly in key markets. Today, five Crawford stations are up and broadcasting with HD Radio technology: WMUZ-FM Detroit, MI; WPTR-FM Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY; WPWX-FM and WSRB-FM Chicago, IL; and WYRB-FM Genoa, IL. Additionally, HD Radio conversions are underway in Buffalo; Rochester, NY; and Birmingham, AL, all of which are scheduled to be on the air in July. Three Denver AM stations will be on the air with HD Radio signals this fall.

Transactions

2M WYZK-FM Valdosta GA from C.D.J. Inc. (Mike Howard) to W.G.O.V. Inc. (Georgia R. Salva Jr., Robert Salva, Georgia R. Salva). 250K cash at closing, 1.75M note. Duopoly with WGOV-AM/WAAC-FM Valdosta. LMA 5/9/05 (7,275/month paid upfront and applied as necessary by licensee to back rent and other expenses). [File date 6/6/05.]

800K WNSX-FM Bangor ME (Winter Harbor ME) from Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses Inc., a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications Inc. (Mark Mays et al) to Stony Creek Broadcasting LLC (Mark L. Osborne, Natalie G. Cox). 40K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Clear Channel retains an AM and five FMs in the market. [File date 6/6/05.]

Stock Talk

Not a pretty day for radio stocks-and stocks in general, as the Dow was down some 101 points yesterday on oil pricing fears. Standouts yesterday included Fisher, down 0.90; Gaylord, down 0.84 and Entercom, down 0.65. Most of the rest were only down some pocket change.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Wednesday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		43.01	-0.66	Jeff-Pilot	JP		50.42	-0.48
Beasley	BBGI		14.34	+0.04	Journal Comm.	JRN		16.51	-0.10
Citadel	CDL		11.79	-0.09	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		12.74	+0.02
Clear Channel	CCU		30.90	-0.10	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		12.77	+0.03
Cox Radio	CXR		15.61	-0.26	Regent	RGCI		5.95	-0.13
Cumulus	CMLS		11.66	-0.07	Saga Commun.	SGA		14.50	-0.10
Disney	DIS		24.79	-0.25	Salem Comm.	SALM		20.30	-0.09
Emmis	EMMS		17.50	-0.27	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		6.63	+0.02
Entercom	ETM		32.81	-0.65	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		10.07	-0.09
Entravision	EVC		7.96	+0.05	Univision	UVN		27.33	-0.41
Fisher	FSCI		47.00	-0.90	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		32.70	+0.06
Gaylord	GET		46.16	-0.84	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		32.45	+0.04
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		24.41	-0.40	Westwood One	WON		20.05	-0.28
Interep	IREP		0.50	+0.01	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		34.24	-0.51
International Bcg.	IBCS		0.01	unch	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

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

Reader writes Infinity CEO Joel Hollander, copies RBR

Dear Mr. Hollander:
As a long time, very loyal listener of WCBS-FM, the format change to "jack-fm" has been extremely disturbing to me. To want to have "jack" as a format on an Infinity station in New York is an understandable goal for Infinity. Trends, and formats do change over time, and I do understand the need to maintain profitability for the Corporation. However, as I and others have pointed out, Infinity had several other, less popular stations on which to place the "jack" format. Reasoning that "jack" would draw listeners away from WCBS-FM holds very little credence, as the fans of WCBS-FM are not likely to be interested in a format which plays (in my humble opinion) a mishmash of music, much of it music which "oldies" fans would not wish to listen to under any circumstance, and minus the ON AIR-PERSONALITIES which make New York radio unique and different from stations in ANY other market.

| Read More... |

Yours truly,
Paul Blake

Arbitrends

Stations for Sale

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Two AM/FM combos
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Zoph Potts, Snowden Associates
(252) 940-1680
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June Digital Magazine
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National Sales:
EDI - Electronic Data Interchange, sometimes synonymous with Electronic Invoicing
Kathy Crawford, MindShare President, Local Broadcast, speaks her mind on EDI, specifically stating what solutions she needs from the software and keying entries to get stations faster payment in an exclusive column. States straight up, "Lest you should all think that our work is done in the world of EDI. Think again!" EDI- the focus of the future of national spot dollar. Who is and who isn't involved. From the rep firms to the software companies, we get answers. The Clock is ticking on EDI. Closure in '05?

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RBR Radar 2005

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

RBR First
Introducing FigMedia 1
In our RBR observation - Battlefield Mgt. now Needed - on why radio stocks and the companies are in the 'Read'em and Weep' column of business, 07/05/06 RBR #130. One key element missing today in many of radio's upper management structure is the front line management with programming experience, but as quick as one could put out an S. O. S. - RBR confirmed late last night that Bill (Fig) Figenshu, Citadel Broadcasting's West Region President parted company and formed FigMedia 1 effective immediately. The departure will surely leave a major gap in Citadel's upper management structure with 70 stations under Fig's guidance. 07/06/05 RBR #131

Radio revenue inches up 1% in May
Radio revenue inched up 1% across nearly all sectors in May, according to the RAB. Grand total combined spot and non-spot dollars, local ad sales, national sales figures, and total combined local and national ad sales all grew by 1% in May 2005 over May of 2004. RBR observation: Really not much to brag about but more to be concerned about.
07/06/05 RBR #131

RAEL Study documents
"Power of TV," says TVB
The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab recently released a study on "Radio's Return on Investment Compared to Television. MBR observation: Well, we often see TVB and CAB going at each other, why not the TVB and RAB? While we welcome RAB's response to this TVB study, we would like to provide a quote from Carat Americas CEO David Verklin, on the effectiveness of using more media together on a campaign: "I'll give you a very simple fact; call it 'Verklin's Law' recommend you review the study and the 'Law."
07/06/05 RBR #131

Radio stocks still soft at midyear
Broadcasting stocks improved ever so slightly in the past month, but the market is still pretty dismal. Through the first six months of 2005, only three radio stocks have posted gains. Even those Wall Street darlings of satellite radio, XM and Sirius, were down double digits for the first half of 2005. We don't expect to see any dramatic improvement until the economy really kicks into gear and advertising demand improves a lot. RBR observation: The field of dreams concept has finally ended and now for the balance of this year it will be interesting to see which CEO begins to pay attention to front line management. The first issue noticed is there are not too many CEO's with front line battle or management and programming experience. That is why we see so many quick knee jerk reactions to blowing up formats, flushing local brand identities along with their producing dollars in ad revenue. Best example that will be at the top of this format demolition of 2005 is the imploding of Oldies - WCBS-FM, NYC for who knows Jack. And what is next on the format horizon - we speculate with tongue in cheek - new format will be Jill. The stats tell the full story so print read'em and weep.
07/05/05 RBR #130

Where, oh where is the indecency?
What to make of the silence of the FCC in 2005 when it comes to indecency fines? At least one watchdog, the Center for Public Integrity, says that the quiet, and the zero-dollar fine level, is a result of the massive amount of fines and settlement agreements which hit the books in 2004. The chilling effect on program content many predicted would seem to be all present and accounted for. RBR observation: And all this without any action on the Upton/Brownback bills to drastically increase indecency fines. Where are those bills, anyway? We haven't heard a peep about them for months now, despite the fact that whenever they've actually been on the table they've seemed a mortal lock to take the fastest possible track to the desk of George W. Bush. Could it be that they will simply wither and rot on the legislative vine again, as they did in 2004? Stay tuned.
07/05/05 RBR #130

Research Director
Univision and TeleFutura TV stations 4-6 years broadcast research required in medium to Top 10 market. Bachelor degree required. EOE. No phone calls, please. See TV Careers

General Manager
Small-market radio cluster in the beautiful Northwest. Dominant stations with a fantastic team with excellent benefits. If you have genuine passion apply.
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