Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
New readers can receive our RBR Morning Epaper FREE for the next 60 Business days! SIGN UP HERE
Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 22, Issue 149, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Monday Morning August 1st, 2005

Radio News®

What done fishing for Commissioners?
The rumor mill continued to churn late last week about the imminent prospect of FCC commissioner nominations coming out of the White House. Earlier in the week, attention was focused on White House staffer Mike Meece and Tennessee Regulatory Authority director Deborah Tate, Republicans who would fill the seat vacated by Kevin Martin, who moved up to the chairmanship in replacement of the exited Michael Powell, and the seat currently held by the leaver-to-be Kathleen Abernathy. By week's end, Tate was still on the very short list of likely nominees, but Meece had been replaced by another White House staffer, Richard Russell, who works in the WH Office of Science and Technology Policy.

RBR observation: The need for action could not have been made any clearer than it was by the Sunshine Notice on the Commission's August Open Meeting, scheduled for next Thursday, 8/4/05. The supposedly dry and non-controversial plank from the July meeting which would initiate the court-ordered review of the 6/2/03 media ownership rulemaking proved to be - - surprise, surprise - - controversial. Its absence from the August list would suggest that it is still controversial, and held hostage by the lack of a tie-breaking vote on the current 2-2 Commission. In other words best keep trout season open and White House change your bait and keep fishing. Maybe even try trolling for the Commish fish.

FEC rules against anti-CBS complaint
Neither conservatives nor liberals are having much success in getting the Federal Election Commission to sanction broadcasters. In addition to rejecting a liberal complaint that Sinclair Broadcast Group was improperly helping President Bush's campaign last year (7/26/05 TVBR #145), the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has rejected a conservative group's complaint that the controversial "60 Minutes Wednesday" broadcast about President Bush's military record constituted an illegal contribution to the Kerry campaign by CBS. The complaint had claimed that the broadcast was not a legitimate news story because CBS failed to verify the information that was broadcast and had improperly coordinated with the Kerry Campaign. The FEC, however, refused to get drawn into assessing the content of the broadcast and ruled that the media exemption applied to the broadcast.

XM Churn baby, churn! Dropping prices
RBR reported Friday that XM Satellite Radio has admitted to a 40% churn rate for its OEM receivers (7/29/05 RBR #148). It also appears that in order to get 60% of the new car owners to stick with satellite service once the trial period runs out, XM is willing to take a lot less than its official 13 bucks a month price. Saga Communications CEO Ed Christian told us what happened when the 90-day trial ran out on his wife Judy's Cadillac STS. "Judy saw no reason to continue service - - and thus, after 90 days the trial period lapsed. The dealer had given XM my cell phone number and in the thirty days that have lapsed I have had four calls from XM seeking to have me reinstate the service, which I politely declined," Christian said. But XM didn't give up so easily. "I retrieved a message on my cell phone from a cheery XM representative who offered me a rate of five bucks a month or 60 a year if I would come back. Currently XM charges 12.95 per month, so you do the math. So much for their incredible subscription gains," noted the Saga CEO.


Emmis and SBS drop tower battle
As RBR predicted, Emmis and Spanish Broadcasting System have settled their dispute over Emmis' attempt to evict KXOL-FM from it Flint Peak tower in the LA market because it switched to a new Reggaeton/Hip-Hop format that Emmis claims competes with its KPWR-FM. As previously reported (6/30/05 RBR #128), SBS has moved KXOL to Infinity's Verdugo Hills tower. Under the settlement announced Friday, Emmis will withdraw its federal lawsuit which had sought to evict KXOL from its tower and SBS will withdraw a complaint against Emmis at the FCC.

House incumbents, challengers raking it in
The cash wars that precede an election are running in high gear already, even with the date of the last election much closer than that of the one upcoming. 428 incumbents have pulled down 116.5M during the first half of 2005, a 25.5% increase over the same period in 2003. 224 Republicans pulled in 67.7M, with 115.7M cash on hand, and median receipts of 245.1K. 204 Democrats pulled in 48.8M, with 94.7M cash on hand and median receipts of 188.7K. Freshmen were working the cash circuit even harder. 24 Republicans raised 9.9M/median 395.7K, while 17 freshmen Democrats raised 5.8M/median 251.9K. Prospective challengers are also working hard, although not quite as hard on the elephant side. 60 Republicans, with a half year total of 7.5M, have actually brought in less than during the same period in 2003, when 82 picked up 9.5M. Democrats have gone from 1.8M in 2003 to 6.8M this time. Six incumbents have brought in more than 1M so far, led by Robert Mendendez (D-NY, 2.968M), Henry Bonilla (R-TX, 1.463M), Tom Delay (R-TX, 1.258M), Dennis Hastert (R-IL, 1.25M), John Murtha (D-PA, 1.2M) and Mark Kirk (R-IL, 1.009M).

Lachlan Murdoch resigns
from News Corp. positions
If you missed it and talk about a shocker! Rupert Murdoch's son and heir apparent, 33-year-old Lachlan Murdoch, announced Friday that he's resigning as Deputy COO of News Corporation and Publisher of the New York Post, effective August 31st. "I look forward to returning home to Australia with my wife, Sarah, and son, Kalan, in the very near future. I would like especially to thank my father for all he has taught me in business and in life. It is now time for me to apply those lessons to the next phase of my career," Lachlan said in a statement. "I am particularly saddened by my son's decision and thank him for his terrific contribution to the company," said Rupert Murdoch, who was apparently stunned by the news.

RBR observation: Give Lachlan credit. He's heading off to build something of his own - - just what we don't yet know - - rather than wait around to inherit daddy's empire. Now the rumors will begin swirling about succession to the top spot at News Corp. when Rupert retires or, more likely, is carried out feet first. Lachlan's younger brother, James, is still a News Corp. executive. He runs the BSkyB satellite TV Company in the UK. Older sister Elisabeth has already charted an independent course for herself and heads a TV production company in the UK that's not a part of News Corp. Many on Wall Street want to see President & COO Peter Chernin calling the shots when Rupert is no longer around, rather than see a Murdoch family member take charge just because the Murdoch's own more News Corp. stock than anyone else. Last, the TV network still needs a lot of work. (Ps: We add Rupert and his advisors now should pay attention to content instead of all the brouhaha around Nielsen.)


RBR Observation
Readers reject Burns bill
The NAB may be supporting federal regulation of TV ratings, but RBR didn't find much support for the idea among rank-and-file broadcasters. What we did see last week was Sen. Burns hold a hearing and his other three Amigos didn't even show up: The four Amigo Senator's: Conrad Burns (R-MT) attended as no attending were Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) and George Allen (R-Va.). Lots of words tossed around and name calling but in short the business of audience measurement and both commercial mediums must move forward. The phone calls and emails RBR received would never pass FCC guidelines as mother is only one-half of a word. So our observation and advice is for Nielsen chiefs and Broadcasting chiefs including NAB -TV Executive committee members sit down and talk face to face. Break out the ham salad sandwiches and cream sodas. RBR will supply the ice packs for cooler heads or to position any place you like. Just start talking face to face.

RBR/TVBR Poll Results
We asked: Now that you have heard all of the arguments, put yourself in the role of a United States Senator. How would you vote on S.1372, the Burns bill to regulate TV ratings?

For It
18.47 %
Against It
72.82 %
Still Undecided
8.70 %


Conference Calls Q2 2005
Revenues up 1.2% at Jeff-Pilot Communications
Jefferson-Pilot Corporation did provide some more detail about Q2 results for its Jefferson-Pilot Communications subsidiary in connection with its quarterly conference call on Friday. Broadcast revenues were up 1.2% in Q2 to 57.2 million. Radio revenues were up in the low single digits, while TV was down slightly for the quarter. As reported previously (7/29/05 RBR #148) earnings for the broadcast division were up 9% to 15 million, with broadcast cash flow up 600K to 27.8 million.


Adbiz©

Verklin weighs in on LPMs and PPMs
Given the headed debates going on now in both the radio and TV industries, RBR/TVBR just had to ask David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americas: Arbitron's PPM for radio and Nielsen's LPM for television - - what do you think about them?

"I think it's a step forward. I'm a big fan of [PPM-based Project] Apollo, I think Apollo is interesting and there's no question that's good stuff. How can anyone debate the improvement in veracity of an LPM or a PPM over a diary? I mean this is a joke. I've never really understood the debate. I've never really understood it." People are afraid that their station isn't going to get as high ratings as they used to, we noted. "That's not my problem. How's that my client's problem or Carat's problem? I'm sure they're afraid of that, and the biggest problem bearing against that is the poor stations are the people that pay the bills. If the clients and the media agencies were footing more of the bills you wouldn't be writing about this. The only resistance to this is by the measured, who are concerned that the accuracy of the measurement is going to show a decline in their audience. I understand that problem but I don't understand the debate from my perspective. My clients are interested in the most accurate measurement of who is watching television and there is just no question that PPM and LPM are superior technologies. So to me I've always been astounded at the brazenness of resisting it."

Competitors on Google's tail
Google continues to be the Internet's top search engine site, but Nielsen//NetRatings notes that both AOL and Ask Jeeves scored double digit growth in Q2. "While growth in searches was modest among the 'Big Three' search engines, the fourth and fifth biggest search engines, AOL and Ask Jeeves, grew three times as fast. While it's far too early to say that Google needs to watch its back, a resurgent AOL makes the game a lot more interesting," said Ken Cassar, Director of Strategic Analysis at Nielsen//NetRatings.

Search Growth for Top 5 Search Engines, Q1-Q2 2005
Search Engine Q1 2005 Searches(000) Q2 2005 Searches(000) % Change
Google

5,737,097

6,088,343

6%

Yahoo!

2,576,473

2,798,123

9%

MSN

1,659,235

1,590,049

-4%

AOL

562,816

646,641

15%

Ask Jeeves

216,656

250,869

16%

Overall Total

12,263,765

12,849,121

5%

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search, July 2005

Commercial Alert zeroes in on cell phones
A watchdog is concerned about a double-pronged marketing effort aimed at children. The first prong involves getting cell phones into the hands of children, and the second would be the use of those very same cell phones to market directly to the children without parental presence. Commercial Alert is the watchdog, and it has fired off letters to key members of Congress asking that they look into the matter. They keyed on a Walt Disney/Sprint effort to rope in 8-12-year-olds. CA wrote, "The targeting of young children as the next growth market for the telecom industry is one of the worst ideas to appear in the American economy in a long time. Does anyone really believe that kids today lack sufficient distractions from their school work, that there are insufficient disruptions in the home, and that child predators and advertisers lack sufficient means of access to kids?" CA says that the program will be justified as a means of keeping children and parents in contact with one another. "But despite the industry's rhetoric, Disney and the telecommunications companies really want to use children as conduits to their parents' wallets. And marketers want another way to bypass parents and speak directly to the nation's children."


Media Business Report
Univision.com pacts with Google
Univision Online, the interactive division of Univision Communications, announced that it has entered into a multi-year partnership with Google Inc. "The partnership combines the power of the most visited Spanish-language website with an industry leader in search technology and advertising," Univision.com said. "Through the partnership with Google, visitors to Univision.com will now receive more relevant, comprehensive, and timely Spanish-language search results optimized for quick delivery in a user-friendly environment. The relationship also connects Univision.com users with more products and services online through targeted advertisements on the search and content pages of the website. In addition, these ads increase the visibility of websites and advertisers serving Hispanics," the company said. Univision's websites had previously been partnered with Yahoo! for search marketing. Under the deal with Google, users of Univision.com will be able to get results in either Spanish or English.


Radio & Television Business Report

Radio's Important September Face Off
UpFront 2005 - will radio face the mild reception as Network TV? Top media agency buyers and network radio sellers participating so far: Kelly Cadotte, Natalie Swed Stone, ,Irene Katsnelson, Chris Fontana, Rich Russo, Matt Feinberg, Matthew Warnecke, Kim Vasey, and Lisa Opensky Greenberg.

And we go One on One with
Charles Courtier, Executive Chairman of Mediaedge:cia

The first and most respected morning business media Epaper today - RBR/TVBR the vehicle to reach the decision makers and players in your industry. 7:30am delivery of our Morning
RBR Epaper and TVBR Epaper is now the standard for quality news, analysis, and unbiased observations. Use RBR/TVBR as the vehicle to reach the decision makers and players in your industry.

Reserve your Ad Marketing Space today for NAB & UpFront 2006.
Advertising space is limited, contact:
June Barnes [email protected] -- or -- Jim Carnegie [email protected]


Media Markets & MoneyTM
Swap shop: Bustos and Salem move three in Sacto
Bustos Media, one of the current crop of relatively new and rapidly growing radio companies, has struck a deal with Salem which will give it a new pair of Sacramento-area FMs in exchange for one of its own, along with some of its cash. It'll send newly-acquired KVMG-FM (103.9 mHz Yuba City CA) to Salem in exchange for KSFS-FM (94.3 mHz Jackson CA), and will finish the deal by paying 500K for Salem's KCEE-FM (103.3 Grass Valley CA). Salem itself came into KSFS only a short while ago - - it was part of a multimarket swap the Religious radio leader did with Hispanic radio/TV leader Univision. The swap allows Bustos to take advantage of the fact that many Hispanics have gotten used to tuning into 94.3 for Spanish language programming, and Salem is happy with the market coverage of the 103.9 facility. Bustos also has an FM operating off of stick licensed to Esparto CA. Salem, in addition to KVMG, has KTKZ-AM, KFIA-AM and KKFS-FM in the market. The stations will swap stations, calls and formats under an LMA. Interestingly, both stations were sold by First Broadcasting. Bustos picked up the 103.9 facility earlier this year for 23M. The 94.3 was bought by Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. in 2003 for 2004, which then merged into Univision, which made it part of the Salem swap.

Legacy skins one off of the Bible belt
Lowell Davey's Bible Broadcasting Network is getting a quick cash infusion, and Legacy Communications is getting another AM in Utah. Bible is selling the AM half of its Ogden UT KYFO AM-FM combo for 520K. Legacy, acting under licensee name AM Radio 1490 Inc., is headed by E. Morgan Skinner Jr. and Lavon R. Randall. Ogden is in the northern part of the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Arbitron market. Legacy's other station is even farther north - - KNFL-AM Tremonton is in the Logan area not far from the Idaho border. Bible received FCC permission to change KFYO-AM from noncommercial to commercial status back in February.

Regent sets stock buyback
You can add Regent Communications to the long list of radio groups who think Wall Street is undervaluing their stock. Its board has authorized an additional 20 million bucks to buy back stock. The move came because Regent had used up its previous authorization. During Q2, Regent repurchased 3,347,443 shares for approximately 20 million bucks at an average price of 5.97 per share, including commissions. "We believe that our stock represents an attractive investment and an appropriate use of our free cash flow at this time. With a healthy balance sheet, low debt and the ability to generate significant free cash flow for years to come, we remain focused on maximizing shareholder returns over the long-term," said CFO Tony Vasconcellos.

Washington Beat
FM is KURBed in bought with Altheimer
The never-ending battle of push and pull on the FM Table of Allotments continues. This time it's dateline: Arkansas as Charles Crawford seeks to put a new Class C3 FM on 98.1 mHZ into the town of Altheimer AR, a small town of 1.2K people on the road between Stuttgart and Pine Bluff, which also happens to be some 30 miles or so southeast of Little Rock. That is where Citadel is operating KURB-FM on second-adjacent 98.5 mHz on a somewhat substandard Class C rig. Crawford and the FCC want Citadel to keep it there, so the group got the standard show cause notification, giving it a chance to file a protest or file for an upgrade. According to the FCC, Citadel did not avail itself of this opportunity, so the Atheimer allotment is on the books and on tap for auction some time in the future.

RBR observation: We strongly sense that there are some jokes in here somewhere, but due to the likelihood that they would be offensive to some, we are not going to go anywhere near them.


GM Talkback
What does EDI invoicing mean to you? Are you satisfied with your rep firm's progress to help with national sales using EDI?

Howard Meagle, GM, WMC-TV Memphis (NBC):
We support and use EDI where possible as does our rep. Unfortunately, the list of clients using this invoicing method is a short one. The real hurdle for all concerned is to agree on a universal platform. Until then the widespread benefits of EDI cannot be fully realized.


Monday Morning Makers & Shakers

Transactions: 6/20/05-6/24/05
Almost 80% of the value this week resulted from an acquisition and room-making spin-off in Greenville-Spartanburg SC, detailed below. TV was inactive once again. Most of the activity was in rated markets of the mid- to small-variety.

6/20/05-6/24/05

Total

Total Deals

14

AMs

6

FMs

14

TVs

0
Value
61.39M
| Complete Charts |
Radio Transactions of the Week
Entercom finds greener SC grass
| More...
|
TV Transactions of the Week
Still snoozing...


Transactions
3.15M KTLM-TV Harlingen-Weslaco-McAllen-Brownsville TX (Rio Grande City TX). 49.75% of Sunbelt Multimedia Co. from Antonio Falcon (49.75% to 0%) to Sam F. Vale (49.75% to 99.5%). Cash. Station is Telemundo affiliate on Channel 40. [File date 6/30/05.]

2M KDOX-AM Las Vegas (Henderson NV). 100% of S&R Broadcasting Inc. from James L. Garrett (33.3% to 0%), Paul Ruttan (13.2% to 0%), Eddie Escobedo (13.2% to 0%), Maria Corral (13.2% to 0%), Antonio Carranza (13.2% to 0%) and Michelle Crane (13.2% to 0%) to Summit Media (Scott Gentry, 100%). 100K escrow, balance in cash at closing. LMA 2/1/98. [File date 6/24/05.]


Stock Talk
GDP fails to thrill
Stock prices fell Friday, despite a favorable report on growth in the Gross National Product. The Dow Industrials fell 65 points, or 0.6%, to 10,641.

Radio stocks were also lower. The Radio Index fell 1.822, or 0.8%, to 206.724. Beasley had the worst day, falling 5.1%. Fisher fell 3.5%. Regent gained 2.6% after announcing a stock buyback.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Friday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

41.50

-1.11

Jeff-Pilot

JP

50.17

-0.76

Beasley

BBGI

14.29

-0.77

Journal Comm.

JRN

16.00

-0.24

Citadel CDL
12.28 -0.16

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

13.18

+0.08

Clear Channel

CCU

32.64

-0.36

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

13.21

+0.05

Cox Radio

CXR

15.75

-0.40

Regent

RGCI

5.87

+0.15

Cumulus

CMLS

12.62

+0.17

Saga Commun.

SGA

14.30

-0.10

Disney

DIS

25.64

-0.31

Salem Comm.

SALM

20.09

-0.38

Emmis

EMMS

20.53

+0.47

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

6.82

-0.06

Entercom

ETM

31.72

-0.72

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

8.60

-0.15

Entravision

EVC

8.55

-0.05

Univision

UVN

28.28

-0.19

Fisher

FSCI

45.28

-1.64

Viacom, Cl. A

VIA

33.63

-0.45

Gaylord

GET

47.94

+1.19

Viacom, Cl. B

VIAb

33.49

-0.51

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

25.07

+0.01

Westwood One

WON

20.37

-0.09

Interep

IREP

0.68

+0.11

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

35.63

-1.30

International Bcg.

IBCS

0.01

unch

-

-

-

-

-



Bounceback

Send Us Your OpinionsWe want to
hear from you.

This is your column, so send your comments to [email protected]

Your good work is very much appreciated - from insightful analysis, to the reporting on trends which can make or break our industry. Sincere thanks for these articles on Mr. Verklin. They can inspire our industry to take things to the next level. What developments are happening in retail ad sales in different radio stations that prove the return for advertisers?

Kind regards,
Andy McNabb

McNabb Broadcasting/ Y2Marketing/ Andy McNabb & Company


Arbitrends

Arbitron
Market Results
| Birmingham |
| Ft. Myers |
| Honolulu |
| Indianapolis |
| Kansas City |
| Las Vegas |
| Salt Lake City |



Upped & Tapped

Viacom ups Ianniello
Joseph Ianniello has been named Sr. VP and Treasurer of Viacom, succeeding Robert Freedline, who left the company in March. Ianniello has been with Viacom since 2000 as VP of Corporate Development.

Hodson gets the biz
Kristy Hodson has been promoted to Business Manager at Entercom Memphis after five years with the operation.

Back to Boston
Kevin Karlson and Peter McKenzie are returning to Boston to host mornings on Infinity's WZLX-FM. They were most recently on a three station simulcast based at WPDH-FM Poughkeepsie, NY.


Stations for Sale

Santa Fe Market #237
New market FM entrant ready to go! Santa Fe is a unique and rich market with a great opportunity for an aggressive, innovative operator!
Cliff at Clifton Gardiner & Co
(303)758-6900
[email protected]


More News Headlines

Air America says it repaid tax money
The recent revelation that former CEO Evan Cohen may have tapped New York City tax funds for Air America Radio (7/28/05 RBR #147) apparently was no surprise to network executives. Although Air America says it has "no obligation to Progress Media's business activities," it agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club for funds that were invested in Cohen's Progress Media. An Air America statement notes that Progress Media has been defunct since May 2004 and Cohen has not had any involvement in Air America since May 2004. "If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful," the network statement stated.

Schwarzenegger and DeVito prove to be Fair weather friends
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is putting his acting hat back on, along with his old colleague Danny DeVito, to promote the Califoria State Fair in Sacramento. The TV spot, in which the duo will reprise their roles in the movie "Twins," has already started airing on northern California TV stations and will continue on through Labor Day. Landlocked Sacramento will be celebrating the state's culture with a beach theme. The fair kicks off 8/12/05.

BofA account
up for grabs

Bank of America has put its billion bucks advertising account up for review. Incumbent Interpublic is defending the business, while BofA is reportedly talking to both Omnicom Group and WPP Group about what they have to offer. There's no indication yet when a decision will be made.






July Digital Magazine
Now Available

GM Talkback:
Who in your company or stations deserves a pat on the back and why?


Read RBR/TVBR in 2 simple steps:
1.Create a simple account with Zinio and download the Zinio Reader.
2. You can then download the
July Issue of RBR/TVBR


RBR Radar 2005
Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

XM raises expectations
After beating its own guidance for adding satellite radio subscribers in Q2 adding 647,226 for a total of 4.4 million - - XM is now telling Wall Street it will have six million subs by the end of this year, up from its previous target of 5.5 million. CEO Hugh Panero declared that consumer adoption of satellite radio is outpacing new products of the past. RBR observation: OK, so they've forgotten that four million subscribers was supposed to be the magic number to go cash flow break even. Investors apparently don't care that the target has now been moved closer to 10 million. We continue to be the only ones who see churn as already a big problem for the satellite radio guys. XM insists that churn remains "low" at 1.4% per month, or nearly 17% a year - - already higher than the 15% they promised investors for a mature business, which is still several years away. Amazingly, XM said yesterday that six out of 10 people who buy new cars with XM receivers installed are continuing to buy the service once the trial period built into the sticker price expires. That's a 40% churn rate for OEM sales! And XM is pitching that as a good thing? We don't get it. 07/29/05 RBR #148

Radio's stake in the Burns bill battle
TV station owners and ad buyers have a clear stake in whether or not Congress passes S.1372 proposed to regulate TV ratings. But RBR has covered the issue all along because we know how Washington works if TV gets hit with new regulation today it's very easy for Congress to decide to add radio to the mix tomorrow, claiming "fairness" if nothing else. Arbitron weighed in against the bill, even though it would currently not affect its radio ratings business. Instead, it endorsed a voluntary code of conduct, which is currently under development by members of the Media Rating Council (MRC).
RBR observation: We've warned all along that if more government regulation is piled on the TV industry today, radio is likely to be hit with the same a few years out. That's obviously a concern for Arbitron. Also, a company spokesman notes, Arbitron is hoping to get Nielsen to become a partner in its Portable People Meters, which would then be subject to the new law covering TV ratings - - that is, if the bill becomes law. Since not a single Senator besides Burns showed up for Wednesday's hearing on his bill - - not even his three co-sponsors - - it seems unlikely that S.1372 is going to be high on the priority list of the Republican leadership this session. Getting Nielsen to sign onto an MRC code of conduct, which it has agreed to in principle (ah, but the devil is in the details) seems like a much more likely course for progress than banking on congressional action anyway. 07/29/05 RBR #148

NAB TV Board chair
presses for Burns bill
It may be unusual for the NAB to invite more government regulation of the TV industry, but NAB TV Board Chairman Ben Tucker, acting CEO of Fisher Communications, insists that the association had no choice when it came to backing Sen. Conrad Burns' (R-MT) bill to regulate TV ratings by making accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC) mandatory for TV ratings services. "Nielsen is an out of control monopoly that pays only lip service to their biggest client. For them to say that the NAB action was based on greed is only slightly less out of touch than your supporting them," Tucker said, referring to TVBR's strong stance in opposition to the legislation.
RBR observation: As previously noted, we're not supporting Nielsen nor fighting the NAB. We are, however, opposing legislation that won't accomplish what its proponents want (higher broadcast ratings under LPM measurement), but will lead to higher costs and could have dire consequences down the road for the very broadcasters who are backing the bill today. Given that not a single Senator besides Burns showed up for Wednesday's hearing on his bill - - not even his three co-sponsors - - it seems unlikely that S.1372 is going to be high on the priority list of the Republican leadership this session. Getting Nielsen to sign onto an MRC code of conduct, which it has agreed to in principle (ah, but the devil is in the details) seems like a much more likely course for progress than banking on congressional action.
07/29/05 RBR #148

Nielsen on defensive as
Burns convenes LPM panel
Committee pretty much to himself Wednesday, 07/27, as testimony was taken concerning his S.R. 1372 FAIR Ratings Act. Nielsen's Susan Whiting spent much of the afternoon fending off complaints from representatives of the broadcasting and accreditation communities. However, she had very strong support from the lone representative of the advertising community, MindShare's Kathy Crawford. Burns stated the issue in a nutshell. While it is not surprising that there are problems between the rater and the rated, broadcasters are hampered by the fact that Nielsen "is the only game in town." Burns said that the Media Rating Council is the perfect vehicle with which to audit and monitor ratings providers, but that it lacked teeth to make its recommendations stick, hence the need for his bill. 07/28/05 RBR #147


Visit MediaHeadHunters.com
General Manager
Saga Communications Brad Eure retires and we seek his replacement with a radio professional that has passion and commitment to the radio business to take the leadership at WWWV / WQMZ & WINA Charlottesville, VA. Saga, we believe in our people. Interested then tell us about yourself.

See Radio Careers

Find Your Radio Career

Post Your Companies Job Openings


Other Links

State Associations
Contact Us

Publisher question:
Reading RBR from a friend?
Receive your own morning copy at
www.rbr.com


Help Desk

Having problems with our epapers?
Please send Questions/Concerns to:
[email protected]

If you wish to remove your name completely from our database use this link __UNSUB__

If you wish to unsubscribe
to RBR only, use this link

RBR Epaper -- 108 annual
or just 9 a month

©2005 Radio Business Report, Inc. All rights reserved.
Radio Business Report -- 2050 Old Bridge Road, Suite B-01, Lake Ridge, VA 22192 -- Phone: 703-492-8191