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Volume 24, Issue 154, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
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Wednesday Morning August 8th, 2007
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Radio News ®
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 Regent growing auto business
at the local level
Regent Communications beat Wall Street expectations for Q2 and CEO Bill Stakelin says the company is on track to book 100 million bucks in revenues this year. The quarter was led by the company's Lafayette, LA cluster, where revenues were up 11% from a year ago. Albany, NY was up 7% and Evansville, IN was up 6%. Unlike many other radio groups, one strong category for Regent was local auto dealers. "Over half of the Regent markets saw an increase quarter-to-quarter in advertising of the auto dealers," Stakelin told analysts. What's the secret? After studying the issue, Stakelin says what Regent found was that many local auto dealers are no longer buying as deep, but focusing their ad spending on the top radio franchises in their market. So, where a dealer or their local agency may have bought seven stations in the past, they may only buy three today. Having dominant stations, he said, is helping Regent stay in the ad budgets of the local dealers. Stakelin insisted that Regent is taking the right steps to build value for its shareholders. Asked in Q&A about the recent request by Riley Investment Management for a special shareholders meeting, Stakelin said the company is "evaluating the latest filings from selected shareholders." Riley, which according to SEC reports has purchased most of its 6.5% Regent stake since March, has been pushing for a sell-off of the company's assets and now wants to elect three members to the board of directors. "You can be sure that our management and board remain committed to maximizing the value for all of our shareholders - those that are short-term, those that have been with us for a very long time, large shareholders, small shareholders," Stakelin said, assuring analysts and investors that Regent management and its legal advisors would give consideration to all shareholder proposals.
Will the good old days ever return?
Noting Regent CEO Bill Stakelin's long career in radio in both large and small markets, plus a stint heading the RAB, CL King analyst Jim Boyle, himself a long time veteran, asked whether, after more than six years of slow-to-no-growth, is this still a cyclical downdraft or a long-term change? Stakelin said the impact of new media has changed the equation, but that online is a big opportunity for radio. "There's gold in them thar hills and we think we're good enough to mine it on behalf of our shareholders," the CEO concluded. Then Boyle asked Stakelin to predict the future - will radio, long-term, return to a pattern of 1-2% average growth, 3-4% or 5-6%? "I'm still holding out for the 3-4 right now. I think when the larger markets and all of us regain our focus on the fact that this is a local-based, local-driven advertising medium and we get back to the basics of selling our local markets and serving the advertisers and their needs in those markets - be it in Buffalo or Watertown, New York - then I think we will have more control over our own destiny and how we can drive revenues and increase profits," Stakelin said.
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 NAB says XM/Sirius a la carte
less than meets the ear
The a la carte plan being proposed by Sirius and XM has been praised by the Parents Television Council, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters yesterday that it sounded good to him, although he hadn't looked into the details, according to the Associated Press. Sirius honcho Mel Karmazin himself took to the pages of the Washington Times to push the idea, saying it was about taking consumer choice "to the next level." And he was again pitching it yesterday on Fox News Channel. But not so fast, says the National Association of Broadcasters. While traditional radio experiments with the advertising concept of "less is more," it appears that the satellite services want to provide less FOR more, on a per-channel basis, at any rate. "If 'a la carte' is intended to mean more choice and lower prices, XM and Sirius fail the test," said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. "Only in a monopolist's world are 50-channel minimums, higher prices, interoperability restrictions and a required hardware upgrade considered a consumer benefit. This analysis demonstrates that XM and Sirius are engaged in nothing more than a desperate PR stunt at the expense of consumers." NAB's analysis, which is being shared with the FCC and DOJ Antitrust division, shows that there is limited ability to mix and match channels between services. The so-called "best of both worlds" package includes 100 channels from a customer's primary subscription and an option on only 11 pre-selected channels from the other, all for two dollars more than a straight subscription to one service or the other. To select this option, the subscriber would have to buy a new radio, which is not yet available, and the price of which is unknown. NAB notes the 50-channel mostly-music package for 6.99 a month, well below the 12.95 currently charged, but adding Oprah, available on XM only, takes it up to 9.99, and adding anything else, like sports or Howard Stern speed walks subscribers within a dollar of, or well over, the base 12.95 price, all the way up to 50 channels/Howard and "Sports Super Premium," which costs 17.99, a 150% increase in price per channel for 45% less content.
Ratings strong, ad sales lagging for SBS
Spanish Broadcasting System has some of the top radio stations in some of the largest US markets and CEO Raul Alarcon noted in yesterday's quarterly conference call that the SBS stations are continuing to grow audience shares. So, what's needed is to match ad sale to those ratings numbers. "We are optimistic that we can return to growth in the second half of the year," Alarcon told analysts and investors. National ad sales have been a particular problem, but COO Marko Radlovic said Interep "is showing signs of life" and national sales are currently pacing up double digits for Q4. The company's guidance for Q3, however, was below what The Street had expected. SBS says revenues are expected by be down in the low single digits. Mega TV, the company's one-year-old TV venture in Miami, is expected to post an operating loss of 2.5-3.0 million for the quarter.
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 Dems take aim at consolidation
Netroots bloggers met with Democratic presidential candidates in Chicago over the weekend at the YearlyKos Convention, and one of the things that came up was media consolidation. Big media hasn't been high on the radar of the Bush administration, but that may change if Democrats regain control of the White House. Chris Dodd (D-CT) went first, and was fresh off a brief appearance on Fox News Channel where he got into a shouting match with Bill O'Reilly over the DailyKos website which was closely connected to the convention. For starters, Dodd said he has asked the DOJ to look into Rupert Murdoch's plans to buy Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal. He continued, "Consolidation ought to be one of the great concerns of every single person in this country, denying us the kind of free access to information." He said we need diverse news sources "...other than relying on the traditional sources of information that are being consolidated and controlled by too few entities. I'll do everything I can to see that that's broken up as president of the United States." Hillary Clinton (D-NY) echoed his sentiments, saying, "We've got to do everything we can do to open up our media environment. It is just not appropriate to have a conventional view about media ownership without understanding that we have to have more competition, more voices, and keeping the internet open."
RBR observation: We suspect the other Democratic candidates would have said much the same thing (and perhaps so would some of the Republicans). It's been very difficult for the FCC to move forward on further ownership dereg, with Michael Powell's 6/2/03 ownership rulemaking still bogged down. While the hurdles are high for any politician who would attempt to put the genie back in the bottle and reverse caps set under the 1996 Telecom Act, a Democratic administration will almost certainly put a stop to any further deregulation. There's been some self-motivated backtracking on consolidation going on within the media anyway, obviously led by the Clear Channel sell-off. Many other groups have been paring their portfolios as well. So it may not be that big a deal that further regulatory relief on ownership caps may not be forthcoming. But there are still many pushing for cross-ownership relief and the ability to build TV duopolies in smaller markets due to economic hardship. Will Kevin Martin try to sneak anything through before November 2008? Stay tuned.
Fee for all, FY2007
During FY 2006, broadcasters were helping reduce the deficit via their license fees to the tune of 10M, according to attorney Peter Gutmann of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice. With that burden removed for FY 2007, some license fees actually went down a bit, although a few increased slightly. Overall, the total being collected is 2.84% less than during the previous year. "There are no significant changes in the methodology and procedures for assessment and payment of the 2007 regulatory fees, as compared to the past several years," said Gutmann in a letter to clients. "Television fees are still assessed according to market size, and radio fees are based upon facility attributes and populations served. All fees are based upon facilities authorized as of October 1, 2006." The payment deadline has not been not been set yet, but Gutmann expects the usual mid-September due date.
| Fee schedule here |
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Summer Reruns Worth Watching.
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| Wall Street Media Business Report TM |
Regent outperforms
Regent Communications beat Wall Street expectations with revenues up 25.3% overall to 26.4 million bucks, including the big cluster in Buffalo acquired from CBS, and up 1.4% on a same station basis. Q2 station operating income rose 36.9% to 9.5 million and was flat on a same station basis. For Q3, Regent is projecting that same station revenues will be flat to down in the low single digits.
SBS underperforms
 Spanish Broadcasting System disappointed investors with revenues down 2% overall to 47.8 million. Radio was down 5% to 45.3 million, with gains in New York unable to offset declines in other key markets. Revenues for Mega TV in Miami rose 87%, but that's still only a total of 2.6 million, so the new TV operation continued to post an operating loss of 2.5 million, improved from a loss of 5.3 million a year ago. Operating income for radio declined 18% to 17 million.
Salem beats expectations
Salem communications reported that Q2 revenues were up 3.4% to 60 million bucks, beating the Thomson/First Call analysts' consensus by about a million. Same station broadcasting revenues were up 1.5% and non-broadcasting media (Internet/magazines) revenues rose 36.4% to 6.4 million. For radio, station operating income was up 0.7%, or 0.8% on a same station basis. In his conference call, CEO Ed Atsinger noted that Salem is not seeing the same soft trend national advertising as general market stations, since Salem's network and national spot advertising is generated by its own sales forces from many advertisers seeking its targeted Christian and family-friendly formats. For Q3, Salem is forecasting a quarter much like Q2, with broadcasting revenues flat to up 1%.
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Ad Business Report TM
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Second trial for Mall Radio Network
shows PPM viability in malls
Arbitron announced the results of a second Portable People Meter pilot test with Mall Radio Network. The pilot demonstrated the Arbitron PPM system could be used to track the amount of time shoppers are exposed to Mall Radio Network content and commercials while visiting a mall. Arbitron encoded Mall Radio Network's content and used PPM devices, carried by consumers, to detect exposure to audio content and commercials broadcast by Mall Radio Network in the common areas. Said Bill Rose, Arbitron SVP/Marketing: "The audience data that would be generated by the Portable People Meter system would complement other data that Mall Radio Network is currently using to demonstrate the role of 'malls as media' to prospective advertisers such as mall shopper metrics from Scarborough Research. And when Mall Radio Network is fully integrated into the PPM system, their audience metrics would be designed to be comparable with the radio audience measures used by national and local advertisers." The participants in the pilot study spent a considerable amount of time exposed to Mall Radio content in the mall common areas - 44% of their total time in the mall on average. Women respondents spent more time in the mall on average compared to men but spent a lower percentage of their time in the mall common areas. Virtually all of the survey participants (97%) heard the Mall Radio music in the common areas of the mall. Almost one-third of participants heard the advertising in the mall. The Mall Radio Network promotions or advertising played in the common areas appeared to have a strong influence on purchases made in the mall. Almost 50 percent of survey participants had ever made a purchase based on promotions or advertising played in the common areas. Since the study was designed both as a methods and technology trial, the results of the PPM survey conducted for Mall Radio Network are not projectable to the universe of mall visitors and are representative only of those surveyed. Arbitron encoded Mall Radio Network's content (music and commercials) at the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, NY.
 RCN Kicks off multi-year ad program with Redskins
RCN Corporation, a provider of video, data, and voice services to residential, small business and commercial customers, has signed for a multi-year, multi-platform ad campaign with the Washington Redskins. RCN will get exposure through advertising and signage at FedEx Field, as well as the Redskins' web page (www.redskins.com), and radio spots on the Redskins Broadcast Network. "We are proud to be back. We used to advertise with the Redskins when we were known as Starpower, so it's great to add the Redskins' to our growing and comprehensive sports and entertainment promotional campaigns," said RCN President & CEO Peter Aquino. In addition to advertising with the Redskins, RCN has other local partnerships and sponsorships in the Washington, D.C. area with Georgetown University Athletics, the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the D.C. United soccer team, and the Patriot Center at George Mason University.
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| Media Business Report TM |
A bridge to fear
If it bleeds it leads is more than a cliche, so it should come as no surprise that the bridge collapse in Minneapolis easily dominated news coverage for the week of 7/29/07-8/3/07, according to the weekly survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The event was not all-consuming, but it still helped knock combined Iraq coverage out of double digits for one of the few times all year, and also kept the early focus on the 2008 campaign in single digits. It was otherwise a diffuse week, indicated that getting into a tie for fourth place required only 3% of the news hole. Five stories made the top ten that were not on the list before. There was news about news to cover - we refer to Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, which would combine it with Fox Network, Fox News Channel and other newspaper holdings. Print, online and radio journalists all made it a top ten story, but both network TV and cable focused their attention elsewhere, despite the fact that in both cases the major player was one of their own. Technical differences in the media were exposed by the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Cable coverage approached the halfway point as the story grabbed 43% of available time. The more static newspaper format led editors to limit it to a mere 10%. The other three media gave it between 19%-29%.
| Top ten lists here |
 Lord and Taylor launches 10 million branding campaign
Lord and Taylor has announced plans to launch a 10 million re-branding campaign this fall. Aimed to modernize the store's image while celebrating its 181-year-old heritage, this new campaign will debut in Mid-August and run through the Holiday Season. The campaign will showcase the results of the four-year repositioning effort which was spearheaded by Jane Elfers, Lord and Taylor's CEO, in 2003. Created by David Lipman and shot in California by celebrated photographer Mario Testino, the striking ads are "unapologetically classic with a multigenerational attitude." They feature a cast of iconic celebrities that include models Carolyn Murphy, Lauren Hutton, Jacquetta Wheeler, Hanne Termote, Megan McNeirney and Erin Heatheron, artist Ed Ruscha, socialites Lauren Davis and Lydia Hearst, plus the children John MacEnroe and Clint Eastwood. The images will appear in multi-page spreads in the September issues of Vogue and Vanity Fair, in ads featured in W, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Town & Country, Cookie, In Style, Interview and GQ as well as in major national newspapers. In addition, 25 billboards will be placed in Boston, Chicago, Connecticut, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, railroad stations in upscale suburban areas and the Bryant Park Tents during Fashion Week. As part of the re-branding, a 250 million capital budget has been earmarked over the next five years, reflecting the commitment of NRDC Equity Partners, which purchased Lord and Taylor from Federated Department Stores in 2006 for 1.1 billion.
McDonald's has a hold on kids' taste buds
Asked to sample two identical foods from the fast-food giant McDonald's, children preferred the taste of the version branded with the restaurant's familiar "Golden Arches" to one extracted from unmarked paper packaging, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The study shows that even young children are swayed by brand preferences. The results are likely to fuel more debate over a growing movement to restrict marketing to kids under 8 years old.
| Read More... |
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| Media Markets & Money TM |
Tidewater price revealed
We learned last week that the O&O radio range of the Washington Redskins was being extended within the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News market. Now we know how much Dan Synder's Red Zebra Broadcasting is going to pay. WLRT-AM in Hampton VA will cost 950K. An LMA with seller Hampton Radio II began 8/1/07. Red Zebra already owns WXTG-FM Virginia Beach in the market.
Close encounter on the SD-MN border
Jody McCoy of Media Services group tells us the the 2.9M deal sending a quarter of small market Midwest stations from Big Stone Broadcasting/Pheasant Country Broadcasting to Jim Coursolle's Armada Media Corporation is officially in the books. Armada picked up KMSD-AM Milbank SD, KBWS-FM Sisseton SD and KDIO-AM/KPHR-FM Ortonville MN in the deal.
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| Washington Media Business Report TM |
 FCC re-ups a pair of O&Os
over UCC objection
The United Church of Christ is an experienced hand when it comes to dealing with media matters in general and the FCC in particular. It filed way back on 12/9/04 to have license renewals denied for a pair of network O&Os based in Miami, NBC's WTVJ-TV and CBS's WFOR-TV. In both cases, UCC's gripe was that the network refused to air one of its advertisements. NBC cited its policy "against addressing issues of public controversy through paid commercial advertisements." Similarly, CBS said the ad went against its "established policy not to accept editorial advertisements." The FCC did not get into whether the ads should have been run or not. Ruling very narrowly, it noted that UCC tried to place the ads with the networks, not the individual stations. For all it knows, the FCC said, they "may have aired the spot" if given the opportunity. Therefore, the FCC had no basis upon which to deny the license renewal.
RBR observation: Will the UCC make a practice of offering its ads to at least one O&O station from now on to leave open the possibility of a license challenge if necessary? Will they get a different result? We suspect that if the individual stations had decided to turn down the ad, the end result would have been the same, although the FCC would have said that its ability to second-guess what goes out over the air on any station is severely limited by the First Amendment. The ad in question, in which the church stated its open door policy to people of all races and sexual orientation, wasn't all that controversial in our opinion, and the networks probably should have taken the money and let UCC make its point. At any rate, we'll stay tuned to see if a more narrowly tailored license challenge takes place if a situation like this comes up again.
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| Entertainment Media Business Report TM |
GreenStone's Jim LaMarca on the 8/17 shutdown
We reported yesterday on the imminent GreenStone Media shutdown (8/7/07 RBR 153) and asked VP/Operations Jim LaMarca what was behind the problems the company faces, along with the fate of the female-targeted show hosts. Said LaMarca: "We are working with other companies who may pick up one or more of the shows. We knew this was going to be a big challenge and we knew it would be hard to introduce a new talk format that (like all talk formats) takes 18 months or more to prove. We had some early adopters and we appreciate them but we didn't have enough FMs or enough large markets to generate critical mass. It was expensive and a lot of work but we are proud of the programming and the evolution of the talent over the last year. I hope others will keep trying to innovate and introducing new formats, shows and ideas, even when the obstacles are large. I know we're all glad we tried."
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| Ratings & Research |
Eastlan adds Utica-Rome
Eastlan Ratings announced it would begin radio ratings service to the Utica-Rome, NY market this fall. If you guessed that Eastlan's inaugural subscriber in Utica-Rome is Galaxy Communications, you have been paying attention to Galaxy CEO Ed Levine's battle with Arbitron. "We switched from Arbitron to Eastlan Ratings in January in our large Syracuse cluster. Our first half results show Galaxy blowing away its revenue budget and beating the market overall by 8.5 points," said Levine in a statement distributed by Eastlan. He said his cluster's market share has increased since the switch. "Simply put, dumping Arbitron had zero negative impact on revenue and a significantly positive impact on our BCF!" he said.
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| Engineering Business Report TM |
 NAB Radio Show to feature three day tech program
A comprehensive technical program will be held during The NAB Radio Show in Charlotte beginning 9/26. The program features the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) Radio Engineering Program, a two-part RF Safety Course, and an AM/FM Transmitter Workshop & Breakfast led by key technical professionals in radio. The SBE Engineering Forum kicks off the program with sessions examining HD Radio technology, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) measurements in broadcast systems and HD Radio measurements. The forum's objective is to provide practical information and solutions to attendees, with strategies that can easily be implemented at their own stations. Safety Consultant and founder of RF Safety Solutions Richard Strickland will instruct the NAB RF Safety Course on 9/27. Strickland's expertise in RF safety development and training provides a unique opportunity for attendees to receive instruction on RF radiation issues, FCC and OSHA regulations, workplace hazards, and FCC enforcement activities. John Bisset, northeast regional sales manager for Broadcast Electronics will lead the AM/FM Transmitter Workshop and Breakfast sponsored by BE on 9/28. This interactive class provides an in-depth look at transmitter troubleshooting with maintenance tips that can save stations from being pulled off the air. HD installation tips will also be discussed.
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| Transactions |
850K WFKY-AM/WKED-FM/WKYW-FM & WCND-AM Frankfort KY (Frankfort KY, Shelbyville KY) from CC Licenses LLC, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc. (Mark Mays) to Forever South Licenses LLC, related to Forever Communications Inc. (Kerby E. Confer, Donald J. Alt, Christine Hillard et al). 85K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Existing duopoly. [File date 7/13/07.]
400K KYMI-FM Los Ybanez TX from Israel G. Ybanez to KYMI License Sub LLC (Fred R. Morton, David Stewart). 20K escrow, 20K down payment, 360K note. The license for this station has been cancelled and the call letters deleted; principals are applying for reinstatement. Station is a Class C2 on 98.5 MHz with 50 kw @ 459'. [File date 7/13/07.]
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| Stock Talk |
Radio stock meltdown continues
The broader market was up Tuesday, with the Dow Industrials gaining 36 points to 13,504, but radio stocks took another drubbing. Radio stocks have now fallen for 12 straight sessions, with investors fleeing the sector amid expectations of continued slow growth - or, for some companies, no growth.
The Radio Index was down 2.627, or 2%, to 126.020. That's the lowest level for the index maintained by RBR since December 29, 2000. Westwood One took a big hit, falling 11.6% and well into penny stock territory. The company will report its Q2 results on Thursday. Regent, which reported stronger than expected Q2 results but gave more tepid guidance for Q3, was down 2.1%. Salem, which reported its results after the closing bell, was up 1.5%. SBS, a penny stock, gained a penny after reporting its Q2 results.
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| Radio Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Tuesday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
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Arbitron
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ARB
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54.06
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+2.06
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Google
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GOOG
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516.02
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+6.02
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Beasley
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BBGI
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7.88
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-0.59
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Hearst-Argyle
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HTV
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19.80
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-0.93
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| CBS CI. B |
CBS |
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32.11
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+0.06
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Journal Comm.
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JRN
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9.80
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-0.12
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| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
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32.09
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+0.02
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Lincoln Natl.
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LNC
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60.51
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+0.54
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| Citadel |
CDL |
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4.35 |
-0.21 |
Radio One, Cl. A
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ROIA
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4.00
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-0.10
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Clear Channel
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CCU
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36.79
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+0.01
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Radio One, Cl. D
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ROIAK
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3.98
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-0.07
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Cox Radio
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CXR
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13.17
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-0.05
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Regent
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RGCI
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3.22
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-0.07
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Cumulus
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CMLS
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10.06
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-0.01
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Saga Commun.
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SGA
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6.75
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-0.12
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Debut Bcg.
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DBTB
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1.12
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-0.18
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Salem Comm.
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SALM
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8.36
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+0.12
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Disney
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DIS
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34.55
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+0.25
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Sirius Sat. Radio
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SIRI
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3.01
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+0.10
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Emmis
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EMMS
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5.45
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-0.04
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Spanish Bcg.
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SBSA
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2.97
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+0.01
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Entercom
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ETM
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21.32
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+0.11
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SWMX
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SMWX
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0.08
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-0.02
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Entravision
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EVC
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8.46
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-0.35
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Westwood One
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WON
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4.43
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-0.58
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Fisher
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FSCI
|
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49.73
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+1.22
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XM Sat. Radio
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XMSR
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11.43
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+0.51
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Bounceback
|
 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
Second trial
For Mall Radio Network shows PPM viability in malls...
Media Business Report
A bridge to fear
If it bleeds it leads is more than a cliché...
Media Markets & Money
Tidewater price revealed
Red Zebra is going to pay for WLRT...
Entertainment Media
Business Report
GreenStone Media
Jim LaMarca on the 8/17 shutdown...
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Stations for Sale
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Florida
2 FMs, 1 AM
Unrated Panhandle Market
Best sales year ever in 2006
Gordon Rice Associates
(843) 884-3590 or
E-mail Gordon Rice Here
New Hampshire
AM/FM combo
First Class facilities in NH's
fastest growing area. Double
digit increases last 6 years.
Priced at 10x trailing BCF $4.99M
Inquiries 781-848-4201 or
E-mail: [email protected]
WEB: radiostationsforsale.net
 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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Barry Mayo
to Radio One
 Veteran radio executive Barry Mayo has been named President of the Radio Division at Radio One. Mayo, who was once President of publicly traded Broadcast Partners, which was sold to Evergreen Media for 243 million in 1995, was most recently Market Manager for Emmis in New York. "I am thrilled to announce that Barry Mayo has joined our team fulltime. He has been a consultant to the company for the past year bringing his knowledge and passion about everything in radio to the company. Barry is a legend in urban media and we are fortunate to be able to have someone with his expertise fill such a critical role," said Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins.
McCoy to
Greater Media
Former WBEB-FM Philadelphia morning host Chris McCoy has joined Greater Media as morning host on WMGQ-FM "Magic 98.3" in the Middlesex-Somerset-Union market in New Jersey. He begins the new gig tomorrow (8/9).
Justice for Tucson
Journal Broadcast Group's KZPT-FM "The New 104.1 The Truth" Tucson announced that Jon Justice is returning to the market as host of "Tucson's Morning Truth with Jon Justice." He was most recently Assistant PD and talk host on WOOD-AM Grand Rapids, MI.
Wicks vet joins
Ando Media
Ando Media, a radio software and major-market radio inventory management and measurement company, announced Tim Fitzgerald, a co- designer and developer of the Wicks Control Tower has joined on as Advertising Products Manager. Fitzgerald, a 24 year veteran software developer will manage the rollout of Ando's latest advertising products to be released at the end of the summer.
Atkins to AMS-I
American Media Services-Internet announced that Bill Atkins has been named the company's Director of Information Technology. He will oversee the company's array of format automation systems, develop and maintain a range of marketing and affiliate databases, and be responsible for providing radio stations with online streaming capabilities.
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More News Headlines
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GM to end US Olympic team sponsorship
General Motors has decided not to renew its US Olympic Committee sponsorship when its contract ends after 2008. The company said the move is a result of changes in its marketing strategy and came after GM evaluated the return on its advertising investment. The 10-year multimillion-dollar agreement included payments to the USOC, plus the entire cost of advertising and other items. The current agreement keeps GM an official U.S. Olympic team sponsor through 2008. "We have other avenues to be able to reach this same audience without bearing the expense of being an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team," spokeswoman Ryndee Carney told The AP. She had no word on what GM's strategy would be for advertising related to the Olympics beyond the '08 Beijing games. Chevrolet continues to sponsor the U.S. Snowboarding team, and GM of Canada is sponsoring the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, she said.
Music publishers join suit against Google, YouTube
Music publishers have joined the growing list of companies suing Google and YouTube over copyright infringement. The National Music Publishers' Association, the largest music-publishing association in the U.S. with over 600 members, added itself to the suit originally filed in May in Manhattan federal court by English soccer's The Football Association Premier League Ltd. The complaint alleges YouTube, with "the knowing encouragement and complicity of" parent Google, facilitated massive infringements of music videos, concert footage and more. The growing class-action lawsuit comes as YouTube is facing a similar 1 billion suit from Viacom. The decision by music publishers to sue Google and YouTube rather than negotiate a licensing deal for viral video distribution rights marks a stark contrast to the major record labels, reported The NY Post. Labels like Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI have all entered into licensing deals with YouTube in exchange for participation in YouTube's revenues, and reportedly for some, a small equity stake in YouTube.
Ron Lyons dead at 69
Long-time KCBS-AM San Francisco traffic reporter Ron Lyons died of cancer last Friday in Medford, OR. Although Lyons retired in 2004 and moved to Gold Beach, OR, he couldn't stay away from radio - continuing to host an oldies show on KGBR-FM until his health failed earlier this year. His son, Sean, is also a DJ and salesman for KGBR.
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TVBR - TV News
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NBC plans 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympics
Next year's 2008 Olympic Summer Games from Beijing will be available on various NBC Universal platforms in the US for 3,600 hours. The company is calling it "the most ambitious single media project in history." The Beijing Olympics begin one year from today (8/8/08). According to NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol, the 3,600 hours of coverage, including lots of broadband video streaming for the first time ever, will be highlighted by NBC primetime coverage that, despite the 12-hour time difference, will include live swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball competition. One way to look at the unprecedented amount of coverage is that NBC Universal will provide 212 hours of video per day, or about eight days per day. By comparison, NBC Universal calculates that the last 12 Summer Olympics, back to the 1960 Rome games on CBS through the 2004 Athens games on NBC, have generated 2,562 hours of US TV coverage. NBC, USA, MSNBC and CNBC will all provide coverage from Beijing with high definition coverage on NBC's HD affiliates, USA HD and Universal HD. Spanish-language Olympic coverage will be seen on Telemundo. Online, Olympic fans will have access to approximately 2,200 total hours of live streaming Olympic broadband video coverage on NBCOlympics.com. In addition to the 3,600 total hours of coverage, NBCOlympics.com will also feature approximately 3,000 hours of Highlights, Rewinds and Encores. NBC Universal said it will be detailing its wireless "On-the-Go" coverage in coming months.
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SmartMedia Magazine
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Coming in September
FALL NAB ISSUE
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Radio Roundtable:
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Gennele Niblack, Katz Political President
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Monetizing Conditional Access
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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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Is credit tightening threatening radio dealmaking?
Despite the recent roiling of the credit markets, the Wall Street consensus is that Chairman Ben Bernanke and his fellow Fed members won't change rates today. And, unless there are more drastic changes in the economy, they are viewed as likely to stay the course for many, many months to come. Deals of that sort require major financing commitments and the lenders who do those big deals (and who typically work with the very large private equity funds) are the ones now moving first to tighten terms or pull back on lending commitments.
RBR observation: Clear Channel must be nervous about getting to the closing table on the biggest deals from its radio divestitures, since only a few of the smaller deals have actually closed thus far. American Security Capital Partners not only switched radio operators, but also bankers for the 452 million bucks purchase of 187 stations by what's now called Frequency License LLC. When last we heard, the new financing was still being put together for what is far and away the biggest buy from the Clear Channel portfolio thinning. Not today, maybe not next month, but if credit gets tighter and threatens to slow down the economy, Bernanke and the Fed will need to lower rates and keep economic growth from flat-lining. If he stays too focused on inflation, to the exclusion of all other economic factors, he runs the very real risk of repeating the foolish policies of his predecessor who ran the US into an unnecessary recession back at the start of this decade. (Complete details in RBR)
08/07/07 RBR #153
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