Baker extends the family business
Edward A. Baker is spending 675K dollars to buy WLGN AM & FM Logan OH from Roger L. Hinerman's Logan Broadcasting. Baker is the son of Vernon and Virginia Baker, and has a personal stake in the twin family radioo businesses - - noncommercial Positive Alternative Radio, and a commercial business operating under a number of licensee names. The Baker empire extends mainly through less populated areas in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, with additional holdings Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio. Logan is in an unrated portion of the latter state, about 40 miles southeast of Columbus.

Radio stocks were also lower. The Radio Index declined 3.992, or 1.8%, to 219.183. Radio One fell again, with its Class A stock down 3.6% and Class D down 3.9%. Cumulus fell 3% and Saga 2.7%.

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10 Station Cluster
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McKinnon joins Sirius
Michelle McKinnon, who previously worked at several Wall Street firms, has joined Sirius Satellite Radio as Senior Director of Investor Relations. That means she'll be the main point of contact for the more than 500,000 shareholders who own the company's more than one billion shares outstanding, not to mention the 14 analysts who cover Sirius.

TVB forecasts flat 2005, big '06 gains
With 2004 revenues inflated by record election spending and the Summer Olympics, the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) is predicting that 2005 will be essentially flat for spot TV (local and national combined), from down 1% to up 1%. A year after predicting that 2004 spot revenues would be up 10-11%, TVB President Chris Rohrs says the industry is on track to hit that mark - - probablyh at the high end of the range. Although revenues were up just under 9% for the first half, heavy political ad spending is expected to drive stronger gains in the second half. But for 2006, TVB foresees another strong growth year, up 7-9%. TVBR observation: The facts are in the TVB's chart forecast for 2005 and 2006. Recommendation is to print it out. | More... |

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Improvement ahead
for radio with A But
Analyst Jim Boyle at Wachovia Securities is telling investors that July should be the bottom, with improvement ahead. First the good news: Boyle believes that the radio recovery should accelerate in Q4. The election advertising should be dramatic, squeezing inventory for TV and causing a spillover effect into radio. The heavy political spending may also use secondary media, such as radio. Finally, the very easy Q4 comp of negative 1% should enable radio to ramp up via mathematical help. The Bad news: Why might radio not get that much better? Boyle again believes that the ongoing weakness in the radio sector is caused by the lack of pricing power, as the largest groups continue to offer discounted ad rates to grab whatever available ad dollars exist... 09/08/04 RBR #175

Jesse Jackson endorses
Local People Meterws
Rev. Jesse Jackson has issued an open letter endorsing LPMs as "a step forward for inclusion and fairness." TVBR asked Nielsen spokesman Jack Loftus whether the ratings company had made a contribution to Jackson's Rainbow Push coalition. "No we have not," 09/08/04 TVBR #175

3rd Circuit Blockbuster:
New radio market defs good to go
The 3rd Circuit Court in Philadelphia, which remanded much of the FCC's historic 6/2/03 media ownership rulemaking back for modification or justification, is allowing the FCC to proceed with implementation with certain sections of it which the Court found to be acceptable. Key among them is the switch from contour to Arbitron-geographical radio market definitions. RBR observation: When the stay was imposed in September 2003, the FCC put a brief hold on station trading in order to remodify transaction forms, which had in turn already been modified over the summer to reflect the 6/2/03 ruling. The first, or rulemaking freeze lasted a couple of months; the second, the stay freeze was very brief. We will not be surprised to see another brief freeze while the FCC gets its forms in order. 09/07/04 RBR #174

Open the can of worms:
New rules meet the real world
Since the 3rd Circuit is allowing the FCC to go ahead with its new radio market definition, we looked at a few recently filed transactions. There are a few pending deals may be in trouble. RBR observation: Bottom line: As a tool to limit the size of radio station clusters, the switch from contour to Arbitron-definitions should have negligible impact. As a tool to greatly increase confusion in the world of station ownership and trading, the switch should be incredible. And we will suggest one more time - - it the FCC wants to eliminate some of the vast white space between those locations where Arbitron diaries are distributed, it should included Eastlan markets in its inventory of defined and rated areas.
09/07/04 RBR #174

Two more DC licenses under attack
Paxson's WPXW-TV (Pax, Channel 66) and Fox's WDCA-TV (UPN, Channel 20), two Washington stations which have had their license renewals challenged, now have company, and it double the fun for Fox. GE/NBC's WRC-TV (NBC, Channel 4) and Fox's WTTG-TV (Fox, Channel 5) are facing challenges of their own. 09/07/04 TVBR #174

Broadcasters firing back at Forbes
Publisher observation: It doesn't take the winds of Naples for me to agree with Cavagnaro in saying "Broadcasters who aren't serving their local communities are only inviting satellite to challenge their markets..." The ones that broke it better fix it fast because here comes da satellite with the likes of the cult following of Opie & Anthony. Certain people will pay just as certain people plug in their Ipods instead of listening to local. 09/03/04 RBR #173

XM, Sirius place banners
on Howard Stern's website
While Howard Stern has a counter on his website (www.howardstern.com) that goes from 16 months down to the seconds left in his current contract with Infinity, XM and Sirius Satellite Radio have decided to take advantage of his recent rants against the FCC. 09/03/04 RBR #173

DC TV licenses attacked
for kidvid shortfall
Rupert Murdoch and Bud Paxson have something in common - - their organizations are under a two-pronged assault for failing to provide the proscribed three-hours weekly of educational programming for children. 09/03/04 TVBR #173

FCC bluster over a cluster
The last time we checked, Arbitron had Grand Junction CO pegged as its 258th-largest market. It is also the scene of the FCC's latest red-flag tossing, although the Commission no longer calls the act of subjecting an otherwise legal station transaction to further scrutiny red-flagging. The deal in question is the 900K dollar sale of KSTR-FM from Leggett Broadcasting to MBC Grand Broadcasting. RBR observation: The law is the law. Maybe there should always be at least three strong radio competitors in a market. But when Congress decided that a radio cluster could go as high as six stations in a market with as few as 15 total stations, it should have considered the obvious: A lot of small markets would wind up with two strong groups and, at best, weak competition from a third owner, or even more fragmented competition from several even weaker owners. And so it goes....Period!
09/02/04 RBR #172

More outrage at Forbes
from broadcasters
Radio broadcasters who are boiling mad over the cover story in Forbes magazine that depicts broadcasters as "bullies" who've used their Capitol Hill clout to erect unfair barriers to hold back competition from satellite radio operators. Quite the contrary, says Bill O'Shaughnessy, who says it's XM Satellite Radio that has "run rings" around the NAB in Washington. RBR observation: First isn't just questionable, it's downright false. 09/01/04 RBR #171

Analyst applauds broad
core growth in TV revenues
It's not just political advertising that's fueling television's strong growth. TV is enjoying growth over a broad core of its major advertisers. He likes Hearst-Argyle and Gray Television because they have lots of leading news stations - - and news leaders get the lion's share of political spending. TVBR observation: Wall Street changing their tunes - like we said it is all Local. 09/01/04 RBR #171