Radio News ®

Will Emmis miss its radio guidance?
That's what Wachovia Securities analyst Jim Boyle is warning of. Emmis, always the canary in the coal mine because its fiscal year has it reporting earnings about a month ahead of other broadcasters, is due to report results next Tuesday (9/28) for its fiscal Q2 - - June-August. Boyle thinks Emmis may hit its 10.5% revenue growth guidance for TV, but miss its 3% target for its larger radio group - - and issue conservative guidance for fiscal Q3.

RBR observation: We asked Monday, "Have we hit bottom?" Boyle's answer is maybe not, so he's not advising investors to buy Emmis, even if it appears to be one of the more attractively priced stocks in the radio sector. Hang on, this could be an unpleasant ride! | More... |

Radio One CFO praises "Less is More"
Radio One isn't saying what it will do to respond to Clear Channel Radio's "Less is More" effort to cut radio clutter in markets where they compete, but Radio One CFO Scott Royster told a Banc of America Securities conference in San Francisco that the move by Clear Channel has to be good for the industry. "They're removing inventory, which can only be a good thing. Whether or not we need to follow their lead is still open for debate, so we'll watch and see what happens with regards to their leadership," Royster said. "But then, in conjunction with that there clearly needs to be a system in place, and I think they're working on something, that helps optimize pricing at every point along the spectrum of selling inventory for any given period of time. And so if they are focused on those two things in conjunction with each other, then I think we as an industry should be in pretty good shape - - if not in '05, hopefully in '06." Royster also gave investors the good news that ad sales for TV One, the company's nine-month-old cable network joint venture with Comcast, are running 100% ahead of budget. He said TV One should hit break even in about four years - - although that could come sooner if the network strikes a big carriage deal with Time Warner or DirecTV (or both).

Disney board to pick Eisner's successor
by June 2005
After meeting yesterday in Los Angeles, the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney set June of 2005 as their target date for naming a new CEO to succeed Michael Eisner. The directors said they would engage an executive search firm to aid them in making the choice, saying they would consider outsiders and one insider - - President and COO Bob Iger. "He is an outstanding executive and the Board regards him as highly qualified for the position. However, the Board believes that the process should include full consideration of external candidates as well," the directors said in a statement. Shortly before the board meeting, Eisner put to rest rumors that he might try to stay on as Chairman after retiring as CEO of Disney in 2006. Eisner told Fortune magazine that he'll be leaving the company completely - - he won't even stay on the board of directors. "I have not asked the board to stay on the board or be chairman after the end of my contract. My assumption is that I would not continue on the board or as chairman. I have a full business life ahead of me. Clearly I'm not the type to retire, particularly after all these lectures from medical experts about how an active mind is good for the body," Eisner said in an interview with the magazine. The Disney board will, however, need a new Chairman soon. George Mitchell will reach Disney's mandatory retirement age of 72 in August 2005 and told fellow directors that he will not stand for re-election at the 2006 shareholders meeting. So, once Eisner's successor is chosen, the board will turn to finding a successor for Mitchell. Here's the board's statement released after yesterday's meeting.

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2004 presidential debate schedule adopted
The slate of debates agreed to by the campaigns of George W. Bush and John Kerry looks remarkably like the suggested schedule announced in August. Bush and Kerry will face off three times between now and mid-October, with another session featuring VP candidates Dick Cheney and John Edwards. Bush v. Kerry kicks off at the University of Miami 9/30 in Coral Gables FL. Session #2 will be held at Washington U. in St. Louis 10/8, and the final meeting will be in Tempe AZ at Arizona State 10/13. The veep and would-be veep meet at Case Western Reserve U. in Cleveland 10/5. The 9/30 debate will focus on foreign policy, and the 10/13 will focus on domestic and economic issues. The 10/8 session will be in the town hall format, with no topic restrictions. The VP debate will also be open to all topics. "We have worked to produce an agreement that will ensure a productive and fruitful exchange of ideas about the most important issues facing Americans today," said negotiators Vernon Jordan Jr. (Kerry) and James A. Baker III (Bush) in a joint statement.

From President to Ambassador
Stuart Beck is our pick for the most unusual career move of 2004. He's resigned as President and COO of Granite Communications, which owns eight TV stations, to become Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Palau to the United Nations - - the first person to ever hold the post. Beck began his new job yesterday as the UN convened its 59th Session of the General Assembly. He's shown above presenting his credentials to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. "It is a rare and unique privilege to represent a sovereign country in the United Nations and to play a role in world events. After co-founding Granite with my business partner and friend Don Cornwell and spending 16 excellent years helping to build Granite, it would only be for a unique assignment and lifelong dedication to a young and growing nation like this that I would ever consider reducing my involvement with Granite. It is therefore with sadness that I am resigning as President, although I will be continuing to maintain a close involvement with Granite as an active board member, as well as a shareholder in the company," Beck said. The ambassador grew up in broadcasting - - literally, his father, Martin, was the Beck half of the Beck-Ross radio group - - but also has a long history with the Republic of Palau. He was retained as Chief Counsel in 1977 to assist the Pacific Island group in obtaining independence from the United States, enacting its own Constitution and installing its first government. Beck was awarded Honorary Citizenship in 1979 and his wife, Ebiltulik, is Palauan.

Adbiz ©

Part IV
Director of Pontiac Marketing speaks on the Oprah-G6 marketing coup
Northwestern University-bred Director of Pontiac Marketing at General Motors Mark-Hans Richer talked to RBR/TVBR about their marketing efforts, including the new Pontiac G6, giving away 276 of them on Oprah recently. Continued from Monday.

Has the Oprah G6 media blitz brought
new opportunities to the table for Pontiac?
We've had a lot of people (business, media, creative partners) calling us, sort of thinking about Pontiac, which is nice. And we've made efforts to reach out to Hollywood and to some others, and we've been fairly successful with it. But now that they see the potential of things we're interested in and are willing to do-we'll go to that next level-that's opening up new relationships that we didn't even know about...
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Group makes it easier to place ads on NM radio stations
The New Mexico Business Weekly reports New Mexico Broadcast Resources Inc., a newly organized entity that coordinates radio advertising for 58 member stations in 19 markets throughout New Mexico, has begun operations in Albuquerque. Advertisers and media buyers in New Mexico can purchase radio advertising on any or all of the state's rural radio stations with just one phone call, a release from NMBR says. "What used to take dozens of phone calls, faxes and emails has been replaced with one phone call, one order and one bill through the new streamlined service. We didn't feel that we were getting our fair share of radio budgets, so the majority of the radio station owners and managers of stations outside the Albuquerque area banded together to create a rep firm to make it easy for an advertiser to buy [air time with] us," says Matt Martinez, president of NMBR and owner of two stations in Las Vegas, New Mexico -- KNMX-AM and KMDZ-FM. NMBR is a for-profit operation, however, all profits it makes will go to the New Mexico Broadcasters Foundation, Martinez says. The money will be used to fund scholarships for college students.

ABB launches first PSA effort
ABB, a leading automation and power technologies company, has launched a print and broadcast ad campaign spotlighting its influence on the everyday life of businesses and consumers in the US. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide and 2003 revenues of some 19 billion, ABB seeks to highlight the significance of U.S. and North American markets to its growth strategy. The company employs approximately 8,500 people in the U.S. The new campaign, dubbed "Welcome to the world of ABB," is intended to raise the company's profile among manufacturers and consumers who benefit from its products but may not be familiar with the ABB brand. The TV campaign was filmed on three continents - North America, Europe and Africa - and includes striking visuals and narrations by actual ABB employees. Broadcast spots will appear on CNBC, CNN Cable and CNN Airport networks, with print ads in publications including BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, Atlantic Monthly and Industry Week. An ABB "energy issues" campaign will appear concurrently, as the company seeks to expand the dialogue on improving and securing the electric power grid against outages such as occurred in the eastern U.S. in August 2003. ABB is a business-to-business company that manufactures and ships more than a million products worldwide each day - - used by the makers of machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and paper goods. The company equips and services 75% of the world's pulp and paper mills, produces over two-thirds of the equipment found in today's power grid and makes the industrial robots used by more than 80% of automakers worldwide.

BK launches effort for download promo
Burger King has launched three TV spots and several print ads for its new free-music-download promotion. As part of the effort, which continues through 10/3, the wrapper for each original Whopper burger at BK includes a code that can be used at www.haveityourway.com to download one of more than 700,000 songs. Double Whoppers offer access to two songs on the website. Two of the three TV spots began airing this month, with the third scheduled to launch within the next week, the agency said. The commercials, which feature three young men called "Whopperheads" who travel in a 1970s-style van while searching for their favorite sandwich at BK, are running on national broadcast and cable networks, the agency said. Radio is also in the mix. The ads were created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky Miami.

Media, Markets & Money tm

Washington Beat

Programming

Univision Radio launches
public affairs program
NBC may have Tim Russert, but Univision Radio is hoping that "Tu Voz en Washington" (Your Voice in Washington) will soon be a must-stop for our nation's top leaders. The new Sunday morning public affairs and open mic show will launch this Sunday (9/26) 11:00 to noon ET on RadioCadena Univision - - Univision Radio's AM network. The program will be hosted by Lourdes Meluza, a veteran TV reporter for the Washington Bureau of Univision Network News. "We are confident that 'Tu Voz en Washington' will quickly become an important platform for Hispanics to be informed about and address important issues affecting their lives," said Univision Radio President Mac Tichenor. "We are very proud to launch our very first Sunday morning national public affairs program, and thrilled that it will benefit from Lourdes Meluza's professionalism and credibility."

Syndicated Solutions picks up WJR's
"Real Estate Insiders"
Syndicated Solutions announced it has aligned with "Real Estate Insiders," hosted by David Hall. The program presently airs in Detroit on ABC Radio's WJR-AM, the station that will now serve as its flagship. The program will be broadcast beginning this weekend (9/25-9/26), Sundays 10a-12p ET and Saturdays 2p-4p ET. An encore broadcast will also be offered on Sundays 6p-8p ET. Delivery will be via The SSI Radio Network on ABC StarGuide III Satellite or via CD. The show targets all aspects of the real estate industry and is hands down America's "Go To" show. Real estate affects us all and host David Hall along with his on-air colleagues Bob Walters and Stephen Piazza offer up the unique show. David is a respected business exec, national media spokesperson and is recognized as one of the Top-10 active mortgage bankers in America. Bob's an EVP and Chief Economist of Quicken Loans. Stephen "Luigi" Piazza has over 30 years of experience in real estate and serves as the program's "feet on the street" insider.

Ratings & Research

Transactions

KSRT-FM Santa Rosa CA (Cloverdale CA) from Point Broadcasting to Results Radio of the North State LLC.

KLOD-FM Flagstaff AZ from Rocket Radio Corporation to Yavapai Broadcasting Corporation.

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