Today is moving day!

RBR/TVBR is moving to new offices today (Friday, 10/1) and our main office is closed. Effective Monday (10/4) here's where you'll find us:

2050 Old Bridge Road, Suite B-01 Lake Ridge, VA 22192
Phone: 703-492-8191 News fax: 703-997-8601

If you have breaking news today, call our Bradenton, FL bureau at 941-792-1631.

Radio News ®

Moonves out to fix Infinity
He may have spent his career in television, but Les Moonves is working to get up to speed on radio now that Infinity Broadcasting is part of his portfolio as Co-President/COO of Viacom. He says the company is going to spend more money on its radio stations and cross-promote them with its TV and outdoor platforms. But he's also looking to sell some stations in its smaller markets. Read on to see what is up Moonves sleeve like Hispanic market place. | More... |

Clear Channel warns of tough times ahead
It's no secret that the radio ad market remains sluggish, so Clear Channel CFO Randall Mays had a rather sober outlook yesterday at the Merrill Lynch conference in LA. He repeated what the company said in its July conference call - - that Q3 will be flat (7/26/04 RBR Daily Epaper #144). "We believe that business will be essentially flat - - and we think that will hold up. The fourth quarter is going to be a challenging environment, more challenging," Mays said. Even so, he insisted, "radio is still alive and healthy, contrary to a lot of the opinions out there." As you would expect, Mays pitched Clear Channel's "Less is More" initiative to the investor conference, which is supposed to cut ad clutter. "If we can improve the medium and make it better for listeners and advertisers, we'll make more money," Mays said. And he insisted that Clear Channel won't take a revenue hit in 2005 because of its plan to cut back on ad inventory.

RBR observation:
Will there be a ratings merger?
Back when Arbitron was spun-off from Ceridian there was widespread speculation that VNU, which owns Nielsen Media Research, would swoop in to buy the radio ratings company just as soon as a one-year tax penalty deadline passed. That milestone was passed long ago and nothing happened. The pot was stirred again this week when VNU sold its directories business for 2.5 billion dollars, saying to wanted to focus on its core businesses. That prompted a Reuters reporter to speculate that VNU might have its eye on Arbitron, although the news service then threw water on its own fire by saying such a deal was unlikely because of antitrust problems. So, is such a merger likely to ever happen? | More... |

ABC Radio Networks to market Mediaguide's "StationMonitor" nationwide
ABC Radio Networks and Mediaguide announced a major marketing agreement that establishes ABC Radio Networks as the exclusive national sales agent to U.S. radio stations for Mediaguide's "StationMonitor" music monitoring and reporting services. This, just after MediaGuide's announcement it will offer a suite of new products.

RBR observation: Could a spot monitoring product deal be far behind? Stay tuned. We know that ABC Radio's recent announcement it signed with RCS's Media Monitors to provide broadcast monitoring services to its stations in 10 markets is not a long-term deal. Hmmm... | More... |

Santa Cruz pirate FM scuttled
"On Wednesday, September 29 at 9:20 AM armed federal marshals and FCC agents served a warrant at the studio of Free Radio Santa Cruz. They have confiscated equipment and shut down the broadcast." That's the story from FRSC from its freakradio.org website. The station's been bringing its own brand of anti-establishment radio to its community, it says, for nearly 10 years over 101.1 mHz. FRSC calls itself a microradio station. An article in the Mercury News pegged its power at 35-40 watts. Were the station operators aware they were operating outside the law? You decide. From freakradio.org: "Free Radio Santa Cruz has been on the air for almost ten years without a license. We broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, in defiance of federal regulations." The station published its philosophy: "We go on the air to protest corporate control of the airwaves, to bring local control and local accountability to our community media, to produce and broadcast a diversity of programs that are simply unavailable on corporate controlled stations. We do not air advertisements, we do not do pledge drives, we do not have sponsors or underwriters."

RBR observation: C'mon, gang, it's not about suppressing and/or oppressing the people, it's about interference in scarce spectrum. If, for example, Southland Corp. came in and put "The People's Slurpie Choice Channel" on 101.3 mHz across the street from FRSC, then perhaps you'd understand.

Emmis: The missus is now an author
Heather Hill, a/k/a Mrs. Jeff Smulyan, is the latest author in the Emmis Books stable. She's written about a topic she knows quite well - - relationships. Hill has matched more than 30,000 couples and still runs her own matchmaking company, Reservations for Two. Her book, co-authored by John B. Thomas, explains why people may sabotage their own relationships and then provides checklists and other helpful dating tips. "Baby It's You: What You Can Do to Find True Love" retails for 14.99 (and Jeff might be able to get you an autograph for an extra five-spot).

Adbiz ©

Steve Grubbs comments on
Arbitron-VNU, P&G alliance
We asked Steve Grubbs, PHD CEO, what he thought about the announcement about Arbitron and VNU are jointly exploring the possible development of a new, national marketing research service using Arbitron's Portable People Meter (9/30 RBR Daily Epaper #191): "This is a project that's been on the table between Arbitron and VNU for a while. The only new news is P&G is stepping up and endorsing it, and I imagine contributing some funding for it and helping to test it as well. I think this is something that we certainly advocate as an agency. Any kind of data that will give us a better indication of how the consumer is influenced by multiple media will enable us to make better decisions about how we allocate our media spend."

Charles Schwab narrows it to four
Charles Schwab has reportedly narrowed its review four finalists for the creative portion of its 100 million+ account. In the loop are Euro RSCG NY, Grey Worldwide NY, Wieden + Kennedy Portland and Publicis & Hal Riney San Francisco. Eliminated were Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Boston, Saatchi & Saatchi New York and Gardner Nelson & Partners NY. Select Resources International Santa Monica, CA is handling the review.

Media, Markets & Money tm

Washington Beat

Engineered for Profit

CC Radio reducing AM audio bandwidth;
to suggest others do same
Clear Channel Radio SVP Engineering Services Jeff Littlejohn has reportedly begun a quest to reduce the bandwidth of the company's AM stations to match the bandwidth of available receivers to 5 kHz for AM talk stations and 6 kHz for AM music stations. Why? To reduce first-adjacent channel interference, not to help IBOC implementation. Littlejohn, co-chairman of the AM Subcommittee of the NRSC, will discuss at next week's NAB Radio Show. He plans to propose that all AM licensees follow suit. He says it serves no purpose for AMs to continue broadcasting 10 kHz audio on the AM band when the average receiver has an audio response of less than 4.5 kHz. In a memo, Littlejohn says benefits of the move also include increased modulation efficiency: "AM modulation that falls outside of a receiver's usable bandwidth ends up increasing the noise floor within the audible bandwidth." Although IBOC is going to require AMs reduce their audio bandwidth to 5 kHz. He reportedly said the AM bandwidth reduction was separate from the digital conversion of CC stations.

BE debuting 50kW AM transmitter at NAB Show
BE's new 4MX 50 AM transmitter is based on a patent-pending Fourier Modulation (4M) technique designed by Broadcast Electronics. It features duty cycle modulated RF to produce optimum efficiency over the entire 250 watt to 55kW power range, eliminating the need for an additional low power transmitter during nighttime operation. "This is a huge departure from the usual modulation techniques, and it all started with a 'what-if' question: What if we modulated RF devices directly and independently, so we didn't need a modulator stage or to turn PA modules on and off?" commented Richard Hinkle, Broadcast Electronics' Director of RF Engineering, who led the development team. The result is a product with improved efficiency in a lightweight, ultra-small package one-third the size of competitive products, according to Hinkle. The new 4MX 50 AM transmitter features: | More... |

Transactions

KBCR AM & FM Steamboat Springs CO from KBCR Inc. to Cool Radio LLC.

WEWC-AM Jacksonville (Callahan FL) from Circle Broadcasting of America Inc. to Norsan Consulting and Management Inc.

KQAA-FM Aberdeen SD from Aberdeen Radio Ranch to Educational Media Foundation.

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