New York files suit against Arbitron
Last week was not a good one for Arbitron. At the top of the list: NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit in NY County Supreme Court against the ratings giant. The suit accuses Arbitron of deceptively claiming its Portable People Meter system is valid, fair, and representative of diverse radio markets. It also charges Arbitron with false advertising and failing to disclose important flaws in the PPM methodology to broadcasters, advertisers, shareholders and the public, including serious shortcomings in the accuracy of the new system and its inadequate representation of African-Americans and Latinos.

RBR observation: Forcing Arbitron to pay minority broadcasters for "lost revenue" is not a trend the company will be able to manage and stay in business (general market broadcasters would certainly be next). If Arbitron loses, this will hurt broadcasters in the long run because the media agencies want PPM as the currency--they've said it time and time again...

New Jersey files, too
As well, New Jersey AG Anne Milgram is suing Arbitron, charging its use of the "new, unaccredited system for measuring listenership harms minority consumers and violates New Jersey's consumer fraud, advertising and anti- discrimination laws." Arbitron quickly asked the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief against the state's AG to prevent any attempt to restrain its publication of its PPM listening estimates.

RBR observation: Good move by Arbitron to go for the throat and declaratory judgment. This is a broadcaster issue that each broadcaster is going to have to come to terms with. For 25 years the biggest problem RBR has heard and what hurts Arbitron is their attitude for being arrogant. Or in today's terminology - user friendly. For a closer look at PPM we recommend you take a listen to the Roundtable discussion on the Disagreement on PPM located on the Media Center at RBR.com...

Canary's mineshaft song not pretty
But the Q3 lead-off conference call from Emmis (discussing what for them are Q2 results) was not entirely devoid of optimism. Jeff Smulyan continues to insist that radio is suffering from a perception problem. Overall, the company posted net revenue was $94.2 million, compared to $95.7 million a year earlier. Pro forma domestic radio net revenues dropped 8.4%. Smulyan noted that it was an extremely challenging economy, unlike anything anybody in any industry has seen ever. He observed, "Through all of this, radio listening has held up...I think it's not lost on major advertisers that this is a business that reaches 260M people a week."

RBR observation: Radio's relatively inexpensive rates compared to other media, coupled with the fact that it is doing a better job of holding its audience than is the newspaper industry, could fuel somewhat of a renaissance if general economic indicators continue to trend down. View the Smulyan video and see what he believes one of the various issues are...

Mostly quiet on the statehouse front
Little attention has been given to battles over governorships this year - in part because only 11 are up for grabs. According to analyst Larry J. Sabato of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, heat-seeking (read possible national cash-attracting) campaigns are being held in two of the state, North Carolina and Washington, which Sabato has rated as toss-ups. Two others, Indiana and Vermont, are only leaner's, with Dems having a chance to wrest them from the Republicans.

RBR observation: National parties have a definite interest in winning the battles down ticket within the states themselves. Controlling the state infrastructure is a big help to federal officials when they're running on their own behalf. There just isn't much out there of interest to generate a windfall for broadcasters this cycle.

High WATA mark for Curtis
Donald W. Curtis is expanding his North Carolina radio group with a bankruptcy acquisition of six stations located in an unrated portion of the northwest part of the state. However, it is still possible to come up with a higher bid for the stations. They will be required to beat Curtis's contract offer of $2.325M by $85K minimum. The seller for Aisling Broadcasting of Banner Elk is George Reed, Receiver. Curtis is buying the stations under licensee name High Country Adventures LLC. The stations, which form a daisy-chain cluster with three separate overlap markets and all in North Carolina, include WATA-AM Boone, WECR-AM Newland, WECR-FM Beech Mountain, WMMY-FM Jefferson, WXIT-AM Blowing Rock and WZJS-FM Banner Elk.

N/A WYER-FM CP Carmi IL from Connorsville Apostolic Lighthouse Inc. (Ira Sult III) to Indiana Community Radio Corporation (Jennifer Cox-Hensley). Cash-free transfer from one noncom to another. CP is for Class A on 90.5 MHz with 2.5 kw @ 94'. [FCC file date 9/15/08]

N/A KHCX-FM CP Soda Springs ID from Augusta Radio Fellowship Institute Inc. (C.T. Barinowski) to Houston Christian Broadcasters Inc. (Bruce Munsterman). Donation. CP is for Class A on 88.9 MHz with 100 w @ 2434. [FCC file date 9/16/08]

Product placements not created equal
Marketers and advertisers seeking to make the most out of slashed budgets will find some groups are more influenced by product placements than others. According to BIGresearch's June 2008 Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM12) of 17,231 consumers, the effectiveness of product placements varies by product category and consumer group. Year over year, product placement influence has grown, providing marketers a good option to reach advertising-weary consumers. Consumers indicate product placements have the most influence on their grocery purchases with 14.8% saying so, up from 13.0% one year ago (SIMM10, July 2007). Electronics (13.2% vs. 12.8% in 2007) and apparel (11.5% vs. 10.3% in 2007) follow to round out the top three categories most influenced by product placements.

RBR note: View the stats and charts on RBR.com...

We want to
hear from you
Send your comments and a photo to [email protected]

Only on RBR.com
What is Reasonable Access?
Every political season:
to whom do I have to sell time?

Media, Markets & Money
High WATA mark for Curtis
Donald W. Curtis is expanding
his North Carolina radio group

Ratings & Research
Product placements
Not created equal and most
influence on their grocery buys

Makers & Shakers
Transactions: 8/25/-8/29/
Radio - Renter decides buying is the Key

CBS Radio launches new widget
A new feature designed to increase interactivity between CBS Radio stations and their more than 50 million weekly listeners, and providing a range of specialty information and services, launched Friday on the websites of some of the Company's most popular music stations such as WXRK and WWFS in New York, WXRT in Chicago and WVEE in Atlanta. The "Now Playing Widget" gives listeners total control of their listening experience with opportunities to own, share and play the music they love on demand.

Taco Bell partners with Indie Rockers
Named 100 artists to its 2008 Feed the Beat lineup as it once again hooks up America's up-and-coming rock acts as they hit the road. Bands from across the nation, hailing from music hotbeds like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York and Seattle will receive $500 in free Fourthmeal, the late night meal between dinner and breakfast, and vie for an important next career-building step: marketing support for their music.

Advice for PPM market programmers
As we said before, this is the kind of research that is really needed for broadcasters to get their arms around PPM.
10/10/08 RBR #199

Media critic sends warning to conservatives
Members of the conservative media to get ready if Dems take both Congress and the White House...evidence of a tougher climate; and worries that there may be an attempt to revive the Fairness Doctrine,

RBR observation: Politicians from both parties are pushing back against ads they have a problem with, since fines issued to groups claiming to be 527s in 2004, but determined by the FEC to actually be PACs, didn't come through until well after the election was over. Nor are most Democrats overtly suggesting reviving the Doctrine.
10/10/08 RBR #199

Wall Street seeks a bottom
Analysis - And as the quarter was ending, both Capitol Hill and Wall Street were just coming to grips with a huge financial crisis whose outcome is not yet known. Will the market finally bottom out in Q4? Or will that not come until sometime in 2009?
10/10/08 RBR #199

The Basics Of
Lowest Unit Charge
Now is a good time to take a breath and review the basics of LUC. Here's a review out of our Political Broadcast Manual. Election is less than four weeks away and we are now in the midst of the lowest unit charge (LUC) period.
10/10/08 RBR #199

Local sales opportunity
is Halloween
Spending is expected to reach $5.77 billion. This year, the average person plans to spend $66.54 on the holiday, up from $64.82 one year ago.

RBR observation: Get a hunk of this money and one key way is using your website. More demo info at RBR.com
10/09/08 RBR #198

Research paints
portrait of Men 18-34
An online entertainment community for men, have key findings focused on helping advertisers understand men's behavior online in order to maximize the potential of the online medium. According to the research, over two-thirds of men surveyed cannot live without the Internet.
10/09/08 RBR #198

Looking at Internet
radio ad options
Returns on banners are dropping. Advertisers and agencies are looking for ways to boost the effectiveness of their campaigns with new media.
10/09/08 RBR #198

Ideas for clients
in tough times
I don't know if I'd passed this one along here, but if you carry sports, there's time in the station ID for a quick sponsorship. Ideas Working Now (tm) take this to the streets.
10/09/08 RBR #198

Buyers comment
on PPM issues du jour
Local buyers if they were buying from PPM data in New York; and what their first take was on what they see in the eight new PPM markets.
10/09/08 RBR #198