RBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 21, Issue 208, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Monday Morning October 25th, 2004

Radio News®

Forrester picked for PPM economic study
Forrester Research has been selected to conduct a study into how switching to Arbiton's Portable People Meter (PPM) would impact the radio business economically. The research study is being funded by Arbitron, but Forrester's bid was selected by a special committee of the Radio Advertising Bureau's PPM Task Force.

RBR observation: Although Arbitron has promised to give radio broadcasters some idea by the end of this year just what PPM ratings are likely to cost, that's only one part of the equation. This study will hopefully fill in a few other variables and answer important questions about how PPM will affect spot pricing and ad buying. Advertisers and agencies are insisting on ROI and accountability - - and if they don't get it from radio they're going to focus more of their dollars elsewhere. | More... |

Spitzer launches payola probe
Keeping his political profile high as a crusader against corporate corruption, New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has turned to the record industry and the independent promoters who work to win radio airplay. EMI, the only standalone publicly traded major label, confirmed Friday that it has been hit with a subpoena - - and says it is "cooperating fully" in the probe. According to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Spitzer has also subpoenaed information from the other big record companies, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

RBR observation: Spitzer's timing is strange, since the independent promotion business has been drying up since major radio groups, led by Clear Channel (4/10/03 RBR Daily Epaper #71), decided last year to quit doing business with them to avoid any hint of payola-like practices. If your radio station is still accepting payments from the indies, or allows your employees to do so, this should be a wake-up call. Stop it now or face potential legal expenses far in excess of any cash, trips or merchandise you might get from the indies.

News Corporation vote is today
Get the green card ready. News Corporation shareholders vote today on whether to exit Australia and reincorporate the company in the United States. The reincorporation is expected to pass easily, despite the misgivings of some Australian money managers who don't want to see one of the largest component stocks pulled out of their domestic stock indices. Lots and lots of News Corporation shares are already held in the US and those shares have reportedly been voted nearly unanimously in favor of the move. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has insisted that News Corporation's stock is undervalued on Wall Street because of its foreign base, so he's been selling the reincorporation as a plus for shareholders. The reincorporation won't have any impact on the company's FCC licenses, since the FCC ruled long ago that News Corporation qualifies as an American company since it is controlled by Murdoch, who is a naturalized US citizen.

XM "Walkman" to be debuted?
XM Satellite Radio is expected to unveil a "wearable" device, perhaps similar to a Walkman. A major product announcement is planned for 10/26 in New York with electronics manufacturer Delphi Corp. "XMSR is also likely to announce its wearable device next week. There is a good shot this 'Walkman' type device, in the near term, will differentiate XM's hardware from Sirius," a rival satellite radio system, said Kit Spring, analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus in a note for investors. The device is speculated to be a satellite-radio receiver with headphones that also had a hard drive enabling users to download XM content.

RBR observation: A receiver with an iPOD-type harddrive may be what's in store-record your favorite tunes/shows at home and listen later on the go. However, we have to wonder about reception with such a device. Not too stable. Most likely: The device will be iPOD based, but only connectable to existing XM receivers-not an XM receiver in of itself. Otherwise, the power needed and the size of the antenna, most likely attached to the headphone, may make the unit heavy and cumbersome.

Limbaugh appealing medical records ruling
Rush Limbaugh's attorneys filed motions in Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal, seeking to overturn a recent decision by a three-judge panel regarding the privacy of the talk show host's medical records. The filing argues that the panel erred when it ruled that prosecutors were entitled to seize and inspect all of Limbaugh's medical records without giving him notice and an opportunity to object. It asks for a rehearing by the same three-judge panel or by the full 12-member appeals court, and also seeks additional review by the Florida Supreme Court. | More... |

Sinclair broadcast strives for balance
As critics prepared to pounce Friday evening, Sinclair Broadcast Group aired its controversial news special "A POW Story: Politics, pressure and the Media" and portrayed itself as a victim of those who would try to suppress free speech, while clearly treading carefully to prove that it was presenting both sides of the story about Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service and post-service anti-war activities.

RBR observation: The finished product was clearly not the right-wing diatribe that Sinclair critics had expected. Although a Kerry campaign spokesman still insisted on calling it "a premeditated smear," some liberal activists who'd scheduled a telephone press conference shortly after the show aired were more subdued. "Sinclair certainly was acting like a broadcaster should tonight," said Consumers Union Director Gene Kimmelman, crediting public outcry with making Sinclair deliver a balanced account. "It appears that Sinclair listened to the court of public opinion," said former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who now heads the DC lobbying office of the United Church of Christ. What will never be known is whether the broadcast was pretty much what Sinclair had planned all along, or whether it was significantly modified. What is sure that while most Americans had probably never heard of Sinclair Broadcast Group a few weeks ago, they know the name now. | More... |

Conference Calls Q3 2004

Belo sees tough 2005 ahead
You could make the case that if Belo Corporation had to have a costly scandal, this was a good year for it. With strong TV revenues from the Olympics and political advertising, Q3 earnings were still 10 cents per share after 22 cents per share in one-time charges - - big hits for the circulation inflation scandal at the Dallas Morning News and discontinuing its cable news joint ventures with Time Warner, plus costs associated with staff downsizing. TV group revenues were up 6.6% to 171.3 million dollars in Q3 and the company says Q4 TV revenues should be up in the low double digits. October is currently up 20%, with lots of political advertising, and November is pacing up in the mid single digits, said CEO Robert Decherd. Newspaper revenues were up 3.3% in Q3 and are expected to be flat to up 1% in Q4. Looking further ahead,

Decherd admits that 2005 will be a tough year. Along with flat TV revenues, Belo is projecting that newspaper revenues will be up in the mid single digits next year.

Adbiz©

Campaign ad watch
With the daily countdown to Election Day shrinking into single digits, the campaign of John Kerry is said to have a slight advantage of that of George W. Bush in terms of cash on hand. 24M of his Kerry's government dole of 75M is unspent as of mid-October, according to the Associated Press, compared to 22M for Bush. The Kerry edge may well be negated by the respective party national committees, however. Each can coordinate with the presidential organizations to spend 16M. The DNC has 9M remaining, while the RNC has 12M. Meanwhile, a relatively new election category has heated up this year, further fueling a total electioneering advertising bill that is expected to approach 4B dollars. That would be candidates for state supreme court justice. In 2000, ads for that office ran in only two states. It soared in 2002 percentage-wise, but still, we're talking nine states. This time around, the number is 15. The final advertising tally is expected to eclipse the 45M spent in 2000.

Nissan taps Vidal Partnership
as Hispanic AOR
In a shift designed to expand and re-energize brand communications targeting Hispanics, Nissan North America announced The Vidal Partnership NY has been selected as Nissan's U.S. Hispanic AOR. Vidal will be responsible for providing strategic counsel and direction in reaching Hispanic consumers through advertising and other marketing extensions for Nissan's national and regional product and brand campaigns across the country.

Sun Microsystems launches review:
Bay Area agencies need only apply
Sun Microsystems has put its creative account into review, with Bay Area agency offices only invited to participate. Select Resources International, Santa Monica, CA is handling. Arnell Group NY is the incumbent. Starcom, handling media for Sun, is not affected. Sun spent 5.5 million for the first seven months of the year, and 11.7 million in 2003, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

PBS stations offering more
sponsorship opportunities
PBS affiliate and major program producer Thirteen/WNET New York announced it is now able to offer corporate marketers more access to the highly visible :30 second on-air underwriting spots. Thanks to a newly reduced funding threshold, just approved by PBS, program-producing stations like WNET and WGBH-TV Boston can offer corporate sponsors Premiere Sponsorship for 1.5 million. Previously the threshold was 2.5 million. The PBS Premier Sponsorship model was launched 2/03. "This new threshold presents wonderful opportunities for corporations looking to associate themselves with the esteemed PBS brand and the tremendously respected programming produced by Thirteen/WNET," said James Joyella, managing director, National Program Sponsorship. "By making the stand-out thirty-second spots more accessible, everyone benefits: corporate sponsors looking for excellent visibility, public television producers seeking more access to quality sources of funding, and, of course, public television viewers..."

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Bayliss buys by the bay
Joe Bayliss's Flying Bear Media LLC is acquiring a station that Bruce Buzil's 3 Point Media is acquiring from Spanish Broadcasting System. Since there are three ownership entities, it is perhaps fitting that the station in question has recently gone through three sets of call letters, from KTPI to KBTB to KNGY. It's licensed to Alameda CA and gets into San Francisco from there. Bayliss will pay 33.7M for it, much of it upfront in a loan which 3 Point will use to close the SBS part of the dea. According to a Transaction Digest item based on documents filed with the FCC, 3 Point acquired the station from SBS for 30M about a year ago. According to the instant application, Bayliss owns a piece of radio group NextMedia.

Clear Channel sells before it buys
An AM-FM combo in the Newburgh-Middletown NY market is going from Robert Wein's Port Jervis Broadcasting to James Morley's PJ Radio in a deal which just isn't that simple. For example, there's that 800-pound gorilla in the middle known as Clear Channel... The stations, WDLC-AM and WTSX-FM, are in the town of Port Jervis. Clear Channel struck a deal with Wein to acquire them way back on 8/7/98, and have been running them in an LMA since 3/26/01. The original deal included 1M dollars for the option along with another 2M at closing for a total of 3M. The new deal adds another million. Wein will get the 3M he was originally entitled to, and Clear Channel now gets a million for its troubles, making Morley's updated payment 4M altogether. Mike Rice of New England Media and Dick Kozacko of Kozacko Media Services assisted the principals in striking this deal. They informed RBR that both stations are currently hanging their hats on the Oldies format.

Washington Beat

APTS puts FEMA on the beam
The Association of Public Television Stations is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergenc Management Agency (FEMA) to set up a new emergency broadcast service which will utilize local noncom TV digital broadcast capability. A six-month pilot program is being launched with the participation of PBS and Washington PBS affiliate WETA-TV. The system is designed to enhance the ability of the president to address the country during a national crisis. It will also data broadcasts to properly equipped television sets and computers.

Programming

Daly, Sims to host NBC's Radio Music Awards
Carson Daly and Molly Sims will host the 2004 Radio Music Awards, airing live on NBC from the Aladdin Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Janet Jackson is being honored with the Radio Legend Award, so you can bet that NBC will be using a delay and have someone poised at the "dump" button. Destiny's Child, performing together again, will open the show.

Monday Morning Makers & Shakers

9/13/04-9/17/04
The freeze was in full effect this week. It was not a total freeze - - noncom and television trading were completely unaffected. However, neither of those two categories accounted for any action during this five day period, so the total number was zero, involving zero stations, for zero value. The freeze was administrative, as the FCC updated its Forms 301, 314 and 315 in light of the 3rd Circuit Court's surprise decision to let the Commission implement its new Arbitron/geographical radio market definintions, replacing the old signal contour method. It was officially lifted 10/8/04. For our own administrative reasons, we are maintaining our own "Makers and Shakers" schedule. Watch this space next week an accounting of some FCC ice age action.

Transactions

KFQX-TV Grand Junction-Montrose CO (Grand Junction) from John Harvey Rees to Parker Broadcasting Inc.

WJLR-FM Seymour IN from Midwest Ministries Inc. to Educational Media Foundation.

KWLL-FM CP Texarkana AR from Broadcasting for the Challenged Inc. to Educational Media Foundation.

| More... |

Stock Talk

Stocks tumble as oil hits record
Oil prices hit a record high on Friday and sent stock prices plunging. The Dow Industrials dropped 111 points, or 1.1%, to a new low for the year of 9,755.

Radio stocks were down almost across the board. The Radio Index fell 2.684, or 1.3%, to 208.347. Regent fell the most, plunging 6.6%. One of the few gainers was Interep, rising 9.2% after naming BDO Seidman as its new independent auditor.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Friday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		35.58	-0.42	Jeff-Pilot	JP		46.59	-0.20
Beasley	BBGI		14.97	-0.03	Journal Comm.	JRN		15.86	-0.18
Citadel	CDL		13.99	-0.15	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		14.01	-0.20
Clear Channel	CCU		30.47	-0.64	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		13.93	-0.17
Cox Radio	CXR		14.12	+0.22	Regent	RGCI		5.28	-0.37
Cumulus	CMLS		14.46	+0.07	Saga Commun.	SGA		16.93	-0.58
Disney	DIS		24.62	-0.68	Salem Comm.	SALM		25.12	+0.13
Emmis	EMMS		18.19	-0.23	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		3.91	+0.07
Entercom	ETM		30.58	+0.18	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		9.80	-0.21
Entravision	EVC		7.37	-0.15	Univision	UVN		29.89	-0.13
Fisher	FSCI		47.17	-0.50	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		34.39	-0.48
Gaylord	GET		31.05	-0.42	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		33.84	-0.62
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		25.06	+0.11	Westwood One	WON		20.38	-0.24
Interep	IREP		0.83	+0.07	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		32.07	+1.13
International Bcg.	IBCS		0.02	unch	-	-	-	-	-

Bounceback

Send Us Your Opinions We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments to [email protected]

We heard from this industry leader about Publisher Jim Carnegie's comments on how to rebuild quality radio (10/11/04 RBR Daily Epaper #198).

Yes, you are right. We are finally moving from "the real estate" phase to the product phase. Ultimately, that is good news for our listeners and thus good news for our business. As chairman of the Arbitron Advisory Council we have been exposed to a lot of agencies, programmers and managers all clamoring for better data. Electronic measurement is a critical step forward for radio yet we are still having problems getting all of our major companies in line to test and "vet" PPM. How does that look to the outside world? Electronic measurement is another piece of the puzzle if radio is to move ahead and be viewed as a vital medium.

Steven Goldstein
Executive VP
Saga Communications

Arbitrends

Upped & Tapped

Hot Kitty Jamz
in Greenville
Cox Radio has named former Journal Broadcast/Wichita sales exec. Kitty Malone as Local Sales Manager in Greenville, SC for WJMZ-FM "107.3 Jamz" and WHTZ-FM "Hot 98.1."

Stations For Sale

Opportunities in the West for Groups or Owner Operators. Profitable combos. Major market move-ins (FM and LPTV). AM's, both Rated and Unrated. The Exline Team, Andy McClure, Dean LeGras, 415-479-3484, [email protected]

More News Headlines

Police investigate Red Sox banner hung from radio tower

O'Reilly accuser willing to settle?

"Talk Radio Heavyweight Battle Royale" held Friday

Competing Media

Eisner called Ovitz "psychopath" in memo
Lots of embarrassing material is coming out in a trial in Delaware where some disgruntled Disney shareholders are seeking compensation for what they claim was management's squandering of company assets to pay Michael Ovitz 140 million dollars to get rid of him after 14 months of employment back in 1996. The company's position is that it had no grounds to fire Ovitz for cause, so it had to buy out his entire contract. Witnesses that the plaintiffs put on the stand last week contended that there was plenty of cause to fire Ovitz-from misuse of company funds, such as billing the company for thousand-dollar dinners that had no business purpose, to refusing to carry out duties ordered by CEO Michael Eisner. In one blockbuster memo submitted into evidence, Eisner described his #2, whom he had selected, as a "psychopath" and in another warned that it would be "catastrophic" if Ovitz should ever take over the CEO position. The trial continues this week, but it could be some time before Disney begins calling its own witnesses.

September Digital Solutions Magazine

Complimentary Report

Quarterly Deals:
4.1 Billion spent on broadcast properties since the thaw
RBR/TVBR Observation:
Where is the action? We got it.

Less is More
CCU's already meaning less with syndicators and nets.

September Zinio Solutions Magazine
Read RBR in 2 simple steps:
1.Create a simple account with Zinio and download the free Zinio Reader.
2. You can then download the free September Issue of RBR

RBR Radar 2004

Click on these issues for Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

Spotload excess not
child's play for Viacom, ABC
The FCC is getting tough on children's programming. It has entered into consent decrees with, in one case, Viacom and Coxcom Inc., and in another, with ABC's International Family Entertainment, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications. The issue is commercial overages on children's programming, and the biggest upshot is a total of 1.5M going into the US Treasury. FCC Chairman Michael Powell. "All cable operators, DBS providers, commercial television broadcasters, and companies that provide children's programming should know that we will vigorously enforce our children's advertising limits. We will continue to take swift and appropriate enforcement to protect the interests of children." RBR observation: This is a biggie for all media to learn a lesson, don't mess with the kids. 10/22/04 RBR #207

Trump tops TiVo again
Owners love that boardroom! Donald Trump's "The Apprentice 2" on NBC is again the most-watched program among people with TiVo digital video recorders. Chart tells the winners. 10/22/04 TVBR #207

Major League Baseball partners with XM Satellite - TA DUM
An 11-year, 650 million agreement enabling XM to broadcast games of every MLB team nationwide beginning with the 2005 regular season. XM will also be the official satellite radio network of MLB and have rights to use the MLB silhouetted batter logo and the marks of the 30 MLB Clubs.
RBR observation: It seems that every time we turn around, one of the satellite guys or the other is spending a half-billion or more on something. Sirius is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on Howard Stern and the NFL; XM is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions on Opie & Anthony and Major League Baseball. All the while, both companies are losing hundreds of millions of dollars per year and they'll soon have to figure out how to raise hundreds of millions to pay for their second generation of satellites. What a business plan! And yet their stocks are darlings of Wall Street, while terrestrial radio stocks, companies which actually have positive cash flow, and plenty of it - - see their stocks in the crapper. Don't ya love it? And by the way, how smart is it of Major League Baseball to spit on its radio partners of many, many decades to team up with a new rival that, even under the best case scenario, will still have only a miniscule fraction of broadcast radio's audience for many years to come? 10/21/04 RBR #206

Account Manager Arbitron Outdoor
Selling and servicing the Arbitron Outdoor products to outdoor media companies. 3-4 years media sales experience, Outdoor industry sales preferred. Offering medical, dental and vision, stock purchase, tuition assistance, 401(k)

General Sales Manager
Los Angeles need with 5 years radio sales management experience. EEO. Reply to: [email protected]

See Radio Careers for more info.

Other Links

Cancel RBR's Daily Epaper

State Associations
Contact Us