RBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 21, Issue 214, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Tuesday Morning November 2nd, 2004

Radio News®

Entercom's Field says "Less is More" will help everyone
"Less is More" may be a Clear Channel Radio initiative, but some of the company's competitor rushing to sing its praises. In his Wall Street conference yesterday, Entercom President and CEO

David Field said the move by radio's biggest player to cut clutter and emphasize shorter commercials will benefit his company in 2005 as well, along with the entire radio industry. While Field likes the idea of moving advertisers from 60-second spots to 30s, he says Entercom hasn't been aggressively pushing 30s. Nevertheless, he says his company is already seeing a "ripple effect" of interest in 30s because of Clear Channel's efforts.

Lobby hobby has room for 222
That's as in 222M greenbacks, which is the amount of money broadcasters have spent trying to influence the government going back to 1998, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Another 26.5M was sent to politicians themselves, and the record shows that broadcasters take a stab at being equal opportunity donors. George W. Bush is the big winner, with 525K in broadcaster cash. But he is one of only three Republicans on the top ten list. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is #2 with 386K, followed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY, 347K), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ, 227K), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY, 207K), Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD, 199K), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA, 187K), Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO, 183K), Rep. Billy Tauzin (D-MS, 176K) and VP Al Gore (D-TN, 155K). The party breakdown is nearly even, with 50.11% going to Republicans, 49.60% to Democrats and 0.29% to Other/Independents. The big four networks were the biggest givers, led by GE/NBC (6.665M), Viacom/CBS (4.022M), Disney/ABC (3.516M) and News Corp./Fox (3.301). NAB, Clear Channel, Univision, Hubbard, Westwood One and Sinclair round out the top ten.

RBR observation: CPI seems shocked that so much money is being spent by broadcasters on government entities and individuals. We aren't all that amazed. For starters, broadcasting is subject to more government regulation than most industries, and the last several years have featured high-profile, highly-contentious issues with profound influence on the business, including ownership consolidation and indecency. Holding hearings involving broadcasters has become a cottage industry in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. If we're amazed by anything, it's the even-handed 50-50 spending exhibited by the broadcasting business.

Behind the FCC Pappas ruling
The FCC's finding that the Pappas Telecasting gift of airtime to Republicans in California was illegal was unexpectedly swift, and very brief, as these things tend to go. The ruling came in response to a complaint from Democratic candidate Nicole Parra, running from a seat in the 30th Assembly District of California against Dean Gardner. She said he received without cost airtime, through one of the Republican county committees to which Pappas donated the air; when she asked for a reciprocal amount of time, she was offered it at lowest unit charge, not without cost as she requested. In the Pappas response to the FCC's investigation, the company wrote that the gift of air was from "Harry J. Pappas and my affiliated entities." The FCC bolded "and my affiliated entities," and noted that the affiliated entities in question were licensed broadcast stations, which are subject to equal time rules, even if Mr. Pappas as an individual is not. "The Commission has ruled that when a candidate is furnished time at no cost, competing candidates are entitled to receive the same amount of no charge time in comparable time periods... Thus, under these circumstances, we find that the complainant is entitled to equal opportunities on the same no charge basis as her opponent." The FCC left the door open for future uncertainty, however, concluding, "We emphasize that our ruling herein is limited to the specific circumstances of this complainant's request for equal opportunities." The stations in question in the Parra/Gardner case are KMPH-TV Fresno, KFRE-TV Sanger CA and KMPH-FM Hanford CA.

Broadcasters in hot House races
Nationwide, only a few dozen of the US House seats to be filled in today's elections are truly being contested by two viable candidates and only a handful of those are really close enough to be considered true tossups - - but two of them are races with broadcasters seeking to go to Washington, DC. In the other Washington, Democrat Dave Ross, on leave from his talk host duties at KIRO-AM Seattle, is in a neck-and-neck battle with King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, the GOP candidate who is seeking to hold onto the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Jennifer Dunn. In the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati, former Queen City radio and TV personality Nick Clooney is trying to hold onto a Democratic congressional seat that Republicans had targeted as likely to fall their way with the retirement of Rep. Ken Lucas. Businessman Geoff Davis is the GOP nominee, but he's not having the expected easy run in the increasingly conservative district due to Clooney's high name recognition, not to mention the star appeal of his actor son, George. Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon radio group owner, is expected to coast to an easy re-election, like so many incumbents. He's a Republican and faces Democrat John McColgan, a building contractor. In Wisconsin, radio/TV group owner Dave Magnum, a Republican, is seen as the underdog in his race to unseat Rep. Tammy Baldwin, an incumbent Democrat who is banking on the liberal heart of the district, Madison, to outpoll the more conservative rural areas where Magnum has his strength.

Conference Q3 2004

Entercom chief sees business improving
Entercom reports that its Q3 revenues were up 4% to 112.5 million. On a same station basis, President and CEO David Field said the gain was 3%, while the markets its stations are in were flat overall. Same station operating income was up 4% to 49 million. Looking ahead to the current quarter, Entercom said to expect revenues to be up in the low single digits. In his conference with analysts,

Field said business conditions are improving. Quizzed about those renewals by analysts, Field said annual contracts amount to only a small portion of the company's business but he insisted that those 5-10% rate increases are real and bode well for 2005. Like so many other public broadcasters, Field is not happy with how Wall Street is valuing his stock. He announced that the company's directors have authorized an additional 100M bucks for stock buybacks. Entercom has already bought back 2.6M shares of its owns stock under a previous 100M buyback that was announced in May (5/14/04 RBR Daily Epaper #95)

Adbiz©

Navigauge launching Consumer Behavior Index
Navigauge, a media and market intelligence company, announced the introduction of the "Consumer Behavior Index" (CBI), the media industry's first independent and source of consumer in-vehicle radio listening behavior data and intelligence. Earlier this year, Navigauge launched a new service that uses continuous in-vehicle radio audience measurement and global positioning (GPS) technology. | More... |

Advercan launching
"Can Top Media Campaigns"
Advercan, a new can-top label for soda, power drink and beer cans, is launching the world's first Can Top Media Campaign. The product, a five-layer plastic label, debuts this week at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, with cans of Coca-Cola sporting the new Advercan labels. Five years in development, the six-layer plastic label serves as both an advertising medium and a "Cleancap" designed to keep the can top clean from the bottling plant to the store shelf. The protective seal can thwart the spread of dirt, germs and other contaminants. With the ability to print a message on both sides of the label, marketers can create a variety of marketing strategies with this unique new media. Fountain Power Boats (http://www.fountain1.com), Boating Magazine, Robb Report and Mercury engines each have Advercan ads being distributed at the show. The medium is helping market, brand, and build company awareness and traffic to the companies' websites and toll-free numbers. The Avercan media concept has been discussed for Microsoft MSN's "Switcher Campaign," with guidance from McCann-Erickson Advertising. The concept also was reviewed for implementation in Cott Bottling's San Antonio plant for Wal-Mart's Sam's Choice brand beverages. For bottlers, Advercan's new media revenue stream can help lower the cost of canning beverages. The company is capable of labeling 200,000 cans daily at its facility in Dallas.

Leap taps Element 79
Leap Wireless International, a provider of wireless communications services, announced it has established a relationship with Element 79 Partners for its Cricket service. "Ever since Cricket was launched in its first market more than five years ago, it has been considered to be a different kind of wireless company," said Bill Freeman, CEO of Leap. "We have never been in the business of forcing customers to count minutes or decipher complex calling plans or bills. Instead, we have maintained a fundamental focus on providing our customers with unlimited, predictably priced services. We must ensure the power of our core message and value - unlimited services - is clearly communicated to consumers. That's why we decided to bring on an agency with a fresh perspective. We believe that Element 79, whose core competencies are rooted in building major consumer brands, is the appropriate agency to accomplish this goal." The new campaign will focus on promoting Cricket's core value of unlimited wireless services, including unlimited LD and will appear via a strategic mix of print, radio and television media. Additionally, the new ad themes and product messaging will be woven through all other areas of the company's marketing materials and customer touch-points. Planning and negotiation will be handled by PHD US. In addition to re-focusing Cricket's branding message on its primary service of providing unlimited communication services, Element 79 will implement campaigns to support new product launches slated for 2005. The company expects its new Cricket ad campaign to break in Q1.

January 2005 Debut!
Radio & Television Business Report Look for RBR/TVBR in-depth RAB & TVB ad chiefs forecasts revisited: What they said in 2004. Were they were Right or Wrong? What Radio & TV need to overcome in 2005 Where do they stand on People Meter? GM Talkback Examining the Sarbanes-Oxley Act with Bill Moll, President/CEO, CC Television Joe Barlek, SVP\Controller, Susquehanna Radio Ed Piette, CBS's KCCO-TV Minneapolis AdBiz Marc Goldstein Mindshare CEO explains his clients' biggest concerns. Answering the biggie: Has the network television upfront peaked? And Much More... Close-up analysis of Arbitron's PPM and Nielsen's LPM \| Register for your debut issue! \|
		Added point of distribution 43rd annual NATPE convention January 25-27, Mandalay Bay Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas. Limited marketing/ad space available, Contact: Publisher--Jim Carnegie [email protected] 813 909 2986 or Director of Sales--June Barnes [email protected] 803 731-5951

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Don Davis doubles in the desert
Vanguard Media has a 650K deal for KANM-AM in Albuquerque that will create a brand new senior-band duopoly in New Mexico's largest city. Don Davis's group is getting the station from Aragon Broadcasting Company. It'll pair up with KKJY-AM. Davis has four other stations in the state, an FM in Santa Rosa (not to be confused with the city in California), and AM in Milan and an AM-FM combo in Las Vegas (not to be confused with the city in Nevada).

Washington Beat

Auction week is here
Wednesday, 11/3/04 marks the kick-off on the first major FM CP sweepstakes in quite some time. 456 entities are competing for 288 stations, including a number of major radio groups, both commercial and noncommercial. 15 companies have anted up 1M bucks or more, including our favorite by name: Frightmare. LUK Broadcasting has pitched in nearly 11M. Also look for names like Family Stations, Cumulus, Radio One, Educational Media Foundation, Visionary Related Entertainment, Shamrock Communications, Bott Communications, Entravision, Commonwealth Broadcasting Group, Citadel Broadcasting Company, Nassau Broadcasting, Pamal Broadcasting, Saga Communications 75K, Legend Communications of Wyoming and various entities of Clear Channel.

Ferree Plan, amended
A heavy-hitting consortium of broadcasters have submitted to the FCC a plan to expedite the DTV conversion, based on the parameters of the Ferree plan. There is, of course, a powerful underpinning to the plan - - the vast majority of over-the-air broadcasters have already made their capital investment in DTV and are waiting for everyone else to get on board. | More... |

Programming

Show prep: breaking through the clutter
In today's world of information overload, on-air talent has to be better than ever to entertain, inform and keep their audiences tuned in. Prep services cover the big picture, the world really, allowing the stations' personalities to focus on their local market, which they can do uniquely. Immediacy is more important than ever and the Internet has become the delivery tool of choice, replacing faxes, reel to reel, CDs and satellite for the most part. There have always been dozens of show prep providers in the US-many of which have a few set clients they work tirelessly for. While that's still the case, some of the larger providers have been picked up by the syndicators and are now big business. | More... |

Transactions

KREB-FM Fayetteville/Northwest Arkansas (Huntsville AR) and KCZZ-AM Kansas City (Mission KS) from Butler Broadcasting Company LLC to Davidson Media.

KIQS-AM Willows CA from KIQS Inc. to Martin Alberto Godinez.

| More... |

Stock Talk

Stocks edge higher
Stock prices moved a bit higher Monday as oil prices slipped below 50 bucks a barrel. However, uncertainty over today's close election kept gains in check. The Dow Industrials rose 27 points, or 0.3%, to 10,054.

The Radio Index was up 1.059, or 0.5%, to 222.402. Entercom rose 1.6% on a bullish earnings report. The big mover, though, was Saga, up 4.1% with no news to account for the move. Regent gained 2%.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Monday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		36.39	+0.22	Jeff-Pilot	JP		48.31	+0.02
Beasley	BBGI		16.50	+0.07	Journal Comm.	JRN		16.42	+0.30
Citadel	CDL		14.64	+0.09	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		14.38	-0.21
Clear Channel	CCU		32.92	-0.48	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		14.31	-0.38
Cox Radio	CXR		15.70	-0.20	Regent	RGCI		5.61	+0.11
Cumulus	CMLS		16.14	-0.11	Saga Commun.	SGA		17.51	+0.69
Disney	DIS		25.23	+0.01	Salem Comm.	SALM		25.40	+0.40
Emmis	EMMS		18.67	-0.03	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		3.91	+0.01
Entercom	ETM		33.73	+0.53	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		10.04	-0.08
Entravision	EVC		8.20	+0.15	Univision	UVN		30.68	-0.28
Fisher	FSCI		47.82	+0.77	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		36.73	-0.33
Gaylord	GET		33.27	-0.24	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		36.14	-0.35
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		25.90	-0.16	Westwood One	WON		23.02	-0.06
Interep	IREP		0.75	-0.03	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		33.06	+0.74
International Bcg.	IBCS		0.01	unch	-	-	-	-	-

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Bounceback

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

Here's another vote for better radio ad copy (10/29/04 RBR Daily Epaper #212)

Larry Fuss is absolutely right! Advertising copy is the weakest link in radio advertising. It's not just in small markets. I am astonished by the very bad, dull, and cliché laden copy I routinely hear, even when I travel in large markets. Major ad agencies, huge nationally known consumer product companies, and all sorts of other marketers who should know better, routinely produce second rate radio commercials. (Sometimes their TV and print ads are just as bad). With help from Dan O'Day, Roy Williams, Chris Lytle and so many others, so readily available, it is difficult to understand why so much radio advertising is so bad. We are often our own worst enemy.

Jay Austin
KIOD / KSWN
McCook, Nebraska

Arbitrends

Upped & Tapped

Radio One's
Deon Levingston
tapped for WBLS
Radio One/Indianapolis GM Deon Levingston has been tapped to be GM of Inner City Broadcasting's WBLS-FM NYC. Levingston has been GM in Indy for three years.

Steve Malzberg moves to WWRL-AM
Steve Malzberg, the late-night conservative radio host dropped by WABC last week, has landed at a new station, WWRL-AM. Malzberg started on the station's morning drive show, co-hosting with another conservative commentator, former columnist Karen Hunter, who has been at the station for several years. Malzberg was let go last week after 23 years with WABC, where he started as a sports announcer. WABC replaced him with George Noory.

Greg Coward joins SSI
Syndicated Solutions (SSI) announced that Gregory Coward, formerly Regional Manager of Talk Radio Affiliate Sales for Westwood One, has joined the company as Director of Business Development. Coward is responsible for new business development associated with SSI's national affiliate sales and ad sales activities.

Stations For Sale

AM Opportunities
Great AM's in Wyoming,
Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia,
Idaho and New Mexico
Cliff at Clifton Gardiner & Co (303)758-6900
[email protected]

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

Tom Joyner leads 1,000 African Americans in Miami

Fox News Radio election coverage adds Yahoo! News stream

International

Oops! Top secret meeting broadcast
Imagine if President Bush were meeting with his cabinet to discuss anti-terrorism strategy and someone accidentally opened a live mic to the on-air feed of Westwood One or ABC Radio. That was pretty much the situation yesterday in the Philippines when state-run DZRB radio broadcast several minutes of a top-secret briefing of President Gloria Arroyo pertaining to a hostage-taking in Afghanistan. It appears that no state secrets were revealed as the country's Foreign Secretary and his top deputy briefed the President and security officials from her cabinet, but the mistake embarrassed the Arroyo government. Afterward, she went on state TV to declare that the government was "taking all appropriate measures" to secure the release of the hostage. Then she declared a news blackout.

October Digital
Solutions Magazine

Who Will Sit on the Throne?
The election -What is in it
for Broacasters?

One On One
with PHD's Patrick McNew -
The man that over sees spot
for Chrysler Group.

Engineered For Profit
'05 budgets and capital expenditures, our close up look at who's planning to buy what next year.

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

RBR Radar 2004

Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

"Less is More" is on a fast track
CCU speeds up the process to next month, December. Clear Channel officials say advertisers are showing interest in the company's attempt to sell 30-second spots, priced at 75% of the rate for 60s. CEO John Hogan said Clear Channel is not trying to get premium rates for 30s, but rather is offering advertisers premium positions at premium rates.
RBR observation: CCU's top premium is heading to one stop set is called the 'Island Position' where one advertiser owns that set. Unclear the length but in respect it breathes similar to television getting content into the programming. Fort Lauderdale based auto retailer AutoNation, which spends around 25M only on local advertising, should take kindly to this Island Position especially if any content is involved. 11/01/04 RBR #213

Meredith fires broadcast
chief O'Brien
In a stunning announcement, Meredith Corporation said its board of directors had terminated Meredith Broadcasting Group President Kevin O'Brien "for violations of Meredith's Equal Employment Opportunity policies." O'Brien had been hired to head the company's broadcast division in 2001. 11/01/04 TVBR #213

Viacom begins
"mega-buyback" of stock
Demonstrating just how deeply he's dissatisfied with how Wall Street values his company's stock, Sumner Redstone announced that Viacom's board of directors had authorized an unprecedented eight billion dollar stock buyback plan. Redstone was a happy camper in his conference call as total revenues were up 4% to 5.5 billion, with radio the only real laggard. Redstone vowed that the company would be aggressive in buying back its own stock at current price levels. The buyback started Thursday, 10/28- at 1:30pm.
RBR observation: In Viacom case we can't spout go private. We can say maybe Sumner should loosen up the marketing and promotion dollars and get people excited again about Viacom with Karmazin gone. And, show a vote of confidence to Les Moonves. Karmazin never spent a dime. 10/29/04 RBR #212

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.

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

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