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Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 22, Issue 223, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Monday Morning November 14th, 2005

Radio News®

Pushing for PPM
Arbitron's first-ever Advertiser/Agency Advisory Council meeting brought a familiar refrain from the agency folks in a face-to-face forum with radio executives: The agencies want Portable People Meters (PPM) and they want them as fast as possible. "Generally the ad people were very vocal. They think PPM is a great thing and they can't understand why radio is dragging its feet," said Nick Anthony, who was one of the broadcasters who attended. He is the outgoing Chairman of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and Exec. VP of Operations for Rubber City Radio. "Obviously, on the radio side we have the issues of how much it's going to cost and whether we think there's going to be a return on that investment," he noted. One big sticking point is how going from diaries to PPM would impact cost-per-point (CPP). Anthony said the agency reps assured the broadcasters that there would be a one-time adjustment in CPPs - - "and that once that's done radio should receive the same or even additional monies." From the agency side, we got this comment from Kathy Crawford, President/Local Broadcast, Mindshare: "The meetings in Washington were very positive. Hopefully the broadcasters felt the same way. My hat is off to Arbitron for getting us all together."

RBR observation: The agency/advertiser folks have pointed out repeatedly that changing technologies for ratings measurement is nothing new to them - - they've twice made the CPP adjustments in local TV as Nielsen went from diaries alone to set-top boxes and then, most recently, to Local People Meters (LPM). But radio folks know that the change was not without consequences. If the spending is the same or greater, the distribution of the pie is not the same. That's why News Corporation and Tribune Broadcasting are so upset about LPMs.

Publisher note: Unfortunately the "captains of the industry" don't focus on the big issues that effect our industry overall and its revenues. Instead they point the finger every where besides the mirror. Here is that word again - Accountability. This is a real issue that needs to be said loud and again confirms what RBR has been stating over for the past 3 years and backed up in our reporting at key agency conferences and not just wanting PPM but needing PPM and NOW. Radio has been dragging its heels and there is consistent talk about radio becoming a third level media if it does not stay in the game. RAB Pres/CEO Gary Fries has been pounding this gavel for years and must feel a sense of vindication on the position of this first meeting. RBR requested his thoughts on the total issue and Fries replied via email:

"The fact is that I have been telling this industry this in private conversations and industry speeches for the past 3 years. The advertising community can not understand why the radio industry is not embracing electronic measurement. They stated openly at the meeting that they have seen enough to be convinced that the diary is not accurate. They feel that if the radio industry does not move forward quickly that we will not be a credible media and not provide the accountability that the advertiser demands today. They also stated unanimously that if we go to a people meter world it will be a significant move and the net effect is that there will be more and larger spending in radio. They want to go deeper than the planned markets and they want it faster than the proposed roll out."

| See Who's Involved |


Radio turned up the heat for off-year candidates
Media Monitors took a close look at radio advertising patterns in the final week of the 2005 off-year vote, and found a relationship between buying radio and winning in the poll booth. The bigger radio buyers prevailed in two out of three races for political office, and carried the day in the matter of the California ballot initiatives. In New York City, Michael Bloomberg coasted to victory. According to Media Monitors, in the final week of the campaign, he ran 996 radio spots, compared to 143 by opponent Fernando Ferrer. John Corzine took the governor's mansion in New Jersey - - how much does he owe to the 504 radio spots he ran? Who knows - - but opponent Doug Forrester only bought 164. At least one opponents of the Arnold Schwarzenegger ballot props in California - - the "No on Prop. 75 Coalition" - - bought 1,713 ads, compared to 468 bought in favor of the initiatives, which went down at the polls. The exception to the radio rule was in the Virginia governor's race, where Jerry Kilgore lost despite buying 833 radio ads compared to Tim Kaine's 705. Media Monitors called the use of radio "extraordinarily high."

RBR observation: It's true that the bulk of political advertising seems to go to television - - you don't here radio group execs indulging in excessive hand-wringing about the loss of the political category during odd years the way TV execs do. But it shouldn't necessarily be that way. We are at ground zero in Virginia, and it is instructive that the difference between the radio volume of the two candidates wasn't that great. Also, it must be noted how Kaine used radio's greatest strength - - speed. We didn't hear very many Kaine ads in Northern Virginia until Kilgore launched a television ad about Kaine's stance on the death penalty, an ad so negative it actually made national headlines. Kaine immediately launched an oft-repeated radio retaliation, along with a television response. Conventional wisdom has it that this was a turning point in the race. Political operatives nationwide should note that radio was a key tool at one of the campaign's decisive moments.

Clear Channel Outdoor
IPO disappoints

The billboard business may be outgrowing radio and TV, but Wall Street was none too impressed with the spin-out of 10% of Clear Channel's outdoor advertising business. Rather than pricing in the projected range of 20-22 bucks (10/31/05 TVBR #213), the IPO of Clear Channel Outdoor managed to command only 18 bucks a share. Even then it looked for a while like the IPO would go bust. The stock, which trades as "CCO" on the NYSE, opened Friday at 17.75, but managed to claw its way back up above the offering price, even trading at one point as high as 19.05. It closed at 18.55 as investors who'd signed on to buy IPO shares breathed a sigh of relief.

RBR observation: Don't look for Goldman Sachs and the other firms involved in this IPO to tap the 5.25 million share greenshoe. 35 million shares of CCO seem to be quite enough for the market at this point.


4M per Senate seat bankrolled so far in 2005
33 seats in the US Senate are up for grabs in 2006, and in the first nine months of 2005, candidates for those seats have put 126.6M in the bank, averaging just a shade or two under 4M per seat. Democrats, with 42 announced candidates, have the lead thus far, 73.7M to 52.9M - - 43 Republicans have thrown their hats in the ring thus far. According the the Federal Election Commission, the Republicans have two more incumbents than do the Democrats running this time around. Incumbents have raised 90.4M of the total. Incumbents in the last comparable period, the first nine months of 2003, raised 65.6M. Among challengers, Democrats have pulled in 11.6M compared to 3.9M in 2003. Republican challengers have banked 8.5M, compared to 4.5M in 2003.

Time to cash out at XM?
XM Satellite Radio director George Haywood, who is the satellite radio company's biggest individual shareholder, has been trimming back his position this month. He sold nearly a million shares last week at prices ranging from 27.85 to 29.61. According to his SEC filing, that still leaves him with more than 5.3 million shares and another 2.8 million underlying the convertible notes that he owns. Haywood, who was a Lehman Brothers executive before going off to invest for his own account, accumulated a huge stake in XM when its stock and bonds were out of favor and before it actually launched its business. He joined the company's board of directors last year.

Reardon heading Tribune Broadcasting
John Reardon has gotten the nod to move up to President of Tribune Broadcasting, following last month's exit by Pat Mullen (10/10/05 RBR #198). Reardon had been one of two VPs that Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimons had praised in his Q3 conference call as providing "excellent leadership" for the broadcast group (10/14/05 RBR #202). He's now picked Reardon for the top job and John Vitanovec has also gotten a promotion, to Executive Vice President. Reardon had previously been regional VP for the Western and Southern regions and Vitanovec for the Central and Eastern divisions. "We have talented people and managers at each of Tribune's 26 television stations and across Tribune Broadcasting. The success of our stations is based on localism, and I look forward to helping them serve viewers and advertisers in all our markets," said Reardon. Tribune Broadcasting also owns one radio station, WGN-AM Chicago.


Adbiz©

Nets to chime in on Nielsen SAA debate
A group of broadcast networks led by NBC and including CBS, Fox, and the WB, this week reportedly plan to unveil an official response and DVR data presentation to media agencies' with their position on time-shifted TV audiences. In all likelihood, Nielsen's new Shifted Average Audience estimates (SAA) will be a major topic in the response as well. Most agencies have said ratings for programs recorded on DVR/PVRs should be deducted in their negotiations with the networks, that live ratings are the only currency. The networks are likely to say the opposite - - time-shifted viewing presents more opportunities to see advertisers' commercials. Indeed, SAAs include all subsequent playback instances of DVR-recorded shows.
| Read More... |

Audible to offer ad tool for podcasters
Audible, a clearinghouse for downloadable audio programs, announced it's rolling out a paid service for podcasters to track how many downloaders listen to a file and for how long. For an additional fee, Audible will insert ads into programs. "For the first time, podcasters will be able to accurately measure and monetize their audio content without significant infrastructure investments, allowing them to focus their resources and energy on creating superior audio programming," MarketWatch quoted the company as saying. Data collected by the AudibleWordcast service can be used by marketers to make decisions on whether to use podcasts. And while ads currently are a rarity, Audible's announcement comes as at least one major consumer products company reportedly is eyeing podcasting. Schering-Plough plans to promote a device on pet-friendly programs for finding lost animals, according to a Wall Street Journal report. "Our goal is to reach pet owners any way that we can," a spokeswoman told the newspaper. Audible plans to charge podcasters 5 cents per listener-download for its expanded service, which includes measurement of usage. It will charge an additional half cent per download if the podcaster wants an ad inserted, said ZDnet. Podcasters who want only to measure the number of downloads and not the usage of that download will be charged 3 cents per download, or 30 dollars per thousand. Advertisers will receive a podcast's aggregated information; no info on a particular user will be released.


Media Business Report
Where the sex is
In a report which came out last week, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 70% of all shows on television contain some kind of sexual content. But which shows? They answered that question too. And the answer is most. The leading category is partially imported to television from the theatrical cinema universe - - we'd guess it's not easy to fill 90-120 minutes without some kind of sexual reference, and the resulting statistic is that 92% of all movies shown of television include some kind of sexual reference. After that it's a dead heat between three categories: sitcoms (87%), drama series (also 87%) and soap operas (85%). News magazines (70%) and talk shows (67%) aren't that far behind. The safest category turns out to be reality programming, at a mere 28%. If MTV were responsible for content on broadcast TV, this most likely would not be the case, but sexual topics don't come up often on American Idol, or Wheel of Fortune, or Nightline - - the types of shows put into this category.


Media Markets & MoneyTM
EMF gets a stick in the middle of somewhere
Maranatha Church of Laredo is cashing out of a Texas CP, sending a buy-to-build project the way of rapidly-expanding Educational Media Foundation. The Gonzales TX stick-to-be, which is set as a Class A all the way at the bottom of the dial on 88.1 mHz, is being valued at 36K. EMF has loaned Maranatha that amount already, and will simply forgive the debt at closing. It does not appear that a Class A in Gonzales will effectively get into an established radio market, but it can't properly be described as being in the middle of nowhere, either. There are large markets on almost all sides. It is west of Houston, south of Austin and east of San Antonio. It's just not that close to any single one of them.


Washington Beat
Competing AM applicants decide to merge
Douglas M. Sutton's Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting Company decided to use AM Auction No. 84 to upgrade its WRGC-AM Sylva NC, in the mountainous far western sliver of the state. However, that turned out to be mutually exclusive with the plans of Charles M. Anderson's Anderson Communications LLC, which also had an Auction 84 plan involving a new station in Mascot TN, just east of Knoxville, and way too close for comfort as far as WRGC was concerned. The two companies chose to resolve the situation with an FCC Form 314. Pending FCC approval, the station will now be owned by 540 LLC, owned 50-50 by the hitherto competing applicants. The Sylva AM will get its upgrade, again pending FCC approval, and Anderson will have the Mascot application dismissed.


Programming
KITS goes Co-Op
With Howard Stern soon to broadcast his last show on Infinity's KITS-FM, "Live 105" has announced the three hosts who'll debut January 3rd in the morning slot. Woody, Tony & Ravey (all apparently born without surnames) will host the previously announced "Morning Music Co-Op." Infinity elected to expand KITS's Alternative format to mornings as Stern departs, while tapping KIFR-FM for the Free-FM format in San Francisco, with Adam Carolla in the morning slot (10/26/05 RBR #210).


Monday Morning Makers & Shakers

Transactions: 10/3/05-10/7/05
The latest plank in the Emmis television group sell-off provided the lion's share of station transaction value this week. Five relatively small radio transactions had only added up to 4M and change.

10/3/05-10/7/0

Total

Total Deals

6

AMs

2

FMs

4

TVs

9
Value
263.225M
| Complete Charts |
Radio Transactions of the Week
Citadel goes where the tusks are looser
| More...
|
TV Transactions of the Week
LIN scores big with Viacom spinners
| More...
|


Transactions
11.8M KRRK-FM Lake Havasu City AZ from Smoke and Mirrors LLC (Rick L. Murphy) to Superior Broadcasting of Lake Havasu LLC (Bruce Buzil, Christopher F. Devine). 6.3M down paymemt, balance in cash at closing. Duopoly with KVGS-FM Laughlin NV. [File date 10/19/05.]

1,302,910 FM CP Sarles MO; FM CP New England ND; FM CP Sargent NE; FM CP Overton NE; FM CP Coahoma TX; FM CP Newell IA; FM CP St. Regis MT; FM CP Valier MT; FM CP Eureka MT; FM CP Fagaitua AS; FM CP Idalia CO; FM CP Kotzebue AK; FM CP Prineville OR; and FM CP Bunker MO from World Radio Link Inc. (Earl Williamson) to Horizon Christian Fellowship (Michael MacIntosh et al). 650K deposit, 652,910 note, covering seller's FCC liability. Transfer of station CPs won during FM Auction 37. Entities are noncommercial. [File date 10/19/05.]


Stock Talk
News Corp., GM and Dell boost stocks
A media company figured in Friday's Wall Street advance, with traders cheering the better-than-expected results that News Corporation delivered after the market closed on Thursday. Also encouraging were a labor deal at General Motors and quarterly results from Dell that weren't as bad as expected. The Dow Industrials rose 46 points, or 0.4%, to 10,686.

Radio stocks didn't seem to benefit from the good news at News Corporation. The Radio Index slipped 0.934, or 0.5%, to 189.811. Fisher fell the most, 3%. SBS dropped 2.2%. Big media companies were up, along with News Corp., which was up 1.9% (and owns no radio stations). Disney rose 0.6% and Viacom was up 0.8%.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Friday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

37.78

-0.22

Jeff-Pilot

JP

54.85

+0.60

Beasley

BBGI

14.02

+0.29

Journal Comm.

JRN

14.10

-0.07

Citadel CDL
13.68 -0.10

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

10.69

-0.04

Clear Channel

CCU

31.54

-0.08

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

10.69

-0.04

Cox Radio

CXR

15.00

-0.10

Regent

RGCI

5.09

-0.04

Cumulus

CMLS

11.50

-0.03

Saga Commun.

SGA

12.70

-0.25

Disney

DIS

25.86

+0.15

Salem Comm.

SALM

19.02

-0.35

Emmis

EMMS

19.45

-0.02

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

7.00

+0.03

Entercom

ETM

31.30

+0.05

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

5.80

-0.13

Entravision

EVC

7.94

+0.04

Univision

UVN

30.04

+0.23

Fisher

FSCI

47.06

-1.45

Viacom, Cl. A

VIA

33.06

+0.25

Gaylord

GET

42.10

+0.10

Viacom, Cl. B

VIAb

33.00

+0.25

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

23.90

-0.01

Westwood One

WON

17.36

-0.08

Interep

IREP

0.40

-0.01

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

28.49

+0.11

International Bcg.

IBCS

0.01

unch

-

-

-

-

-



Bounceback

Send Us Your OpinionsWe want to
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a photo to [email protected]

More on Howard Stern...

Would any station owner be silent about a talent who was able to talk about going to the competition for whole year? Let a talent extol the supposed virtues of a competitor for a lengthy period of time... on his present station? If Stern is doing this to Infinity now... what will he do to Sirius if something better comes along? Clearly, Stern isn't showing any kind of class not being able to bow out gracefully.

Paul Lancaster
KSED-FM/KWMX-FM/KFLX-FM
Flagstaff, AZ


Below the Fold

Media Business Report
Where the sex is
70% of all shows on television contain some kind of sexual content. But which shows? ...

Shakers & Makers
Radio
A moving proposition for AGM...
Television
Another chunk of Emmis moves...

Ad Biz
Nets to chime in on
Nielsen SAA debate
group of broadcast networks led by NBC plan to unveil an official response and DVR data presentation...

Washington Beat
Competing AM applicants
decide to merge
Decided to use AM Auction No. 84 to upgrade...


Radio Media Moves

Lewicki gets to
count the cash

The Board of Directors of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association has elected Allen L. Lewicki as treasurer. Lewicki is Director of Operations for WAWZ-FM Zarepath (Middlesex-Somerset-Union), a position he's held for only 21 years.


Stations for Sale

NYC Prime Radio
Time for Lease

7 days a week available p/t-f/t Business, Foreign language, religious, Health, Infomercials accepted. 212-769-1925 [email protected]
TV & Satellite time also available. Station Inquiries welcome

NEast Facilities
Small City 25kw FM, Profitable, Canadian border area, nice facility, good upside @$595K. Top 100 mkt AM daytimer, Low dial position,
low expenses, good pop coverage, stick @$495K
[email protected]
or 781-848-4201


More News Headlines

Subpoenas for everyone!
From what's known about New York Attorney General Eliot ("I want to be Governor real bad") Spitzer's payola probe, pretty much every company with radio stations of any significance in the Empire State has been served with a subpoena - - at least, it appears, every station that reports its playlist to either R&R or Billboard. Cumulus Media is just the latest to disclose in its quarterly filing with the SEC that it has been covered by Spitzer's wide net. "In August 2005, we received a subpoena from the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, as have some of the other radio broadcasting companies operating in the State of New York. The subpoenas were issued in connection with the New York Attorney General's investigation of record company promotional practices. We are fully cooperating with this subpoena," Cumulus reported.

1.25M for tornado relief
Last week's joint radio/TV/cable telethon (11/10/05 RBR #221) raised 1.25 million bucks to provide relief to victims of the tornado that ripped through the Evansville, IN area on November 6th, killing 23 people and destroying hundreds of homes. Wednesday's all-day fundraiser began with morning drive radio and TV newscasts and culminated in a two-hour live telethon simulcast on all of the stations: WFIE (Ch. 14, NBC), WTVW (Ch. 7, Fox), WAZE (Ch. 19, WB), WNIN (Ch. 9, PBS), the five radio stations of SouthCentral Communications and cable operator Insight Communications. The relief will be distributed by the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Radio America
holding gala 20th anniversary bash

Radio America, the DC-based conservative net, is marking its 20th anniversary with a gala celebration 11/30 at Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington. Dozens of Senators and Representatives will be in attendance. The network was founded in 1985 by Radio America President Jim Roberts. Radio America talent includes Mike Reagan, G. Gordon Liddy, Alan Nathan and Doug Stephan. Reagan will be broadcasting live from the event.






November RBR/TVBR Digital Magazine

Media Markets & Money
Behind the Emmis sales:
You've seen the deal announcements for one of the the biggest group sales in several years for TV . But what do they mean for station trading going forward? RBR/TVBR sorts out the buyers and analyzes the multiples, other pricing factors and strategies behind the deal.


Read RBR/TVBR in 2 simple steps:
1.Create a simple account with Zinio and download the Zinio Reader.
2. You can then download the
November Issue of RBR/TVBR


RBR Radar 2005
Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

ABC Radio bidding in final phase
The Walt Disney Company had already indicated that it would have a decision by around Thanksgiving on whether or not it would sell ABC Radio, so it's clearly time to get down to the nitty gritty. RBR observation: This could end up even being more complicated than you imagine. In addition to the tax-avoiding structure of any deal, we hear that Disney is also considering some swap options with other radio owners that could give the merged entity bigger clusters in some markets, while exiting others.
11/11/05 RBR #222

CBS's Poltrack:
VOD market worth 5 billion
It pretty much happened all at once - - VOD content deals everywhere and more mainstream media channels going online. AOL.com will feature CBSnews.com content and video on its home page. Microsoft's MSN and the Associated Press announced a partnership to develop an online video network that will stream video news feeds to sites that subscribe to AP's wire service. RBR observation: May '04 RBR warned of iPods and now look at the new iPod video. Also warned this past January when we covered the NATPE that VOD was coming fast and again here it is in your face. So, now what are Radio and TV head honchos going to do about it at the local level? It is like the oxygen is being sucked out of the room.
11/11/05 RBR #222


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