Volume 20, Issue 226, Jim Carnegie, Publisher
Tuesday Morning November 18th, 2003

Radio News ®

RBR Exclusive
Steve Shaw: Why he did it
It was like a re-enactment from the scene in "Jerry McGuire" - - except that this time the whole staff said yes, we will go with you. More than 130 staffers at Katz Radio Group left with their President, Steve Shaw, when he announced that he was leaving to start new rep companies at Interep, along with his top two associates - - Mark Gray, formerly President of Katz Radio, and Tucker Flood, formerly President of Christal Radio. In an exclusive interview with RBR, Steve Shaw explained why he led the mass exodus. | Full Story Click Here |

Katz exodus was unanimous
Katz Media Group confirmed Monday that the defection of Katz and Christal staffers on Friday was complete. Although the rep firms had 58 managers and sellers working Monday as CEO Stu Olds said over the weekend would be the case, not one of them had been working for Katz/Christal last week. | Full Story Click Here |

Clear Channel weathers Katz fallout
Katz Media Group is such a small part of Clear Channel that it is reported on the "other" line in financial reports, so Wall Street analysts say Friday's defection of 130+ Katz Radio Group managers and employees to Interep will have little impact financially on Clear Channel. Its stock was down 0.6% again Monday after falling 2.3% Friday, while Interep was up 20.4% Monday after gaining 74% on Friday. | Full Story Click Here |



Susquehanna sees rep reshuffling as "a positive"
The Q3 cycle of Wall Street conference calls was essentially over when news hit Friday of a mass defection of employees from Clear Channel's Katz Radio Group to Interep, so analysts weren't able to quiz most companies about the rep shakeup.
| Full Story Click Here
|

Rush returns!
Premiere Radio Networks' Rush Limbaugh returned to the airwaves, good as new, after a five-week absence to get treatment for his prescription medication addiction. He also assured listeners that while he had gone through a lot of personal soul searching, there had been no change in his political views. | Full Story Click Here |

Gallup trots out a Rush rating
As any radio professional will tell you, narrowcasting is the name of the game, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that the universal love and respect Rush Limbaugh enjoys among his own special universe - - the one composed of Dittoheads - - is not parallel to the US population as a whole. Only a little over a third of all Americans polled by Gallup hold a favorable opinion of the conservative talkmeister.
| Full Story Click Here
|


RBR News Analysis

Are you being served?
That's the question many radio group heads are trying to answer. Should they stay with Katz or Christal, where may have had their national rep business for many years, or should they follow the people who have actually been repping their stations to new entities at Interep? | Full Story Click Here |


Conference Calls, Q3 2003

Susquehanna radio revenues up 2%
The radio industry, according to RAB, saw revenues rise 2% in Q3 - - and so did Susquehanna Radio. Total radio revenues were up 4% to $61.7M, but Susquehanna Media CEO Peter Brubaker told analysts that same-station results matched the industry at 2%. | Full Story Click Here |

Revenues up double-digits
at Radio Unica
Even while awaiting the sale of its entire station group to Multicultural Radio Broadcasting for $150M as part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy (10/7 RBR Daily Epaper #196), Radio Unica managed to boost revenues 11% in Q3 to $13.3M. The company's EBITDA loss ballooned to $2.1M for the quarter, compared to positive EBITDA of $40K a year earlier. However, the company said that was mainly the result of financial advisory, legal and restructuring fees of $3.1M. So, without those, it appears the company would have had positive EBITDA of about $1M. Alas, that improvement comes too late to save Radio Unica, which had to sell its O&O stations to keep from defaulting on its public bonds. The company's latest SEC filing says it is still trying to sell its Spanish Talk network and its MASS Promotions unit.


Adbiz ©

More agency response
over Katz flight to Interep
Rich Russo, JL Media's Director of Broadcast Services, comments on the latest news (from last weekend) that top Katz execs Steve Shaw, Tucker Flood and Mark Gray have defected to Interep: "Well, I guess the rumors of Interep's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Good for Ralph Guild for pulling this together, this is brilliant and in effect sets up another 'Clear Channel vs. the World' battle. RBR observation: What a game to watch! | Full Story Click Here | RBR Observation |

TNS Media Intelligence/CMR
expands coverage of the
Hispanic marketplace
In response to the growing need for increasingly comprehensive media intelligence on Hispanic advertising, TNS Media Intelligence/CMR has expanded its coverage of Spanish Language media. | Full Story Click Here |

Philadelphia launches nation's largest gay tourism effort
PNN Online reports Philadelphia is pursuing its share of the $54.1B gay and lesbian travel market with a three-year tourism marketing campaign launched today by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC). The $300K campaign will focus on U.S. and Canadian markets. | Full Story Click Here |


Media, Markets & Money tm

Pizza dough buys Ft. Myers-Naples station
Dominoes Pizza mogul Thomas Monaghan has picked up a radio station for the new Catholic university that he's build in Naples, FL. For $4.9M, WNWR-FM is going to become the voice of Ave Maria University. Austin Walsh of Media Services Group handled the sale for Bel Meade Broadcasting, owned by Van Archer.
RBR observation: Like other stations owned in recent years by Archer, a San Antonio attorney, WNWR had been in a JSA with Clear Channel. The Class C3 station on 98.5 mHz had been Smooth Jazz, but Clear Channel's website currently lists the format as News. WNWR is licensed to San Carlos Park, FL. Archer bought the station two years ago for $2.5M, so he's nearly doubling his investment.

Cluster remuster: Big Island deal reinstated
Alert reader Dan Alpert of the Law Office of Dan J. Alpert has informed us of a slight error in our Monday edition (11/17 RBR Daily Epaper #225). In short, the multi-station deal we reported as dismissed between Big Island Radio and Pacific Radio Group was not dismissed at all. Well, it was dismissed, inadvertently, but the FCC has already corrected the error and restored the greater part of the deal to pending status. What was dismissed, by request, was the sale of KIPA-AM, which is being sold by Big Island to a third party, and is no longer part of the larger cluster deal. We regret any inconvenience or consternation this error may have caused.


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Washington Beat

Minette man? Station hit with double fine
The Federal Aviation Administration doesn't like when stations fail to register their towers with the FCC. And the FCC doesn't like it when EAS equipment is on the blink. At Southern Media Communications' WCBA-AM Bay Minette AL, both problems existed. An FCC field agent came across the tower problem 8/22/02. As of 9/3/03, the tower still had not been registered. During the same visit, the agent noted that, although EAS was installed and plugged in, it didn't work, nor was there any indication that the station had successfully tested the equipment for at least a year prior. Total damages to the fined station are $11K. Despite its nautical-sounding name, Bay Minette is some distance inland to the northeast of Mobile.

Moving party at WPYO-FM
Cox Radio has gotten the FCC's permission to upgrade and move on of its Florida stations. The prize: a bigger chunk of the Orlando metropolitan area. A compliant co-channel station is helping make the move possible.
| Full Story Click Here
|

Saga goes for the Pickerington of the litter
Not all Lancasters are created equal. The one in Pennsylvania is an Arbitron market; the one in Ohio is not. Perhaps that's why Saga is keen to get one of its stations out of Lancaster OH in search of greener pastures, or perhaps pastures which provide more advertising green for the station's sales staff to tap into. | Full Story Click Here |


Engineered for Profit

Clear Channel bids farewell to Al Kenyon
Clear Channel has let VP/Technology Al Kenyon go, following the successful completion of a series of major projects. However, at 53, Kenyon is nowhere near retiring. Remember, Kenyon and ex-Clear Channel Radio CEO and current Clear Channel New Technologies Division CEO Randy Michaels go way back as college roommates. They both worked at then-carrier current WCVF-AM Fredonia, NY (Fredonia State College). Ironically, Randy was the CE of the station and Kenyon was the GM.
| Full Story Click Here
|


Transactions

$850,000 KGVM-FM Gardnersville-Minden NV from Carson Valley Radio Inc. to Jerry Evans.

$130,000 KZPN-FM Bayside CA from Community of Humboldt Educational Enhancement Radio Service to JPR Foundation Inc.

N/A WGBF-AM/WJLT-FM, WDKS-FM, WGBF-FM & WYNG-FM Evansville IN (Evansville, Newburgh, both IN, Henderson KY & Mt. Carmel IL) from Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses to Regent Broadcasting of Evansville/Owensboro Inc.

| More Details Click Here
|


Stock Talk

Terror worries send stocks lower
Renewed fears of terrorist attacks sent stock prices down on Monday. And it didn't help that Toys R Us issued a gloomy outlook for Q4, along with saying it was closing its Kids R Us clothing stores. The Dow Industrials fell 58 points, or 0.6%, to 9,711.

Radio stocks were mostly lower as well. The Radio Index slumped 2.476, or 1%, to 251.178. Interep had another good day, up 20.4% in a second day of gains on Friday's announcement that many Katz staffers had jumped to Interep. Katz owner Clear Channel was down again, slipping 0.6%. The day's biggest decliner was Entravision, down 4% after rising 4.2% Friday on a strong Q3 earnings report. Easy come, easy go.

Satellite radio stocks were off. XM fell 4% and Sirius 3.6%.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Monday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change
Arbitron

ARB

$41.40

-$0.33

Jeff-Pilot

JP

$47.18

+$0.30

Beasley

BBGI

$14.33

-$0.10

Journal Comm.

JRN

$17.98

+$0.30

Big City YFM $1.34

unch

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

$16.33

-$0.42

Citadel CDL $19.00 -$0.13

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

$16.27

-$0.30

Clear Channel

CCU

$40.88

-$0.26

Radio Unica

UNCA

$0.66

unch

Cox Radio

CXR

$21.51

-$0.01

Regent

RGCI

$6.00

+$0.01

Cumulus

CMLS

$17.90

-$0.09

Saga Commun.

SGA

$17.47

-$0.33

Disney

DIS

$23.03

-$0.04

Salem Comm.

SALM

$23.25

-$0.10

Emmis

EMMS

$21.54

-$0.16

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

$2.15

-$0.08

Entercom

ETM

$45.85

-$0.62

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

$9.54

-$0.03

Entravision

EVC

$10.18

-$0.42

Univision

UVN

$34.35

-$0.03

Fisher

FSCI

$47.95

-$0.77

Viacom, Cl. A

VIA

$37.99

+$0.11

Gaylord

GET

$27.61

-$0.02

Viacom, Cl. B

VIAb

$37.89

+$0.14

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

$24.74

-$0.14

Westwood One

WON

$30.36

-$0.10

Interep

IREP

$3.25

+$0.55

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

$21.97

-$0.92

International Bcg.

IBCS

$0.02

+$0.01

- - - -

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Upped & Tapped

Andrew Kalb upped at ABC News Radio
Andrew Kalb has been promoted to director, news programming of ABC News Radio, Steve Jones, VP/GM of radio for ABC News, announced. In his new role, Kalb will have direct oversight of newscasts and programming, will manage the anchor staff and continue overseeing the affiliate services unit.

Lankford upped
in Akron
Clear Channel Radio has promoted Dan Lankford to VP/Market Manager of its three-station Akron, OH cluster. He had been GSM there.


More News Headlines

Stations for Sale

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RBR Exclusive
The demise of Clear Channel
in the rep business was devised
over 1-1/2 yrs. ago

As told to RBR/TVBR Publisher Jim Carnegie by Interep Chairman/CEO Ralph Guild Sunday afternoon (11/16/03 2:20pm) that the plan unveiled last Friday with Steve Shaw, Tucker Flood and Mark Gray leaving Katz Radio Group (Katz and Christal) to form a new rep firm and secure the client base from the grips of Clear Channel Communications was initially devised by Katz Media CEO Stu Olds 1-1/2 years ago.
11/17/03 RBR #225

Days of thunder roll over rep business; Katz Radio and Christal Radio, where are you?
Early Friday morning (11/14/03) Steve Shaw, Tucker Flood and Mark Gray - - the three top executives at Katz Radio Group - - resigned and walked across the street to Interep
11/17/03 RBR #225

RBR Exclusive
Old responds to ugly mess
via email to all clients

RBR received a copy courtesty of Stu Olds of the letter sent to client stations. This was sent out last night outlining details of what happened and were Katz is going forward. “Regrettably, those individuals lied and misled their employees about the very nature of their employment. They told their staff that because management was leaving, the Katz Radio Group would no longer exist and therefore they would be on the street with no job or health insurance.” 11/17/03 RBR #225

RBR Exclusive
Citadel returns to Interep
No Contract with Katz? Yep, even though Citadel is being represented by Katz for the past few weeks since leaving Interep (10/2 RBR Daily Epaper #193), according to various key sources close to the situation Citadel has not yet signed a contract. RBR observation: Better look out for your own station. 11/17/03 RBR #225

Liggins expects wide acceptance
for TV One
More details are being filled in as Radio One and Comcast prepare for January's launch of TV One. RBR observation: We see a trend.
11/14/03 RBR #224

Bear-Stearns:
Rewriting before it's history?
It's one thing to rewrite history. The FCC, however, may be in the odd position of rewriting history that hasn't been made yet. That's because the myriad challenges to its historic (pending) ruling on broadcast ownership regulations is under so many challenges, that by the time everything is settled, it'll have been forced in its own right to settle into its next biennial review! RBR observation: Not again - - so soon! 11/14/03 RBR #224

NBC pulling Pax investment
Paxson Communications says NBC has exercised its right to redeem, for about $550M in cash, all of NBC's investment in Paxson's convertible exchangeable preferred stock. So, it appears that NBC won't be acquiring Paxson, regardless of whether FCC rules would ever permit the combination - - and that's just fine with Paxson, which has already been looking for another buyer.
11/14/03 TVBR #224

Radio One still pushing its reps
Three months after RBR broke the story that Radio One was calling its national reps on the carpet to demand better performance, the radio group says there's been some improvement, but it's not yet satisfied. COO Mary Catherine Sneed says talks are ongoing with both Interep and Katz, since Radio One has its stations split between the two rep firms.
11/13/03 RBR #223


Broadcasting continues to be an expanding universe
They say the universe is expanding, and that's certainly true of the American broadcasting part of it. In particular, a mini-surge in FM construction more than made up for the loss of yet another AM station. 11/13/03 RBR #223

Mixed results from
early October reports

A couple of TV groups associated with newspaper chains have reported on October revenues, but the information doesn't provide a clear trend - - except that revenues were down this year, absent last year's political spending. TVBR observation: The good and bad of political. 11/13/03 TVBR #223

Analyze this: Battle of the ...steins
Financial analysts from CIBC (Jason Helfstein) and Goldman Sachs (Richard Rosenstein) have taken their magnifying glasses to the recently-released RAB radio revenue figures and come up with some comments. 11/12/03 RBR #222

Dereg uncertainty stalls dealmaking
It seems the only thing worse than dealing with government regulations is trying to deal with uncertainty about government regulations. Group owners may find it frustrating to deal with the battles being fought out in court and on Capitol Hill over the FCC's June 2 attempt at new ownership rules, the situation is even worse for TV groups. RBR observation: Not knowing is the worst situation. 11/12/03 RBR #222


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