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Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 22, Issue 230, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Wednesday Morning November 23rd, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving from RBR!
In observance of the holiday, RBR will return Monday the 28th.
The staff here at RBR/TVBR wish you and yours the best of Thanksgivings. Have a safe and happy holiday.

Radio News®

Warner Music settles
with Spitzer for 5 million

Warner Music Group has agreed to settle for five million dollars a payola probe with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer investigating the company's practice of paying stations and their employees to play WMG artists. Warner also agreed to make full disclosure of all items of value provided to stations. The five million will be distributed by the state of New York to nonprofit corporations. The payments, Spitzer's office said, included direct bribes paid to PDs; payments to the stations to buy airtime or to cover the operating expenses; contest giveaways for stations' listening audiences, including flyaways, concert tickets, iPods, gift certificates and gift cards; hiring independent promoters to act as conduits for illegal payments to radio stations; and purchasing "spin programs" to artificially increase the airplay of particular recordings. "Warner is the second major player in the music industry to come forward and acknowledge that these practices are wrong," Spitzer said. "Unfortunately, other companies continue to engage in them. I applaud Warner's decision to halt this conduct, cooperate fully with my office, and adopt new business practices." The other player was the deal reached earlier this year between Spitzer and Sony BMG Music (7/26/05 RBR #145), which agreed to a 10 million dollar settlement. Spitzer's office is also pursuing similar claims at EMI Group and Universal Music Group.

After the Sony settlement, Warner had already implemented some of the actions Spitzer required of Sony, like hiring a compliance officer to monitor possible payola violations. Said Warner Music said in a statement: "The reforms we have agreed to with the Attorney General are consistent with the internal reforms that our new management team implemented earlier this year...We consider this to have been a valuable process. From our perspective, radio cannot be too consumer-driven. The music that people hear on the radio always should represent the highest quality the industry has to offer." FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the settlement "adds more dirt to the mountain of evidence that payola is pervasive in the music business...This agreement once again raises serious concerns that not only has New York State law been violated, but Federal law under the FCC's jurisdiction, as well. The FCC needs to act on this evidence and conclude as soon as possible the investigation we are now undertaking." On August 8, 2005, the FCC launched its own investigation into music industry payola practices.

RBR observation: From the WMG statement: "The music that people hear on the radio always should represent the highest quality the industry has to offer." Indeed, the last thing radio needs now is artificial playlists with songs in rotation pumped up by label dollars. PDs, MDs, etc. should be free and unhindered in picking the best music from any label and from any group or musician they choose. Their goal is to keep the listeners happy and tuned in. When music is played over and over that maybe shouldn't have even made it on the playlist, listeners are all the more likely to reach for their iPods.

Viacom gives its
split boards some direction

Seven independent directors have been named to the boards of the soon-to-be divided Viacom Inc. The group will bring widely diversified backgrounds to the companies, with four headed to Les Moonves' CBS Corporation and three to Tom Freston's Viacom. Meanwhile, Viacom uberhoncho Sumner Redstone told Reuters that the company had no plans to buy anything just now, even though people are pitching proposals from all angles. He essentially said the new companies are being seen as well-heeled start-ups ripe for expansion. However, its possible there may actually be spin-offs. The tortoise/hare split puts the slow and steady radio and TV operations under CBS Corp. and Les Moonves, and there, smaller radio stations may be put on the block. The new directors at CBS will be Charles K. Gifford of Bank of America, NAACP's Bruce S. Gordon, Ann N. Reese of the Center for Adoption Policy, and Transora Inc.'s Judith A. Sprieser. Already aboard at the CBS side are David R. Andelman, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., William S. Cohen, Philippe P. Dauman, Leslie Moonves and Robert D. Walter. The hare side of the split, comprised of cable and film interests, is Viacom. It's new directors are Thomas E. Dooley of DND Capital Partners, American Museum of Natural History's Ellen V. Futter and Robert K. Kraft of The Kraft Group. They join George S. Abrams, Philippe P. Dauman, Tom Freston, Alan C. Greenberg, Charles E. Phillips, Jr., Frederic V. Salerno and William Schwartz. Sumner Redstone is chair of both; Shari Redstone is non-executive vice chair.


Commerce sheds light on communications schedule
Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) have provided some of the details on its blockbuster "Open Forum on Decency" scheduled for later this month, and also nailed down a wide-ranging schedule of communications-related hearing which will carry clear through the middle of March 2006. The forum, slated for 11/29/05, will be an all-day affair, running from 9:30 AM-5:00 PM. 14 different companies and organizations are expected to send representatives, a number which the committee says is has potential to increase. On board so far are ABC, American Cable Association, Christian Coalition of America, Creative Coalition, Clear Channel, Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, FCC, MPAA, NAB, NCTA, PSV Ratings, Trinity Broadcasting Network, TV Watch and XM Satellite Radio. Next year, the Committee will be holding 14 hearings on communications issues on 10 different days, frequently doubling up with separate AM and PM sessions. Of particular interest to broadcasters will be another session on decency (and one on Internet pornography), kicking off the schedule 1/19/06. Other topics include video franchising and content, competition and convergence, the broadcast and audio flag, and others.

RBR observation: Notably absent on the list of guest for the 11/29/05 Decency Forum is the Parents Television Council. We cannot remember a recent Capitol Hill session on decency without PTC's Brent Bozell - - he certainly has more frequent testifier miles than anyone else in America on this topic. We strongly suspect he'll be one of the additions to the list. Two more points: The presence of another decency session on the January schedule would seem to indicate that for the second year in a row, the proposed major increase in fines for those found guilty of indecency will not make it into law, which is amazing since it's very hard to find anyone on either side of the aisle who will admit to being against it. We'd say it's a sign that it's easier to say it than to legislate it. Also, it's only been a few days since Russ Feingold (D-WI) brought forth his anti-payola and radio/concert bill, but so far, it is not on the Commerce schedule.
| Here's the Committee's announced 2006 sked |

Roberts open to electronic
SCOTUS coverage

Radio Television News Directors President Barbara Cochran has gotten feedback for the new Chief Justice at the Supreme Court of the United States. John Roberts confessed a willingness to work with RTNDA in the event the panel "...the Court explores the idea of opening its proceedings to electronic coverage." Said Cochran, "I see this as a positive sign. And I am encouraged that the Chief Justice, at the urging of C-Span, also agreed to release audio tapes immediately after the oral arguments in two upcoming cases, one on abortion rights and parental notification, and the other on military recruiting on college campuses. These are great developments for those of us who believe that the public should be privy to the decisions of the judicial branch of government." Although the presence of electronic gear in the high court has been met with extreme skepticism from some of the justice, especially David Souter (who says it'll only happen over his dead body), Roberts seemed open to the idea prior to his confirmation to the bench by the Senate. Asked about it when being shepherded through the process, he noted he hadn't formulated a solid opinion on the matter, but that his adviser at that time, former actor and Senator Fred Thompson had assured him that the cameras and mics would not bite.

Conference Board:
Consumers will be looking for bargains this season

American households are expected to spend an average of 466 dollars on gifts during the holiday season, down moderately from last year's estimate of 476 dollars, says The Conference Board's latest report. This survey of holiday gift spending intentions covers a nationally representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. It was conducted for The Conference Board in November by TNS, the world's largest custom research company.
| Read More... |


Adbiz©

Christmas wishes abound
For our December RBR/TVBR Solutions magazine, we took a quick survey across the industry on what some execs would wish for from the Media Claus this year. We invited serious answers, humorous answers and a combination of both. Said Pat McNew, PHD EVP/Local Media Network (LMN) Director of Operations:

"I'd like favorite radio stations to stop carrying syndicated programming on weekends which bears no resemblance to their regularly-scheduled formats. Who cares about Wally's Workshop? Or, who cares about second-string wannabes trying to make it on the airways? The weekends are a great time for radio to reach key marketing and advertising executives in the car with their best programming. I'd like television stations to really invest in branding their product. Enough with the channel number efforts. Seven Stands for News except when it's on Thirteen? Or in a digital world One Thirty Two?"

Merial suit stops Bayer campaign
A federal court has signed a consent judgment ordering Bayer to permanently stop using a campaign that falsely claimed its product was clinically proven to be superior to Merial's FRONTLINE Plus flea and tick control product. The consent order resulted from a lawsuit initiated by Merial. Bayer now concedes the study it relied upon did not support its claims of test-proven superiority. The federal court had previously issued a temporary order restraining Bayer from using these same promotional materials and advertising campaign. The federal court consent order also requires Bayer to correct these errors in a letter of apology to the recipients of the misleading materials, including all of the attendees of the AVMA, CVC, and Wild West veterinary conferences and all of the subscribers of September issues of DVM, Veterinary Forum, Veterinary Economics, and Veterinary Technician. In the letter, Bayer admits the advertising claims were incorrect, regrets they were used in promotional materials and apologizes for its errors.

Spot Ten Christmas radio advertisers '04
Media Monitors released its 2nd Annual Christmas Radio Report, which tracks songs and commercials played on 50 all-Christmas stations in the top 50 markets between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, 2004. Here, they list advertisers that supported full time, all-Christmas radio stations in 2004. The most-played radio commercials were for holiday shopping destinations, the exceptions being Geico auto insurance and Kroger grocery stores. The Media Monitors analysis shows that 60% of the ten top sponsors advertising on a full-time Christmas station in 2004 continued to advertise on those same stations at various times during the subsequent ten months of 2005. For example, in January 2005, four of the ten were still advertising: Home Depot (#1), Geico (#3), Verizon (#5), and Kroger (#9). Even last June, two of the top holiday advertisers were still on those stations: Geico (#1) and Kohl's (#4). And right up to the present, in October, four advertisers were still using those same formerly-Christmas stations heavily in their ad buys: Kohl's (#2), Home Depot (#3), Geico (#4) and Toys R Us (#5). What format did those former-Christmas stations change to after the holidays? Of the 50 all-Christmas stations we tracked in top US markets, 42 of them are currently airing some form of Adult Contemporary (including Mainstream A/C, Hot A/C and Soft A/C, and four Christian A/C); three are Oldies, three are Adult Standards, one is now CHR/Rhythmic and another is Spanish Oldies today.


Media Business Report
Digital mall screens will be silent
CC Outdoor has relived our concerns yesterday regarding obtrusive sound coming from many digital video monitors in public areas these days (11/22 TVBR #229): The Clear Channel Digital Mall Network screens have no sound at all, says a CC spokesperson. All entertainment and messaging will be left to the visual realm, with no plans to add audio. Strange, because a local mall in Woodbridge, VA (Potomac Mills) has had these types of screens with audio some five years ago. Perhaps the volume issue was a factor in CC's decision to make them silent.


Media Markets & MoneyTM
Will Wicks promotions keep company in the Black?
At least one of two roster upgrades will certainly do so, on paper, in a way. The investment company, with a hand in radio, television, cable distribution and other media related ventures, has promoted two principals - - Daniel L. Black and Jamie Weston - - up to partner. Among Black's areas of focus are cable television and other media investments. Weston's list of areas includes radio and television broadcasting and outdoor advertising. Wicks backs operating companies in a number of media. Wicks Television and radio group Wilks Broadcasting are among the active investments in the company's portfolio.


Washington Beat
NAB fines against LPAM
The National Association is perplexed. A group proposing a new low power AM service "...fails to illustrate how the proposed service is technically feasible." The prospects of such a service, it argues, was thoroughly shot down during the run-up to establishment of the low power FM service. The AM band was deemed a "poor choice" for a similar service. "The Petition provides no data or analysis to explain why LPAM is any more technically feasible now than it was five years ago." Rather, all it does, in NAN's estimation, is threaten efforts already underway to "clean up and improve the AM band." Channel congestion and interference are acknowledged problems already, without adding more clutter. NAB concludes, "Moreover, it would be particularly unwise to explore LPAM at this moment in time, when the transition to digital radio is just getting underway."


Programming
ABC News Radio' Aaron Katersky to Spend Thanksgiving with troops in Baghdad
ABC News Radio Correspondent Aaron Katersky has begun a week with troops in Iraq which includes spending Thanksgiving with U.S. soldiers at Camp Victory/Camp Liberty in Baghdad. Katersky began his embed with a helicopter trip from the Green Zone in Baghdad, where U.S. officials and the Iraqi interim government are headquartered, to link up with the 10th Mountain Division based at Camp Liberty.

Drive listenership among
those trying to drive

While many are deciding which bottle to open with their Thanksgiving turkey, others may well still be trying to negotiate traffic bottlenecks in an effort to simply make it to the table. Traffic specialist Metro Networks has put together its top ten list - - the confluences of concrete most likely to be hopelessly snarled as drivers wend their way to Grandma's house. Smart radio stations may want to make a play for this captive audience, if the snag is within your station's contour. As you'd expect, the list is heavily reminiscent of the tip-top of the Arbitron market ranking list, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadephia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Washington, Atlanta and Detroit - - with an honorable mention for Miami. Metro Networks is a subsidiary of Westwood One.
| Read Metro Network's bottleneck descriptions |


Ratings & Research
October Webcast Metrics Ratings released
Ando Media released its monthly Internet Radio Top 20, a listing of the top-performing Internet radio stations and networks measured by the Webcast Metrics audience measurement platform. October changes of significance include Digitally Imported Radio (di.fm) which registered a 20% gain from September listeners and WBLS which registered a 35% gain from September listeners.
| See the charts here |

TV a prime info source for Hispanic Americans
According to the results of the recent GfK NOP Hispanic Media and Entertainment study, Hispanic Americans are two to three times more likely than the general population to turn to television as their primary source for entertainment-related information. 64% said they rely on television to learn about new movies coming to theaters, and 48% said they turn to TV to learn about upcoming concerts and sporting events, says The Center for Media Research.
| Read More... |


Engineering
Dielectric and Nexstar sign preferred customer agreement
Dielectric Communications has signed a preferred customer agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting where Dielectric will serve as Nexstar's preferred supplier of antennas and transmission line for the company's stations nationwide. Dielectric currently has the largest installed base of DTV and NTSC antennas worldwide.


TVBR - TV News
Brightcove gets
16.2M in funding

Just more evidence of the big move of television content to the Internet in a broadband world: Brightcove, an Internet TV platform provider, has scored investors Time Warner, IAC/InterActive, Hearst, and Allen & Company with 16.2 million in a second round of financing, along with a distribution deal with AOL. Boston-based Brightcove's fwirst-round investment of 5.5 million brings the total to 21.7 million. Brightcove offers a platform that enables programmers, independent video content publishers, and large media companies and broadcasters to build businesses around video. Using the company's tools, content owners are able to brand and customize Macromedia Flash players and then sell the content and incorporate advertising, reported Red Herring. Brightcove and AOL plan to market a co-branded version of the Brightcove service as a self-service platform for publishing video on AOL.com. "America Online's partnership and investment with Brightcove builds on AOL's existing, industry-leading video offering," said AOL CEO Jonathan Miller. "By working with Brightcove, AOL is taking another important step forward in rounding out our video offerings, providing consumers with a more robust and complete menu to choose from." The Brightcove partnership adds to AOL's In2TV initiative (11/15 TBVR #224), which offer full-length streaming episodes from series such as Welcome Back Kotter, Sisters, Beetlejuice, Lois & Clark, La Femme Nikita and Growing Pains--free and on-demand.

TVBR observation: Remember also, NBC Universal just announced the Trio cable channel (the arts and popular culture) will go dark on New Year's Day and move to the Internet. We expect more announcements along those lines-the distribution expense is so much cheaper over the net and no worries about getting carriage agreements. As Sarah Fay, President of Isobar U.S., told us in December's RBR/TVBR Solutions Magazine, Brightcove is one important company. We asked: What can traditional media do with its content to successfully migrate to and capitalize on, digital? "Traditional media companies have a very big opportunity to monetize volumes of archived content. They should be looking at ways to categorize and house this content in ways their audiences can access them at any time. My mantra, "consumers are in control of their own media experiences." This changes everything, and you can no more fight this growing phenomenon than you can stop the tides from coming in. Go with it! Give consumers more ways to access your content, and better control their media experiences. If I were a TV network, I would call a company called Brightcove today to help me create a library of all the content I own, and find more ways to get it to the people who want to see it. There is an additional revenue stream there at very little cost, and fringe benefits like increasing audience brand loyalty."


Transactions
4M WMJQ-FM Rochester NY (Brockport NY) from Canandaigua Broadcasting Inc. (George W. Kimble) to Brockport Licenses LLC, a subsidiary of Educational Media Foundation (Richard Jenkins). 200K escrow, 800K cash at closing, 3M note. [File date 10/31/05.]

550K KPOW-AM Powell WY from Chapparal Broadcsating Inc. (Jerrold T. Lundquist) to MGR Media LLC (Russ Graham, April Rodriguez, Robert Scott Mangold). 289.5K cash at closing, 260.5K note. [File date 10/28/05.]


Stock Talk
An up day for radio
Following the Dow and NASDAQ, radio stocks were much more determined yesterday than Monday, with winners clearly beating losers. Highlights were Cumulus, up 0.48, Univision, up 0.59 and Viacom, up 0.36.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Tuesday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

39.01

+0.01

Jeff-Pilot

JP

55.30

+0.25

Beasley

BBGI

14.22

+0.03

Journal Comm.

JRN

13.53

-0.24

Citadel CDL
13.80 +0.23

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

10.86

+0.06

Clear Channel

CCU

32.50

+0.12

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

10.86

+0.05

Cox Radio

CXR

15.10

+0.10

Regent

RGCI

5.01

-0.03

Cumulus

CMLS

12.45

+0.48

Saga Commun.

SGA

12.11

+0.34

Disney

DIS

24.94

-0.11

Salem Comm.

SALM

19.10

+0.08

Emmis

EMMS

20.00

+0.22

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

7.10

-0.03

Entercom

ETM

32.07

+0.33

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

5.24

-0.11

Entravision

EVC

7.96

+0.21

Univision

UVN

29.02

+0.59

Fisher

FSCI

46.69

-0.60

Viacom, Cl. A

VIA

34.09

+0.36

Gaylord

GET

43.50

+0.20

Viacom, Cl. B

VIAb

34.07

+0.43

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

23.86

+0.17

Westwood One

WON

18.10

+0.05

Interep

IREP

0.37

unch

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

31.00

-0.12

International Bcg.

IBCS

0.01

unch

-

-

-

-

-



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Below the Fold

Ad Biz
Merial suit stops Bayer campaign
Federal court has signed a consent judgment ordering ...

Media Business Report
Digital mall screens will be silent
Clear Channel screens have no sound at all...

Media Markets & Money
Will Wicks promotions keep company in the Black?
One of two roster upgrades will certainly do so, on paper, in a way...

Rating & Research
October Webcast Metrics
Ratings released
The top-performing Internet radio stations and networks...


More News Headlines

Bid4Spots signs 1,100 stations in six weeks
Just six weeks out of its beta period and into its official launch, Bid4Spots (www.bid4spots.com), an online marketplace for unsold radio ad inventory, announced it now has more than 1,100 participating radio stations, representing nearly all of the top 300 U.S. markets. This new ad marketplace now covers some 21% of the total radio market and an aggregate listener base of roughly 25 million Americans, per Arbitron data. More than 100 advertisers have signed up to participate in the Bid4Spots reverse auctions, along with 43 agencies. To date, Bid4Spots has awarded in excess of 550,000 in auction winnings - radio spots successfully sold - to participating radio stations. Advertisers create the auction. and select the market, daypart, demo and station format in which they would like their spots to run. They also decide the maximum amount they are willing to spend. Stations meeting the market and format criteria are invited to participate in the auction. Stations can pre-screen the advertisers and their spots to determine if they want to bid. Bidding takes place on Thursdays between 8 AM and Noon (PT) and winning spots air the following broadcast week.






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

Grin and Bear
Stearns it? Not likely
Still seeing choppy to stagnant waters ahead for the radio business. For starters, it expects that relatively robust December results will be needed to salvage Q4 comps to 2004, and in the end, it doesn't believe see any signs of a particularly robust holiday month. RBR observation: It seems the key in comparing 2005 to anticipated results in 2006 is the fact that radio will have gotten itself through the tough first year of LIM. 2005 to 2006 comps will be comparing apples to apples, or LIMs to LIMs, if you will. Political funds should be the icing on that cake.
11/18/05 RBR #229

TiVo to bring TV programming
to
iPod, PSP
Testing a feature in the coming weeks to let some Series2 box subscribers transfer recorded television programming to Apple iPod digital music players or Sony's PlayStation portable (PSP) devices.
TVBR observation: Once again - Technology waits for no one.
11/18/05 TVBR #229

Sen. Feingold goes after
concert promo and payola
"Radio and Concert Disclosure and Competition Act of 2005" which would tighten up regulation over co-owned radio and concert businesses, and would introduce sweeping new reporting requirements aimed at ending payola. It will attempt to make the FCC's job of enforcement easier both by providing the newly-reported radio data and increasing the fines the Commission can levy on violators. On the concert side, the bill would take steps to prevent the use of co-owned radio and concert promotion/venue operations as a club to gain favorable concessions from artists out of fear of losing airplay and/or access to a performance venue.
RBR observation: First, practical matters. Any bill introduced at the very end of a congressional session is really aimed at the next year. Second, it is ironic to most casual observer - - the unprecedented attempt to do this by Clear Channel is going down in flames... Third, NAB will no doubt fight the reporting requirements...
11/21/05 RBR #228

RBR observation:
ABC won't be a record-breaker
To divest ABC Radio, the deal won't come close to being the top radio deal of all time - - or even in the top three. The question is, will it do much better than break the top 10? For the Billion dollar radio list see
11/21/05 RBR #228

What now for VNU? Scuttled IMS merger; CEO hitting the road
Awakened the sleeping giants who own most of its stock, VNU the parent of AC Nielsen now has to prove to the shareholders that it can generate good returns and run its businesses well - - or sell them to someone who can.
RBR observation: It's not that difficult to get listed on the NYSE, so VNU hardly needed a 7B acquisition to do so. The obvious play and one we've heard suggested more times than we can count is to buy Arbitron, already on the NYSE, which would cost only about 1.25-1.5 billion. That becomes especially attractive if Nielsen Media Research decides it does want to use Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) for TV ratings. Not included in that list from VNU is anything about spin-offs - - something else that big VNU shareholders have been urging the company to consider. In a conference call with European analysts yesterday, van den Bergh insisted that VNU is not planning any divestitures. But then, he won't be involved in such decisions for much longer. Clearly, some of those big institutional investors don't think the publishing group at VNU fits with its main data collection and research businesses, so pressure is likely to continue for van den Bergh's successor to sell off the group, known titles include Adweek, Billboard, Mediaweek and The Hollywood Reporter. Don't rule out a sale of all of VNU to a private equity buyer, who would streamline the cumbersome VNU management structure, sell off unwanted assets like the publishing division, and pump up financial performance for an IPO or resale. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
11/18/05 RBR #227

Abernathy makes a date
with the door
Republican FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy has sent her resignation to President George W. Bush, effective 12/9/05. Exiting with her will be her reliable Republican vote. RBR observation: Sen. Commerce Committee Chair Ted Stevens (R-AK) sent out signals that he wanted to find a candidate an opportunity that remains open to him with Abernathy's announcement. Abernathy's full statement see
11/18/05 RBR #227

Iger Mum on radio
Amazingly, with the final bids now being scrutinized, not a single analyst asked a question in the conference call that might elicit an indication of whether they are currently leaning toward a sale or not.
RBR observation: Only speculation and the usual of Entercom wanting ABC badly and then speculation about Mel Karmazin and Sirius Radio possibly taking a run for the simple reason of people who feel they are in the speculation mood that Karmazin just does not want to see well in excess of 100 million+ ad dollars left on the table with Howard Stern leaving the free radio air waves. Wait until the Fat Lady Sings.
11/18/05 RBR #227

Hate it but More Gloom for Radio
Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes sees a no growth environment and no sign of change and expecting flat revenues for Q4 and challenges ahead in 2006. The current consensus of his peers for radio companies to deliver 15% growth in earnings per share in 2006, which implies revenue growth of 3-4%, is still too high, so he's recommending "minimal exposure" to radio stocks. RBR observation: Not a good sign and as RBR has stated before - Time to operate these properties or go private.
11/17/05 RBR #226

Nielsen getting down
to the PPM nitty-gritty
Getting closer to making a go or no go decision on whether to enter into a joint venture with Arbitron to use Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) technology to measure TV and cable, as well as radio says it has expanded its internal due diligence team working on PPM to include additional experts in all areas. Pres/CEO Susan Whiting says "We are committed to moving with all deliberate speed..."
11/15/05 RBR #224


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