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Volume 24, Issue 25, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
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Tuesday Morning February 6th, 2007
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Radio News ®
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 FCC set to get 303M for 2007,
313M in 2008
President George W. Bush is prepared to allow the FCC 303M to with in his 2007 Budget, but it will have to go out and get almost all of it on its own. 302M will be raised via regulatory fees. If everything goes through as proposed, that number will increase to 313M for FY 2008. The 2008 request came with an FCC-issued laundry list, and includes cash to promote the digital television transition. From the FCC itself: "The requested FY 2008 funding level would provide funds to cover mandatory increases in salaries and benefits and inflationary increases for contractual services. The request would also provide funding to conduct an outreach campaign to educate consumers about the impact and benefits of the transition to Digital Television (DTV). In addition, the request would allow the Commission to combat waste, fraud, and abuse, in the Universal Service Fund; replace Mobile Digital Direction Finding (MDDF) vehicles that are used to support public safety entities (e.g., emergency responders, police, fire departments) in the resolution of harmful interference to their communications systems and strengthen management and oversight of the Commission's financial and accounting processes."
RBR observation: Just thought you licensees might like to know where your money's going.
Bush takes the axe to CPB
A Republican attack on CPB is practically an annual Washington event, and this year will be no exception. The new administration budget proposal suggests a 110M cut in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, from 460M in 2006 to 350M in 2008. As usual, this predictable event had the equally predictable result of angering Democrats in Congress. Over at the House Subcommittee for Telecommunications and the Internet, Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) was up in arms. He said, "In a 24-7 television world with content often inappropriate for young children, the public broadcasting system represents an oasis of quality, child-oriented educational programming. We owe America's children and their parents this free, over-the-air resource."
RBR observation: During the past several years, resourceful minority Democrats have found ways to keep their opponents across the aisle from completely gutting noncommercial broadcasting. With new majority status, and the difficult-to-resist charismatic charms of Elmo and Barney (well, Barney is a matter of opinion) ready and willing to beat down any dissenters, we suspect CPB is in the best position it's been in for years as the administration budget arrives on Capitol Hill.
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 Boston bomb scare to cost 2M
Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and the local ad firm that placed its devices that caused a bomb scare in Boston last week have agreed to pay two million in restitution and additional compensation to Massachusetts state and local governments. One million is for actual costs and the other is being called "goodwill funds." The largest shares, over 600K each, will go to the Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, with the City of Boston receiving nearly 500K and the rest going to other government entities. All will have their actual costs covered, plus "additional restitution funds" for a total of one million. The second million will be allocated to the eight government entities for programs to support homeland security, community education and awareness, emergency response preparedness, training and equipment, and other appropriate community security and safety education. "Last week's events caused a major disruption in the greater Boston area on many levels - crippling public transportation, causing serious traffic problems, negatively affecting local businesses, and perhaps most significantly, costing Boston and surrounding communities thousands of dollars. It is our hope that these funds will cover not only the expenses incurred by the many agencies who participated in the response and investigation of the devices discovered in the Boston area last Wednesday, but they will also enable our communities to enhance homeland security, or to pursue other important community initiatives," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who negotiated the settlement with TBS, owned by Time Warner, and Interference Inc., the local ad firm. The settlement doesn't cover two men who were hired by Interference to place the devices, but the AG's statement said prosecutors are in plea bargain talks with their lawyers. For its part, TBS issued a statement once again apologizing for the bomb scare. "We are reviewing our policies concerning local marketing efforts and strategies to ensure that they are not disruptive or perceived as threatening, and are committed to making any necessary changes to our internal processes to prevent similar incidents in the future," it said.
RBR observation: Guerrilla advertising is all the rage now, but it seems that some folks are forgetting to bring in their legal departments to review the plans before they are executed. Aside from the possibility of devices with flashing lights, batteries and wires being mistaken for bombs, the idea of defacing public property to place them should have sent up red flares if a good lawyer had gotten a look at this in the planning stage. Meanwhile, remember the Los Angeles Times newspaper box that the LA Country Sheriff's Department blew up last year (5/2/06 RBR #86) because it contained a gadget that looked like a pipe bomb, but was really a device to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme to promote the MI III movie? Federal officials are now preparing to sue the newspaper and Paramount Pictures because a VA hospital was evacuated when one of the news boxes - not the one that was blown up - was found there.
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Increased bid net NetRatings for Nielsen
After being turned down when it offered to buy out other shareholders of NetRatings for 16 bucks a share (1/17/07 RBR # 11), Nielsen has gone back to the drawing board and come up with more cash. Its new offer of 21 bucks a share has been accepted by the independent directors at NetRatings. Once all approvals are obtained, Nielsen will pay approximately 327 million for the 40% or so of NetRatings that it doesn't already own. "The special committee carefully reviewed the transaction in consultation with our financial and legal advisors, and the merger agreement was the result of extensive negotiations between the parties. We believe that the merger is in the best interests of NetRatings' minority shareholders," said Arthur F. Kingsbury, chairman of the special committee of the NetRatings board of directors. The special committee was advised by Lehman Brothers Inc. and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. The companies say closing is expected in Q2. NetRatings delivers Internet media and market research marketed globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand.
 TV script has PTC up in arms
The dialogue on an episode of CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" airing 1/22/07 went over the line, according to the Parents Television Council. The watchdog is doubly irked because the show was aired when children were likely to be in the audience, and most of the scenes in the show featured a 13-year-old actor. That was Angus Jones. PTC says the episode, which aired at 9:00 PM Eastern and 8:00 PM Central, "contained dialogue about bestiality and having sex with vegetables." The organization is focusing its effort on advertisers. PTC President said Tim Winters said, "...if the program's sponsors did not know beforehand the type of content that they would be underwriting on this explicit episode and are as shocked by the content as many parents are, then CBS should refund the sponsors' money." It also thinks the advertisers should avoid such programming. Here is the list: Blockbuster, Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Revlon, Eli Lilly and Company, Hyundai Motor Company, Johnson & Johnson, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Weight Watchers and Yum Brands.
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Ad Business Report TM
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Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and
Thierry Henry sign with Gillette
Gillette announced the launch of the new Gillette Champions program with the unveiling of Gillette's newest brand ambassadors: Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry. The three will be fully integrated into Gillette brand programs and will be leveraged through multi-faceted marketing initiatives, including global print and broadcast, consumer promotions, point of sale materials, online and PR in support of Gillette's shaving products. The Gillette Champions program is scheduled to roll out in over 150 markets in the first year, making this the largest current sports marketing initiative for the brand.
Interep Radio Network forming?
We're hearing there may be an unwired "Interep Radio Network" being considered, to be rolled out across all of the 1,630 Interep-affiliated radio stations if it got off the ground. Initial data on the net says:
* The Interep Radio Stations deliver 48.7% US Reach of Adults 25-54.
* In the top crucial top 10 markets the reach is 62.9% Adults 25-54.
* At any one time 6A-7P the Interep stations deliver a 6.1 national rating with an 25-54 AQH of 6,386,000.
RBR observation: 63% reach in Top 10 markets in Adults 25-54 is pretty good, so this may be a network worth forming. The proof will be in the pricing, of course. Also, does this mean Interep might be getting into the network radio business? It's a :30 second medium, but it could be handled by sending piggybacked commercials - :60 second pods with two :30 second spots. This is what many networks currently do. Look for more on this tomorrow.
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| Media Markets & Money TM |
Goodman keeps his word
 When Dean Goodman kicked off Dean Radio.TV Company with a recent acquisition in east-central Iowa, he said he was going to be growing his company. He has made good on that promise, moving southeast in the same state to pick up an AM-FM combo. The deal is for News-Talk KMCD-AM and Oldies KIIK-FM in Fairfield IA, coming from Jay Mitchell's Fairfield Media Group. According to Susan Patrick of Patrick Communications, who provided brokerage services, the pricetag is 1.15M. This follows a pair of deals totaling 6.5M to for three stations in Grinnell IA and another in Newton IA. All six are beyond the reach of Arbitron.
Veterans turn up in Aberdeen
Broker Jerry Johnson reports that a couple of old hands are buying a pair of yet-to-be built 100kw FMs from separate sellers in the Aberdeen, SD area. The buyers are Duane Butt, former CEO of the Jim Ingstad radio group, and long time broadcaster Dean Sorenson. Both have interests in other stations, but this is their first venture together as Dakota Broadcasting LLC. They are paying 750K, split 375K for each station, to buy the CP for KZBR-FM Ipswich, SD from Mark Jones' Owensville Communications and the CP for KMOM-FM Roscoe, SD from Dale Ganske's L. Topaz Enterprises.
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| Washington Media Business Report TM |
 FCC, WINK agree to Charley course
The course of action will be an agreement for a consent decree. The bone of contention is the emergency broadcasting of Fort Myers Broadcasting Company's (FMBC) WINK-TV (CBS 11) when Hurricane Charley struck 8/13/04. The FCC is concerned that aurally emergency information was not made available in a format accessible to the hearing disabled. FMBC admits to no wrong-doing, but has agreed to a laundry list of remedies, not the least of which is a voluntary 16K contribution to the United States Treasury. But the nuts and bolts of the agreement is to obtain professional closed captioning service for all Monday-Friday newscast (6AM, 12PM, 5PM, 5:30PM, 6PM & 11PM), all Saturday newscasts (6PM, 11PM), all Sunday newscasts (6:30PM, 11PM), and during and " extended news coverage of an emergency condition" affecting the Fort Myers-Naples DMA.
RBR observation: We'd guess that the FCC has to be slightly cautious in this type of situation. We don't want stations avoiding the provision of emergency information in general because for whatever reason they can't get the word out to part of the audience. On the other hand, FCC commissioners routinely say that public safety is the agency's number one responsibility, so they can't very well let stations shirk their duties on this count, either. Bottom line, WINK is to be commended for a) providing ample local news programming; and b) hanging in and providing vital emergency information during a hurricane, even if the coverage wasn't perfect. The consent decree allows the station to strive for perfection without suffering a permanent blot on its record. We think this is a very reasonable approach to dealing with this type of situation.
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| Internet Media Business Report TM |
Ford & Harrison Attorney launches
HR Blog for "The Office"
Outing a gay employee, forcing a female employee to act out a lesbian love scene as part of sexual harassment training, and mass emailing romantic pictures to the entire company - such are the antics of Michael Scott, regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, the fictional paper company that serves as the setting for NBC's "The Office." If Michael was your boss what would you do in these uncomfortable situations? If you said, "sue for millions," you'd have a good case according to Ford & Harrison employment attorney Julie Elgar's new blog, That's What She Said. Launched by M. Lee Smith Publishers, a publisher of HR newsletters and journals, That's What She Said can be found at www.hrheroblogs.com. Named after Michael's trademark punch line, That's What She Said puts a price tag on each episode, estimating how much the politically incorrect behavior of Michael Scott and Dunder Mifflin would cost real-life companies to defend. Entries for each episode of the current season can be found on That's What She Said at www.hrherosblogs.com. Julie will post a new entry every Friday morning, following Thursday night's show. Readers of the blog are encouraged to visit before their first trip to the water-cooler and comment or submit questions.
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| Ratings & Research |
 Super Bowl scores super ratings
The rain-soaked Super Bowl XLI is the top rated show of the current TV season - and likely to hold the title, as is traditional for the Super Bowl each year. Sunday's audience for CBS was the second most watched Super Bowl ever, up 2% from last year's Pittsburgh-Seattle game on ABC, but still trailing the St. Louis-Tennessee matchup in 2000. Based on overnight data from Nielsen Media Research, CBS reported a 42.6 rating and 64 share, with a peak of 44/635 from 9:00-9:30 pm. The broadcast averaged 93.15 million viewers. With the Indianapolis Colts beating the Chicago Bears in the big game, the broadcast was a ratings skyrocket for LIN Television's WISH-TV (Ch. 8), the CBS affiliate in Indy. It scored it highest rating ever for any station in the Indianapolis market with a 55.5 rating and 79.4 share. The locally-produced "Super Bowl Champions" post-game show which followed scored 25.9/44. Oh, by the way, ABC Television proudly noted that it was #2 in the ratings on Sunday.
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| Music Media Business Report |
Consumers agree with Grammy nominators
The pros in the record industry who pick the nominees for the Grammy Awards apparently aren't that different from regular consumers. The NPD Group has been crunching data on the top CD purchases, top paid digital downloads and top peer-to-peer downloads and found lots of Grammy nominees on their top 10 lists. "Grammy nominated Rascal Flatts was one of many artists popular across CD and digital-music formats. They were very popular among consumers purchasing CDs and those buying a la carte song downloads from services like iTunes, as well as among those who are illegally downloading music for free from P2P services," noted Russ Crupnick, vice president and entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group.
| See the lists |
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| Engineering Business Report TM |
NABEF launches engineering internship program
The NAB Education Foundation has announced a new paid internship program designed to reinforce the broadcast industry's diversity efforts by increasing the number of women and people of color entering the broadcast engineering field. College seniors and recent college graduates who have demonstrated an interest in working with digital audio and video, computer technology, HD Radio or HDTV are encouraged to apply. NABEF will select 10 students or recent graduates to participate in the program. Interns will attend NAB2007, where they will participate in a one-day session and tour the exhibit show floor. The participants will also be provided with an eight-week paid internship in engineering and technology at a radio or television station this summer. Applicants should visit the NABEF Web site and apply no later than March 1.
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| Transactions |
4.5M WRHD-FM, WRHT-FM, WWHA-FM & WWNK-FM Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville NC (Williamston, Morehead City, Oriental, Farmville) from ABG North Carolina Licenses LLC, a subsidiary of Archway Broadcasting Group LLC (Gordon Herzog, Kathy Stinehour) to Inner Banks Media LLC (Donald W. Curtis, Henry W. Hinton Jr., Henry W. Hinton III). 225K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Superduopoly with WWNF-FM Kinston and LMA of Beasley Broadcasting's WNCT-AM Greenville. Hinton's WYMY-FM Goldsboro is just outside the Greenville market. [File date 1/8/07.]
1.255M KWAM-AM Memphis TN from Concord Media Group Inc. (Mark Jorgenson) to Legacy Media-Memphis LLC, a subsidiary of Legacy Media Holdings LLC (Michael D. Easterly, Martin W. Moore, Randolph A. Miller, Joseph Pedicino). 75K earnest money, 75K indemnity escrow, balance in cash at closing. Buyer replaces Clear Channel in acquiring KWAM-AM. [File date 1/8/07.]
Clear Channel stock transaction,
16B radio, 1B television, filed 12/15/06.
Unrated Markets (from BIAfn reports filed with contract and other sources)
| Read More... |
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| Stock Talk |
Stocks mixed; Wal-Mart a bright spot
Wal-Mart reported better-than-expected sales figures, which gave Wall Street a bit of a boost. But worries about where the economy is going produced a mixed close. The Dow Industrials rose eight points to 12,662, but other indices were slightly lower.
Most radio stocks gave up a little ground. The Radio Index declined 0.757, or 0.5%, to 159.010. Cumulus fell 2.1%. Westwood One was a gainer, up 1%.
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| Radio Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Monday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
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Arbitron
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ARB
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47.21
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-0.12
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Journal Comm.
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JRN
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13.38
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-0.06
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Beasley
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BBGI
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9.22
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-0.03
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Lincoln Natl.
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LNC
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68.11
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-0.18
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| CBS CI. B |
CBS |
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31.56
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+0.21
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Radio One, Cl. A
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ROIA
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7.42
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-0.08
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| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
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31.52
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+0.16
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Radio One, Cl. D
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ROIAK
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7.44
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-0.06
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| Citadel |
CDL |
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10.61 |
-0.16 |
Regent
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RGCI
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3.07
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-0.01
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Clear Channel
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CCU
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36.53
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+0.10
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Saga Commun.
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SGA
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9.52
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+0.07
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Cox Radio
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CXR
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15.65
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-0.08
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Salem Comm.
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SALM
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12.50
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-0.09
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Cumulus
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CMLS
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10.19
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-0.22
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Sirius Sat. Radio
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SIRI
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3.64
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-0.04
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Disney
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DIS
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35.26
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+0.08
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Spanish Bcg.
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SBSA
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4.08
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-0.02
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Emmis
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EMMS
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8.34
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-0.09
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SWMX
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SMWX
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1.50
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unch
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| Entercom |
ETM
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28.66
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+0.03
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Univision
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UVN
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35.85
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-0.03
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Entravision
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EVC
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7.87
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-0.06
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Westwood One
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WON
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7.00
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+0.07
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Fisher
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FSCI
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44.65
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+0.04
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XM Sat. Radio
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XMSR
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14.17
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-0.04
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Hearst-Argyle
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HTV
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26.06
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+0.03
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Bounceback
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 We want to
hear from you.
This is your column, so send your comments and
a photo to [email protected]
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Below the Fold
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Ad Business Report
Interep Radio Network forming?
We're hearing there may be an unwired roll out with some interesting stats...
Mega Stars sign with Gillette
Launch of the new Gillette Champions
Program and there are heavy hitters...
Media Markets & Money
Goodman keeps his word
Picked up News-Talk KMCD-AM Oldies KIIK-FM in Fairfield IA...
Veterans turn up in Aberdeen
Couple of old hands are buying a pair of yet-to-be built 100kw FMs...
Music Media Business Report
Consumers agree with
Grammy nominators as the pros in the record industry who pick the nominees...
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Stations for Sale
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Central CA Coast FM: $1.5M
Pacific Northwest FM: $750K
Terms Available
MCH Enterprises: 805.543.3466
www.mchentinc.com
Market your Stations For Sale
in our daily epapers.
Contact June Barnes
[email protected]
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Radio Media Moves
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Two joint First
Radio veteran Bob Dunphy has joined First Broadcasting in the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Station Operations. Dunphy will be the company's most senior station operations executive and report directly to President and CEO Gary Lawrence. Also, Jay Meyers, Managing Director/COO of Cavalry Media Services LLC, has been retained as senior station operations consultant.
Maxwell named GSM
Salem Communications announced the appointment of Tamela Kay "TK" Maxwell as GSM for Salem New York which includes New York's InspiringTalk stations WMCA-AM and WWDJ-AM.
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More News Headlines
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USRN adds "Daily House of Hair Cut"
United Stations Radio Networks has added the short-form, music-based feature, The Daily House of Hair Cut with Dee Snider, expanding his House of Hair brand since joining the network's lineup in 2001. It's a daily, M-F feature that will include news, updates, interview clips and music from the stars of the 80's Rock/Metal genre.
FOX TV Station Group signs video clip syndication deal
ClipSyndicate, a B2B source for video syndication, announced an agreement with FOX Television Stations group to syndicate its news content to thousands of vertical Web sites in the ClipSyndicate Video Syndication Network. FOX Stations will provide ClipSyndicate's network of Web site editors and bloggers the ability to publish video news content culled from the largest markets in the US.
Turner taking mobile content international
Cell phone maker Ericsson AB will collaborate with Turner Broadcasting to develop international mobile services. Turner will provide news and entertainment material spanning everything from CNN International to Cartoon Network. Ericsson said the first service, CNN Mobile, will be launched in Europe, Middle East and Africa on 2/12.
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RBR Radar 2006
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Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.
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Payola: FCC, broadcasters
ready to settle?
Word is out that an agreement is at hand in the FCC's investigation into radio payola. 10M or more is said to be on the table in a case involving Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Entercom and Citadel. According to reports, the settlement has all the earmarks of a consent decree. Generally, terms using that path allow companies to admit to no wrongdoing, while engaging in measures designed to alert employees to the problem being addressed and prevent its occurrence in the future.
RBR observation: The companies involved would do well to admit no wrongdoing, since it is highly probable that there was no wrong-doing done. As has been the case before in high-profile indecency cases, sometimes companies feel it better just to pay an amount certain to the US Treasury rather than run up unpredictably high attorney bills fighting for their rights in the courts, no matter how just they feel their cause to be. Finally, a question. How in the world would one figure out just when 7M worth of airplay has occurred? Putting a price on each spin almost amounts to the government developing its own bizarre payola menu. Then it would be time to sit back and field the complaints from the independent artists who were not included in the 7M indie windfall.
02/05/07 RBR #24
Clear Channel stock transaction,
If you are following this mega deal here is the latest details of 16B radio, 1B television, filed 12/15/06. Markets Markets 251-300
02/05/07 RBR #24
Radio revenues:
Local red, overall black
Results for December closely mirrored results for the year as a whole. Local was down 1%, national was up 6% for the month and 5% for the year, and the combined result for both combinations was neither red nor black, but a flat 0%. The ever-growing and creative non-spot category was up 8% for the month and 10% for the year, enough in both cases to produce a 1% gain for radio revenue overall. Both national and non-spot were strong throughout Q4, picking up 12% apiece to local's flat performance. That combination brought Q4 in a 3% to the good, giving the year as a whole a tow into black ink territory.
RBR observation: We've been pounding away at this just about every time the RAB releases another report, but the fact remains that radio is a local business. The constant refrain, that the Internet is eating away at the advertising revenue pie, should be easily defeated by its relative inability to deliver a decent-sized local audience to advertisers. Many have speculated that advertisers should be realizing the folly for their ways just about now, and will return to the local fold. We suggest that you nudge them back in the firmest possible way, and provide some enticing Internet connections for them on the side, so they don't have to look at their recent online flirtations as a total waste - just another extra benefit from dealing with your friendly, effective, LOCAL radio station.
02/02/07 RBR #23
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General Sales Manager
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