RBR's Daily Morning Epaper

Volume 22, Issue 29, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher

Thursday Morning February 10th, 2005

Radio News®

Congressional indecency effort
clears first hurdle
There was twice as much opposition to the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act in 2005 as there was in 2004. That brought the opposition all the way to two votes, as an essentially clean bill sailed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee as predicted. The vote was 46-2, compared to last year's 49-1 tally. The bill, if enacted into law, will raise the FCC's maximum indecency fine from 32.5K to 500K and put in a 3rd strike rule ordering the FCC to consider license revocations for thrice-cited owners. The lone hold-outs were Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in a repeat performance from 2004 (3/4/04 RBR #44). She was joined this time by Henry Waxman (D-CA).

RBR observation: The bill sailed through the full House last year with only token opposition, but was done in by the Senate, which included amendments dealing with broadcast ownership consolidation and violent content, among other things. That will no doubt happen again, putting the ball squarely in Sen. Ted Steven's (R-AK) court. Will he be able to get an equally clean bill through his Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation? Stay tuned.

Advertiser demand growing for :30 spots
Asked about the impact of Clear Channel's "Less is More" initiative in Beasley Broadcast Group's quarterly conference, Co-COO

Bruce Beasley confirmed that his company is seeing more interest in 30-second spots, even though his company isn't pushing any particular length for commercials. Asked about pricing, Beasley said that while corporate headquarters sets a floor for rates, local station management is permitted to price their inventory to meet market conditions. In fact, he said, some 30s may cost 100% of the price of a 60 if it's going on a hot station.

FCC to remain unclear on Sinclair
We were extremely interested to see what the various FCC commissioners had to say about the ongoing efforts by Sinclair Broadcast group to get approval to buy five Cunningham Broadcasting Corp. stations in Baltimore MD, Columbus OH, Dayton OH, Charleston-Huntington WV and Charleston SC (2/7/05 RBR #26). All are being run in LMAs, making them de facto duopolies with Sinclair O&Os. Sinclair has been a lightning rod for controversy of late, and disposition of SBG's attempt to have FCC denial of the acquisitions reversed would have been extremely interesting, regardless of the outcome. But we'll have to wait - - the item has been dropped from today's open meeting agenda.

Dems sign on to multicast must-carry
A number of Congressional Republicans have weighed in on the side of broadcasters in the dispute over and upcoming FCC action on cable's carriage obligations when broadcasters opt for multiple program streams in the upcoming digital era. Now 10 Democrats have followed suit, as promised by Diane Watson (D-CA) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), who made the effort to gather some signatures (2/7/05 RBR #26). The Reps note the importance of returning spectrum to be used for public safety, wireless communications, etc. They discussed the new capabilities offered by digital technology, capabilities they underestimated a bit. The mentioned high definition programming, then said consumers would also have "...the ability to view as many as four standard definition digital channels in the same bandwidth occupied by one analog channel." (The actual number usually cited is six channels in one analog channel's bandwidth). They concluded, "We believe such added capacity could encourage the broadcasters to develop more diverse, community-oriented programming and especially benefit traditionally under-served communities." Joining Watson and Butterfield as signatories were David E. Price (D-NC), Sam Farr (D-CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Jim Marshall (D-GA), Charlie Melancon (D-LA) and Sanford Bishop (D-NY).

An ad is an ad is an ad nauseum
The saga of noncommercial Minority Television Project's flirtation with spot sales continues. We've been following this one for awhile - - the first story dates back to 8/13/02. They have had yet another novel explanation of the underwriting practices at their KMTP-TV in San Francisco, which the FCC shot down. MTP attempted to argue again that the spots in question were not ads, prompting the FCC to say they were, too. This was old territory, however. The new novel defense, for one of the spots, was this: They were airing a show on an oral barter/trade agreement with Tron Do, supplier of a program called "Dien Dan Vietnam." The spot, MTP said, was not theirs, it was the program supplier's, and were legal since MTP did not receive any compensation for them. Sorry, said the FCC. It's still an ad and MTP is still responsible for what goes out over its airspace. The FCC has assessed a 7.5K fine for the infraction.

George Herman dead at 85
Veteran CBS Radio and Television news correspondent George Herman died Tuesday of heart failure at age 85. Herman had hosted "Face the Nation" from 1969 to 1983 - - the longest tenure of any host in the news program's half-century on the air. Herman began his CBS career in 1944 as a radio newswriter and retired in 1987 after 43 years with the network.

Conference Calls Q4 2004

Beasley's negative quarter turns out positive
After telling Wall Street to expect Q4 to be down a couple of percentage points (10/29/04 RBR #212), Beasley Broadcast Group delivered a pleasant surprise yesterday. Instead of a negative quarter, Q4 posted revenues up 4% to 33.4 million, in turn pushing station operating income up 14% to 11 million. A lot of that improvement was due to the company's Philadelphia stations, where revenues shot up 28%. Also, the strength was in national spot, which was up 17% group-wide, while local was off slightly. That local decline was blamed on the Miami market, where there were fewer play-by-play sports broadcasts than a year earlier. Beasley is also expecting the current quarter, Q1, to be up - - telling investors to expect revenues to rise about 3%, with Philadelphia again the big driver. Although the company doesn't discuss monthly pacings, CFO Caroline Beasley said that January, which is already complete, was up around 10%, although she also noted that the gain was against easy comps in the previous year.

Adbiz©

Carat Entertainment launches for branded entertainment
Carat announced they a new business unit, Carat Entertainment, offering branded entertainment opportunities for their clients. Michael Yudin will serve as President. Carat Entertainment will be driven by client need, without restriction as to outlets, production companies involved or creative. The new unit will be part of Carat's National Broadcast Group and report to Andy Donchin, EVP/Director of National Broadcast.

Patriot Motorcycles launches
national TV campaign with "Steel Dreams"
Patriot Motorcycles announced the launch of their national TV effort with an agreement with the syndicated celebrity motor sports show "Steel Dreams TV," as part of its efforts to fully brand its Yamoto line of ATVs and dirt bikes. Steel Dreams, now in its fourth season, is regarded as a pioneer of the extremely popular genre of celebrity/motorcycle action shows. Patriot will be featured in integrated "behind the scenes" segments and Steel Dreams episodes set to air in the key spring viewing season will showcase the Boost Mobile Freestyle MX Tour 2005 presented by Yamoto by Patriot. Steel Dreams TV reaches over 70 million households and is carried in 165 local markets. The show is watched by motor sports fans that are ready to further invest in their leisure and recreational activities. The Patriot spots were created by Nashville, Tenn.-based NICE Fish Films, whose shop has helmed campaigns for Clear Channel and DreamWorks. Patriot's 30-second commercials will begin airing the weekend of Feb. 18-20 to coincide with the Dealernews International Powersports Dealer Expo in Indianapolis, which is the largest motorcycle industry show in the world.

ABC sells out Oscars inventory
ABC has reportedly sold out all inventory for the Oscars awards show, pulling an average price of 1.6 million for a 30-second spot Advertisers this year include L'Oreal, CareerBuilder.com, McDonald's Anheuser-Busch, Home Depot and MasterCard. The awards are scheduled for 2/27 from the Kodak Theater in LA. "The Aviator," an epic about billionaire Howard Hughes, clinched the highest number of nominations, followed by boxing tale "Million Dollar Baby" and "Finding Neverland." More than 43 million viewers tuned in to ABC's Oscars broadcast last year, when advertising prices averaged 1.5 million per 30-second commercial.

March Radio & Television Business Report

2005 Technology Odyssey..
The Changing Landscape
Ipods, DTV, FCC, Technology, People Meters. If you are in Business to Do Business in today's New Environment, Position your Company, Technology, Programming and what you do that Radio and Television executives need to know as budgets are being put into action. The Landscape is Changing Fast - March 2005 report is ahead of the curve as first quarter is closing fast.

Advertising/Marketing Placement - Contact
Jim Carnegie - 813 909 2916
June Barnes - 803 731 5951

Not Receiving The Official Business Media Magazine? Then here is your Last Chance to a Trial - Read. Your order must be place by February 18th.

Media Markets & MoneyTM

Citadel scores in Alabama
Apex Broadcasting is cashing out of the Tuscaloosa market via a 29M dollar deal with Citadel that also has implications for the Birmingham market, where Citadel is already sitting on a superduopoly cluster which has room to grow. Six stations are moving for sure. They are WTSK-AM, WJRD-AM & WTUG-FM Tuscaloosa, WANZ-FM Northport WBEI-FM Reform and WFFN-FM Cordova. A seventh station, WDGM-FM Greensboro is also included, pending FCC approval of an Apex deal to acquire it from Warrior Broadcasting. Should that approval fail to come, the deal will be reduced by a total of 925K. WANZ-FM is slated for an upgrade from Class C3 on 100.7 mHz to Class C1 one notch down the dial at 100.5 mHz. It will also be thirty-some miles closer to Birmingham, where it'll join an up-and-running two-AM, three-FM cluster. Should the CP be rescinded for any reason, Citadel has the option of selling the station back to Apex for 12M.

Tribune ups dividend - - a lot
Shareholders of Tribune Company are going to see substantially higher dividend checks this year. The company has boosted its quarterly dividend by 50% to 18 cents per share. The new, higher dividend will be paid March 10th to shareholders of record on February 24th. "Tribune will generate more than 800 million in free cash flow in 2005. Increasing the dividend, along with our ongoing share repurchase program, is evidence of our strong financial position and our commitment to returning value to our shareholders," said Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune Chairman, President and CEO. The company has 600 million remaining on its current authorization for share buybacks.

Washington Beat

Revise and shine?
The goal of keeping government activities transparent requires that when ever more than two commissioners meet, it must be in an open forum observable by the public, a provision of the Sunshine Act. Commissioners from both parties serving at the FCC want the rules revised, saying it hampers their ability to deal with the complex issues which are regularly brought before them. The Commissioners say they still communicate, via memos, staff members, round-robin one-on-one meetings etcetera. Chairman Michael Powell and Commissioner Michael Copps said in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Stevens (R-AK), "These indirect methods of communicating clearly do not foster frank, open discussion, and they are less efficient than in-person interchange among three or more Commissioners would be." In asking that the Act be amended to allow closed deliberations under appropriate circumstances, they acknowledge that approval of more multiple-commissioner face time would not relieve them of their obligation to fully explain their actions to the public.

RBR observation: Neither Powell nor Copps has been at all shy about explaining themselves to the public. Where Powell has run into icebergs is his distaste for letting the public tell him what they think.

Transactions

KJFX-FM, KTSX-FM & KFRR-FM Fresno (Fresno, San Joaquin, Woodlake CA) from Mesosphere Broadcasting LP to Wilks License Company

KTDR-FM Del Rio TX from Grande Broadcasting to Spectrum Broadcasting Inc.

| More... |

Stock Talk

Time to take some cash off the table
Traders did some profit-taking on Wednesday, following recent market gains. The Dow Industrials were down 61 points, or 0.6%, to 10,664.

Ditto for radio stocks. The Radio Index dropped 1.854, or 0.9%, to 216.924. Regent fell 2.6%, Arbitron 2.4% and Saga 2.3%. One of the few gainers was Citadel, up 2.1%.

Radio Stocks

**Here's how stocks fared on Wednesday**
Company	Symbol	Close		Change	Company	Symbol	Close		Change
Arbitron	ARB		40.72	-1.01	Jeff-Pilot	JP		49.58	-0.27
Beasley	BBGI		16.74	+0.19	Journal Comm.	JRN		16.16	-0.07
Citadel	CDL		14.30	+0.30	Radio One, Cl. A	ROIA		14.49	-0.16
Clear Channel	CCU		34.47	+0.10	Radio One, Cl. D	ROIAK		14.47	-0.18
Cox Radio	CXR		15.03	-0.18	Regent	RGCI		5.16	-0.14
Cumulus	CMLS		13.96	-0.29	Saga Commun.	SGA		16.70	-0.40
Disney	DIS		29.35	-0.49	Salem Comm.	SALM		23.14	-0.09
Emmis	EMMS		17.74	-0.08	Sirius Sat. Radio	SIRI		5.99	+0.06
Entercom	ETM		31.10	-0.18	Spanish Bcg.	SBSA		10.25	-0.10
Entravision	EVC		7.82	-0.14	Univision	UVN		25.99	-0.07
Fisher	FSCI		49.69	-0.91	Viacom, Cl. A	VIA		37.70	-0.16
Gaylord	GET		39.60	-0.62	Viacom, Cl. B	VIAb		37.38	-0.12
Hearst-Argyle	HTV		25.77	+0.02	Westwood One	WON		24.44	-0.11
Interep	IREP		0.70	+0.02	XM Sat. Radio	XMSR		31.40	+0.22
International Bcg.	IBCS		0.01	unch	-	-	-	-	-

__UNSUB__ to this email service.

Bounceback

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

I am writing to express my thoughts on the LPFM story (2/9/05 TVBR #28). With traditional, commercial radio already being homogenized as it is, and with fewer and fewer opportunities for newcomers to enter the business, I believe the 3rd adjacent channel protection should and must be removed altogether. The conglomerates have carried the big stick for far too long as far as radio programming is concerned, and I believe the passage of the "Local Community Radio Act of 2005" will go a long way towards providing music and programming that even many of the "mom-and-pop" stations can't or won't provide. As a former personality at two college radio stations in Georgia, I urge anyone with an interest in this issue to contact their elected officials, and support this bill. Don't allow a handful of companies to control what you listen to on the radio. Thank you.

Walter L. Johnson II

Appreciation for RBR/TVBR POV...

RBR daily email is my daily MUST READ for media business intelligence and analysis. The first thing I do when I get on the train, is check "more all" on my blackberry to get your entire email. I appreciate your interpretations and recommendations. You're one of the few radio people to attend the Four A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies conference) and the ANA (Association of National Advertisers event). Bravo! Thanks to you and your staff for your impressive work.

Warmest regards,

Pierre Bouvard
President, Portable People Meter
Arbitron Inc.

Upped & Tapped

Univision
gets a prez
After operating for years without anyone having the title of President, Univision Communications finally has someone in the position. Ray Rodriguez, who had been President of the Univision network (along with Galavision and TeleFutura), is now President and COO of the entire company. All Univision divisions now report to Rodriguez and he reports to Chairman and CEO Jerry Perenchio.

TWC strategy director Lewis moves to radio
Harold Lewis has been named VP/GM of The Weather Channel radio and newspaper syndication business where he will have responsibility for The Weather Channel Radio Network and weather products and services for newspapers. Lewis joined The Weather Channel in 2001 as director of strategy and corporate development.

New directors
at Journal
Two new directors have joined the board of directors at Journal Communications, including one who is well known in the broadcasting industry. Jeanette Tully, who retired in 2002 as CFO of Entravision, capping a career that included several media companies, is one of the new directors, along with Jonathan Newcomb, former CEO of the Simon & Schuster publishing firm.

Change at Arbitron
Arbitron has appointed Scott Musgrave to Sr. Vice President, Marketing, US Media Client Software, where he will lead Arbitron's customer software team to enhance existing client software, and develop new software and services. He had been Sr. VP & GM, Arbitron Radio.

Stations For Sale

Saginaw/Bay City/Midland FM
WSAG-FM 104.1 Mhz Class A, Pinconning, Michigan. ARB ranked #130, revenue ranked #97, 23M. Newly on the air. New owned 350' tower. 4,600 watts ERP, new 5KW solid state transmitter, ERI 3 bay antenna. No revenue yet, no sales staff, only minimal personnel. Running oldies format with BSI computer system. New studio facility will be needed for new owner. Minimal studio equipment, with EAS equipment, STL, etc. New construction project, currently
owned by an engineering company. Operating company needed to be brought in to finish project. Priced as "stick" value. Asking $950,000.00.
[email protected]

Phoenix AM Bankruptcy Sale
KFNX 1100, 50,000 Watt AM radio station in Phoenix, AZ, will be sold for the highest and best offer on March 31, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. MST
at the US Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix, AZ. An initial bid of $3.6 million has been received. The sale of the business is "as is/where is". Please go to www.1100kfnx.com for station information, and
call 602-277-1100 x.499 for details.

RBR Radar 2005

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

Spectrum tax proposal back again
In what is becoming an annual event and traces back to the Clinton White House, the administration is attempting to slip a spectrum tax on broadcasters who are running parallel stations in the pending phase of the DTV transition. The tax would apply to unreturned analog spectrum beginning in 2006, and would shoot for a government payday of a half billion dollars. The congruent annual event is the successful effort by the National Association of Broadcasters to blow the spectrum tax out of the water. RBR observation: NAB is alive and doing its job but the industry knows the leader is leaving. When can the radio and television business expect to see 'white smoke?' There are issues that need addressed and nobody in our business wants to get blind sided. NAB needs a leader that has knowledge but also has the youth to lead for the next ten years. 02/09/05 RBR #28

News Director
WLPO/WAJK/WKOT, LaSalle, IL - Established stations in the Midwest looking for the journalist of integrity and understands what local means to a news department with experience to encourage others on staff. LaSalle is a great market and excellent company benefits. EOE.

GSM or LSM
Shreveport's fastest growing radio cluster, Cumulus Broadcasting has an immediate opening depending on experience. If you are motivated by winning and by money we have the job for you. Five station cluster moving into showcase studios. Cumulus, EOE, the best radio company in America.

See Radio Careers for more info.

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