Wednesday Morning February 15th, 2012, Volume 29, Issue 32
 |
 PPM drove Q4 revenue growth for Arbitron
Arbitron ended 2011 with Q4 revenue up 7.6% to $120.1 million. Operating income increased 8.8% to $20.7 million. More...
Moby suspended from WTSH-FM for expletive
Moby, the self-syndicated Country morning man for Country formats, has been suspended indefinitely from Woman's World Broadcasting' South 107 (WTSH-FM) in Rome, GA after he accidentally uttered "G-- damn" on 2/13. For now, Kevin Daniels will cover the shift from 6 to 10 a.m.
RBR-TVBR observation: You can't please all the listeners all the time, but we think Howard Toole and Randy Quick made the best decision on whether to keep him on the station or not-let the audience decide. More...
FCC 2011: LPFM moves forward
Radio is by any definition a mature technology - and that goes double for stations operating in the AM band. As such, the FCC's Fiscal Year 2011 Performance Report didn't have a whole lot on the topic - but it did note the forwarding of an expanded LPFM service and an attempt to clear pirates out of the FM band. Here's what the FCC did in the radio sphere during 2011: More...
WAY-FM selling WAYJ-FM
WAY Media announced that Classical South Florida (CSF), a nonprofit listener-supported public radio organization dedicated to broadcasting classical music, has agreed to acquire its WAYJ-FM (88.7) in Fort Myers, FL. In turn, Way has agreed to acquire "Praise FM" WSRX-FM (89.5) in Naples, FL from Family Christian Broadcast Network. The WAY-FM programming currently heard on WAYJ will still cover the Fort Myers airwaves after the move. More...
Arbitron wants to buy back some stock
The board of directors at Arbitron has given management the green light to buy back up to $100 million of the company's common stock. The authorization runs for two years. More...
Review all Radio News at RBR.com
|
 |
 |
Indecency complaints were up but not high in Q4 2011
During the final three months of 2011 the FCC registered an increase in the number of consumer complaints concerning broadcast licensees, including an increase in the most closely-watched category - indecency/obscenity. Still, the results further underscored the fact that such content is either a rarity broadcast airwaves, or few care enough to complain.
RBR-TVBR observation: We know there are watchdogs out there who are more than happy to complain to the FCC, so we have to conclude that the vast majority of broadcasters are playing by the rules when it comes to program content. More...
January retail sales up 4%
Building on the momentum of a strong holiday shopping season, gift card redemptions and warm weather, retailers' January sales saw solid growth across the board. According to the National Retail Federation, January retail industry sales (excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) increased 0.9% seasonally adjusted from December and 4.0% unadjusted YOY. More...
FCC 2011: Fairwell Fairness Doctrine
In its Fiscal Year 2011 Performance Report, the FCC did something that many had been calling for over the years - it highlighted a body of regulation known as The Fairness Doctrine and hit the delete button. The FCC also defended media rules in court, although it failed to put the quadrennial review of ownership rules to bed, even though it bears the year 2010 in its title and includes elements that have been kicking around for a decade now. Nevertheless, here are general broadcast items handled last year: More...
Review all Media News at RBR.com
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
Radio
WFAN adds Josh Lewin
CBS Radio's Sports WFAN-AM and the New York Mets have named play-by-play veteran Josh Lewin to the 2012 Mets radio broadcast team. He joins Howie Rose in the booth. He has 16 years of Major League Baseball broadcast experience, calling games for the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers and most recently, Texas Rangers.
More...
KFNS, Five Guys burgers hold fundraiser
Roxie Schopp, 3, and her newborn brother, Walker, 3 months, developed nearly fatal medical conditions at nearly the exact same time. So Big League Broadcasting's KFNS-AM The Fan St. Louis and Five Guys Burgers joined "Team Roxie," a growing group of people rallying behind the Schopp family of Creve Coeur, Missouri. They held an all day, all night fundraiser 2/13 to help the family with out-of-pocket medical and other expenses. More...
Review all Radio Programming News at RBR.com
Television
Comedy Central renews Key & Peele
Voters will determine whether he'll stay in the White House, but the viewers have spoken and they want Obama (and Luther) back for more. Comedy Central has renewed its breakout sketch series, "Key & Peele," for a second season. More...
Review all TV/Cable Programming News at RBR.com
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Retail sales disappoint Wall Street - 2/14/12
Yes, US retail sales were up in January, but not as much as Wall Street had been expecting, so stock prices fell on Tuesday. But after being down much of the session, stock prices closed mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up four points to 12,878. The Nasdaq Composite was also up, but the S&P 500 down. Broadcasting stocks, which are closely tied to retail sales, were lower. The RBR Radio Index was down 2.643, or 0.7%, to 361.362. The TVBR Television Index was down 2.359, or 0.9%, to 266.398. More...
Review all Broadcast Stocks News at RBR.com
Winners |
|
Losers |
|
|
|
| Arbitron |
+5.1% |
Entravision |
-3.9% |
| LIN |
+1.4% |
SBS |
-3.2% |
Gray |
+0.9% |
Cumulus |
-2.6% |
|
|
For additional reports, ideas, analysis, interviews, and
RBR/TVBR Observations...visit and bookmark www.RBR.com
|
 |
 |
Only on RBR.com
Counting spots
Where data is money
Media, Markets & Money
Sandbagging in contracts
And how not to be a victim
Washington
Business Report
Genachowski heads
to the Hill
For an FCC budget grilling |
|
|
|
 |
|
Miami shift
WSCV-TV (Telemundo) Miami President/GM Manuel Martínez has been named to head fellow NBCUniversal-owned WTVJ-TV (NBC) Miami.
New Bee
WBEB-FM "B101" Philadelphia has hired Mark Shepperd as Production Assistant/Weekend Air Talent, coming from WLEV-FM Allentown, PA.
Back to KTAL
Mark McKay has been appointed Vice President and General Manager of Nexstar's KTAL-TV (NBC) Shreveport, LA/Texarkana, TX, where he began his broadcasting career on-air in 1980. He was most recently VP/GM of the company's Amarillo, TX stations.
Mr. Creative
Dial Global's TM Studios hired Ryan Drean as Director of Creative, making him responsible for creating and managing TM Studios' new country branding service. He joins from KSCS-FM Dallas-Ft. Wroth. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Follow us on your
favorite networking site
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Through the RBR-TVBR membership distribution list your press release can reach thousands of media professionals. Contact Jim Carnegie for more info.
| Publish your Press Release |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Inner City vs. Inner City / Researching the Olympics
02/14/12 RBR-TVBR #31
Spectrum bill still disputed / Analyst ups Sinclair's 2012
02/13/12 RBR-TVBR #30
Broadcast stocks cheap / Get your bids in for Nassau
02/12/12 Sunday edition
Avoid the Kodak Moment / Focusing Your Marketing Message
02/11/12 Saturday edition
Dog bites anchor / Auction block for Nassau
02/10/12 RBR-TVBR #29
Karmazin on deck / What spectrum auctions?
02/9/12 RBR-TVBR #28
NBCU, Google, ComScore to conduct major research during 2012 Olympics
Continuing its "Billion Dollar Lab" research efforts surrounding the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics, NBCUniversal will conduct a third Olympics research initiative during the 2012 London Games. NBCU will work with Google and comScore for projects that will explore new ways to measure single source consumption of video content on TV, mobile, the PC and the tablet.
RBR-TVBR observation: The Olympics are one prime example of cross-platform media consumption, as the events are ongoing for days, take place over multiple dayparts and air live overnights here in the US.
02/14/12 RBR-TVBR #31
Inner City sues Inner City over trademarks
Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC) has filed a complaint related to the Inner City Media Corporation (ICMC) bankruptcy case seeking a declaration that ICBC, not ICMC, owns 13 trademarks. The complaint is primarily targeting Yucaipa Companies and the other lenders, but names ICMC and the related companies in Chapter 11 reorganization as "nominal defendants."
RBR-TVBR observation: This is not so unusual in a corporate bankruptcy, especially where there are numerous corporate entities. If ICBC is able to hold onto those 13 trademarks, the eventual new owner of WLIB-AM and WBLS-FM New York would either have to strike a deal to acquire them or do a lot of rebranding.
02/14/12 RBR-TVBR #31
Lack of political kept quarter down for Allbritton
The fiscal Q1 for Allbritton Communications ran October-December 2011, so the TV group was comping against the election-fueled numbers of the previous year. Not surprisingly, total revenues were down. In fact, they were down $5.1 million and political was down $6.8 million. So do the math and you'll see that non-political revenues were up.
RBR-TVBR observation: With its largest operation at ground zero for politics - WJLA-TV (ABC) Washington, DC and its regional cable 24/7 news operation, NewsChannel 8 - we can only imagine what the political ad windfall is going to total for Allbritton in this calendar year.
02/14/12 RBR-TVBR #31
FCC seeking comment as sun sets on digital TV carriage rules
One of the key elements of the transition to digital broadcast television was to assure that no consumers were left behind due to the lack of a digital receiver. Another was an exemption from the requirement that MVPDs pass along non-degraded high-definition broadcast signals granted to small systems. The rules expire this summer, and the FCC is seeking comment as to whether or not they need to be extended.
02/14/12 RBR-TVBR #31
|
|
|
|
|
Financial Analyst, NY
All the features of RBR.com at your fingertips. Including our morning Epaper, Radio news, TV news, Media news, Features and More...
