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Volume 24, Issue 39, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
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Monday Morning February 26th, 2007
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| Question of the Day |
 Response from RBR/TVBR readers has been mixed on whether broadcasters should fight the planned merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, ignore it as a non-event, or try to get something out of it, such as a boost for HD Radio. We welcome your continued input for our Bounceback section. But to get feedback from even more of you, here is an opportunity to express yourself with a simple click. Vote below on which of four options you think would be the best outcome.
Q: If I were the FCC I would...
1) Approve the merger of XM and Sirius. No problem.
2) Reject the merger of XM and Sirius flat out.
3) Allow XM and Sirius to merge, but require them to put HD Radio chips in all receivers.
4) Allow XM and Sirius to merge, but make them give back half of their spectrum to be reused for something else.
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Radio News ®
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 Mixed quarter for Clear Channel
Radio revenues were up 7% in Q4 for Clear Channel Radio to 966.8 million, but that was less than Wall Street analysts had expected. Also, it was barely ahead of the revenues of 964.5 million booked in Q4 2004, before CC Radio took a deliberate hit for a year with its Less is More (LIM) program. For the full year, CC Radio even finished behind pre-LIM 2004. Meanwhile, CC Outdoor surged 13% to 830.7 million in Q4, even better than Wall Street had expected, and "other" rose 25% to 179 million. That gain would be largely due to political ad revenues for the television group, which is up for sale. The Katz rep firms are also part of the other category. With its private equity buyout pending, Clear Channel does not conduct quarterly conference calls with Wall Street analysts. It did, however, include some forward-looking information in its quarterly news release. "As of February 22, 2007, revenues for the Radio division are pacing up 1.8% for the first quarter of 2007 as compared to the first quarter of 2006, and are pacing down 0.5% for the full year of 2007 as compared to the full year of 2006. The Company's Radio division currently forecasts total operating expense growth in the low single-digits for the full year 2007 as compared to the full year 2006," Clear Channel said. Outdoor is pacing up 5.8% for Q1 and 6.6% for the full year.
RBR observation: The Q4 data cuts both ways for shareholders trying to decide whether to approve the buyout bid, with votes due by a March 21st special meeting. Radio growth going forward is still a question mark, which argues in favor of taking the cash offer. But opponents of the buyout have complained that they are being shortchanged for the value of CC Outdoor. There growth is even better than anticipated and the entire outdoor industry is on a growth spurt. With two-thirds approval required for the 26.7 billion buyout to go to closing, it could be a cliffhanger vote.
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DARS wedding? NAB speaks now
Not only is the National Association of Broadcasters not forever holding its peace on the proposed Sirius/XM nuptials, it has gotten a prominent communications attorney, who until recently was Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, to spell out why such a union should be summarily rejected. The attorney is Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP's David Solomon. He put together a brief which makes a three-pronged argument against the pending merger. First is the obvious observation that the merger would create a DARS monopoly, noting that "such a government-created media monopoly would be unique in the history of the Commission," flying in the face of its charter responsibility to promote competition. Point two is that creation of such a monopoly would be accompanied by the risk of higher prices and less programming choice for consumers. The third argument is that neither company can be trusted to follow the rules. They have failed to provide customers with interoperable receivers, have caused interference to broadcast stations and have committed technical violations when using terrestrial repeaters. Solomon says, "These violations collectively raise serious questions whether the companies can be relied on in the future to comply with FCC rules or with any conditions imposed or offered as part of the merger." He concludes that approval "...could simply embolden them to pay even less attention to the rules of the road in pursuit of monopolistic profits." The study has already been sent to Congress, including all members and their top staffers.
RBR observation: The Mel Karmazin show, hosted by John Conyers (D-MI), starts in the digs of the House Committee on the Judiciary on Wednesday, 2/28/07 at 3:00 PM. Karmazin, of course, will be making the case for the merger. We won't have to wait long at all to see if NAB's legalistic talking points make it into the public record in the voice of an elected representative.
 Univision set to enrich US Treasury
The Federal Communications Commission is about to extract 24M from Hispanic media giant Univision. The charge: passing off a soap opera or telenovela which prominently features two juvenile characters as part of its three-hour weekly quota of children's educational programming. The New York Times reported over the weekend that a consent decree would name 24 Univision O&Os as being in violation of the children's programming regulation. The program is "Complices al Rescate," which translates to "Friends to the Rescue." Univision apparently argued that the children featured in the program learn valuable lessons about life, but the Commission found it was mostly aimed at adults. Indeed, one observer noted a telling bit of evidence - that most of the advertising on the program was for adults. The enforcement is said to go back to complaints filed by the United Church of Christ, which says it has others pending and that it is very surprised with this result. The agreement between the FCC and Univision will accompany regulatory approval for its sale to an investment group which includes Haim Saban and recent FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
RBR observation: This will blow away the sum total of the FCC's indecency enforcement to date, which going back to 1996 hasn't yet broker the 13M barrier. Beyond raising the bar on children's programming enforcement to pole vault levels, it would also seem to indicate that the FCC will be firm in plans to attach additional children's programming obligations to DTV multicast operations. The good news: This is one regulatory area where radio has largely been given a pass.
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Commissioners head to Columbus OH
Democratic FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein have been road warriors going back to 2003 when the Commission first took on the issue of media ownership in earnest. It appears they have bitten Republican Robert McDowell with the travel bug. He is slated to be the first Republican Commissioner to venture to one of the unofficial forums, scheduled for Columbus OH on 3/7/07. The session will be held at 5:30 PM at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church. The organizers are Free Press, Consumers Union, Common Cause Ohio, United Church of Christ Office of Communications, Inc., Columbus Metropolitan Area Church Council, Ohio PIRG, Ohio Citizen Action and Media Bridges. Jack Noragon of Common Cause Ohio said, "If Ohioans lose access to views and news, media moguls may grow richer but our democracy will be poorer. America's democracy works best when citizens have access to a wide diversity of views and plenty of local news. These are two of our nation's most important media policy goals." Joel Kelsey of Consumers Union was particularly worried about relaxed cross-ownership rules, which have been a particular focus of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. "These are by far the most dominant sources of local news and information," he said. "By lifting the ban on cross-ownership of television stations and major daily newspapers, the FCC would be allowing the two most competitive sources of local news to merge."
 Tiger had AM station by the tale
We have more info on the tower saga of Chris Pacheco's KFIG-AM, operating from the Fresno suburb of Clovis CA (for the record, it uses three towers, all just over 400' tall). The city of Clovis initiated the tower location change so that it can develop the old site into a research/tech park, according to the Fresno Bee. Existing towers have been under fire on the bird murder rap lately, so it is not at all surprising that KFIG had an especially difficult time getting built so as to minimize damage to our feathered friends. That was a large part of the reason that the 500K budget for the project ballooned to about 1.2M. The tiger we mentioned in the headline is actually the endangered tiger salamander - KFIG contributed 120K into a fund to help protect the amphibians. It paid 180K for an environmental study. It's paying into six figures for a biologist to keep an eye on the towers for three years minimum. It's paid to find just the right kind of lighting. KFIG FM Paul Swearengin now considers himself an expert on the topic of towers.
RBR observation: At least one part of the operation went smoothly - the destruction of the old towers. Swearengin sent along video of that event for your enjoyment. We note the audible use of a word that we believe is well within the community standards of California, and possibly most other places as well, but perhaps not where you live. If you are among the super-sensitive, please turn down to sound on your computer speakers.
|  Watch the Video |
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| Wall Street Media Business Report TM |
Clear Channel by the numbers
The numbers tell the story. Here is the revenue performance by the divisions of Clear Channel Communications from 2004, then 2005 when the radio division deliberately retrenched with Less is More, and finally 2006. The revenue figures are in millions.
*after eliminations -- Source: Clear Channel Communications quarterly financial releases
Clear Channel Communications revenues
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Q4 Results
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2004
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2005
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Change
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2006
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Change
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Radio
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964.5
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909.4
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-6%
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966.8
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7%
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Outdoor
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685.7
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734.6
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7%
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830.7
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13%
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Other
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157.4
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143.8
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-9%
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179.0
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25%
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Total*
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1776.7
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1756.6
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1%
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1941.2
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11%
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Full Year Results
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2004
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2005
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Change
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2006
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Change
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Radio
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3754.4
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3534.1
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-6%
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3697.2
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6%
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Outdoor
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2447.0
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2666.1
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9%
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2897.7
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9%
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Other
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548.6
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532.3
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-3%
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602.1
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13%
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Total*
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6634.9
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6610.4
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0%
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7067.0
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7%
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Ad Business Report TM
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 Read any good books lately?
By Kim Vasey,
Senior Partner/Director of Radio, mediaedge:cia
Understanding the functions of the brain and how our brains respond to advertising has become an area of fascination for me and I continually try to find new studies or articles on the topic. It may sound like an odd obsession to have but I've seen how, in gaining a better understanding in this area, it has really helped me "sell in" radio to many clients. I call it radio through the power of the brain. I have pulled together an entire presentation on it which I have been sharing with the industry, as often as I can. I shared it last year with all of the Managers and Account Executives at Jones Media America, one of the largest radio syndicators in the country with whom we do business with for many of our national radio clients. And everyone, from the very junior to the very senior level A/E was open to hearing about new ways to approach selling in the power of radio. I enjoy presenting to an audience that is receptive to learning new things. I believe when we share information with each other we lay the groundwork for better communication and better selling practices. I truly believe it is our industry, a partnership-both buyer and seller, and working together we can help move it forward. Their receptiveness, as sellers, to the material in the presentation demonstrates their belief in that partnership.
| Read More... |
Ad Council, NYC Department of Education launch PSAs
The Advertising Council, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and Appleseed announced a new PSA effort designed to encourage the recruitment of teacher candidates to the current teaching force. According to the DOE, 6,000 new teachers will be needed in schools in 2007. The campaign objective is to help the City attract the highest quality teacher candidates, increasing teacher quality and improving retention. Created by volunteer ad agency Della Femina, the campaign consists of radio, print and internet advertising. Pulitzer Prize winner Frank McCourt, award winning actress Cynthia Nixon and former president of Poetry Slam Incorporated, Taylor Mali, all lent their voices to the PSAs. The campaign was initially launched in 2004 by Agent 16, Appleseed and the NYC Department of Education as part of an overall strategy to raise the quality and quantity of applicants for teaching positions in New York City public schools. It marked the first time in Ad Council's history that the organization coordinated a local New York initiative. In addition to reaching out to the teachers of tomorrow, the campaign seeks to recognize and pay homage to New York City's unsung heroes -- its existing public school teachers.
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| Media Business Report TM |
Landmark buys an online franchise
This is a media franchise that even has the name - Franchise.com - and serves people looking for a franchise business. Landmark Communications says it has acquired the leading online franchise recruitment information resource for prospective franchisees. Founded in 1995 by Nancy Ghanem, Franchise.com was among the first companies to offer online lead generation for franchisors. The company's principal business activity is advertising franchise opportunities to prospective franchisees through its Internet portal that carries the company name. According to Michael Alston, President of Landmark Interactive, the acquisition continues Landmark's strategy of acquiring interactive media properties that provide great value to both sellers and buyers. Landmark Interactive is a division of Landmark Communications, Inc. which includes Q Interactive, an Internet-based direct marketing company; Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions, a cooperative database marketing provider to the soft-offer direct marketing space; BusinessBroker.net, a leading online business-for-sale marketplace; several leading franchise recruitment web sites, and TotalVid.com, the world's largest collection of niche video available by download. Parent Landmark Communications Inc. is a privately-held multimedia company with interests in newspapers, broadcasting, cable programming, print and online classified marketplaces, broadband services, interactive marketing, Internet video distribution, and other businesses. Among other things, Landmark owns The Weather Channel, Weather.com, WTVF-TV (Ch. 5, CBS) Nashville and KLAS-TV (Ch. 8, CBS) Las Vegas.
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| Media Markets & Money TM |
It's the Principle of the thing
Broadcast veterans Charles Banta and Peter Handy are on the ownership list of Mercury Capital, which is backing Principle Broadcasting, which is buying a pair of AMs in the Dallas-Fort Worth market out of bankruptcy. KFCD-AM Farmersville and KHSE-AM Wylie are licensed to Bernard Dallas, and have been in an LMA with The Watch Ltd. since late 2005. Principle will spend 9M to get them and kick of its own LMA, with fees going toward defraying the principle of the contract. According to the BIAfn chart accompanying the deal's FCC paperwork, KFCD is using a Talk format and KHSE is programming Ethnic fare.
Spinner reported in Portland
Media Venture Partners wrote in to note that Entercom Communications has entered into an agreement to peddle KKSN-AM Vancouver WA to leading Religious radio broadcaster Salem Communications. The pricetag was not disclosed. The station serves the Portland OR market, where Entercom will retain a large cluster and Salem is already established.
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| Washington Media Business Report TM |
 Commissioners speak
in Harrisburg
In some cases, the FCC commissioners are almost developing stump speeches when it comes to the ongoing consideration of the remanded rules on media ownership. At Friday's Harrisburg forum on the topic, Chairman Kevin Martin (R) noted the need to balance the values of "...competition, diversity and localism..." with "...the competitive realities of the media marketplace." He lauded LPFM as a way to bring more broadcast voices onto the local scene. Anti-consolidation Michael Copps (D) noted that the forum takes the public portion of the information-gathering process to the halfway point, but he feels that they're nowhere near to gathering half the info they need to make an informed decision. Jonathan Adelstein (D) expressed concern that "...the quality coverage of state legislative affairs is diminishing. Fewer media outlets cover the daily activities of the statehouse, and fewer investigative reporters are available to develop, research, and write stories that are necessary to inform the electorate." Deborah Taylor Tate (R) extolled the big three principles, but said that broadcast rules must be examined in context of technological change. Robert McDowell (R) pretty much indicated the need to strike a balance and said he was eager to hear from all interested parties.
RBR observation: There has been some speculation that Tate may have moved closer to the two Democrat's anti-consolidation position after hearing musicians from her hometown in Tennessee. We would not want to have to bet our paycheck on that theory, however, especially given her statement in Harrisburg. McDowell is known to be anti-regulation, period, wherever possible. The real question, of course, is not what Martin can get through the Commission, but what he can sneak past the new Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.
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| Entertainment Media Business Report TM |
Talkers amplify parts of the news
During the week of 2/11-16/07, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that the Iraq policy debate edged out the 2008 campaign for the title of dominant news story. In fact, it was one of those weeks where there really was no single dominant news story. Iraq policy pulled 11%, the campaign 9%. For talkers following up on the news, it was a different matter entirely. Iraq policy ate a whopping 28% of the discussion, eclipsing the 2008 campaign, which still weighed in with a hefty 11%. The newsers and talkers were agreed on the growing importance of the Iran story however, giving it 7% and 8% respectively. Where was the big divergence in subject matter? Anna Nicole Smith. The news gang put that story at 6% (almost all of that mass coming from CATV), but the talkmeisters remained fascinated, putting it in second place with 13% of their total attention.
RBR observation: We sincerely hope that we are not going to be discussing the Britney Spears haircut in this space next week.
Country returns L.A. on FM
Country has now made a comeback to LA FM radio since the loss of Emmis' KZLA-FM last August. Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters' Heritage Classical KMZT (K-Mozart) flipped to Country there today as "Go Country 105" (KKGO). The Classical format will continue on KKGO's HD-2 channel as well as on AM sister KKGO-AM (1260) where the Country.
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| Internet Media Business Report TM |
 Global online ad revenue
to reach 81.1 billion by 2011
Piper Jaffray & Co. Internet Media and Marketing research team published an in-depth, comprehensive research report titled, "The User Revolution," discussing the new advertising ecosystem and the rise of the Internet as a mass medium. In the report, the team outlines its expectations that global online advertising revenue will reach 81.1 billion by 2011, representing a 21% compound-annual-growth-rate (2006-2011). The report defines user revolution as a major trend that is happening primarily with consumers, who are taking control of content consumption and branding. "The historically passive consumer is changing rapidly, not only becoming more informed and confident about purchase decisions, but also increasingly taking control of the consumption of information and content that used to be distributed by networks, studios, publishers and retailers," said Safa Rashtchy, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "We believe this will cause a significant rise in prominence of the Internet as a major content consumption and marketing medium." The report also lists the most important companies to watch during this revolution, companies that are likely to benefit most, or be highly impacted by these trends. These companies include: Google (and YouTube), Yahoo!, Disney, News Corp., Time Warner, Microsoft, InterActive, Facebook, Craigslist, Brightcove, Yelp, SINA Corp., Baidu, aQuantive, ValueClick, 24/7 Media, Netflix, Wikipedia, MobiTV, Digg and Hakia.
| See the 12 key themes discussed |
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| Monday Morning Makers & Shakers |
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Transactions: 1/8/07-1/12/07
The first week of January's rein as top station trading week of the year was short-lived, as the second week came along an blew it's 51.75M total away. Well, it didn't exactly BLOW it away, but it did take over the top slot with 55.42M in value. 25 stations moved in 13 separate transactions, mostly in the middle of the market pack. On the one hand, only two stations were in the top 50 markets, but on the other, only two were in unrated territory.
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Total
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Total Deals
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13
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AMs
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9
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FMs
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15
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TVs
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1
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55.42M
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| Complete Charts |
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Radio Transactions of the Week
Clear Channel gets the Point
| More... |
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TV Transactions of the Week
Lockwood moves into WV market
| More... |
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| Transactions |
575M WTKR-TV Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News VA (Norfolk VA); WREG-TV Memphis TN; KAUT-FM/KFOR-TV Oklahoma City OK; WNEP-TV Wilkes Barre-Scranton PA (Scranton PA); WHO-TV Des Moines IA; WHNT-TV Huntsville-Decatur-Florence AL (Huntsville); WQAD-TV Davenport IA-Rock Island-Moline IL (Moline IL); and KFSM-TV Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers AR (Fort Smith AR) from New York Times Management Services (Mary Jacobus), a subsidiary of The New York Times Company to Local TV LLC (Benjamin L. Homel), a subsidiary of Oak Hill Capital Partners II LP. Existing duopoly in Oklahoma City. KAUT-FM in a MNT affiliate on Channel 43; KFOR-TV in an NBC affiliate on Channel 4; KFSM-TV in a CBS affiliate on Channel 5; WHNT-TV in a CBS affiliate on Channel 19; WHO-TV in an NBC affiliate on Channel 13; WNEP-TV in an ABC affiliate on Channel 16; WQAD-TV in an ABC affiliate on Channel 8; WTKR-TV in a CBS affiliate on Channel 3; WREG-TV in a CBS affiliate on Channel 3. [File date 1/19/07.]
5M KBTM-AM/KFIN-FM/WNEA-AM & KWHF-FM Jonesboro AR (Jonesboro, Harrisburg AR) from Capstar TX LP/CC Licenses LLC, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc. (Mark Mays) to Seat Arkansas Broadcasters Inc. (Bobby Caldwell). 250K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Existing duopoly. Includes LMA with seller's KIYS-FM Jonesboro with 2M purchase option. [File date 1/24/07.]
4.8M WGXL-FM/WTSL-AM, WVRR-FM, WXXK-FM, WMXR-FM & WTSM-FM Lebanon NH-Rutland-White River Junction VT (Hanover, Newport, Lebanon, Woodstock NH, Springfield VT) from Capstar TX LP, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc. (Mark Mays) to Great Eastern Radipo LLC (Jeffrey D. Shapiro, Courtney S. Galluzzo). 240K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Existing superduopoly. Parties are seeking waiver to enable intact transfer of grandfathered cluster to a small business, and are further seeking CPs to move WTSM-FM and WVRR-FM out of the market. [File date 1/24/07.]
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| Stock Talk |
Week ends on down note
A rise in oil prices sent stocks lower on Friday. The Dow Industrials were down 39 points, or 0.3%, to 12,647.
Radio stocks joined the retreat. The Radio Index declined 0.614, or 0.4%, to 162.067. The big mover, though, was a gainer. Entravision rose 5.6% a day after reporting strong Q4 results. Salem fell 1.3%. Cox and Emmis were each down 1.2%.
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| Radio Stocks |
Here's how stocks fared on Friday
| Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Change |
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Arbitron
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ARB
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45.57
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-0.18
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Journal Comm.
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JRN
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13.45
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+0.06
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Beasley
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BBGI
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9.21
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+0.01
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Lincoln Natl.
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LNC
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70.47
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-0.19
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| CBS CI. B |
CBS |
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31.32
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-0.23
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Radio One, Cl. A
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ROIA
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7.43
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+0.05
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| CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
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31.36
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-0.15
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Radio One, Cl. D
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ROIAK
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7.43
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+0.03
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| Citadel |
CDL |
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10.33 |
-0.10 |
Regent
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RGCI
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2.99
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-0.01
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Clear Channel
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CCU
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36.47
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+0.02
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Saga Commun.
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SGA
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9.33
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-0.03
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Cox Radio
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CXR
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15.50
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-0.18
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Salem Comm.
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SALM
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13.25
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-0.18
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Cumulus
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CMLS
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10.21
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-0.01
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Sirius Sat. Radio
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SIRI
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3.74
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-0.06
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Disney
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DIS
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35.14
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-0.02
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Spanish Bcg.
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SBSA
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4.51
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-0.07
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Emmis
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EMMS
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8.59
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-0.10
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SWMX
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SMWX
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1.02
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+0.02
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| Entercom |
ETM
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30.12
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-0.30
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Univision
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UVN
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35.98
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-0.05
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Entravision
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EVC
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9.26
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+0.49
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Westwood One
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WON
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7.18
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+0.09
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Fisher
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FSCI
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45.70
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-0.07
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XM Sat. Radio
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XMSR
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15.10
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-0.24
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Hearst-Argyle
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HTV
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26.67
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+0.33
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-
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-
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-
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Bounceback
|
 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
Read any good books lately?
By Kim Vasey, mediaedge:cia...
Media Business Report
Landmark buys
An online franchise this is a media franchise that even has the name...
Media Markets & Money
It's the Principle of the thing
Charles Banta and Peter Handy are on the ownership list...
Spinner reported in Portland
Entercom has entered into an agreement to peddle KKSN-AM...
Internet Media Business Report
Global online ad revenue
To reach 81.1 billion by 2011...
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Stations for Sale
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NorthEast FM's For Sale
Clusters, standalones, sticks
8x - 12x BCF, 950K - 7.2M
[email protected] or
781-848-4201
 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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Swapping cousins
Daniel H. Cohen has been nominated to stand for election as a director of The New York Times Company. Cohen, the founder of the oceanic exploration company DeepSee LLC, is a fourth generation member of the NYT founding Ochs Sulzberger family. He will fill the seat to be vacated by his cousin, Cathy Sulzberger, sister of NYT Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
CMA adds Steve
Schnur to board
The Country Music Association announced Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing for Electronic Arts (EA), the world's leading interactive entertainment company, is the latest addition to the CMA Board of Directors. Schnur joins as Director At Large.
RCS announces
team leaders
Broadcast software provider RCS, Inc. announced the restructuring of the company after the recent merger with their sister software company Prophet Systems Innovations of Ogallala, Nebraska. The new company is called RCS and headquartered in White Plains, NY. Tapped to lead the new team were John Fulbright, Bill Webber, Kenny Lee and Tony Williams. John Fulbright was promoted to Director, Studio Application Development, Bill Webber moves into Director, Scheduling Products. Kenny Lee moves from Selector XV to Product Manager, GSelector, while Tony Williams takes over Product Manager, Selector XV and Master Control XV product lines.
Womble Carlyle staffs up for the election
With the shifting sands of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act helping to define modern politics - the law is continually being amplified or eroded by Congress, the courts and/or the FEC, law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice has scored two top attorneys from the latter. Lawrence Norton was recently FEC's General Counsel, and James Kahl was Deputy General Counsel. Starting this week, on 3/1/07, they will be at the law firm, the will be assisting Gregg Skall and other communications attorneys with political advertising issues.
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More News Headlines
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Tough month
for Tribune
Every division of Tribune Company had a down month in January. Radio/Entertainment was the least bad, with revenues down 0.7% to 4.3 million. Television revenues were down 1.5% to 92.5 million, with weakness noted in auto and retail partially offset by strength in restaurant/fast food and telecom. The worst performer was publishing, where newspaper ad revenues fell 7.3% to 268 million. Classified plunged 11.9%, with retail down 5.6% and national off 3.2%. Circulation was down 5.2% to 52.9 million. Tribune said, however, that ad trends are better in February for both print and broadcasting.
AWRT and SBE name Female Broadcast Engineer of the Year
In partnership with the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) named Lucinda Hutter Cavell as the recipient of the annual Outstanding Female Engineer of the Year Award. This award will be bestowed at the 2007 AWRT Annual Leadership Summit & Business Conference, on 3/10 during the AWRT Power Breakfast.
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TVBR - TV News
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Kerry unleashes FCC on MLB/DirecTV
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has promised that his agency will investigate a deal between Major League Baseball and DBS service DirecTV that has Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in a lather. Kerry is concerned that up to 50M citizens will lose the ability to receive baseball game telecasts if CATV operators are cut out by an MLB/DirecTV exclusive arrangement. Martin expressed his willingness to jump into the matter in a letter to Kerry in which he said, "I share your concern regarding this proposed deal," and promised that once the FCC received a full briefing on the deal, it would report on "the implications for consumers and any recommended changes to the law to ameliorate any harms to consumers." Kerry has also promised hearings on the matter in the Senate Commerce Committee. Kerry is disturbed that MLB's "Extra Innings" program package, which could reach as many as 75M cable subscribers, will suddenly only be available to DirecTV's 15M (that would seem to leave 60M subs out in the cold but hey, it's not our math). He said MLB is getting a quick 700M but may itself eventually come to regret an arrangement that limits the availability of its programming.
TVBR observation: The government generally, and we believe correctly, does not get into programming or content matters (unless they're thought to be indecent), but for some reason that laissez faire policy gets defenestrated when it comes to sports programming. Regional sports networks were a big part of the deal when the FCC allowed Comcast and Time/Warner to split the carcass of Adelphia, and last summer the Commission stepped into a dispute that was depriving much of Washington DC of televised MLB Nationals baseball games. And in a somewhat unrelated yet similar situation, the DTV deadline was almost set in April by Ted Stevens (R-AK) so that people whose screens go blank would not suffer that fate until after NCAA's March Madness tournament. You'd think this regulatory prioritizing would start with news and information, not sports, and since it's focused so squarely on sports, can a new focus on hot ticket entertainment programming like the Oscars or "American Idol" be far behind?
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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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Radio One review not a scandal
Wall Street analysts say the stock option accounting review at Radio One is not the same as the backdating practice that several high tech firms are in trouble for. Rather, they say, it appears to be a bookkeeping issue, not unethical behavior.
02/23/07 RBR #38
Hub-bub over the merger
Scott Cason from LaGrange, KY writes RBR - I don't understand the hub-bub over the merger of XM and Sirius. In every interview I have seen with various radio execs over the last couple of years, they all say they are not worried about the impact of satellite radio on their over the air stations. Judging from the programming I hear out of these same stations, I would say that's true. (More of Scott's observation in RBR)
02/23/07 RBR #38
The hurdle XM and
Sirius must clear
Back in 1997 when the FCC issued its Report and Order creating the satellite radio service (DARS, the redundantly named Digital Audio Radio Service by satellite), it anticipated the situation we see today with the two licensees seeking to become one. In this RBR report is the language the FCC adopted back then regarding license transfers...
RBR observation: Convincing the FCC and their overseers on Capitol Hill that an XM-Sirius merger should be allowed may hinge on one thing that was around in 1997, indecency, and one that wasn't, the iPod. It was no mere coincidence that Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin spoke of ala carte offerings. The two satellite radio companies don't have any ala carte offering now, although there is nothing to stop them. There is more RBR observation details in
02/22/07 RBR #37
eBay Media Marketplace
set to launch
The much-anticipated eBay Media Marketplace for automated TV buys is set to launch 3/15 in beta. While no networks are officially on board as of yet, agencies and advertisers are. The Q2 cable scatter market will be the first marketplace the system will tackle, assuming networks decide to put some inventory in the fray.
RBR observation: Interesting that this system seems to have so much interest, while the Google electronic offering is still in a general holding pattern for TV. If the eBay system gets off the ground, perhaps it will get the attention of radio broadcasters for this type of transaction-beyond what we've seen for Bid4Spots. Janice Finkel-Greene, EVP/Local Broadcast, Initiative Media (Initiative is testing the system, too), tells us while the system's first test go-around is for national cable, national TV broadcast could be next-assuming no big hurdles with cable. Bottom line, this could make things easier on buyers and sellers. Whether it could drive rates up or down remains to be seen.
02/22/07 RBR #37
What are the XM-Sirius odds?
Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin insisted in a joint Wall Street conference call with XM Chairman Gary Parsons that there is a "better than 50/50 chance" that regulators will allow the two companies to merge. Plus look for the XM-Sirius team to make their case for a merger as RBR has details with charted details (see RBR) that will likely play a key role. Karmazin states, "In today's expanding audio entertainment market, consumers have a huge array of choice - and sometimes they don't want to settle for one." And it even gets better with the Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio (C3SR) was formed (1/13/07 RBR #9) by satellite radio subscribers who don't want to see the two satellite radio companies become one, eliminating any competition and consumer choice. Now they have an actual fight on their hands. And it is only going to get better and hotter.
RBR observation: One analyst offered a simple solution during yesterday's conference call, but it nearly sent Karmazin and Parsons into cardiac arrest. Why not avoid the whole FCC issue by combining the businesses and their subscriber bases, and turn in one of the satellite spectrum licenses? Oh, no! The satellite radio bosses said they couldn't do that. They need all of the spectrum from both companies so they can continue to serve the non-compatible receivers that each has in the marketplace (somehow they never mention that they have been ignoring the FCC requirement that their receivers be compatible) and to add video, data and other new services to make them more competitive with other media.
02/21/07 RBR #36
If I were the FCC
Dan Mason at Dan Mason LLC writes RBR and sees it from this view point - I would approve the Sirius-XM merger as long as they would agree to carry on HD chip inside the radios...then it would be non-monopolistic. They (Sirius-XM) will most likely have to give up some things to get this approved. Seems like a convenient way for the FCC to bring digital radio into the cars for several years to come. I don't think this merger creates impossible barriers for radio, but I do believe there is an opportunity to bring all the technical aspects in line with this deal.
02/21/07 RBR #36
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