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Welcome to RBR's Daily Epaper
Volume 24, Issue 46, Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher
Wednesday Morning March 7th, 2007

Radio News ®

New internet royalty fees may
change unlimited online listening

After the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) endorsed a plan by SoundExchange (the royalty collections unit of the RIAA) to retroactively raise the fees Internet radio broadcasters have to pay, we went to the largest online radio ad sales business in the industry, Ronning-Lipset Radio. We wanted to know what this might mean to ad rates and transacting business going forward. We found the royalty increases are so high that many online radio stations will have to go out of business or dramatically increase ad rates/units to cover the fees. CRB's new royalty structure begins at .0008 per performance, retroactive to 1/06. Per performance for web radio is streaming one song to one listener. Kurt Hanson's Radio And Internet Newsletter (RAIN), calculated that an average online radio station that plays 16 songs per hour would owe 1.28 cents per listener per hour. According to Consumer affairs dot com, the rates would continue to increase each year. In 2007, Web broadcasters would owe .0011, .0014 in 2008, .0018 in 2009, and .0019 in 2010. Those royalty fees only cover the actual broadcast of the songs to listeners -- the station owners would also have to pay royalties to the performers as well. SaveNetRadio.org say a royalty fee of .0011 add up to "about 1.76 cents per hour, per listener. A station with [an average of 500 listeners] would be hit with fees of 211 dollars per day, 6,336 a month or 76,000 a year." "This amount of money is beyond the resources of all but the very wealthiest of corporations," they said on their site. We asked Eric Ronning and Andy Lipset: What is this going to do to your clients?
| Read More... |

RBR observation: Looks like another dot com bust coming up, thanks to greed. Hopefully this will be changed before it becomes law-it affects online-only broadcasters as well as radio stations streaming their signal. Funny, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin has been on the Hill in Washington, talking about how his competitor is not XM, but all forms of audio entertainment, including Internet radio. Now all of a sudden if there are a bunch of Internet stations that go away, how does it impact that line of thinking, and the proposed merger with XM?

Modest growth year seen for radio
"Radio revenues ended 2006 on a weaker-than-expected note, with the anticipated pick-up in Q3 not materializing to any great extent. We expect revenue growth will remain modest in 2007 after less than 1% growth in 2006, as groups still work to overcome the weak pricing environment that predominated in 2006. Indications are that Q1 pacings are not robust," said Robin Flynn, Senior Analyst, Kagan Research, in delivering her outlook for 2007. "Our projections call for radio spot revenues to increase 1.7% in 2007 as larger operators work through inventory and pricing issues. Local should be up a little over 2% (after a flat-to-down 2006) and national down 1% after a relatively strong 2006. While the data reflect industry-wide growth, certain individual operators may do much better, benefiting from recently stronger fundamentals in mid-to-small markets," she concluded.


House panel takes issue
with Bush budget

It probably comes as no surprise that a Democratic House of Representatives is able to find a few areas of disagreement with the Republican administration's FY2008 budget proposal. The majority in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has detailed particular concerns involving funding levels for public radio and television. John Dingell (D-MI) leads the committee. It takes immediate issue with the failure of the latest budget to deal with the digital conversion for television and the need for upgrades to the public radio interconnection system. The television stations, facing the same 2/17/09 deadline as are all commercial stations, is said to need 40M to keep the conversion process on track. The satellite system for public radio is said to be in need of up to 26.75M for improvements. Rather than provide that money, the budget proposal would not only leave them unfunded, but would further deduct 50M from money already allocated back in 2006. E&C is further disappointed that the customary two-year advance appropriation, a long-standing practice which provides stability to stations going forward, is ignored completely. CPB has requested 440M for FY2010. E&C also complains that matters such as permanent FCC auction authority and other fee and auction matters are proposed unilaterally, and argues that the complexity of such matters require the Committee's careful consideration.

RBR observation: Regardless of one's opinion on public broadcasting, it seems a matter of simple logic that the existing stations must be brought along into the digital future. It should not be a matter of being able to sell enough dinodoc DVDs, Americana CDs and totebags at ten times their actual value until enough cash is raised for a digital rig.

The news hole is flat
Almost solely by virtue of getting coverage across the media board, the 2008 campaign edged out four other stories to sit atop the Project for Excellence in Journalism rankings for the week of 2/25/07-3/2/07. It only occupied 7% of the news hole, compared to 6% each for Iraq policy, Iraq homefront (remember that Walter Reed item that's still eating a big chunk of coverage time?), the tornado blitz in the south and the drop in the stock market. Events in Iraq consumed 5% and Afghanistan 4%, and when taken together it's clear that the situation in the Mideast still dominated coverage. Interestingly, all five media had a different top story. Newspapers went with 2008 campaign (7%), online with events in Iraq (11%), network TV with the Iraq homefront (12%), cable with tornadoes (10%) and radio solidly with Iraq policy (17%). The tornado story was the biggest newcomer, and will no doubt be the biggest to leave the chart next week, unless Mother Nature has an encore in her repertoire. The top story to leave the overall top ten was the Libby trial (it showed up only on the online chart) - look for a resurgence on that one next week. Anna Nicole Smith managed to remain in the top 10 for another week, thanks again to cable, which still found it to warrant 9% of its time. The 20 distinct stories getting at least one mention on the media charts was an increase of three over the prior week.
| Top ten lists here |


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Wall Street Media Business Report TM
Here, boy!
CBS Corp. is calling home some of its Class B stock - 47M shares to be exact, according to Forbes. An "accelerated repurchase transaction" is expected to top out at 1.4B dollars. It's part of a program announced 2/27/07 and is subject to adjustment.


Ad Business Report TM

A conversation with
Google Audio's Jim Woods

Jim Woods, Director of Product Management for Google Audio, gave us an update of where they are with the product and the beta test. Woods started and ran Harris's Radio and Broadcast Business Unit for about 10 years. He joined Google last summer and for the last six months was running the broadcaster facing portion of the business-the automation platforms formerly known as Scott Studios and Computer Concepts Maestro. His responsibility is all of the product management for the audio portion of Google.

We asked: What are some of the most recent developments you can talk about regarding getting the system in more markets and more radio groups?
We on the advertiser-facing side are in an advanced beta stage. We have a kind of a controlled launch, if you will, as we go through the beta portion of introducing the product. We're adding more and more advertisers every week to that program and it continues to meet our expectations. We are very, very happy with the progress. As with anything new we iterate, we expose the product to advertisers and get a little smarter everyday. Make some changes and continue to expand that footprint. Ads are actually connecting over 900 broadcasters at this point. So we are placing spots everyday with our network. So we do have active campaigns--advertisers placing and developing campaigns and placing orders and we are delivering to our partner stations. We continue to be very focused on as I call it the "big idea" around bringing new advertisers to the table for radio. Google has an extensive number of relationships with hundreds of thousands of advertisers and most of them do not participate in radio today. So as we provide an interface for them to start to advertise with radio, we believe we can bring a lot of those advertisers to the radio industry. That continues to be our focus.
| Read More... |

Berlin Cameron United
wins Heineken

Heineken USA announced its selection of Berlin Cameron United as its English-language advertising agency of record for the Heineken franchise, supporting both Heineken Lager and Heineken Premium Light in the United States. The assignment, effective immediately, represents a consolidation of English-language advertising for both Heineken Lager and Heineken Premium Light. Prior to the review, Heineken USA worked with Publicis USA on the Heineken Lager assignment, while Berlin Cameron handled advertising for the launch of Heineken Premium Light. MediaVest USA will continue to handle English-language media planning and buying for the Heineken USA brands and this work was not part of the review process. "Throughout the review process, Berlin Cameron brought to their work a deep understanding of the Heineken brand together with an exciting and powerful vision of how it should be brought to life creatively," said Ken Kunze, chief marketing officer, Heineken USA. Pile and Company, the Boston-based consulting firm, managed the review process for Heineken.


Media Business Report TM
Tribune spins a pair of papers
The Advocate of Stamford CT and Greenwich Time of Greenwich CT are heading to a new owner. The southern Connecticut newspapers are headed from one big dog to another, going Tribune to Gannett for 73M. The real estate associated with the operations will be sold later after a "transitional lease" period. Tribune's Dennis FitzSimons said, "With this transaction, we have exceeded our goal of selling 500M in non-core assets as part of the performance improvement plan we launched in 2006." The sell-off included television stations in Albany NY (to Freedom for 17M), Boston MA (to Sunbeam for 113.7M) and Atlanta GA (also to Gannett for 180M), as well as 2.8M shares of Time Warner stock and a printing facility once used by the Los Angeles Times.


Media Markets & Money TM
Close encounter in upstate New York
If Albany is upstate, then these stations in Glens Falls, Queensbury and Lake George may be considered upperstate or upstater, depending on both your own personal taste and your own willingness to depart from the conventions of the English language. Nevertheless, Eric Straus's Regional Radio Group has closed on its deal for, respectively, Talker WWSC-AM, Hot AC WCQL-FM and Oldies WCKM-FM. Brokers Jim Hoffman of Explorer Communications and Dick Kozacko of Kozacko Media Services peg the value of the deal at 2M. It marks a return to radio ownership for Straus. The seller is Entertronics Inc., headed by David Covey and William H. Walker III.


Washington Media Business Report TM
Consent decree made public
No, not the consent decree everyone's waiting for involving payola. This is a much more low key decree, between the FCC and Navajo Mission Inc.'s KNMI-FM in Farmington NM. It appears that the noncommercial operator "exceeded the bounds of what is permissible and within licensee discretion" in some of their underwriting announcement copy. In other words, the mentions given to program sponsors veered into apparent commercial speech. The two parties have taken the consent decree route, which means Navajo Mission admits no wrongdoing, but will take steps to corral its copy writing techniques, and will also make a voluntary 1.5K donation to the US Treasury. It also gets its license renewed free of smudges, with its character and other qualifications declared intact by the Commission.

FCC reauthorizations
may contain errors

AM radio operators shocked to discover that a reduction in pre-dawn and post-sunset power came tagging along with the new date for daylight savings time may have a more pleasant shock in store - the fact that many such changes may have been in error. Affected operators are advised to check the FCC website, or if necessary bring the matter directly to the FCC's attention. Attorney Peter Gutmann of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LPPC says, "Many licensees have noted with varying degrees of shock that their replacement authorizations reflected far lower power levels than they currently use and drew this to the attention of FCC staff. Now, the staff advises that there were multiple errors in their program and that many parameters will need to be recalculated. The staff plans to post revised authorizations, where appropriate, in the same section of the website as the initial ones - hopefully by the end of this week, since the changes are to take place Sunday. So all affected licensees should check throughout the week to see if their authorizations have changed - and if they suspect that the current (or revised) ones are in error, they need to bring this to the FCC staff's attention." Gutmann added, "...the new authorizations are not automatic but rather require notification to the FCC before a station begins to use them. All it takes is a simple letter giving the licensee's name, station call sign, station city of license, affirmation that the PSRA or PSSA is going to be used, and a description of the method by which any necessary power reduction is to be achieved."

RBR observation: It looks like this is one tempest that not only has been returned to the teapot, but has been turned into a mere mild drizzle. But as has been noted, it's up to each licensee to make sure everything is cool, and there isn't much time.


Entertainment Media Business Report TM
Dick Morris joins
TRN for daily vignette

Political analyst Dick Morris has joined TRN Entertainment as a short-form radio commentator. Morris will be offering one 4 minute and two 90 second daily vignettes with his opinions, observations and personal commentaries. "We are thrilled to have Dick Morris join the TRN Entertainment team. His unique background makes his personal observations always interesting, compelling, and very enlightening," says Mark Masters, CEO of Talk Radio Network Entertainment. "We look forward to syndicating 'Dick Morris Reports' and 'Moments with Morris' nation-wide with stations coast-to-coast." Morris is best known for managing Bill Clinton's successful 1996 re-election campaign. He served as a political consultant for Clinton for over 20 years. He then moved his focus to media and media commentary, with a weekly national column for the New York Post and regular appearances on the Fox News Channel. Recently, Morris has emerged as critic of the Clintons, writing several bestselling books exposing the inner workings of the Clinton White House. "Dick Morris Reports" and "Moments with Morris" is scheduled to begin in late March, and will be available on an exclusive market-by-market basis.

Greenstone Media and Modavox
join for VoiceAmerica Women's Network

Modavox, Inc. an internet producer and syndicator of online audio and video, has announced a programming partnership with GreenStone Media, the emerging leader in talk radio programming for women. The agreement will see GreenStone's program line-up form the backbone of Modavox's new online VoiceAmerica Women's Network, starting in March 2007. The arrangement will also provide GreenStone with a venue to pilot new content and most importantly provide a proving ground for promising talent. Modavox will take advantage of the online ad marketplace and will generate revenue for both companies through advertising, sponsorships, and brokered radio fees with each new show it creates and distributes online.


Ratings & Research
Hispanics are Country listeners too
Hispanic radio listeners are favorable toward and open to listening to Country music, according to a new survey conducted by Edison Media Research on behalf of the Country Radio Broadcasters (CRB). Yet, potential listening among Hispanic consumers is hampered by a lack of awareness of their local stations and a perceived lack of outreach by Country radio, the study found. Full results of Edison's study, "The Hispanic American Relationship to Country Radio and Music," were unveiled at the 38th annual Country Radio Seminar last week in Nashville. The study of 600 Hispanics nationwide, age 12-49, and their relationship with Country music was commissioned by the CRB to examine the growth potential of the format among America's most rapidly expanding demographic group. The good news for Country music is that nearly a quarter of Hispanics age 12-49 say that they enjoy listening to Country music (24%) and another 42% say they "do not listen to Country music but they would be open to listening more." Only one-third of Hispanics say they dislike Country music and would never listen - a number in line with what is seen among white Americans. Larry Rosin, President of Edison Media Research, concluded, "You reap what you sow. Country music only needs to make itself available to Hispanics, and then court them. Listening will almost assuredly go up."

RBR observation: We have heard complaints from some Country station owners in border areas that they can't get in on Hispanic ad buys, even though the majority of their listeners are Hispanic. Also, when Emmis pulled the plug on Country in LA, one of the organizers of a group campaigning for the format's return (which happened last week) said the claim that LA was too Hispanic for the format to work was bogus. She said local Country concerts draw heavily Hispanic crowds. Country is not a whites-only format, as the Edison research points up.


TVBR TV News
McDowell advocates cautious approach to violence reg
The topic of broadcast violence came up in a session with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell (R) at last week's National Association of Broadcasters State Leadership Conference, and McDowell feels that his views on the matter have been misrepresented somewhere along the line. To summarize, he is in favor of protecting children from televised violence if Congress can find a constitutional way to do it. McDowell said, "As a father of two young children with a third on the way, I am extremely concerned about the coarsening of television content. More should be done to protect our children from indecent and violent material. While the market is developing technological solutions that may help parents control the television content that their children view, as always, Congress may deem it necessary to place restrictions on the broadcast of violent content. However, should the federal government pursue the noble endeavor of protecting America's children from television violence, it should do so in a prudent and cautious manner that withstands constitutional muster."

TVBR observation: We think that the second the government waltzes down this particular path it is going to be in trouble. We remember way back to the 1996 presidential campaign, when sight unseen, Bob Dole (R-KS) decried the extreme violence of Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers," and in the same breath praised the good, wholesome, old-fashioned work of Arnold Schwarzenegger. We aren't movie critics, but we thought the whole point of "Killers" was to satirize the prevalence of violence in the work of people like Schwarzenegger, and just about everything else, from cartoons to the evening news. If politicians are unable to get Stone's point, and don't even do the minimal homework of actually watching the movie prior to commenting on it, how can we to expect them to codify something this constitutionally sensitive? The fact is, even if they did a thorough, thoughtful and meticulous job, we think the task would still be impossible. Next stop: the courts.


Transactions
45.7M KBBB-FM/KBUL-AM/KCTR-FM/KKBR-FM & KMHK-FM Billings MT (Billings, Hardin MT); KZMY-FM/KMMS AM & FM, KPRK-AM/KXLB-FM & KISN-FM Bozeman MT (Bozeman, Livingston, Belgrade MT); KYSS-FM/KGVO-AM, KLCY-AM, KLYQ-AM/KBAZ-FM & KLTC-FM Missoula MT (Missoula, East Missoula, Hamilton, Superior MT); KSEN-AM/KZIN-FM Shelby MT; KKCB-FM/KLDJ-FM/WEBC-AM & KBMX-FM Duluth MN-Superior WI (Duluth, Proctor MN); KID AM & FM, KWIK-AM/KPKT-FM & KLLP-FM Idaho Falls-Pocatello ID (Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Chubbuck ID); and KLIX AM & FM/KEZJ-FM Twin Falls ID from Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc. (Mark Mays) to Blue Point Media LLC (Christopher F. Devine). 2.285M escrow, balance in cash at closing. Superduopoly in Shelby MT with FM CP Choteau MT (102.3 MHz) & FM CP Fairfield MT (103.7 MHz); Superduopoly in Idaho Falls with FM CP Aberdeen ID (99.5 MHz). [File date 2/8/07.]

2.775M KACI AM & FM/KMSW-FM & KIHR-AM/KCGB-FM The Dalles-Hood River OR (The Dalles, Hood River OR ) from Columbia Gorge Broadcasters Inc./M.S.W. Communications LLC (Gregory P. Walden, Mylene Simons Walden) to Bicoastal Columbia River LLC, a subsidiary of Bicoastal Holdings Company LLC (Kenneth R. Dennis). 100K escrow, balance in cash at closing. Includes non-compete. Existing superduopoly among FMs (AMs do not overlap one another). LMA 2/1/07. [File date 2/8/07.]


Stock Talk
What if they held a bounceback and everyone was invited?
Stocks in general picked back up yesterday, and for once, broadcast issues were invited to the party. You have to long carefully to find a stock that dipped. Although an unlucky 13 cent drop attached itself to megagroup Clear Channel Communications.


Radio Stocks

Here's how stocks fared on Tuesday

Company Symbol Close Change Company Symbol Close Change

Arbitron

ARB

45.36

+0.80

Journal Comm.

JRN

12.95

+0.19

Beasley

BBGI

9.12

+0.08

Lincoln Natl.

LNC

67.67

+0.48

CBS CI. B CBS

30.94

+1.32

Radio One, Cl. A

ROIA

6.86

+0.10

CBS CI. A CBSa

30.88

+1.33

Radio One, Cl. D

ROIAK

6.88

+0.13

Citadel CDL
9.76 +0.10

Regent

RGCI

2.95

unch

Clear Channel

CCU

35.62

-0.13

Saga Commun.

SGA

9.89

+0.14

Cox Radio

CXR

13.95

+0.49

Salem Comm.

SALM

11.35

+0.16

Cumulus

CMLS

9.59

+0.05

Sirius Sat. Radio

SIRI

3.47

+0.10

Disney

DIS

34.37

+0.65

Spanish Bcg.

SBSA

4.45

+0.03

Emmis

EMMS

8.03

+0.15

SWMX

SMWX

1.05

-0.15

Entercom

ETM

27.79

-0.02

Univision

UVN

35.96

+0.04

Entravision

EVC

9.05

+0.06

Westwood One

WON

6.70

+0.20

Fisher

FSCI

45.39

+0.98

XM Sat. Radio

XMSR

14.14

+0.67

Hearst-Argyle

HTV

26.12

+0.70

-

-

-

-

-


Bounceback

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Below the Fold
Ad Business Report
A conversation with
Google Audio's Jim Woods and an update of where they are with the product and the beta test...

Media Business Report
Tribune spins a pair of papers
Advocate and Greenwich Time heading for a new owner...

Media Markets & Money
Close encounter in
upstate New York

Regional Radio Group closed on its deal for, A Talker, Hot AC and Oldies stations...

Ratings & Research
Hispanics are Country listeners too
Potential listening among Hispanic is hampered by a lack of awareness...

Arbitrends

Arbitron
Market Results
| Akron |
| Boston |
| Detroit |
| Hartford |
| Riverside |
| San Diego |




Stations for Sale

10 TX, AZ, NC, and GA
FM radio stations at an exceptional value offered for sale. Broker cooperation encouraged. Please visit www.toweritrust.com for complete information including pricing.

NorthEast FM's For Sale
Clusters, standalones, sticks
8x - 12x BCF, 950K - 7.2M
[email protected] or
781-848-4201


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Contact
June Barnes
[email protected]

More News Headlines

Shaq attacks
childhood obesity

ABC is reportedly in agreement with NBA Miami Heat luminary Shaquille O'Neal which will result in a new entry into the reality program genre this summer. This time, however, stations airing the program will have something nice to jot down in the public interest section of their public file. The program will fight the growing tendency toward obesity in America's children. The as yet untitled and unscheduled program is based on a British program featuring a soccer star rather than basketball. It follows children attempting to lose weight and according to the Associated Press, O'Neal will actually lobby politicians in an effort to get them to work on various cures to the problem, including upgrades in school nutrition.

RBR observation: This sort of programming could be a possibility for both local television and radio. There will be a lot of time on side channels in need of filling, and what better way than to get average local citizens to tackle a specific problem? Depending on the ill, there may even be local businesses willing to sponsor such a program. Something to think about...

Obama optional funding plan approved by FEC
The Federal Election Commission has issued an advisory at the request of presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) that will allow him to collect campaign an uncapped amount of contributions while keeping the option open to use federal funding in a general election should he emerge from the primaries as his party's nominee. John McCain (R-AZ) quickly announced he would pursue the same path as Obama. Obama has asked for a declaratory ruling on grounds that, while he would like to adhere to the principle of publicly-financed campaigns, at the same time he did not want to be left at a competitive disadvantage with so many other candidates opting out of the system. If you opt in, your general election spending is capped; it is not if you opt out. The rules adopted for this purpose are these: " * Contributions designated for the general election will be kept in a separate account; * Only the campaign treasurer and chief operating officer will have access to this account; and * The funds in this account will not be used for any purpose." If the candidate accepts the federal funding program, the money in the account would be returned to the contributors within 60 days. According to the Washington Post, McCain, who had reportedly been on the fence (and was taking some heat for the perception that he may decide to defy his own penchant for campaign finance reform) announced through campaign manager Terry Nelson that he would follow the same path and would opt into the federal system should he receive the Republican nomination, so long as his opponent does so as well.




SmartMedia Magazine

Coming in April's Issue:
News Directors speak on content gathering and delivery in the new media world.

Branding: Michael Keller, chief brand officer for International Dairy Queen

OneonOne: George Beasley celebrates 45 years in the biz

AdBiz: Michael Bologna-- Mediaedge:cia Senior Partner, Director of Emerging Communications writes on VOD Advertising

Quarterly Stocks report

3M: Financial Roundtable Part II

Eng. & Tech: HD-2 equipment glitches Bonneville—Phoenix study

If you missed the
March issue...

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So you Don't miss
April's issue


RBR Radar 2007
Radio News you won't read any where else. RBR--First, Accurate, and Independently Owned.

Fall 2006 national format averages
The latest Katz Media Group Radio National Format Averages report for all Fall 2006 markets shows how demos continue to play an increasing role in analyzing the shifts seen among formats. Analyzed are over 4,000 stations and nearly 50 formats in 298 Arbitron markets to produce the figures for this study. 35 format classifications - some separately for AM and FM stations - are examined in detailed in this RBR page.
03/06/07 RBR #45

Have opinion, will travel?
There are a lot of factors that can enter into the debate on whether or not the merger between XM and Sirius should be allowed to go forward. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft entered into the debate, sending a letter to his successor opposing approval to the deal. But according to the Wall Street Journal, he apparently was ready to argue in favor of it.
03/06/07 RBR #45

Thumbs up for buyout
One of the major advisors to institutional investors is recommending acceptance of the 37.60 per share buyout offer for Clear Channel Communications. Even so, Proxy Governance says it has some reservations about whether the price is adequate. With the clock ticking down to the March 21st shareholders vote on the 26.7 billion bid by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Mays Family to take Clear Channel Communications private, the opinion of advisory firms such as Proxy Governance may hold the key to whether or not CCU's large shareholders vote to take the buyout.

RBR observation: The suspense builds. Will CCU be able to sell the deal to two-thirds of its shareholders, despite the opposition of its largest shareholder, the Fidelity mutual funds group? With a 10% no vote a given and at least 10% of the shareholders likely to not bother to vote - which puts them in the no column as well - it will be challenging for the would-be buyers to keep that 20% from creeping up past 33% and nixing the deal.
03/05/07 RBR #44

Clear Channel signs for
PPM in Philadelphia
Holdout Clear Channel has changed its mind-it will now encode its stations and subscribe to Arbitron's PPM system in Philadelphia. This, after massive pressure from the agency and advertiser community, and after the system was recently accredited by the Media Rating Council for use in Houston (Arbitron has not yet received formal accreditation for the system in Philly).

RBR observation: Yes, Clear Channel had no choice in Philly and will likely have no choice in other PPM rollout markets as well. CCU and some other broadcasters are still funding the Houston test for an alternative audience measurement system from Media Audit/Ipsos. If the numbers look good on that test, we're sure the RFP Committee will push hard for its accreditation. A lower price for service is a major driver. But accreditation takes time and meanwhile, PPM will continue to get established, market by market. Last and most important to remember is Media Audit/Ipsos is not scheduled for results until early 2008.
03/05/07 RBR #44

3% gain! Don't touch that dial
Leave it right there, at 3%. That's where local business stands for 2007 compared to 2006, based on Radio Advertising Bureau/Miller Kaplan Arase & Co. numbers for the month of January. It wasn't that long ago that a 3% gain would have been cause for major snoring, but lately, any number that is curly and black looks good. Of course, this tale of a silver lining comes with a black cloud, and that is national business, which sported the same curly number as local, but colored red. However, the combination was good for a 2% gain in overall spot revenue, and non-spot revenue was up a hefty 13%. Non-spot remains, however, a small portion of total business, and the double-digit performance did not bring the bottom line any higher than the aforementioned 2%.
03/02/07 RBR #43


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