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Mississippi AM-FM
Recently Merged, Profitable Now
Significant Upside Remains
Gordon Rice Associates
(843) 884-3590
[email protected]

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.

Parcell to Vegas
Curtis Parcell has joined Beasley Broadcast Group as General Sales Manager of its four-station Las Vegas cluster, with a special emphasis on News/Talk KDWN-AM. He had previously been GSM for Anaheim Broadcasting in Riverside-San Bernardino.

NAB election results
The National Association of Broadcasters has announced the results of the 2007 NAB Radio and Television Board elections. The two-year terms of the newly elected Board Members will begin in June 2007.
| See the list |

Entercom moves Celtics
Entercom announced that play-by-play of the NBA Boston Celtics will move to Sports/Talk WEEI-AM after two seasons on News/Talk WRKO-AM. Both Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell are expected to remain as the play-by-play team.

Stakeholders well
on their way to
DTV deadline
Some politicians still seem very leery of the rapidly approaching day when analog broadcast television is turned off for good, but representatives of the four main stakeholders - broadcasters, cable, manufacturers and retailers, seem confident that the situation is well in hand. Barrington Broadcasting's Jim Yager, testifying on behalf of the NAB and all broadcasters, made no bones about it - citizens are the industry's lifeblood, and there is no getting this wrong from a business standpoint. Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) kicked off the session asking for "high definition clarity about the DTV transition," and stated the general Democratic belief that the Republicans in the last Congress underfunded the transition. He was echoed by Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, who said, "I have great apprehensions that a fine mess lies before us." Ranking Member Fred Upton (R-MI) disagreed, and in a moment of what we guess you'd call prepraise, said, "Broadcasters should be commended for the work they're going to do" to smooth the way for the transition. That is the major issue, whether enough money has been allocated to set-top digital-to-analog converters and consumer education. Stakeholders testified about the steps they are taking, and Alex Nogales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition made the case for assuring that all Americans receive the necessary education. Mary Fetchet, Founding Director of the Voices of September 11 made an emotional and effective appeal for rapid adoption of first responder communications upgrades that are tied to the transition.

TVBR observation: John Shimkus (R-IL), arguing that enough money was indeed allocated for the coupons, quoted a study suggesting that only 25% of off-air-only consumers will want converter boxes. We find that a little hard to swallow, when their option will be a blank screen. Still it is true that many will pick up a new TV or finally subscribe to an MVPD service. The Republicans on the Committee, while not conceding the Democrats' prediction that more money will be needed, generally indicated they would support additional funding if necessary.
| Testimony summaries here |

Univision deal is a go
Jerrold Perenchio is letting go, and Haim Saban is taking over, now that the FCC has approved the sale of Univision in a stock deal that will move the USA's largest Hispanic broadcaster over to an ownership groups comprised largely of private equity companies. As reported, the FCC granted the transaction with the condition that the company pay an extraordinarily high fine of 24M for failing to meet its children's educational programming obligation. However, the 24M figure pales in comparison with the 13.7B in estimated value for the transaction. RBR attributed 10.4B of that to the television properties and 3.3B to the radio side. For the Station list here
03/28/07 RBR #61

Odds against XM-Sirius
Back when Sirius and XM agreed to merge, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin insisted that the chance of winning regulatory approval was better than 50% (2/21/07 RBR #36). Even after a round of generally negative hearings on Capitol Hill, there has been no word of the Zen Master changing his math. But stock traders are losing faith.

RBR observation: We think even that 30% view is pretty optimistic. Everyone seems to focus on the FCC and somehow forget that the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice also has to give its consent. That looks even less likely than putting together a 3-2 FCC majority vote. RBR believes, and continue to believe, that the chance of getting this merger approved is in the 10% area.
03/28/07 RBR #61

Hollander out,
Mason in at CBS Radio
Just days after rumors began to circulate that Joel Hollander was soon to depart as CEO of CBS Radio, that is fait accompli and Dan Mason is back at CBS Radio as President and CEO. It is a return engagement. Mason was President of CBS Radio from 1995 to 2002, during which time he merged together the operations of Group W Radio, which he had previously headed, CBS, Infinity and American Radio Systems. Mason begins CEO duties on April 16th and he told RBR that his priorities are easy. First goal is to get into the field and meet all managers. "I want to get inside all clusters and make sure our products are effective but more important managers needed to know I will give them control to run their operations with accountability." Mason emphasized to RBR that radio is a local business and feels strongly not taking control out of local managers and programmers hands. The second goal said Mason is "I will concentrate on technology and the use of the FM spectrum, namely digital radio." Mason will be based in NYC.

RBR observation: For those of you who do not know Mason his roots are deep as a PD and a damn good one. He is not your typical CEO in other words not a numbers cruncher. Also this is not a job that he needs to feed himself but more importantly a position that he desires as his goal is to make a strong difference for the radio medium especially in the world of HD. Mason is a stand up pro. Mason's return to controlling a major group of CBS will also be a breath of fresh air to the CEO roundtable. New workable ideas with a proactive strategy are needed and Mason is the radio guy to shake things up. Listen to this man as he will make a difference for our radio business.
03/27/07 RBR #60

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