Radio News ®

"60 Minutes" gets FCC indecency complaint
from familiar face
Attorney John Thompson, whose complaints about Howard Stern helped garner Clear Channel's ($495K) and Infinity Broadcasting's recent fines, has faxed a complaint to the FCC over last weekend's 60 Minutes airing, where singer Mary J. Blige uttered an utterly indecent "sh*t." Thomson, after hearing about the item on WIOD-AM Miami's "The Schnitt Show," sent the complaint to FCC Chair Michael Powell, saying it was a repeat airing and that CBS had two chances to edit it out but didn't. The complaint was specifically lodged against CBS-owned WFOR-TV Miami and all other CBS TV stations. From Thompson's complaint: "This constitutes a violation of FCC-enforced decency standards, just a surely as does Bono's use of the word "f*cking" on the primetime telecast of the 2003 Golden Globes." RBR observation: OK, here's the test-will the FCC actually start treating TV with the same malice as radio, or give another get out of jail free card as with Bono? We have a complaint coming from the same person over a similar event-that aired twice!

Politicos spending early and often
President George W. Bush, all by himself, spent $50M on political advertising during the month of March, according to the Associated Press. This report comes after a much-earlier Brookings Institute assessment putting his spending at $30M, which was in and of itself considered extraordinarily high. | Full Story Click Here |

From the NAB...

Conference Calls, Q2 2004

Hot political category fuels Journal journey
Multi-media Journal Communications cited a number of factors which helped it produce a 26% gain in net earnings (Q1 2004 vs. Q1 2003). Among them were a successful cost-containment program, improving local revenues and a unexpectedly robust collections in the political category. | Full Story Click Here |

Confer confirmation strikes back
Another company has announced a time and date during which it will confab with analysts, shareholders and other interested parties to discuss Q1 2004 revenue results. This time, it's Hispanic radio specialist Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. The date is Wednesday, 5/5/04, and the time will be 11:00 AM Eastern. Now for the "strikes back" part, which involved Jefferson-Pilot, which will have a lot to say about its insurance business, along with a few crumbs directed at those of us looking for broadcast trends. They will hold forth as planned the Wednesday prior to the SBS session, 4/28/04, but have decided to move the time back an hour. Originally pegged for a 9:00 AM start, the teleconference will now kick off at 10:00 AM Eastern. As usual, RBR will be tuned in so you don't have to.

Adbiz ©

ANA publishes study on client-agency relations
Released a benchmark study on client-agency relations. The research, which included both clients and agencies, is designed to help both parties understand best practices that make their "marriage" work. The survey of more than 100 major advertisers revealed that: * Advertisers want agencies that are responsive (95%) and provide outstanding service (95%). This is consistent regardless of type of industry or size of company. * The top three attributes advertisers want from their agencies are effective campaigns (56%), outstanding ideas and implementation (40%), and strategic counsel and insights (35%). RBR observation: In short it is called accountability and the real McCoy. For complete details and knowledge take a click. | Full Story Click Here |

AHAA releases Hispanic ad spending by company
In preparation for its semi-annual conference in Miami this week, the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA), in association with TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, has released a comprehensive ranking of Hispanic ad spending by marketer. The top three on the list are P&G, Sears and GM, which spend between 5.2% and 21.1% of their ad budgets targeting Latinos. RBR observation: Top 20 advertisers in US Hispanic market chart is worth the printing out since the information is based on TV & Print, Jan-Sept. 2003. | Full Story Click Here |

Interep and Advertising.com
announce partnership
Interep and Advertising.com announced a strategic marketing partnership designed to provide integrated online and radio-based campaign solutions with measurable ROI for advertisers. Interep will work with Advertising.com, a results-driven interactive marketing services provider for interactive advertisers and publishers, to deliver the joint offering. Says Marc Guild, President of the Interep Marketing Division: "Through this type of integrated radio/Internet campaign, we can optimize results by altering format, site, daypart - even day of the week - while providing advertisers with documented ROI data." He added, "Radio and the Internet are highly complementary media. Radio's ability to drive consumers to a website and build awareness is the perfect match to the Internet's ability to deliver highly targeted, addressable messages and complete the sale."

Media, Markets & Money tm

Washington Beat

Sales

Transactions

$9,000,000 KDUT-FM Salt Lake City (Randolph UT) from Millcreek Broadcasting LLC (Bruce Buzil) to Bustos Media Holdings of Utah LLC (Amador S. Bustos). $1M deposit, $M cash at closing, $3M note. Includes non-compete. Duopoly with KOTB-FM Evanston WY, which is coming in deal with same seller. LMA since 3/9/04. [File date 3/19/04.]

$700,000 KPTL-AM Reno NV (Carson City NV) from Casino Radio LLC (Harold D. Holder Sr.) to The Evans Broadcast Company Inc. (Jerry & Leslie Evans). $15K deposit, $35K escrow, $300K cash at closing, $350K note. Combo with KGVM-FM Gardnerville-Minden NV. [File date 3/19/04.]

$1 KADU-FM Hibbing MN from JPI Radio Inc. (Jarel Pittman) to SGM Radio Inc. (Steven Drees, Karri Drees, David Miller). Cash. Station is noncommercial. [File date 3/19/04.]

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