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Clear Channel done deal
 The deal for Clear Channel will go on the books at 36 bucks a share as expected. The purchase price, valuing the takeover at 17.9 billion, is lower than the 39.20 a share Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP agreed to pay last year The next step will be for shareholders to approve the new financial arrangements, which will add still more time to the process.
Early this morning Clear Channel posted the announcement on their website which in part stated; “The company, entities sponsored by Bain Capital Partners, LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., and a bank syndicate consisting of Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, have entered into a settlement agreement in connection with the lawsuits previously filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York and the State Court in Bexar County, Texas. Pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement, the parties have agreed to enter into a third amendment to the previously-announced merger agreement. Under the terms of the merger agreement, as amended, Clear Channel shareholders will receive $36.00 in cash for each share they own.”
There was ample motivation to get the Clear Channel merger into the THL/Bain partnership, and one of the prime motivators is the desire to avoid spending money on costly lawsuits in two states. WSJ quotes one anonymous observer who noted that there are deals you want to do and deals you can do. Recent movement is to the latter category which proved correct.
RBR observation: CC’s statement opened with, “Shareholders May Still Elect to Invest in New Corporation Formed to Acquire Clear Channel Board of Directors Unanimously Approves. Settlement of Litigation and Amended Merger Agreement. New Special Meeting of Shareholders to Be Held.”
This ends the 1 1/2 years of wrangling over the buyout. Read the complete outline of Clear Channel done deal on RBR.com .
Bipartisan Senate group opposes performance tax
Members of the House of Representatives have been trying to throw a barricade before the attempt by the RIAA to collect performance royalties when music is played over the air, and now they've got necessary reinforcement in the Senate. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) are leading a bipartisan effort to head off the performance tax movement. The Resolution states, "Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over the air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings."
RBR observation: Where the labels are failing, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is starting to find some answers. But his experiments are not for everybody, and the labels should be working with broadcasters, not against them. Read the full comment by clicking the headline.
It's bombs away for veteran NYC newscaster
 Some may be thinking f-bomb when they see the latest tab from their grocery story, but for a WNBC-TV newscaster, it was incorrect footage to go along with a promo on a story on that topic that elicited the taboo expletive. The gaffe went out live over the air about a half hour before the 11PM newscast. Sue Simmons is the guilty party - when the wrong footage went up during a live promo, she said "What the @#$% are you doing?" About ten minutes into the subsequent newscast, she said "I have to acknowledge an unfortunate incident," she told viewers. "I used a word that many people find offensive. It was a mistake I made and I'm truly sorry."
RBR observation: Once again, we have an incident that was specifically exonerated in the indecency guidelines Michael Powell's FCC put out a few years back. The FCC will probably avoid any quick action on this now, since the fleeting expletive case is awaiting a Supreme Court hearing. But in our humble opinion, there is no way this qualifies as actionable indecency by the definition we had before before the wardrobe malfunction.
Gobbling up Hearst-Argyle shares
Hearst Corporation continues to increase its stake in Hearst-Argyle Television, despite having been rebuffed in a bid to take the TV group private at $23.50 per share. According to its latest SEC filing, Hearst Corporation has been in the market just about every day buying Hearst-Argyle shares. From April 14th through May 5th Hearst Corporation's Hearst Broadcasting subsidiary bought 501,000 shares of Hearst-Argyle for a total of $10,320,855.04. Prices for the share buys ranged from $19.77 to $21.31. In all, Hearst Corporation owns 74,360,857 shares of Hearst-Argyle, or 78.4% of all shares outstanding.
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CC Radio launches Totalradius.com
 for multiplatform options
With distribution channels that now include on-air, online, on-demand, mobile text and digital broadcasts, and ads that vary from blinks, sponsorships, takeovers, to pre-roll online video formats, radio's dynamic platforms offer tremendous opportunities and reach for advertisers. To help match advertisers' campaign needs with the best radio promotion tools, Clear Channel Radio announced the launch of B2B Internet site www.totalradius.com, which showcases the comprehensive offerings of radio. Totalradius.com is a public Web portal designed to demonstrate the ease, creativity and cost benefits of advertising on radio. Visitors will learn how to create a commercial, find out what a blink is and hear radio advertising success stories from prominent media personalities and experts in interviews exclusive to the site.
KRG names Ed Whitman to lead Tri-State Radio Group
Katz Radio Group appointed him as Vice President and Director of Sales of Katz Tri-State Radio Group, which serves 60 radio stations in the suburbs of New York City. Whitman, a 15-year vet of the radio industry, joins the company from Cumulus Media, where for the past six years he was National Sales Manager in six Northeast markets, including Bridgeport and Danbury, Connecticut; Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Westchester, NY; and Bangor, Maine. Also joining Katz Tri-State Radio Group, formerly known as Katz Suburban, is Bruce Feniger, who was President of NetSolutions at Interep. He will serve as a Senior Account Manager for the division. |
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Paradigm shift for CO DIY
Noncommercial Horizon Christian Fellowship has opted out of a CP it holds for an FM in Idalia CO, and is selling it to Roger Hoppe's Conundrum Communications Investments Inc., who is planning on making it a commercial venture once it's up and running. This is possible because the station is scheduled to take to the air well to the north of the reserved band at 94.1 MHz. Hoppe is paying $17.5K for it. At the moment, it's pegged as a very small Class A with a mere 100 watts at 190', but an application is already on file to take it up to Class C2 with 50 kw @ 285'.
RBR observation: We still don't see it as much of a threat to show up in an Arbitron or an Eastlan ratings report. The town of Idalia may well be the one that's in the middle of nowhere. It's in extreme eastern Colorado, not far from Nebraska, even less far from Kansas and very far from any yellow-shaded areas in our Rand McNally Road Atlas. |
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Consumers to spend rebate checks on necessities
 Consumers still plan to spend about forty percent of their tax rebate checks, sending 42 billion back into the economy, but what they plan to buy has shifted slightly from February, according to the findings of a National Retail Federation survey. Due to the rising cost of fuel, the largest leap in rebate spending will come at the pump, as 17.2 million people plan to use some of their tax rebate check to pay for gasoline, up from 12.1 million people who planned to do so in February. The rising cost of everyday items like milk, bread and rice also means more consumers plan to spend the checks on groceries, with 21.2 million people using a portion of the check for food, up from 20.4 million people in February.
RBR observation: Look at the chart where consumers are going to start spending this money. If they are going to start savings, you want to hit some banks for ad dollars. If they are going to buy necessity items, they are broken down by retail category.
Retail sales show resiliency in April
After several months of lackluster sales, retailers finally have a reason to cheer. According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry sales for April (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) rose 2.3% unadjusted over last year and 0.6% seasonally adjusted month-to-month. April retail sales released today by the U.S. Commerce Department show total retail sales (which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gasoline stations and restaurants) decreased 0.2% seasonally adjusted from the previous month and increased 2.6% unadjusted year-over-year. |
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More ups than downs...
While the Dow was down yesterday, Radio stocks fared pretty well, with winners outnumbering losers. Clear Channel was up 1.43 on news the company will be sold for $36 a share.
Here's how stocks fared on Tuesday
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Chng |
Company |
Symbol |
Close |
Chng |
Arbitron* |
ARB |
|
46.64 |
+0.05 |
Google |
GOOG |
|
583.00 |
-1.94 |
Beasley* |
BBGI |
|
4.75 |
+0.09 |
Hearst-Argyle |
HTV |
|
21.01 |
+0.41 |
CBS CI. B |
CBS |
|
24.68 |
-0.09 |
Journal Comm. |
JRN |
|
5.91 |
+0.06 |
CBS CI. A |
CBSa |
|
24.73 |
+0.01 |
Lincoln Natl. |
LNC |
|
52.98 |
-1.17 |
Citadel* |
CDL |
|
1.64 |
+0.04 |
Radio One, Cl. A |
ROIA |
|
1.05 |
+0.03 |
Clear Channel* |
CCU |
|
34.30 |
+1.43 |
Radio One, Cl. D* |
ROIAK |
|
1.04 |
+0.03 |
Cox Radio* |
CXR |
|
12.97 |
+0.18 |
Regent* |
RGCI |
|
0.98 |
+0.04 |
Cumulus* |
CMLS |
|
4.63 |
+0.20 |
Saga Commun.* |
SGA |
|
5.26 |
-0.09 |
Debut Bcg. |
DBTB |
|
0.30 |
0.00 |
Salem Comm.* |
SALM |
|
3.02 |
-0.20 |
Disney |
DIS |
|
34.33 |
-0.44 |
Sirius Sat. Radio |
SIRI |
|
2.83 |
-0.04 |
Emmis* |
EMMS |
|
3.30 |
0.00 |
Spanish Bcg.* |
SBSA |
|
1.64 |
-0.01 |
Entercom* |
ETM |
|
10.95 |
+0.10 |
Westwood One* |
WON |
|
1.70 |
+0.04 |
Entravision |
EVC |
|
5.82 |
-0.05 |
XM Sat. Radio |
XMSR |
|
12.36 |
+0.06 |
Fisher |
FSCI |
|
31.91 |
-0.32 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
*Component of the RBR Radio Index |
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Ad Business Report
CC Radio launches
Totalradius.com for multiplatform
Media Markets & Money
Paradigm shift for CO DIY
Noncommercial has opted
out of a CP it holds
Programming Business Report
Broadcasters rollout
new multicast programming
Internet Business Report
Emmis Interactive
Signs with iTunes
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Cyclone eats into campaign coverage
But the week of May 5-11 was still all about the battle for president, on the Democratic side, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The weather disaster in Myanmar blew a few points off the campaign, which had key primary battles in North Carolina and Indiana to focus on. And Myanmar actually headed the list among online journalists. But when push came to shove, it was election 46%, cyclone 15%. The two stories ate so much of the hole that five others were able to find a niche on the overall top ten list with a mere 1% of the focus. There was a good deal of scattershot interest in foreign stories other than the cyclone, but none were so compelling as to amass widespread interest and many showed up on only one of the five charts. To see coverage by media, click on the headline above.
Canon launches print campaign supporting camcorders
Canon U.S.A. announced the launch of a new, integrated campaign for its camcorder product line up. A two-pronged effort with creative supporting Canon's new VIXIA line of HD camcorders, as well as its revolutionary line of Flash Memory camcorders, will reach consumers through a variety of print and interactive executions. A new platform for VIXIA was developed, "Be HD," which will communicate how Genuine Canon Optics and Canon's proprietary video technologies help consumers to experience the full potential of HD video. The effort will launch with full-page newspaper ads...
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We're looking for the "Write" person!
Sovereign City Communications LLC has an immediate opening for an Assistant Writer Researcher. Duties will include reviewing music schedules, creating compelling and relevant content for on-air talent, assisting Senior Writer and Show Producer. To apply see radio careers.
 Radio Careers
Submit a Job
Find that key person!
Fill that important position at your organization with RBR Classifieds. .See our website for details. |
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Read the html version here. 
The National Association of Broadcasters says it will be no small thing for broadcasters to keep up with the new programming paperwork the FCC wants to hit them with. In fact, it says it will be enough work to require 21.5 hours a week of somebody's time. "The Commission has radically understated the associated information collection burdens by more than 1,000 percent," said NAB in its filing. EVP Dennis Wharton noted that local service is vital to the success of most broadcasters, and pointed out, "Our concern with the new FCC rules are their scale and scope, and the burden involved in complying with this new mandate, particularly for smaller stations. Free, local broadcasting serves a unique role in the fabric of American life, and we would submit that these regulations would negatively impact the ability of many broadcasters to continue serving our communities."
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