Seminars to take dollars from newspapers
RAB and Media Monitors announced a partnership to teach local radio sales executives how to take ad dollars away from newspapers. The free seminars conducted by RAB will use local data from Media Monitors' PaperVue newspaper ad tracking service to educate sellers and arm them with information to pitch advertisers who are using newspaper advertising to reach more consumers by adding radio to the mix. The first seminar will be May 19th in Baltimore, with other top 30 markets to follow.
NAB takes CEA to task for digital delay
The Consumer Electronics Association is trying to buy more time from the FCC on deadlines for production of digital television sets, and the National Association of Broadcasters is crying foul. NAB President/CEO Eddie Fritts said, "CEA member companies continue to sell millions of analog TV sets every year, while refusing to tell consumers that these sets will soon be obsolete or need converters to work in the digital era. It is time for CEA to stop perpetuating this fraud on the American consumer."
Fritts said that manufacturers stand to benefit from a huge windfall as Americans are forced to acquire updated TV receivers. NAB wrote, "Yet CEA has consistently thrown roadblocks in the path of the transition by fighting the DTV tuner mandate, failing to properly educate retailers about the transition, and refusing to tell consumers that analog TV sets may soon become obsolete."
CEA is complaining that 50% of sets shipped after 7/1/05 must be digital. NAB and Association for Maximum Service Television are filing to block such a change, and in fact, are recommending that all TVs shipped as of 7/1/06 must be digital.
RBR observation: NAB is right. It's crazy to have people buying something that may well be legislated into mandatory obsolescence before the year is out. Rep. Fred Upton, who will have something to say about that, said earlier this year, "Don't buy an analog set any more, buy a digital set." (2/17/05 RBR #34). Unfortunately he said that on C-SPAN. The message needs to get out over media with much broader access to the American public.
AP board gives approval to new online licensing fee
The Associated Press Board of Directors has approved a new online licensing structure to cover use of AP content on newspaper and local radio and television station member Web sites. Starting next year, all members who use AP content in their online operations will begin paying a license fee.
Previously, AP newspaper and local radio and TV station members had been allowed to repurpose for the Web the AP materials received for their print publications and on-air broadcasts at no additional charge. While ending this "free re-use" policy, AP intends to couple this paid online license with an annual assessment increase that is smaller than the yearly average for the past decade, said Burl Osborne, chairman of the AP board and publisher emeritus of the Dallas Morning News.
RAB and Media Monitors to present sales training sessions
From the NAB Convention: The RAB presents its Breaking The Daily Habit: Winning New Radio Dollars From Print in a series of free sessions sponsored by Media Monitors. The series kicks off in Baltimore on 5/19. The free session is open to the first 50 SMs and AEs in the Baltimore region to register. The three-hour workshop will be held in the Radisson Hotel at Cross Keys in Baltimore on May 19th from 9AM to Noon, and begins with breakfast at 8AM. Applicants may register by phone at 1-800-67-MEDIA, or by e-mail [email protected].
Conducted by RAB Senior Vice President of Training, Lynn Anderson, Breaking The Daily Habit: Winning New Radio Dollars From Print reveals how to position Radio's strengths against newspapers and exposes the inequity that exists between newspapers' dwindling circulation figures and its share of local advertising budgets.
Rusty Humphries Show goes on the road to Iraq & Kuwait
Talk Radio Network's Rusty Humphries has begun a week-long trip to Iraq, Kuwait and other non-disclosed locations as a military observer. "My goal is to see what is really going on and report it back to my audience. Too many 'journalists' have pre-conceived opinions. I'm excited about talking to the real folks on the ground, soldiers and citizens," says Humphries, the host of the nationally syndicated The Rusty Humphries Show.
"I will have the opportunity to talk directly with Iraqi citizens. No middleman, no censors, no spin - I will ask the people who have lived through this war think about, Saddam, the insurgents and the American people," added Humphries. Armed with a satellite phone and a digital recorder Humphries will be calling in to his regularly scheduled show and will also be available as a call-in guest on other radio programs.
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