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RBR will check the business conditions from all sectors to keep an eye of the forward pacing of advertising dollars. This morning RBR business status report: With the anticipation of the war and now it is here March could close out at the local/national spot combine in the red average of -1.5%.

RBR continues to monitor the advertising pacing and in a nutshell first quarter in most cases will be ahead of 2002 with combined local/national spot will be up on an average of 3. Network/NTR is a ‘wobble’ depending on the region of the country. March could close out at the local/national spot combined in the red average of -1.5%. The positive is the war just started at the end of March.

The problem all are facing with the war was the timing. Westwood One (N:WON) jumped in front of the bullet first warning that its Q1 results would come in slightly below last year (3/19 RBR Daily Epaper #55). Speculation others may follow.

Editor’s note: Email us with you status report on or off the record. This is the time-sharing national, regional, and local pacing intelligence is important. This is one way radio wins the war. Email to [email protected] either on the record or off. United we stand to help one another.

RBR Business Briefs this morning 3/21/03:

Katz Media Group CEO Stu Olds told RBR yesterday morning (3/20) no one activated off air orders based on the brief attack, 3/19, 25% "at most" of his firm's national clients have orders out to pull their ads when war breaks out.

Interep (O:IREP), ABC Radio Sales President George Pine reported "There are 20-30% of advertisers who have plans to cancel their advertising once the war begins," he said. As of yesterday morning, Pine said he had not heard from all of Interep's offices to determine whether anyone had actually done so, based on the Wednesday night strike on Baghdad.

Saga Communications ( A:SGA) Warren Lada, Sr. VP/Operations has been notified by advertisers such as Verizon Wireless, as an example, if war is to start, they want to discontinue advertising until they evaluate what the impact has been. National and regional advertisers have given instructions to pull their ads off the air temporarily once war begins, Lada said that has not been the case with local advertisers, and there have been few cancellations even with war at hand.

Triad Broadcasting CEO David Benjamin told RBR reaction Triad is getting from advertisers is almost entirely from national and regional advertisers. "If there's a blanket response, it's that we'd like to cease being on the air for 72 hours and then we'll check back with you. That has been from national and regional - - not all national and regional, but a number, and that seems to be the formula."

Advertiser & Agency side, RBR sources agree that few, if any, advertisers are actually pulling ad dollars out of radio because of the war.

Horizon, VP/Group Director Bruce Heim, "I know of one client who has pulled out, and the reason the one guy pulled is because [the war] would directly impact on our campaign in terms of how it runs. ´ Everybody else is running as normal."

Carat, VP/Senior Spot Supervisor Fred Coady, "I think people are being a little cautious. This company, however, really isn't pulling out of anything right now. Our company is pretty stable and we had really no major pullouts of clients."

RBR Publisher request: Join your colleagues in communicating with others via RBR morning E-Paper. Email just a few lines to [email protected] or [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected] Now is the time to unite and work together.