Viacom considered Yahoo! merger
According to blogster Jeff Calacanis, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told Monday's D Conference, organized by the Wall Street Journal, that in his previous job as President of Viacom he once looked into a merger with Yahoo! following the announcement of the Time Warner-AOL merger. But with Yahoo!'s stock at $230 a share, the two sides couldn't figure out a way to do a deal that made sense. Although Karmazin said he wasn't happy that the Time Warner-AOL merger turned out to be a disaster, Calacanis noted that he "smiled a little bit." As for the present, Karmazin said Sirius is not competing with XM, but rather with terrestrial radio. He said there were three things that attracted him to satellite radio: the commitment of automakers to install receivers, the bandwidth advantage of having 120 channels in every market nationwide and contest - - "things that can't be broadcast across terrestrial radio."
Jury awards fired DJ 10.6 million
Infinity, as you would expect, plans to appeal a jury's decision which awarded $10.6 million to Erin Weber, who claims she was fired from WYCD-FM Detroit because she complained about being exposed to another employee's perfume, which sickened her and caused her to miss work. Infinity had required the other DJ to stop wearing the perfume to work, but Weber said the other woman intentionally exposed her to it at a country music festival. She then complained that the company was not protecting her from attacks by the other DJ. Weber claims she has been unable to find another job since being fired in 2001 because she has been "blacklisted" by Infinity - - another claim that the company denies.
Lizz Winstead suing Air America Radio for severance and back pay
Former Air America talker Lizz Winstead is suing, claiming she was fired and stiffed out of nearly $300,000. The suit says Winstead, co-creator of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," started at Air America on 8/1/03, as the first creative and third employee overall hired and became its principal developer of programming and co-host of the show "Unfiltered." She's suing for $200,000 for on-air work from 5/04 to 3/4/05 plus $83,333 in severance pay, $14,423 in unused vacation time and $5,960 that she says the net pocketed from her on-air ads for the Vermont Teddy Bear Company.
Dille to be honored
Federated Media President and CEO John F. Dille III will receive the NAB National Radio Award at the Friday Radio Luncheon September 23rd during the 2005 NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia. Dille, who heads a 15-station radio group, was twice NAB Radio Board chairman and chaired the unification task force that merged the National Radio Broadcasters Association and the NAB.
Beasley honors outstanding employees
Beasley Broadcast Group announced that Fayetteville's Pet Money was selected as the company's 2005 Business Manager of the Year and Tera Ware of Augusta's "Lite 98" WSLT-FM was chosen as the overall winner of the 2004 President's Club. The awards were presented over the weekend at the annual gathering for Beasley's Business Managers and President's Club members. The President's Club consists of Beasley Sales Executives who are inducted based on their abilities to meet or exceed advertising sales budget goals, attaining accreditation from the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) as Certified Radio Marketing Consultants (CRMS), and surpassing goals for numbers of proposals written and for higher price per unit rates.
IPG names Steve Centrillo EVP, Chief Growth Officer
The Interpublic Group has named Steve Centrillo EVP and Chief Growth Officer, reporting to Chairman and CEO Michael Roth. Centrillo will be charged with building on Interpublic's recent success in promoting collaboration among its agencies and in improving the company's organic growth performance. Centrillo comes to Interpublic from Grey Global Group, where he had been EVP/Managing Partner of darkGrey, an integrated communications unit dedicated to technology and telecommunications clients, as well as COO of Grey Worldwide Atlanta. Kevin Allen, who had served as IPG's first Chief Growth Officer since May of 2003, is relocating to London, where he will focus on European business development initiatives.
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