Mercury Awards join in "Less is More"
With much of the radio industry embracing Clear Channel's attempt to move advertisers to shorter spots, the 2005 Radio-Mercury Awards have joined the campaign by offering a new prize. There will now be a Mercury award category for the best 30-second spot. The winner will receive a trophy, $5,000 cash and be eligible to compete for the $100,000 Grand Prize.
Sirius signs for NCAA rights
Adding to its deal to air NFL games, Sirius Satellite Radio signed a deal to air the men's NCAA basketball tournament through 2007. Sirius will broadcast every game of the tournament for the next three years, the network said Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed. All games from every round will be offered in their entirety, with no blackouts and at no extra charge over the basic monthly subscription price of $12.95.
Coroner: Ebersol's son probably dead
Officials have not found any trace of 14-year-old Teddy Ebersol, who was on board a private jet with his father, NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, and older brother Charles when it crashed on takeoff Sunday from the Montrose, CO regional airport (11/29/04 TVBR #173). "We believe at this time that the boy has probably perished within the crash," Montrose County Chief Deputy Coroner Matt Elits told a news conference on Monday. Eyewitnesses told reporters they were astounded to see Dick and Charles Ebersol walk away from the flaming wreckage. Both are hospitalized in Grand Junction, CO. A crew member who was more critically injured was taken to a Denver hospital. Two other crew members were killed in the crash. The charter jet was to have taken the three Ebersols to South Bend, IN, where 22-year-old Charles is a student at the University of Notre Dame. Ebersol's wife, actress Susan St. James, did not go along with her husband and sons on the flight. NBC said she was with Dick and Charles at their hospital by Sunday evening.
Halifax to get two more FMs
The CRTC has granted licenses for two more FMs in the Halifax, Nova Scotia market. Canwest Global gets a license for "The Breeze," a new contemporary easy listening format that pulls from soft contemporary, Celtic, folk, blues, jazz and world beat.
The Breeze will join CanWest's two other Canadian radio stations, CoolFM,
Winnipeg's voice of jazz, which went on the air in 2/02, and The Beat, which provides listeners in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Southern Ontario, with the hottest sounds from today's leading hip-hop and contemporary dance music artists, which launched in January '04.
Toronto-based CKMW Radio has been granted a license for "The Beat," a Youth Contemporary FM on 103.5 mHz aimed at the 12-24 demo with Urban/Hip Hop, Alternative Rock, Top 40, R&B and Dance.
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