Moonves out to fix Infinity
He may have spent his career in television, but Les Moonves is working to get up to speed on radio now that Infinity Broadcasting is part of his portfolio as Co-President/COO of Viacom.
"Radio has not had quite the same year as TV has and it's an area of great concentration for us," Moonves told the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment Conference in Los Angeles. He said Viacom is going to spend more on developing its radio properties and to cross-promote them with its TV and outdoor operations. As previously announced, Moonves said Viacom was looking at selling some Infinity stations in smaller markets. "We may unload some fringe stations in smaller markets that aren't performing," was how he put it.
Infinity President/COO Joel Hollander was also on hand for the investor confab and blamed some of his unit's difficulties on the weakness of the entire radio business. "The sector is having problems, but we feel it's going to turn around," he said, but added that Infinity is working to improve marketing and programming at its stations. Hollander also applauded Moonves and Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone for giving the green light to invest more money to build up the Infinity radio properties.
Moonves also admitted that CBS faces problems for its news division in the wake of what some have called "Memogate" - - the scandal over "60 Minutes Wednesday" airing a Dan Rather report on President Bush's National Guard service based on memos that now appear to be fakes. "At CBS News we've been in third place for the past few years and it's going to be hard to fix that until this issue gets resolved," Moonves said. CBS has ordered an independent probe into the matter (9/23/04 RBR Daily Epaper #186).
But despite that news scandal, Moonves had plenty to be upbeat about. After all, CBS' prime time shows had just leveled the competition in the first week of the new TV season (9/30/04 TVBR Daily Epaper #191). "It's only going to get bigger and bigger," Moonves said of the programming in the pipeline for the network.
So, what's next? Moonves says he has his eye on the US Hispanic market. Viacom would like to have a Spanish broadcasting or cable company of its own to compete with NBC Universal's Telemundo and the sector's giant, Univision.
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