San Diego: Politics, Stern and continuing challenges for radio
The NAB Radio Show in San Diego wrapped up Friday with a political focus - - appropriate since it was the same day as the second presidential debate. But while there was personal interest in the election among broadcasters, there was no discussion of how the election outcome might affect radio and TV regulation. After all, as Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan had noted on the show's first day, broadcasters had accomplished the remarkable feat of uniting both Democrats and Republicans - - against our industry.
If you were expecting startling political insights from analyst Charlie Cook at Friday's breakfast session, you were disappointed. "This is going to be really close," he said of the Bush-Kerry contest, unwilling to put his reputation on the line and predict a winner. "President Bush has a little bitty lead, but the news coverage the past couple of weeks couldn't have been worse," Cook said of the current (pre-debate #2) trend.
Despite his well-known Republican bent, Fox-syndicated radio host Tony Snow got in jabs at both candidates as the day's luncheon speaker. "George W. Bush speaks English and Spanish exactly the same way - - both as a second language," said Snow, who once worked in the White House of the first President Bush. But he also faulted Kerry for trying to please everyone - - and succeeding in pleasing no one. "I have no idea how the election is going to turn out," he conceded. For his part, Snow was more focused on promoting a campaign to help wounded US soldiers, the Wounded Warrior Project, and Soldier Ride - - a just completed cross-country bike ride to raise money for the effort. Snow had the entire room on its feet applauding when he introduced not only the young man who made the 4,000-mile bike ride, but four severely injured veterans who joined him on the last leg into San Diego.
For once, there was no mention of Howard Stern, whose name seemed to come up in every possible context last week. Word of Stern's defection to Sirius Satellite Radio first caught affiliates by surprise (10/7/04 RBR Daily Epaper), but then they became incensed as the "King of All Media" began to use his current radio show to promote his employer-to-be (10/8/04 RBR Daily Epaper).
Of far greater concern, though, was the continuing softness in radio ad revenues. RAB President Gary Fries insisted that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the radio business and called on broadcasters to get out of a bunker mentality and work on improving their own industry (10/8/04 RBR Daily Epaper).
On the regulatory front, NAB President Eddie Fritts warned that broadcasters are facing a never-before-seen tidal wave of license challenges (10/8/04 RBR Daily Epaper) - - a new legal morass that is going to have the billable hours clocks ticking at many communications law firms.
If there was any good news from Washington, it was in seeing some signs of sympathy to broadcasters from the two FCC Commissioners who made the trek to San Diego. Both Republican Kevin Martin and Democrat Jonathan Adelstein insisted that the Commission's indecency crackdown isn't going to treat bona fide news programming the same as a morning shock jock (10/8/04 RBR Daily Epaper). And they were sympathetic to broadcasters' complaints that requiring 24/7 program taping would place an undue burden on all stations for the transgressions of a tiny minority - - although neither actually pledged to vote against the pending taping proposal.
RBR observation:
Attendance in San Diego may have been a few hundred below last year's show in Philadelphia (which is the destination again next year), but that was to be expected from having fewer stations nearby. Having the entire event inside a large hotel made the event very comfortable and accessible. The exhibit floor was on the smallish side, but well attended and vendors reported good activity. With post-consolidation attendance leveling out in the 3,500-4,000 range, the Manchester Grand Hyatt was an ideal location.
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