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January 21,2000: CanWest Global Communications Corp. has told its shareholders it wants the rules governing Canadian media companies relaxed to enable it to compete with international media companies says a report in the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Executive Chairman Izzy Asper told the Winnipeg-based broadcaster's annual meeting that without changes Canada would become the 51st US state " in terms of media, information, entertainment, communications [and] electronic commerce."
Current rules in Canada are more restrictive than those of the US in terms of cross-ownership of media and the number of stations a company can have in a single market.
Globe and Mail report

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January 21, 2000: The UK Daily Telegraph reports on the use of radio to boost education in South Africa.
Factors noted in the report are the invention by Briton Trevor Baylis of the wind-up clockwork radio,the development of a broadcast education programme by OLSET, the Open Learning Systems Education trust which is a South African non-governmental body, and an appeal by the newspaper which raised more than £35000 from its readers.
Olset developed an "English in Action" radio programme to aid both teachers and pupils in the country with English which is crucial to employment opportunities.
Broadcasts are made half an hour daily on weekdays but more than half the country's schools have no mains power nor money for batteries to power portable radios.
Baylis's invention took care of the technology part and the clockwork radio is now manufactured in Cape Town by disabled workers. However many schools could not afford to purchase them so the paper stepped in with its appeal.
Daily Telegraph report

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January 21, 2000: As expected ( RNW Jan 20 ), the US Federal Communications Commission has adopted rules to allow of at least 1,000 low-power stations to serve local communities.
It also adopted new rules aimed at putting pressure on broadcasters to hire more staff from amongst ethnic minorities and women.
The new rules replace previous guidelines which had been ruled illegal by a federal appeals court which held that they unconstitutionally imposed quotas.
Under them the FCC is prohibited from taking into account a company's record on hiring women and minorities when it decides on licence renewals.
Under the old rules, if such hirings on a broadcaster's staff were at less than half the percentage of such groups in the local population it triggered a review of the company's hiring practices.
Broadcasters believed that this made their record a factor in licence renewal although the FCC disputed that.
The new rules require news about job openings to be sent to any group that requests it and also asks broadcasters to use various approved methods to publicize job opportunities such as being represented at job fairs or maintaining internship programmes for minorities and women.
Previous FCC

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January 20, 2000: Incoming BBC Director-General Dreg Dyke has now sold his shareholdings In Granada TV as required for him to take up the post. He held around 1million shares which have risen around a third since he was designated for the Post in November. Today they fell 11p to 620p( RNW Jan 17th )
Previous Dyke

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January 20th, 2000:Various newspapers in the US report on the plans to licence new low power Fm stations for the country ( RNW Jan 19th ).
According to the Washington Post thousands of churches, schools, community health organisations and would-be DJs have been flooding the Federal Communications Commission with e-mails in favour.
Under the plans new stations would have powers of up to ten or up to 100 watts compared to the previous smallest Fm stations allowed which were 6000 watts.
This would give the new stations a range of as little as 1.5km (1mile) up to as much as 6km (3.5 miles) from the ir transmitters compared to existing commercial stations with ranges from 8km (5 miles) to 40km(25miles)
The Post reports that FCC Chairman William E. Kennard has pushed the idea in the wake of the radio industry's increasing consolidation after the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which allowed a radio chain to own many stations in the same city.
Since then chains have bought more up small stations from more than 1000 former owners. Commercial broadcasters objected to the change saying that there would be interference with existing signals and also that advertising revenues would be hit.
The latter argument was defused when the FCC said the new stations, initially at least, would not be allowed to sell advertising.
The FCC ran test signals received with fairly cheap radios(under $150) and said that only two showed any interference.
The National Associaton of Broadcasters, which represents commercial broadcasters, also ran tests and says that they did find interference.
In particular they argue that the FCC did not test clock-radios or Walkman-like radios which are of a lower standard and thus more susceptible to interference. These radios they say are used by up to a third of listeners.
Washington Post report
Chicago Tribune report
Previous Kennard : Previous FCC

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January 20, 2000: Scottish Radio has announced plans to raise £75million through the issue of 5.5million new shares. The group, which has holdings in regional newspapers and advertising as well as radio, made a number of acquisitions last year and wants to be prepared for further acquisitions as it expects consolidition within the UK radio industry to continue.

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January 20, 2000: In her Boston Globe radio column, Clea Simon reports favourable on the children's weekend programme "the Playground" on of WERS-FM as a rarity, offering fun "without a catch."
The station is broadcast by the Emerson College station and, .notes Simon, does not carry commercials in contrast to other stations such as "Radio Disney" which packs plenty of them in.
She also notes the absence of what she calls "catchy bubblegum pop" which is widely aired by other stations as well as the freedom the show offers to introduce material which would not make commercial airtime.
Boston Globe report
Previous Clea Simon

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January 20, 2000: In a service it couldn't offer via normal broadcasting channels Premier Christian Radio is now offering a cyberspace confessional. "Sinners" who go the station's Confessor website can type their sins in a space on a form which the radio says is not stores or transmitted further thus totally respecting privacy.
The site has not been received favourably by the Roman Catholic church which only accepts confessions made in person with a priest.

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January 19, 2000: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote tomorrow in favour of a plan to create around 1,000 new low-power FM radio stations ( RNW, Jan 15th).
The move is being opposed by radio industry lobbyists who claim it will clog up the airwaves and cause interference to existing broadcasts.
But it is favoured by various groups who want more diversity in US radio now that recent takeovers have concentrated ownership of US commercial stations
( RNW Dec 30 , Los Angeles Times report)
Previous FCC

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January 19, 2000: The UK Radio Magazine, following up on the Scottish Media Group purchase of Chris Evans' Ginger Media Group, reports unhappiness amongst at least one major shareholder of SMG. It says Granada, who have 18% of SMG, apparently think the price being paid is too high although another major shareholder Flextech is supporting the deal.
Previous SMG item

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January 18, 2000: The UK Independent carries an article by Geoff Dyer commenting critically on the 'pre-formatted' way in which most journalists responds to unforeseen events comparing today's practitioners unfavourably with some of their predecessors.
He highlights the comparison of the reporter covering the Hindenberg disaster in 1937 who was so overcome that he could not continue.
His report because of the inability to find words ,says Dyer, conveyed the experience with" extraordinary immediacy and compassion."
By comparison Dyer finds much modern coverage banal because " the language - give or take a few circumstantial details - is always the same."
News reporters, he says do not have the "novelists freedom of invention" but he enters a plea for alternatives to the clichés delivered in hushed tones by reports of many disasters.
(*RNW would add that many of them are also meaningless or nonsensical. Perhaps readers who come across prime examples could let us know so we can feature them). UK Independent report

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January 18, 2000 : The lift-off for the first of Sirius Satellite Radio's satellites, scheduled this week from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, has been delayed by Russian authorities because of knock-on effects of launch problems last year.
It is now expected in March or April with klater launches shortly after this. By the end of this year Sirius expects to be broadcasting 100 channels of programming to the US.

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January 18, 2000: CTV NewsNet anchor Avery Haines, who won several awards for newscasting during her 11 years at Toronto radio station CFRB, has been fired after only two months at the station for comments she made denigrating various groups after fluffing an introduction, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.
CTV's senior vice president of news Henry Kowalski said an investigation was continuing but he had no alternative to the dismissal.
Haines told the paper the past two days had been her worst nightmare but she understood why the decision had to be made. She added she did not intend to denigrate anyone but was poking fun at herself in the comments made on Saturday when she was introducing an item.
After the fluff, the introduction was re-taped but the original tape with the comments went to air.
Haines twice apologised after listeners rang in complaining about the comments which included, "I kind of like the stuttering thing. It's like equal opportunity right? "We've got a stuttering newscaster. We've got the black, we've got the Asian, we've got the woman. I could be a lesbian-folk-dancing-black-woman stutterer. In a wheelchair . . . with a gimping, rubber leg. Yeah, really. I'd have a successful career, let me tell you "
Toronto Globe and Mail report

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January 17, 2000: A large part of the UK Guardian's "Media Guardian" today is linked to the BBC. Reports include an interview with outgoing BBC Dirctor-General John Birt, reports on the legacy he has left the BBC, and also on the future of BBC Radio 4 in the light of the departure of controller James Boyle (RNW Jan 16th ). Reports on the departure of James Boyle from Radio 4 are also carried by the UK Independent and Daily Telegraph.
Birt interview
Post-Birt -BBC same but different
Boyle quits -news report
Radio 4 post-Boyle
BBC News execs fired
Previous Boyle

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January 17, 2000: The London Times reports that, contrary to reports yesterday, incoming BBC director-general Greg Dyke is refusing to be pushed into selling his Granada shareholding before the April deadline he had agreed with the BBC's governors.
However the paper adds that Peter Ainsworth, the opposition Conservative Party's frontbench spokesman on the media, has said that Mr Dyke should sell his shares immediately. The Conservatives had objected to Mr Dyke's selection for the post after details emerged of his contributions to the Labour Party.
Previous Dyke

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January 16, 2000: The head of BBC Radio 4 , James Boyle, is to quit according to the London Observer.
The paper says Boyle, who revamped the Channel two years ago, is tipped to become head of the British Library.
Boyle , who is 53, has spent 25 years with the corporation and was appointed to head Radio 4 after overhauling Radio Scotland in the mid 1990's.
He was at the centre of controversy in both jobs and initially his changes to Radio 4 led to a loss of some 600,000 listeners to under 7.7 million, well below the psychologically important 8 million benchmark.
More recently the station has more than regained its audience , up to some 9 million with listeners also tuning in longer than they used to.
London Observer report

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January 16, 2000: The New York Times carries an article by Clea Simon who writes on radio for the Boston Globe commenting on the habit she and friends have of turning off their local radio and logging into the Internet for stations elsewhere.
Although, still a minority , she says the number of people choosing the Internet for radio is growing.
The article lists a number of links ranging from large broadcaster sites to smaller stations with outputs ranging from news and sports to various forms of music.
So far, notes the article, after five years online, Internet radio audiences in the USA have grown (according to Arbitron) to around four million listeners per week but its potential is enormous.
The article here makes some of the points we've been making about the potential for on-demand programming.
As it puts it," Radio, by its nature, has been limited by space, or distance from a tower or transmitter, and by time, since traditional stations present shows in sequence. Web radio is limited by neither. Because of its medium -- telephone or cable lines -- it does away with the geographic restrictions of radio. And because of the computer's virtually unlimited storage capacity, Web radio can archive nearly any number of programs indefinitely and offer them for access at any time.
New York Times report
Interestingly this is the first article we've read which makes the point that strictly speaking radio is "wireless" (to use an old term) so for the moment Internet radio isn't really radio at all. But with developments under way ( RNW Jan 14th re UK Internet radio licences) even that will change.

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January 16, 2000: Britain's Sunday Telegraph reports that Greg Dyke, the new BBC director-general, has agreed to sell his shareholding in Granada Television, worth some £6 million at current prices. When he was appointed he was given until April to sell shares in companies which might lead to a conflict of interest. So far he has already sold his stake in Persons, the newspaper, (Financial Times) publishing , production and information company and in Machester United Football Club. He also resigned from the club's board.

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January 15, 2000: The London Times reports favourably on the impact of women on radio despite the early days when they were, says the paper, pigeon-holed, patronised or at one time kept off the air altogether on the grounds that the engineers found their voices unsuitable "prevailing ionispheric conditions."
Nowadays it says radio is finding that it needs the right mix of men and women to get the rich aural variety it needs. Noting that the BBC took 11 years to use a woman radio announcer it adds that the second World War proved the turning point as women were used not just on the farm and in factories but on air.
Particular mention is made of Women's Hour as producing outstanding presenters and also pioneering by discussing such topics as adultery, abortion and contraception in defiance of bans. The paper also says they benefit from the fact that radio executives seem terrified of middle-class male voices but accept them from women.

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January 15, 2000 : In a commentary in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Eric Reguly, says that the AOL-Time Warner merger combined with coming internet technology is going to lead to the total Americanisation of the planet and will make local regulation of broadcasters superfluous.
Noting that Canadian radio stations currently have to include 35% Canadian content, he says that this just cannot apply to Internet stations at the moment because nobody has figured out a way to regulate it.
He suggests that possibly the only way of retaining local culture is for the regulators to eschew controls and instead switch to encouraging the development of material that can be used online.
"Sports, he writes," is a natural content route to pursue because of its wide appeal and devoted, statistics-mad fans. Any medium that allows them to watch their teams more often, and provide more information about the game and the players is bound to be a hit."
Globe and Mail report
RNW note: We would welcome feedback on this issue. As implied in our pleas for on-demand services from radio stations, we see that the Internet could be a tremendous way for local cultures to get wider exposure although we can also see the threat in mass media terms of a homogenous rather than diverse output. See RNW Nov 1999 comment

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January 15, 2000 : The US Federal Communications Commission appears to be moving towards a plan to approve thousands of new low-power FM transmissions.
FCC chairman William E (Bill) Kennard on Friday (14th) told the Educational Technology Leadership Conference that he hoped the plan would pass to the benefit of communities, churches and schools.
The proposals would permit broadcasters to operate with power levels up to around 1kw as opposed to the much larger outputs of up to 50kw from large stations.
Such stations have been opposed by the FCC for twenty years and commercial stations have expressed fears that their signals could be degraded by such transmissions.
The National Association of Broadcasters is among organisations which have commissioned studies to document degradation that could ensue if such low-power stations are introduced.
New York Times/A.P. report

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January 14, 2000: In a move that could widen further the scope of the Internet, Britain is to grant licences for fast permanent Internet access via radio links.
Details about what companies can bid for are to be given in March with the licences being issued in summer.
The licences would permit fixed terminals for individuals or companies which would send and receive radio signals.
Of Britain's existing mobile phone networks only Orange and Virgin have so far expressed interest.
All of Britain's existing networks, however, are to bid for the 5 planned new-generation UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems) licences which would permit full internet access from a mobile phone.

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January 14, 2000 : Another sign of the potential for Internet radio is reported in the Los Angeles Times after the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes failed to reach agreement with any radio station to have their games broadcast.
Although the Quakes are still trying for an over-the-air broadcast deal, they have signed one for Internet broadcasts by www.broadcast.com.
Listeners can go directly to the broadcast.com site or www.rcquakes.com which will have links for broadcasts of all the team's 140 regular California League games.

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January 14, 2000: The Sydney Morning Herald reports that ABC Radio will not broadcast the acclaimed production of the opera Elektra, despite a last-minute attempt to record tomorrow night's final performance and an offer by the artistes to waive their broadcast fee of around Au$150,000 in return for a tape of the performance.
The ABC says that it was disappointed but could not go ahead and make the recording without broadcasting rights which could not be secured in time.
The Sydney Festival approached the ABC on Tuesday about recording the production but a deadline set for Wednesday for securing the broadcast rights was not met.
Sydney Morning Herald report (link expires February 14)

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January 13, 2000: In a much anticipated UK media deal, Scottish Media Group is to buy Chris Evans' Ginger Media Group, which includes Virgin Radio and the presenter's Ginger TV, for £225 million (USD 371 million).
Evans will personally receive some £75 million in cash and shares. He is to continue presenting his radio and TV shows under the deal.
Nearly half of the £75m will be paid in shares in three equal instalments on an annual basis and will be forfeit if he leaves the company.
SMG also has an option to renew Evans's contract for a further three years, covering all his television and radio work.
Evans, whose assets are already estimated at around £30 million, said that the money didn't really mean anything to him, adding that much of it was still in the company anyway.

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January 13, 2000: The Los Angeles Times reports on the cosying-up of long-time rival Southland adult contemporary music stations KOST-FM and KBIG-FM.
After years of sniping at each other in advertising campaigns, the two stations are now under the same control following the purchase of KOST by AMFM Radio Inc which already owne KBIG.
Now Jhani Kaye, programme director at KOST for 17 years before moving to KBIG, has been appointed AMFM's director of contemporary programming for Los Angeles.
As a result he's in charge of both stations and competition has changed somewhat.
"KBIG and KOST always targeted the same audience in all those years we were head-to-head competitors," he told the Times. "So my assignment with AMFM is to pull the stations apart and have them coexist in the marketplace."
Among the moves being made are to change the target audiences of the stations so they don't compete head-on in the way they used. Kaye has also introduced the innovation of staggering advertisements; Every time KOST is in commercial, KBIG plays music, and vice versa.
Los Angeles Times report

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January 13, 2000 : The Chicago Tribune reports on the Golden Anniversary of a Chicago School radio staion.
WEPS-FM which first went on air at the old Elgin High School and now broadcasts as the Elgin School District 46 radio station.
The school started to offer radio classes to students, who learned everything from production to broadcasting but after Elgin High School moved to a new students had to take a bus to the old high school and back again.
This was cut for budget reasons in 1988 and now the only students regularly involved at the station now come from the Gifford Street Alternative High School, housed in the same building as the station.
The station however continues because district authorities kept it going to retain the frequency.
Its format is music and news and the station can can be heard over a 90 square mile area.
Chicago Tribune report

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January 13, 2000: 45-years-old radio news reporter Art Kraft has been awarded the 1999 Golden Mike award for the best sports news story of 1999.
The awards are made annually by the Radio and Television News Association to mark the best news broadcasts in radio and television in Southern California.
The winning story done for Thousand-Oaks based public radio station KCLU, reports the Los Angeles Times, sprang from Art noticing a boy with crutches sitting at the side whilst he was at a boxing studio in Simi Valley.
On checking further he found out that the 11-years-old boy, Joey Quail, who suffers from cerebral palsy had for the past year been the youth ambassador for the Kid Gloves organisation.
As a result he did a sports feature story on Joey and his family. The story, he says, had no fancy mixing or production; it was just a compelling human narrative made from people talking about their lives.
Los Angeles Times report

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