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2000-07-23: Licence news this week.
All fairly quiet although the Low Power Fm battle seems to be hotting up in the US.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority has announced details of public hearings it will hold in connection with the allocation of its three new Sydney-wide community licences.
In all there will be 11 days of hearings in August and members of the public are invited to make submissions by August 4th.
The Authority has listed details of hearings relating to 18 applications from organisations as diverse as Christian and Islamic organisations through to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Broadcasters Incorporated.
There are also minority applications including competing Chinese community applicants, a Lebanese immigrants group and an aboriginal group.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, has renewed the licences for a number of native radio programming undertakings and networks for one year from the period from September 1 this year.
It has also called for comments on proposed changes to licence conditions for these undertakings.
In the UK, the Radio Authority has now published details of its timetable for new analogue licences, the pre-advertisement and re-advertisement of existing analogue local licences and for digital multiplex licences.
It has also published assessments of its awards earlier this month of the Coventry digital multiplex to GWR company Now Digital Ltd and of the Burgess Hill & Haywards Heath licence award to Central Sussex Radio and re-advertised the local radio licence forthe town of High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, and the surrounding area.
This licence is currently held by Radio Wye Ltd., broadcasting as Eleven Seventy broadcasting on AM but the re-advertisement offers the options of either an AM or an FM licence and will run for eight years from 31 December 2001, following the expiry of the present licence.
The FM licence would be for two frequencies on the FM waveband focusing upon the towns of High Wycombe and Amersham but reaching a small audience than the FM option.
Next week the authority will invite applications for a digital multiplex licence to serve the South Wales/Severn Estuary region.
In the US, the main controversy is still the Low Power Fm issue (see RNW July 18 and July 22 ).
Previous licence news
ABA website;
CRTC Website;
UK Radio authority website

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2000-07-22: The issue of Low Power FM radio is continuing to get cover in US newspapers.
Generally they feature the little guys who want the chance to their niche or community interests on air and the conflict of interest with the big broadcasters who say they fear interference but seem widely perceived as more worried about anything which could eat into the size of their audiences.
Around half of the applications have come from church groups most of who would use the frequencies for proselytising but the other half is very wide ranging.
Among the would-be broadcasters featured are the residents of the tiny Alaskan Eskimo village of Savoonga, population 650, who want to broadcast programs in their native dialect, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, helping to keep it alive.
They also plan to provide an important public service on such local potential hazards as polar bear sightings to warn residents of the village located in the Bering Strait just 40 miles from Siberia.
Currently the community's radio comes mainly from religious broadcasts, beamed in from two commercial FM stations in Nome, Alaska, some 170 miles (approximately 270km) away.
Those stations are poles apart from church applicants for LPFM who also vary widely as with the Church of the Open Door on the Chicago's Southwest Side.
There co-pastor the Rev. Alma Crawford says, "Even explorations of communities of colour, low-income communities and so forth, are always through the lens of a perspective outside our community."
The church intends to apply for a license to provide people in its Chicago Lawn neighbourhood "relatively unmediated access to one another."
The pastor says the church would use the station as a way to bring together the neighbourhood's African-Americans and growing number of Mexican immigrants by broadcasting programs that explore the common ground between immigrants from rural Mexico and blacks whose families hail from the rural South.
A similar perspective is cited by the Association for Community Reform Now in Louisiana where community activist Beth Butler says, "Currently, with the mergers between the radio stations across the country, a lot of the news and programs that come through are just canned, and they don't respond to the issues of low-income people at all."
Her group plans services which would inform listeners of low-interest loans, legal services and affordable offerings by phone companies and other utilities."
And finally a by-the-by mention here of Radio Free Berkeley and Stephen Dunifer who featured in our previous LPFM report. A federal appeals court ruled that as a pirate who did not apply for a licence he had no grounds to challenge an order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to shut down his low power station.
After the judgement, Dunifer's lawyer, Louis Hiken, said,"We don't know whether to declare victory or defeat. Everything we asked for, the FCC has done, but now the (National Association of Broadcasters), through the Congress, may overturn it."
Dunifer, whose station was closed in 1998, says he will continue his fight against broadcast conglomerates which, he says, drown out the voices of American citizens.
``As far as I'm concerned, all avenues of any equitable redress in this country have been cut off to the average person,'' said. Dunifer ``We've exhausted every legal remedy available to us, so therefore the only route that seems effective in achieving our goals will always be direct action and electronic civil disobedience.''
He wants activists to set up a whole string of Low Power stations to begin broadcasting together on September 20th then the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting opens in San Francisco.
Previous Dunifer ;
Previous LPFM report; Recent LPFM articles in US:--
Chicago Tribune July 20 ;
New York Time/AP July 20 : San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle have reports on Dunifer case:

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2000-07-22: More bad news for BBC staff. Britain's Culture Secretary Chris Smith has said that plans for 1100 job losses announced this month (RNW July 11) do not go far enough.
He told the British New Statesman magazine that the jobs cuts, which are expected to produce a £750 million saving over six years were a long way of the 1 billion ($1.5 billion) savings he was looking for in return for agreeing to above-inflation increases in the licence fee.
He also expressed concern over plans to transform BBC Television into "genre" channels along the lines of current radio output. (RNW July 11).
Similar concerns were expressed in the magazine by former BBC World Service head, John Tusa, who said that the change would "ghettoise" arts programming .
And more criticism of the BBC from the Foreign Office, but this time in an internal document which has just been made public under the "30 years secrecy" rule.
In it senior diplomat Sir James Johnston said BBC journalists represented "a larger collection of prima donnas than has ever graced Covent Garden(RNW note - Covent Garden is London's premier Opera House)."
The Foreign Office also lamented the fact that BBC journalists were subject "to no restraint equivalent to the Official Secrets Act" and that they were "not being amenable to regular direction".
RNW note: Which in the absence of a British Freedom of Information Act worthy of the name or more American attitudes to official secrecy, we consider a very good thing too!
Previous BBC;
Previous Chris Smith;

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2000-07-22: The US Department of Justice has now formally cleared the Clear Channel takeover of AMFM, requiring the company to divest itself of 99 stations as a condition of the approval.
The department says that the $23.5 billion deal is the largest radio deal it has reviewed and the divestitures in 27 markets total around $3.4 billion.
When the deal is completed Clear Channel will own or operate 898 station, barring that is, further acquisitions in the meantime.
Clear Channel has one in hand already, the $57 million purchase of 13 stations from Suburst Media .
The stations involved are KGBX-FM, KGMY-FM, KXUS-FM, KTOZ-FM and KGMY-AM in Springfield, Montana; KKYS-FM and KAGG-FM in Bryan/College Station, Texas; and KEAN-FM, KULL-FM, KEYJ-FM, KBBA-AM, KEAN-AM and KHYS-FM (formerly KORQ-FM) in Abilene, Texas.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval but Bryan-College Station is the only one of the three locations where Clear Channel already has stations, one FM of its own and an AM/FM combo it is gaining from AMFM.
Previous Clear Channel deals;
US DOJ news release;

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2000-07-21: Chicago's media columnists have been adding more detail on who is to switch to WBBM-AM when CBS-Infinity closes down WMAQ-AM at the end of this month (RNW July 12) .
And according to Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder there's not that much trust around the station.
He reports that the fired staffers are fuming at a memo from Georgeann Herbert, operations manager of WMAQ and WBBM on new security measures being instituted because in other station shutdowns there have been incidents of "theft and vandalism."
Under the new measures staffers at the station outside normal business hours have to sign in and out with a Pinkerton security guard.
In addition the station is planning a property pass system for the removal of personal items.
His Tribune colleague Jim Kirk reports that of the 54 staff at WMAQ, Chicago's oldest call letters, some 30 are being fired and of those remaining many are on the sales side.
Only one reporter and one writer/editor will move to WBBM along with WMAQ morning anchor Pat Cassidy and sports anchor Jeff Joniak whilst on the management side WMAQ news director Mike Krauser (RNW July 7) will take the vacant news director spot at WBBM and Sue Sentowski, promotions manager for WMAQ, will take on a similar role at WBBM.
Among those out on the street will be WMAQ political editor Bill Cameron who'd been with the station for 31 years.
Previous WMAQ;
Previous Cassidy;
Previous Feder;
Previous Kirk;
Previous Krauser;
Feder column;
Kirk column;

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2000-07-21: Chicago's media columnists have been adding more detail on who is to switch to WBBM-AM when CBS-Infinity closes down WMAQ-AM at the end of this month (RNW July 12) .
And according to Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder there's not that much trust around the station.
He reports that the fired staffers are fuming at a memo from Georgeann Herbert, operations manager of WMAQ and WBBM on new security measures being instituted because in other station shutdowns there have been incidents of "theft and vandalism."
Under the new measures staffers at the station outside normal business hours have to sign in and out with a Pinkerton security guard.
In addition the station is planning a property pass system for the removal of personal items.
His Tribune colleague Jim Kirk reports that of the 54 staff at WMAQ, Chicago's oldest call letters, some 30 are being fired and of those remaining many are on the sales side.
Only one reporter and one writer/editor will move to WBBM along with WMAQ morning anchor Pat Cassidy and sports anchor Jeff Joniak whilst on the management side WMAQ news director Mike Krauser (RNW July 7) will take the vacant news director spot at WBBM and Sue Sentowski, promotions manager for WMAQ, will take on a similar role at WBBM.
Among those out on the street will be WMAQ political editor Bill Cameron who'd been with the station for 31 years.
Previous WMAQ;
Previous Cassidy;
Previous Feder;
Previous Kirk;
Previous Krauser;
Feder column;
Kirk column;

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2000-07-21: Yet more comprehensive reporting in the Irish Times on the Flood Tribunal into cash contributions to Irish politicians from Century radio.
The paper reports that the tribunal has been told by Century director Oliver Barry that a 1989 cash payment of Irish £35,000 to then Communications Minister Ray Burke was not a personal contribution from him but was rather in the nature of a company contribution since the payment went through the company's books and co-founder, James Stafford, and a hidden investor, John Mulhern, knew in advance about the payment.
Stafford and Mulhern have told the tribunal they only learned of the payment some time after it was made.
Barry managed to get back the money he paid to Mr Burke from Century before the company folded in 1991.
Tribunal counsel Pat Hanratty SC said in his opening statement that Barry was denying Stafford's allegation that radio licences could be bought from Burke and former Fianna Fáil press secretary P.J. Mara at a rate of £90,000 for a national one, £75,000 for a Dublin franchise and £25,000 (not £50,000 as Mr Hanratty had said the day before) for a local licence.
Barry also alleged that Mara was looking for a consultancy, as well as stock options but at the time Century was in financial crisis and taking advice on shedding staff so was in no position to take anybody on.
Hanratty also revealed new information from Bank of Ireland, which showed that, to provide re-assurance over Century's competitive position, at a meeting in December 1989, he promised bank officials he would eliminate RTÉ's "excesses" by capping its advertising revenue.
Burke's lawyer, Aidan Walsh SC, told the tribunal RTÉ was abusing its position in the advertising market and Mr Burke capped its income in the public interest.
Mr Walsh said what occurred was a recitation of evidence and a running commentary as if Mr Hanratty was making the case for the prosecution in the case of RTÉ versus Mr Burke, RTÉ versus Century, RTÉ versus Oliver Barry and RTÉ versus James Stafford.
In his evidence Stafford attacked RTÉ and said that because Mulhern held no shares in the company he had not broken any Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) rules by failing to reveal Mulhern's involvement in Century.
The tribunal is expected to continue sitting for up to ten weeks.
Previous Flood Tribunal;
Previous Barry;
Previous Burke;
Previous Hanratty;
Previous Mara;
Previous Mulhern ;
Previous Stafford;
Irish Times search page (search for Radio and July)

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2000-07-21: The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a row between Internet radio venture Bigfatradio.com and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over mentions of ABC websites by BigfatRadio.
The ABC, says the paper, claims that audiences may take the mentions as an endorsement of Bigfatradio.com.
The latter's marketing director says the practice is similar to a radio commentator quoting references to newspapers.
He said he had received a phone call objecting to presenter and former ABC broadcaster Angela Catters referring to an ABC news site on her show. He added that another announcer, Helen Razer, also ex -ABC, had taken audiences on a tour of ABC children's sites and that they thought the mentions drove traffic to ABC's site.
ABC Online's marketing manager Michael Buffham said the corporation was very concerned about protecting the ABC brand.
Sydney Morning Herald item. Bigfaatradio website.

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2000-07-20: A busy time in Chicago as the Arbitron ratings are issued and AMFM announces changes in light of the takeover by Clear Channel.
On the ratings front, the news was good for CBS-Infinity which tends to give local managers more autonomy and not so good for AMFM which is more centralised and has just announced changes which reduce its Chicago area general managers from five to three.
Looking for other jobs are Don Moore, until recently General Manager of WVAZ and Ralph Sherman, until recently General Manager of WNUA.
Up the greasy pole are Marv Dyson, currently Vice President and General Manager of top rated urban-contemporary WGCI-FM/AM, who will take on additional General Manager responsibilities at former rival WVAZ-FM and Terry Hardin, currently Vice President and General Manager of adult-contemporary WLIT, who will add General Manager duties at smooth-jazz WNUA-FM.
Kathy Stinehour, market executive vice president for AMFM Inc. in Chicago will continue as general manager of rhythmic oldies WUBT-FM.
On the ratings front, the top slots remained unaltered with WGC-FM hanging in at number 1 but with audience share falling to 6.4% compared to the winter 7.5%, News-Talks station WGN-AM holding fairly steady with a 6.2% share compared to 6.4% in winter and third-placed WBBM-FM jumping up in audience to a 6% share from 5.3%, its highest figure in its top-40 format.
Sister Infinity station country-format WUSN-FM also had a strong showing, leaping up to umber four slot with a share jumping to 4.3% from 2.9% and pushing WLS-AM, which dropped from a 4.5% to a 4.2% down into fifth position.
In the morning drive slot, Spike O'Dell who took over the slot from the late Bob Collins who died in a light plane crash in February (RNW Feb 9), edged up from 9.5% to 9.6% with Felicia Middlebrooks and Ken Herrera at WBBM-AM up in ranking but slipping slightly in share as they took the number 2 position with a 5.6% share as opposed to 5.8% in the winter ratings.
"Crazy" Howard McGee & Tony Sculfield at WGCI-FM dropped back to shared third place with 4.9% compared to 6.3% for winter.
Ed Volkman & Joe Bohannon for WBBM-FM moved up from 4.8% to 4.9%.
In the midday battle the top three were (winter ratings in brackets) Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger on WLS-AM with.4% (5.6%), Judy Markey/Kathy O'Malleyand Steve Cochran on WGN-AM with 5.1% (5.5%) and Irene Mojica, WGCI-FM with 4.9% (down from 5.9%).
Afternoon drive top honours went to Roxanne Steele, WBBM-FM with 7% (5.9%), Rick Party, WGCI-FM with 6.7% (down from 7.9%) and John Williams, WGN-AM with 4.8% (down from 5%).
Interest now is centred on the changes at CBS-Infinity which has to dispose of a frequency because of the Viacom takeover of CBS and is reorganising an putting its weakest signal up for sale (RNW July 12).
From the beginning of August , when WMAQ's news format dies and the frequency goes to sports format WSCR-AM, current WMAQ-AM morning anchor Pat Cassidy will team up with Felicia Middlebrooks on WBBM whilst Ken Herrera moves from his morning slot to middays.
However this is expected to be an interim move with him likely to be paired with a new co-anchor and move to afternoon drive whilst WBBM's current afternoon team of Sherman Kaplan and Kris Kridel eventually move to middays.
Previous Clear Channel;
Previous Bob Collins;
Previous Terry Hardin ;
Previous Ken Herrera;
Previous Felicia Middlebrooks;
Previous Spike O'Dell

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2000-07-20: The Irish Times reports comprehensively on the Flood Tribunal hearings into allegations that senior Fianna Fáil figures sought bribes in return for awarding commercial radio licences.
Giving evidence was James Stafford, co-founder of Century Radio, who has alleged that former Fianna Fáil minister for communications , Ray Burke, and the party press secretary during the Haughey era, P.J. Mara, sought payments of £90,000 for a national licence, £75,000 for one of the two Dublin franchises or £50,000 for a local radio licence.
Both men deny the charges.
Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, has also revealed that Stafford and fellow Century director Oliver Barry had failed to reveal to the Independent Radio and Television Commission that Mr John Mulhern, the son-in law of the then taoiseach(Prime Minister) , Charles Haughey had a 17% stake in the company.
They had also failed to reveal their involvement in a bid for another radio licence, again in contravention of ICRC regulations.
Stafford, when asked about this omission, told the tribunal that he felt Mulhern should not be involved because his relationship to the taoiseach could have prejudiced the IRTC when it considered the licence application. He added that Mulhern did not invest in Century but provided a loan for Stafford to buy shares in the company; under a verbal "arrangement between friends" Mr Mulhern had a share option, but no controlling interest in the company. Four months after Century was awarded Ireland's first national commercial licence in January 1989(RNW note- it later collapesed in 1991) , Barry paid Burke Irish £35,000 in cash (RNW Feb 11) and two months before the payment Burke intervened in a row between Century and state broadcaster RTÉ over transmission fees.
Burke told RTÉ to charge about £150,000 for allowing Century to use its network of transmission facilities, a quarter of the £614,000 RTÉ agreed with Department of Communications officials, and less than half the £375,000 Century had offered to pay.(*RNW note: RTÉ's transmission netowrk is now to be sold off - RNW July 10)
In 1990 Burke reacted to please from Barry and Stafford by introducing a cap on RTE's revenue, in spite of widespread opposition.
When this matter was brought up at the tribunal, Stafford said he met Ray Burke February 1989 to protest at RTE's actions which he felt were an abuse of RTE's dominant position.
He said Burke said he could not assist him unless the matter was brought to his attention by the IRTC.
Stafford said he also brought the matter up with Charles Haughey but found him unsympathetic.
Previous Barry ;
Previous Burke;
Previous Flood Tribunal ;
Previous RTE
Irish Times search page (search for Radio and July)

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2000-07-20: The BBC has published its fifth annual Statement of Promises which it flags as putting "creativity and openness" at the front of its endeavours.
It lists four main commitments -- to spend more of the licence fee on programmes, to provide a richer mix of TV and radio programmes for everyone, more on BBC Online and more on BBC Online.
BBC News Release;
Statement of Promises

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2000-07-19: Some good news for BBC World Service in the British government's spending review.
The service, which is funded by a grant from the Foreign Office, is to get an extra £64 million over the next three years .
The increase was described by World Service director Mark Byford as "very good" and representing significant growth.
The extra funds are to be used to develop online services in various languages including Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish as well as improving short wave services to the Middle East and South and East Asia.

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2000-07-19: US Ceridian Corporation, which has just reported stronger than expected second quarter earnings, is to spin off its Arbitron radio ratings company.
Under the reverse-spin (Arbitron would spin off Ceridian) plan, which depends on the Inland revenue giving the split tax free status, Arbitron and Ceridian will become separately traded public companies by the end of the year with current shareholders retaining full ownership of both.
Ceridian will retain its Human Resources and Comdata business.
The new Arbitron Company will be headed by Stephen B. Morris, president of Ceridian's Arbitron business, who will be named president and chief executive officer of the Arbitron Company.
Arbitron headquarters will remain in New York, with a research and operations centre in Columbia, Maryland.
Arbitron's 1999 revenues were $215 million, primarily derived from the radio market and the new Arbitron will assume about $250M of Ceridian's $550M in outstanding debt.
Ronald L. Turner, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Ceridian said," We believe the separation of Arbitron and Ceridian will create two sharply focused companies well-positioned to pursue and realize their potential as independent companies in the distinctly different markets they serve. Both businesses are leaders in their respective industries, with strong existing businesses and attractive future prospects. As separate companies, they can better pursue attractive growth opportunities for the benefit of the employees and customers of both businesses while optimising the value of each individual company. "
Previous Arbitron;
Ceridian website

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2000-07-19: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which, under new President Robert Rabinovitch's plans to redirect resources into programming, launched a new property division earlier this month has now announced that it is looking for a buyer for its transmission network.
On offer are its 608 transmission towers, 750 transmission sites and 2500 transmitters together an on-going business of providing broadcasting delivery and other voice/data transmission services to broadcasters and other businesses.
Any buyer would have to maintain the CBC's transmission services.
Rabinovitch, commenting on the plan said, "Selling this large infrastructure should free up more resources for programming. We'll also gain greater flexibility that will allow us to explore different methods of program delivery, such as satellites and the Internet.
We must continue to focus on our primary objective - programming.
Signal delivery may be more efficiently delivered through other vehicles in conjunction with the private sector."
The only indication of the price expected was a reference to the assets being "valued at hundreds of millions of dollars."
Previous Rabinovitch;
CBC News releases

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2000-07-18: The battle over Low Power FM (LPFM ) in the US continues and seems to be hotting up with Congressional pressure to kill the idea before any licences are granted and as evidence grows that many of the applications for licences are from religious groups traditionally associated with the Republican Party which has been seeking to block the plans.
The Republican leadership has lined up with the big broadcasters in opposition but this may now exacerbate divisions over the issue within the party.
Federal Communications Commission chairman William E. Kennard, who championed the idea of up to a thousand small stations with a range of a few miles as a way to bring local voices and diversity to the airwaves, increasingly dominated by big corporations, has been attacked as being arrogant.
LPFM's opponents, who include National Association of Broadcasters, National Public Radio and the National Religious Broadcasters Association. say that the new stations would cause interference with existing stations.
All these organizations own and operate established stations and Kennard has accused them of creating a smokescreen because they are afraid of competition.
There were more than 700 applications for the 200 stations on offer in the first tranche for filings in ten states (RNW June 23) and of these around a half were from churches, mostly from groups active in conservative politics, and a further tenth were from schools.
Many of these applicants feel that their interests are not now represented on air particularly as the consolidation in commercial radio in the US since ownership rules were relaxed in 1996 has seen more than half the stations in the US change hands and the hands that own them go down by around a thousand.
In particular there has been a massive consolidation at the top with the Clear Channel-AMFM takeover creating a giant owning around 800 stations and annual advertising revenues of some $3 billion, nearly twice that of nearest rival CBS Infinity, ten times that of fifth placed Cox and twenty-times that of tenth-ranked Susquehanna(RNW June 21).
The rules about advertising have also loosened and many stations have a third of their time devoted to adverts, some nearly a half. Allied with this has been a lessening of airtime devoted to politics or local issues which many organizations and individuals see as detracting from democracy in the US. (See RNW June 23)
To some of those who hold this viewpoint, the technical arguments about interference are only part of the story but to Representative Mike Oxley (Rep.Ohio), who has spearheaded the drive against LPFM which has already led to Congress curtailing the number of stations they are central.
LPFM's supporters may prove to be physically active as well as vociferous according to a recent report in the San Francisco Examiner.
It quoted Stephen Dunifer of Berkeley, who pioneered "pirate radio" in the Bay Area and is a leader in the free radio movement (his 50-watt Free Radio Berkeley station was founded in 1993 and finally closed in 1998; he was fined $10,000 but has not been pursued for payment) as saying the opposition to LPFM was, " pure greed and avariciousness on the part of the NAB."
Dunifer went on say in reference to NAB's radio convention scheduled to be held in San Francisco in September, "We're planning a Seattle-style welcome for them" referring to protests in Seattle last November and December during a meeting of the World Trade Organization.
Less aggressively, Philip Tymon, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications told the Examiner, "What you had here was something the public really wants, the FCC approves it, and the NAB uses its muscle to kill it. It's disgusting. It's pure influence peddling - no way to sugar coat it."
Amongst those applying for some of the licences are "pirate" station operators who have been offered an amnesty if they apply for a licence.
Some of them think their existence was in part responsible for the LPFM plan and say that the opposition on the basis of interference has been proven to be unjustified on the evidence of their operations.
Paul Griffin of Berkeley Liberation Radio said, "When we scanned the dial, we found several quiet spots.The fact is we've been on the air for a year as Berkeley Liberation Radio (the successor to Free Radio Berkeley on the same frequency - also illegal) and haven't interfered with KFOG or KKSF," the two stations closest on the broadcast spectrum."
Previous Kennard;
Previous LPFM:
Previous Oxley;
Recent LPFM articles in US newspapers:--
New York Times July 18
San Francisco Examiner July 11
New York Times July 11

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2000-07-17: A variety in topics from the columnists this week. In the UK Sunday Times Paul Donovan comments on the question of regulation, in general, of advertisements and by whom.
He takes up the question of bars on adverts of the occult, high-risk futures investments, bookmakers and so on which the Radio Authority wants to lift, as does the commercial radio industry.
He also comments on the latter's wider strategy to have the same regulator for commercial broadcasters and the BBC.
Donovan says the signs are that the industry will succeed on both fronts partly because of the way the industry has lobbied the government.
Two key figures in the Commercial Radio Companies Association are Labour Activists, he points out, also noting that the new Radio Authority chairman Richard Hooper and chief executives Tony Stoller both attended the ruling Labour Party's gala fundraising dinner in April as guests of Chrysalis Radio which paid £5,000 for a table.
This money says Phil Riley Chrysalis radio chief executive will have to be declared as a political donation although it was done not to give money to the party but to talk to key decision makers about future regulation.
Amongst others, broadcasting minister Janet Anderson was on the same table.
(RNW note- Pork barrel politics? Or might this not be called "corruption" in it were to occur in the third world or former Soviet bloc??).
In the Chicago papers comments on a little history which was marked on Friday by WGN.
Both Robert Feder in the Sun Times and Jim Kirk in the Tribune (which owns WGN) note that the station marked the 75th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 in Tennessee when WGN spent $1000 a day on telephone lines to broadcast the proceedings live.
It was the first time legal proceedings had been so broadcast and WGN marked the occasion on Friday by broadcasting its afternoon show from outside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton.
Later it had a re-enactment of the trial which features a historic clash between counsel Clarence Darrow for the defence and William Jennings Bryan.
The original trial ended with teacher John Scopes being fined $100 and costs for violating Tennessee law in teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
Back to the UK and comment on more modern technology, this time by Sue Arnold in the UK Observer this time as a sideswipe over reception problems and the comment that a reduction in price of portable digital receivers is the only way of tuning into One Word, a new digital station devoted to books unless you want to listen on the Internet or from the Sky satellite, both of which tie you down to listening from an immobile location.
She moves on to criticise current book readings on UK analogue radio apart from repeats.
In the UK Times, Peter Barnard "warms to the idea of a "webmic", the aural equivalent of a "Web cam", an idea which came from the Sunday morning BBC Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House"
Presenter Eddie Mair, asked listeners for ideas about where the programme should place such a device.
He got the idea from dolphinear.com, a site where you can buy a hydrophone for about £100, connect it to headphones, drop it in the sea and listen to humpback whales, snapping shrimps and diesel boat engines.
Barnard goes on to speculate where such a microphone could be placed, coming up with suggestions such as, "the office of Feedback, the Radio 4 complaints programme, where I know that staff enjoy reading out the latest missive from Nutter of Cheltenham", other BBC sites such as the boardroom and director-general's office, or on the homes of carefully chosen listeners to be a high-tech and more entertaining version of the ratings.
"We would get," says Barnard, "a very good sense from such a device about how much radio people actually hear, as opposed to what they say they hear, and what they think of it: little radio research at present includes qualitative judgments." For other suggestions follow the link to the column.
Previous Arnold;
Previous Barnard;
Previous Columnists;
Previous Donovan;
Previous Feder;
Previous Hooper;
Previous Kirk;
Arnold column;
Barnard column;
Donovan column;

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2000-07-17: Frank Ahrens in the Washington Post reports on the Internet-only debut of www.worldclassrock.com. , formerly KACD, Los Angeles, which was left with staff but no frequency when owners Clear Channel sold the signal to Entravision for $85 million.
Last month staff at KACD put out an appeal on the station website for pressure to push Clear Channel into giving it a new lease on life as an Internet-only station (RNW June 29th ).
KACD when on air as an Adult Album Alternative format had only a small audience share of around 1% and was an obvious candidate for a sell-off when Clear Channel had to dispose of an LA channel as part of its AMFM takeover.
But the audience were in a segment valued by advertisers hence the chance for the whole station to move over to the Internet and also a useful way for Clear Channel to test the webcasting waters.
Program Director Nicole Sandler comments, "If this works, it could open the floodgates. If it doesn't, worldclassrock.com will be just one more cybercorpse in the dot-com dead pool. The trick is getting listeners to follow the station from the airwaves to the computer. It's a gamble, and the game is too new to lay odds."
The gamble seems to depend on more than just listener loyalty as there are also the technological problems.
As KACD the station had been streaming its signal on its website but could only handle 60 listeners at any time; now it's working with a company which claims it will be able to multicast to a million.
It's also slashing advert rates to around a quarter of its previous charge and being sold as an "at-work" station since it can't attract the lucrative morning and afternoon drive-time audiences.
Charlie Rahilly, Clear Channel's vice president of sales for Los Angeles says the station will be deemed a success if it can bring over a tenth of its audience and move out of the red within a year.
To do that probably needs technological change as developments continue in Internet radios, satellite radio and mobile communications, which could open up the driving audience. In the meantime staff are having to adjust to concepts new to them -such as time zones which have long been a factor for staff of multinational companies who have to adjust the hour, if not the time past it, and indeed the date to operate globally. RNW note: An interesting experiment but latest Arbitron figures (RNW July ) mean things don't look all that promising unless Internet, satellite and mobile communications technology really does move speedily into the mass market.
Previous Ahrens;
Previous KACD;
Previous Sandler; worldclassic.rock site
Washington Post report

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2000-07-16: Former BBC Radio 1 disc-jockey Andy Kershaw, whose Thursday night show was axed by the channel in May (RNW May 26) to protests from columnists and fans alike is now back with the BBC but on Radio 3, its mainly classical-music channel.
The UK Guardian reports that the hiring by Radio 3 controller Roger Wright is part of his policy of broadening Radio 3's appeal.
Kershaw will travel round the world and broadcast regular reports and recordings has has made on the road in the channel's World Routes programme which is presented by Lucy Duran.
Kershaw told the paper that he was asked by Wright months ago if Kershaw was interested in doing things for him and he wanted Radio 3 to be more than a classical music station.
Kershaw added that he was convinced when Wright said the thing he most liked about Kershaw's Radio 1 programme was, "that I never know what's coming next".
"That was exactly what the Radio 1 controller hated about my programme," said Kershaw.
In another move which may upset its traditional audience, Radio 3 has given UK Daily Telegraph music critic Norman Lebrecht a fortnightly show "Lebrecht Live" looking at controversial issues in the arts.
Lebrecht, who was voted critic of the year in the British Press Awards has regularly challenged accepted mores and upset some of the arts establishment.
UK Guardian Report

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2000-07-16: Licence news this week. And a very quiet week pretty well everywhere.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority has issued a temporary community broadcasting licence during the Sydney Olympic period to Gadigal Information Service Aboriginal Corporation (Koori Radio) which will use it for Olympic broadcasts targeted at the Aboriginal community.
It is on the 94.5 MHz band, the only Sydney-wide channel available during the period for community broadcasting.
Koori Radio is one of 18 applicants for three Sydney-wide community licences being made available and the ABA will be holding public hearings from August concerning their allocation.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has issued notices calling for comments on increasing the availability of minority official language specialty services to cable subscribers and on proposed amendments to implement its Ethnic Broadcasting Policy.
It has also renewed the licence for the University of Toronto Community Radio Inc, CIUT-FM Toronto and denied applications for licences for two English-language low power FM stations at New Liskeard and North Bay in Ontario by Joel Virtanen and another application for an English-language LPFM station in Timmins, Ontario from Tri-Tel Communications Inc.
It has approved a change of ownership of CJRN 710 Inc, the licensee of CJRN Niagara Falls and CKEY-FM Fort Erie/Niagara Falls, including its rebroadcasting transmitter CKEY-FM-1 St. Catharines and a change of effective control of Centario Communications Inc., licensee of radio station CKLY-FM Lindsay.
In the UK, the Radio Authority, apart from reminding commercial stations of rules concerning political impartiality (RNW July 13), has officially confirmed the Coventry digital multiplex award to GWR subsidiary Now Digital Ltd.
Previous licence news
ABA website;
CRTC Website;
UK Radio authority website

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2000-07-15: More US and UK radio deals. Cox Radio has announced the closure of its $125 million purchase of Marlin Broadcasting (RNW May 4), Salem Communications is selling its 1390Khz signal in Los Angeles for around $30 million to Hi-Favour Broadcasting which is headed by a member of Salem's board, Roland Hinz, First Media Radio is buying WZWW-FM, State College, Pennsylvania for around $6 million, the AAA group is buying WBAZ-FM & WBSQ-FM, Long Island. for around $2.7million and Chaparral Broadcasting is paying $1.1million for KZJH-FM in Jackson, Wyoming.
In the UK GWR Group has taken a 20% shareholding in the Wrexham-based Marcher Radio Group which owns five stations and which recently gave notice to its national sales representative and asked GWR to take over the representation.
GWR cannot take a larger stake under UK regulations because it is already over the limit allowed following its acquisition of DMG Radio (RWN June 15).
And on the satellite radio front, Sirius Satellite Radio has announced a marketing and programming partnership with New York City nightclub and entertainment venue Webster Hall.
The agreement includes provision for a weekly four-hour dance party to be broadcast live- and advertisement free - on Sirius's Dance Music channel from the Webster Hall Grand Ballroom.
Previous Cox Broadcasting;
Previous GWR Group;
Previous Salem;
Previous Sirius;
Cox Website;
Sirius website.

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2000-07-15: A tribute to Internet radio magazine RAIN for its initiative in doing some calculations on the Arbitron Internet audience figures which certainly seem to indicate that it will be a long while before they are a threat to broadcasters.
Taking the ATH measurement (RNW July 14) used by Arbitron and dividing it by the hours in February, RAIN arrives at a total of 339 listeners average at any one time for the top ranked station.
Comparisons are then drawn with the AQH (Average Quarter Hour) measurement used by broadcasters to indicate how many people are listening on average at any moment with top ranked stations in cities like New York averaging some 150,000.
National broadcasters like the BBC in the UK are way above that.
RNW comment-There's life in the old technology yet it would seem.
RAIN website

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2000-07-15: The Los Angeles Times gives a well earned mention to KIEV-AM host George Putnam who has just celebrated his 86th birthday and 25 years of continuous broadcasting of the station's "Talk Back" opinion show, making it the longest running radio show in Los Angeles.
Putnam started broadcasting in Minnesota in 1934 at the age of 20 and has worked in radio and television as a reporter and commentator for the 66 years since then.
Los Angeles Times report.

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2000-07-14: The UK Independent uses the existence of pirate radio stations broadcasting just one type of music and the absence of narrowcasting licences which drives them to broadcast without a licence to lead in to an article on the optimism surrounding Internet radio in the UK.
Examples cited are Capital Radio which announced new Internet plans this week (RNW July 13) and Storm Radio.
This UK Internet-only music station founded by ex BBC Radio 1 Disc jockey Bruno Brookes only cost £1 million to set up and sees the potential for Internet radio in the UK is seen as enormous.
Recent figures show more than a fifth of British internet users, and nearly a third of those in America, listening to Internet radio at some time.
However, as always, it's not just the programmes that count but the spondulicks as well.
Because there is no theoretical limit to the number of Internet stations it creates "inventory" and thus removes the limits on advertising which apply to traditional broadcasts.
There are still doubters, however, including the UK radio audience organisation RAJAR which points out that the listeners to Internet radio would not significantly increase broadcasters' figures.
Bruno Brookes argues that as portable access to the internet develops he thinks it will speedily overtake digital radio.
Storm will not however reveal audience figures, although it does make capital of the possibilities of associated e-commerce.
Arbitron Info-Stream figures on Internet radio seem to be getting later but their February figures released this week show Minneapolis-based Netradio, which is an Internet-only streaming audio site, took five out of the top six slots with UK Virgin breaking their run to take third slot.
The figures are based on a new system of "Aggregate Tuning Hours" which is the sum total of the hours that listeners tune into the channel during the month, combining elements of the cumulative audience and the time they spend listening. The top six slots were(ATH hours in brackets)- Net Radio's Hits Channel (227,600) and 80's Hits (215,500) followed by Virgin Radio (hot adult contemporary- 186,200) and then Net Radio's "X Channel (alternative - 169,900), Vintage Rock Channel (169,300) and Smooth Jazz channel (157,500) .
Top non-music ranking went to ABC Radio's Tom Joyner Morning Show (93,800) then WABC-AM, New York at 13 with its news show (70,500). Ranked 15 was religious station KLTY-FM (65,900).
Former winner Texas Rebel Radio was down at 32 with an ATH of 32,800 and KPIG-FM, Monterey, which was also up in the top five has dropped to 15 with an ATH of 63,800
RNW comment: Overall then an outlet for the music industry but not that much sign of the much-touted flowering of of new choices.
Indeed in many ways less choice in real options than just the BBC.
Previous Bruno Brookes;
Previous Capital Radio;
Previous Storm Radio;
Arbitron report
Independent report

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2000-07-14: Australian internet company Spike Networks has agreed to a US$750,000 (Australian $1.2million) payout in settlement of a sexual harassment claim relating to its Los-Angeles based SpikeRadio Internet radio station according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The paper says that Spike will pay US $250,000 to former SpikeRadio disc jockey Stephanie King and the company's former chief executive and co-founder Chris O'Hanlon will pay the remaining US $500000 in two instalment by the end of the year.
In June the Herald reported that O'Hanlon had been sacked by the company's board as a result of the incident last year.
O'Hanlon and his wife hold 29% of Spike's shares, worth an estimated Aus$27.5 million but these are held in escrow for another year.
Since O'Hanlon's departure the company has switched emphasis from his global youth brand to becoming a supplier of online corporate services.
Sydney Morning Herald report

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