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2000-12-18: We have concentrated on the topic of US talk radio leads for this week's columnists.
First the question of freedom of speech versus responsibility, taken up by Frank Ahrens in the Washington Post.
He comments on a defamation case being brought by police officer Wayne Cheney against WOL morning host Joe Madison who had called him "functionally illiterate", a "racist" and a "murderer." The case is rooted in a 1993 incident involving three black men, two police officers and a driver.
One officer pulled over motorist Archie Elliott III on suspicion of drunken driving.
Cheney arrived shortly afterwards and whilst Elliot was handcuffed in the front seat of a police car says he and the other officer thought they saw Elliot pull a gun.
The officers fired 22 shots into the cruiser, hitting Elliott with 14 slugs and killing him. They said they found a gun at the dead man's feet.
A grand jury cleared both officers but Madison suspected the officers planted the gun.
Madison, writes Ahrens, "has used his show as a platform to call for a reopening of the case, to hector Cheney and to address larger racial issues, such as profiling. Cheney declined Madison's invitation to appear on his show."
As well as the defamation suit, Cheney is suing Madison, his employer Radio One Inc., and others who made accusations against him, for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is seeking more than $3 million in damages.
The defence claims that the comments are protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Madison's lawyer does not deny in a dismissal motion that inflammatory comments were made but writes, "Put simply, no reasonable member of Joe Madison's audience could mistake his program for an impartial news report."
Cheney in effect claims that epithets and unproved accusations cannot be made with impunity; to win it he has to show that the defendants meant to harm him and also, for the privacy suit, that he is not a public figure.
The second topic is "where now?" as the audience boost from the US presidential elections ends and the right-wing hosts in particular have to find a new line with no Bill Clinton to have a go at.
That topic forms the basis of a number of US articles with speculation about where the hosts will go. Common to most of them is reaction from Michael Harrison, Editor of Talkers Magazine who is quoted in the Boston Herald as saying of the recount, "It is the biggest story of the year, one of the biggest stories of the decade, and in terms of pound-for-pound, square-inch coverage, possibly the biggest story of all time."
In the Chicago Tribune, Tim Jones quotes him as saying of the hosts, "They'll have to rearrange their act a little bit. "
"Some will fall by the wayside, and most who go by the wayside will be those who forget that this is entertainment."
As far as targets go, Harrison e said, "There is always Hillary (Clinton). They are privately celebrating this election of Hillary (as New York Senator)."
He also speculates about how George W Bush will fare, saying "very, very vulnerable target because he didn't come in with anything near a mandate." "Private recounts of Florida ballots will likely produce more fodder for talk shows, and some conservative hosts may attack Bush for not being conservative enough."
He also suggests that there may be a possibility for a successful liberal host now that the administration has changed. This was a line also taken by Tom Taylor, editor of the radio trade journal M Street Daily who told Dean Johnson of the Boston Herald," ``The level of venom out there is pretty high and one big reason is that, maybe for the first time ever, very, very angry moderates and liberals are also calling in to talk stations, people who generally listened before but never called in. I think you're going to hear those voices more on the air.''
Taylor continued, ``One (talk radio) programmer told me, `This is just the beginning, because the bickering in the Senate and the House now will make a nursery school look like a school of etiquette.
People won't be stabbing each other in the back, they'll be stabbing each other in the front.''
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2000-12-17: Licence news this week; and the main action has been in Australia where the new Melbourne commercial licence went to DMG radio (RNW Dec. 15) and the UK where planned changes in the regulatory structure could lead to significant consolidations (RNW Dec. 13).
In Australia there's nothing apart from the Melbourne licence and Canada was also fairly quiet with just a few radio applications.
They included approvals of two applications for a switch from AM to FM and one for a new station.
The first conversion approved was from Rogers Broadcasting for new 157-watts English-language FM radio station at Hope, British Columbia, to replace CKGO-AM.
The new station will offer a gold-based adult contemporary music format similar to the current "oldies" format on the AM station.
It will serve the Fraser Valley area and will not be available in the Greater Vancouver area.
The second conversion approved was for a 4,250 watts French-language FM radio station at Lac Mégantic in Quebec to replace CKFL-AM.
The new station will retain the same, predominantly music format, as the AM station and local programming will be retained.
In both cases, simulcasts will be permitted for three months.
The new station is an 0.8 watt low-power French-language FM radio station at L'Assomption in Quebec which will provide live broadcasts of masses, marriages, funerals, baptisms and other such religious ceremonies.
In Ireland, an announcement is awaited at the time of writing from the Independent Radio and Television Commission concerning its shortlist of applicants for the new radio licence for Cork for which seven applications have been submitted,
The IRTC is also expected to comment soon about the proposed take-over by Ulster TV of County Media (RNW Nov. 24).
County operates three stations in the Cork area, - 96FM in Cork city, 103FM in north Cork and 103FM in west Cork.
UTV wishes to completely purchase the radio stations, which is not permissible under current IRTC policies.
In the UK, the main decisions were the renewal of TalkSport's national analogue licence (RNW Dec. 16) and the award of the North East digital multiplex licence to MXR Ltd.
MXR is planning nine commercial channels -- Children's radio; Urban; Melodic adult contemporary; Jazz; Adult rock; Easy listening; Rolling regional news; Dance / rhythmic hits; and Music and talk.
The Authority has also confirmed the award of the local digital radio multiplex service licence for Humberside to Emap Digital Radio Ltd and published its assessment of the award. Emap was the only applicant,
Also on the digital front, the Authority has received three applications for the West Midlands regional digital multiplex.
They are from :
The Digital Radio Group Ltd (DRG), whose shareholders include The Wireless Group plc, GWR Group plc, Emap Digital Radio Ltd. and SMG plc;
MXR Ltd whose shareholders include Chrysalis Group plc, Capital Radio plc, Guardian Media Group plc, Jazz FM plc, UBC Digital Ltd, and Soul Media Ltd.;
West Midlands Digital Radio Ltd. (WMDR) whose shareholders include SCORE Digital Ltd. (Scottish Radio Holdings plc), Forever Broadcasting Digital Radio Ltd. and Saga Regional Digital Radio Ltd.
As well as reserving capacity for the existing BBC Asian Network service for the West Midlands, which all applicants have to provide, each applicant is offering capacity to the successful applicant for the second West Midlands analogue regional licence with reserve applicants if its offering is too close to any of the formats already being proposed.
The formats being offered are:
DRG - total 10 channels -News, information and Community access; Music magazine and album tracks; Easy listening; Current chart; Dance; Ethnic and Adult contemporary (and two channels for the successful applicant for the second West Midlands analogue regional licence).
MXR - total 9 channels - Children's radio; Jazz; Adult rock; Easy listening; Rolling regional news; Urban and rhythmic music; and Melodic adult contemporary. (and one channel for the successful applicant for the second West Midlands analogue regional licence).
WMDR - total 8 channels - 50 plus; Modern music mix; Pop country; UK young Asian; Soft adult contemporary; and Urban contemporary.
On a more local scale, the Authority has re-awarded the Fort William local radio licence to Nevis Community Radio Ltd., broadcasting as Nevis Radio under its fast-track procedure when no competing application was received.
The Authority has also announced that it will advertise is next week a new small-scale Independent Local Radio licence for Rugby, in Warwickshire.
The US was quiet, apart from the FCC's decision to open another Low Power FM filing window despite the uncertain future of the plans because of legislation still before the US Congress.(RNW Nov. 5)
The latest window runs from January 16 through January 22 next year. It covers applications for LPFM licences in American Samoa, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
The FCC has also been involved in 3G spectrum auctions (RNW Dec. 12) and the issue of proposed rules regarding commercial radio market definitions where it is considering a move away from its current contour signal approach to a market-defined one. (RNW Dec. 10).
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2000-12-17: Sydney 2UE breakfast host Alan Jones may have escaped having to apologise for comments he made during his show which had led to a complaint by the Western Aboriginal Legal Service.
A tribunal had ordered an apology in July but, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, the Administrative Decisions Tribunal appeal panel has now dismissed the complaint, which accused Jones of racially vilifying Aborigines.
The comments, made five years ago, followed a case when an Aboriginal woman was awarded damages after she was told no accommodation was available for rent when she had previously been told on the phone that four properties were to let.
A white friend of hers, who subsequently went to the estate agent concerned, was told that flats were available.
Jones commented on air, "I don't care what colour he is, looking like a skunk and smelling like a skunk with a sardine can on one foot and a sandshoe on the other and a half-drunk bottle of beer under the arm and he wanted to rent the final property available and it was mine, I would expect the agency to say no."
The appeal panel held that the complaint had no legal standing because it was lodged by the legal service and not an individual and a corporation could not constitute a person under Australia's Anti-Discrimination Act.
Diana Black, for the legal service, told the paper that the Aboriginal people would be disappointed with the decision to dismiss the complaint "on a technicality".
She said legal service members would meet to consider lodging an appeal in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
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2000-12-16: US shock jock Howard Stern has now signed another five-year-deal with Viacom-CBS-Infinity in a deal said to be worth just under $100 million and to have been handled personally by Viacom President Mel Karmazin.
Financial terms have not issued yet of the terms, rumoured officially and Karmazin said, "Howard is entertaining 20 million people for free every morning. If they are not paying for it, why should I?"
Karmazin added that he never doubted that Stern would sign and that he did not have a back-up plan.
Stern himself said, "Until 4:42 yesterday afternoon, I had no contract with Infinity. I am telling you, at 4:41 I wanted to kick Mel in the nuts."
"But by 4:42, I was on my knees, kissing up to him like everyone else does."
"Mel thinks I got more than I deserve, and I think I got less than I deserve."
The Stern deal follows another inked this week under which Internet gossip Matt Drudge, whose radio show was axed by ABC Networks (RNW Nov. 14), signed up with Clear Channel subsidiary Premiere Networks.
"The Drudge Report" will be syndicated by Premiere from February 4 next year.
The show is likely to continue on air at a number of ABC stations including those in Chicago and New York.
Again no financial details have been released but whatever they are, the big money man in broadcasting remains Rush Limbaugh according to Drudge.
He says that Limbaugh, who takes a percentage of all revenues he generates, took in around $30 million last year, making him the highest paid "information broadcaster in history."
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2000-12-16: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's latest cuts are hitting metropolitan and regional radio stations according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
This is despite assurances from Managing Director Jonathan Shier and director of radio, Ms Sue Howard, that rural services would not be affected by Shier's decision to reallocate funds within the ABC.
On December 8, Howard told a parliamentary enquiry that there "would be no cuts to the national broadcaster's 48 regional radio stations."
The paper reports that Head of local radio, Michael Mason, confirmed that local radio budgets had been cut and conceded that cost savings required of each State manager could come from metropolitan or regional radio.
However Mason added that regional radio was already "very lean" and cuts to rural services were unlikely.
He commented, "The bottom line is there will be no cuts to programs or stations output" and said that the cuts were largely attributable to government taxation changes which meant that in theory many items will be cheaper because taxes have been reduced.
The ABC is seeking some Aus$40 million a year of extra government funding and the paper reports that Shier indicated that almost half that total, if it is available, would go to enhance the range of services provided by each of the 48 country radio stations.
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2000-12-16: The UK Radio Authority has renewed TalkSport's national analogue licence for 8 years on the basis of a significantly reduced cash bid and an increased PQR (Percentage of Qualifying Revenue). Under the new deal, the annual cash payment drops from £4.3 million a year to £500,000 a year(subject to inflation increases) but the PQR increases by half from 4% to 6%.
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2000-12-16: A look back at the business side of radio which this week saw a rise in US radio stocks after the Bush win was announced, followed by a drop back
Recording particularly strong gains, in its case based on its record fourth quarter and 2000 revenues was Spanish Broadcasting System.
It had net revenues for the final quarter up 26% compared to 1999 at $34 million, most of which it attributed to the inclusion of results for Puerto Rico stations bought from AMFM.
On a same station basis, net revenues were still healthy, up 13% to $102 million for the year and up 9% for the fourth quarter to $29.2 million
Broadcast Cash Flow for the year was up 24% to $65 million, for Q4 up 20% to $17million
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year, excluding the effects of a one-off $10.2 million related to the purchase of an annuity for two retired executives, was up 30% to $54.6 million.
EBITDA for the fourth quarter increased 29% to $14.5 million.
After tax cash flow (ATCF), excluding the one-off severance was up 62% for the year at $25.5 million, and up 40% for Q4 at$5.9 million.
Net loss for the year was $10.6 million, compared to net income of $5.8 for 1999. The loss was caused by an extraordinary loss of $17.2 million, net of a tax benefit of $11.4 million, on the early retirement of our 11% and 12 1/2% notes and the non-recurring severance payment.
On a less happy note for Centennial Broadcasting, they have dropped from $25 million in re-negotiations of the purchase of six of their stations by Beasley Broadcasting. Beasley.
Beasley had announced in June (RNW June 6)that it was paying $138 million for Centennial..
It has now cut the sum to approximately $113,5 million.
The stations involved are KKLZ-FM, KSTJ-FM, and KJUL-FM in Las Vegas and for WRNO-FM, KMEZ-FM and WBYU-AM in New Orleans.
Beasley intends to finance the purchase through a combination of working capital and a recently expanded $300 million senior credit facility.
Beasley Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George G. Beasley, said, "The strategic value proposition behind this purchase is as valid today as it was last June."
"In acquiring Centennial, we obtain a rare collection of assets that allow us to expand our position in top 100 markets from a position of strength and build strong market clusters where we can apply our proven operating and programming disciplines to enhance financial results."
The deal already has FCC approval and is expected to close at the end of January. Beasley has also switched the format of its Philadelphia WWDB-AM station to MoneyTalkTM talk radio, a format originally launched in south Florida.
It features financial advice, news and information weekday mornings, complemented by health, fitness and ageing-related programming on the weekends.
Finally a Standard and Poor's change with Clear Channel, which has more than doubled in size this year, joining its &P 100 Index at market close on Friday. Ceridian is dropping out of the 100 Index because of the break-up into two companies as Arbitron becomes a stand-alone company. (RNW Aug. 15)
Ceridian remains in the S&P 500 Index.
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2000-12-15: DMG Radio, a subsidiary of the UK Daily Mail and General Trust, which recently gained the new Sydney FM commercial licence for a record Aus$155 million in a joint venture with GWR (RNW May 25) has now added the new Melbourne Commercial licence, for which bid Aus$70 million (Around US$38 million) at auction.
Under Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) rules it has to start broadcasts within a year of the licence allocation which should take place shortly after full payment of the licence fee at the end of January.
The licence is the first new commercial licence in Melbourne for 20 years and is one of 13 new services planned for the area; the others are community licences (see RNW Licence news October 29).
GWR holds a 25% stake in DMG, which has more than 50 Australian stations, and its chief executive Ralph Bernard said the licence meant that GWR now had "strong presence in Australia's two major cities whilst further consolidating our excellent position in the total Australian market".
Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman, said, "This is a significant occasion in broadcasting planning in Australia. This is only the third commercial licence in a metropolitan area to be allocated by the ABA since its inception in 1992. It is the first new commercial licence for Melbourne in the last 20 years. And it means that the enormous task of planning the analogue radio spectrum for this continent is now in its last stages."
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2000-12-15: A whole run of obituaries or retirements this week of radio veterans around the world.
Youngest was ABC, America, radio anchor Tim O'Donnell who has died aged 57 after suffering a heart attack.
His career began in Brunswick, New Jersey, and he had been reporting for some 40 years.
Much older was Canadian radio institution Allan McFee who has died of cancer aged 87.
McFee began his career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1937 and was best known as the host of CBC's Eclectic Circus, which ran for 13 years from 1972 -1985 although his last broadcast was in 1991.
The Toronto Globe and Mail notes that he had a reputation for wildness at the CBC because of clashes with producers and on-air pranks such as providing reports of the weather at Dribble Lake until someone checked and found it didn't exist.
In a memo to CBC staff, CBC radio vice-president Alex Frame described McFee in a memo to staff as," a "maverick, workaholic, consummate professional, cultural institution and a legend."
Outdating McFee was E.R.Thompson, who as the BBC's first lobby correspondent pioneered parliamentary reporting, first on radio then television.
Thompson, who has died aged 93, started in broadcasting in 1945; before that he worked in newspapers including the then Manchester Guardian (predecessor of the Guardian) and then, from 1937 and through the second World War as a civil servant.
After his lobby days, his BBC career included spells as Head of news talks, which included being editor of Radio Newsreel.
And finally retirement from the airwaves for a Washington radio legend who has been on the air for 53 consecutive years.
85-years-old Eddie Gallaher will host his last morning show on WGAY-AM on December 22.
When he goes, reports the Washington Post, it will mark the impending death of WGAY's easy-listening "Music of Your Life" format as the Clear Channel-owned station is soon to switch formats as part of changes at its Washington stations.
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2000-12-15: The reporting of BBC moves to cut down its bi-media approach and ask correspondents to focus either on radio or television (RNW Dec. 13 ) has now rumbled on in the British papers for a couple of days with reports that one correspondent went home in tears after she was described by the UK Daily Mirror as "too ugly for TV".
As well as giving the tabloids some fun and the correspondents more serious concern, it's also provoked a response from BBC management.
In an e-mail to staff, Richard Sambrook, Deputy director BBC News, says that the newspaper reports are "as I hope you all realise, substantially wrong and misguided."
Sambrook goes on to say that the purpose of the re-organisation of the Social Affairs unit "is designed to build stronger relationships between specialists and programmes and give greater clarity about correspondent roles."
He continues, "In particular we wanted to strengthen the service to radio, online and News 24 -- all of which are vitally important services for us."
RNW note: Most of the correspondents quoted in newspaper reports are not named, which while understandable means it is difficult to accurately assess how widespread is the feeling that post allocations relate to telegenic qualities taking priority over expertise but certainly the defence that the BBC still has some slightly odd-looking correspondents on television holds water. Regrettably nowhere have we seen anyone seriously suggesting that a good radio correspondent needs as many skills, albeit not the same ones , as a television one; the comments have rather been on the lines of correspondents not being able to do TV packages or not looking good on television.
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2000-12-14: Some interesting comparisons in Internet audio ratings out this week. MeasureCast's weekly summary, which again shows how the current news in the US may be skewing listenership as talk radio, was in the top two places last week.
Arbitron's Net Ratings, which are conducted on a different basis and are for September, show the nine top places for music stations with news talk in tenth place.
First MeasureCast, whose figures cover 886 stations and are based in server information and relate to total time spent listening (TTSL) and Cumulative persons (CP) which is an estimate of the number of people who listened for five minutes or more during the period.
In their ratings ABC took seven of the top ten spots, all talk or news talk stations with the other three going to Urban Rhythm and Blues, Classic Rock and Alternative Rock.
MeasureCast's top five were:
Talk WABC-AM with 80,466 TTSL/ 18096 CP :
KSFO-AM, San Francisco, another ABC talk station with 46,736 TTSL/9,875 CP;
The Beat, Los Angeles, with 46,169 TTSL/4,768 CP;
ABC news-talk WBAP-AM, Dallas/Ft. Worth with 45,259 TTSL/7,592;
ABC news-talk WLS-AM, Chicago, with 35,014 TTSL/9,628.
The demographics which MeasureCast also provide show that the audience is 71% male, 24% are aged 25-34, 23% 35-44 year olds and 20% 18-24 year olds, which leaves a third either young or old.
Most listening was in office hours.
RNW comment:As we noted last week (RNW Dec. 6) , these are hardly impressive numbers Then Arbitron, whose ratings are also server-based and cover 1000 webcast channels.
These relate to Aggregate Tuning hours(ATH), the total time listeners tuned to a channel during the month.
Their ratings show Internet-only webcaster NetRadio with seven of the ten top spots.
To put it in perspective, after ATH, we list what we will term average At Any Time (AAT) numbers, calculated by dividing the total by the minutes in the month.
RNW comment:This again makes seemingly impressive figures rather less so.
In the Arbitron ratings, the top five were
NetRadio 80's hits with 248,600 ATH/ 5.8 AAT;
NetRadio Smooth Jazz with 234,300 ATH/5.4 AAT;
NetRadio Hits with 232,000 ATH/ 5.4 AAT;
KNAC Pure Rock with 213000 ATH/ 4.9 AAT;
NetRadio the X with 212800 ATH/4.9 AAT.
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2000-12-14: A deal between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Canadian streaming audio company Iceberg Media is to make some 60 years of CBC radio archives available on the Internet. The material includes music, drama and historical recordings and is available via two sites, Iceberg.com and Preservatory.com.
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2000-12-14: Massive budget cuts for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Classic FM channel are reported by the Sydney Morning Herald which adds that Australian music industry predict disastrous consequences for Australian music.
The Corporation has cut the channel's external budget, which covers all costs other than salaries, by 34% and the Herald says it understands that the cut applies to the current financial year which means that the effective cut over the next six months will be around 70%
The paper says it had difficulty getting any comment from the ABC as ABC radio head Sue Howard and head of national music Ed Breslin were "in meetings" and Patrick Carrick, Classic FM's acting programme manager, declining to comment. However Guy Noble, presenter of Classic FM's Breakfast Show, was prepared to speak publicly on the subject.
"This isn't even a matter of ABC staff looking after their own territory," he said.
"This is money that goes straight to artists, straight back into the music community. I'd like to know where that money is going to go now."
Richard Letts, executive director of the Music Council of Australia, described the budget cut as a self-inflicted wound, made by senior management with the implicit support of the ABC board. "It's in direct contravention to the ABC's charter, which requires the ABC to reflect national identity and cultural diversity," he said.
"The cut is an indication of the official policy at the ABC towards Australian music on radio."
Various orchestras told the paper they had not received official confirmation with many of them expressing concern over the effect it would have on them reaching their audiences.
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2000-12-13: Our main story today is the UK government White Paper on broadcasting which sets the pattern for the future UK broadcasting balance between commerce and other factors such as content and diversity of ownership.
The changes on the latter will almost certainly lead to media concentration in the UK along similar lines which followed US regulatory changes in 1996.
The White Paper has not made firm proposals regarding cross-media ownership regulations; instead it is seeking comment on these from industry and the public.
Lighter regulation on the matter of concentration of ownership is, however, indicated by the statement that it plans a "lighter touch" in this and other areas.
Other proposals in the paper include the setting up of a new communications industry regulator, OFCOM (Office of Communications) to cover radio, television and communications.
It would handle the roles of the nine current regulators, which include the Independent Television Commission, the Radio Authority, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Radiocommunications Agency, and OFTEL, which regulates UK phones and telecommunications.
Even before the White Paper was published moves had been made by companies to position themselves in the consolidation race, particularly the Scottish Media Group (SMG) raid on Scottish Radio Holdings in which it took a 15% share in its competitor Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) (RNW Dec. 9).
SRH, whose shares rose by nearly a quarter after the SMG raid, has subsequently hired investment bank Goldman Sachs as advisers for a strategic review, which could see the company up for sale.
Another UK radio industry leader, GWR, has warned that UK radio's future as a stand-alone entity is in danger.
Its chief executive, Ralph Bernard expressed concern that questions of its future could be overshadowed by the attention devoted to TV.
Although Bernard criticised the points allocation currently in use as out of date he says that UK radio has overtaken that of the US in terms of quality because it is being run by radio-only groups.
Bernard sees the best defence as radio-industry consolidation in which his group would be a leading player.
As regards the BBC, the White Paper left its governing board with its existing responsibilities for content on all BBC services and the sole responsibility for delivering the BBC's public service remit.
The BBC welcomed the White Paper and chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, said it "contains sensible proposals which maintain the independence of the modern BBC within a common regulatory framework."
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2000-12-13: Reporting on a BBC news re-organisation which will pull back on the Corporation's "bi-media" strategy begun by the former director general, John Birt, but that is now being dismantled under his successor, Greg Dyke, the UK Guardian says some of the correspondents who have been moved to radio "have been left with the impression that their craggy features simply were not welcome on the small screen."
As part of the re-organisation many BBC specialist reporters, who formerly worked for both media, are being asked to focus on just radio or television.
The BBC says the changes are intended to address problems of resources, particularly for Radio 4 news programmes.
It quotes Vin Ray, the executive editor at BBC newsgathering, as saying radio reporters should not regard their role as inferior. "Radio is incredibly important to the BBC, he said. "We have to service radio as well as we have to serve television."
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RNW comment: We have long felt radio required different skills to those of television or print if a quality output is wanted. Telling a story through words on a page, we think, requires a different approach to doing the same with the spoken word and actuality and we're really tired of TV reporters who merely describe pictures we can see for ourselves. One person may be able to do all jobs well in rare cases, but not at the same time! E-mail us if you have comments about this. .

2000-12-13: Australian radio company DMG Radio Australia is taking legal action for damages against rival Austereo and the country's largest public relations group according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
DMG, the subsidiary of the UK Daily Mail group which recently won the bidding for the new Sydney FM licence, claims that a bogus letter campaign harmed its reputation.
It also claims that the letters were written by Austereo chairman Peter Harvie and Ken Davis, a former director of PR company Turnbull Porter Novelli.
The letters attacked DMG and resulted in a parliamentary inquiry into the radio industry.
DMG claims that the supposed author of many of the letters over the past two years, a Mr Peter Johnson, is a fictitious person and says it became suspicious shortly after the letter-writing campaign began.
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2000-12-12: The time is fast approaching for US shock jock Howard Stern , the self-styled "King of All Media ", to sign-on or sign-off, with the signs pointing to the former.
Stern's five-year-contract with Viacom-CBS-Infinity ends on Friday and in September he was putting out suggestions that he might move on.
Last month, during an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stern said that December 15 could be his broadcast finale but since then the rhetoric has eased.
Last week he told his listeners, "I believe there is a better than 60 per cent chance I will be coming back. I don't want to paint a picture that I'm leaving."
After this he backtracked again saying 90% would be "close to signing."
Speculating on the outcome, New York Post columnist John Mainelli comments on the background and then writes," So how much money is the self-dubbed King of All Media likely to get when - OK, if - he returns in January after his holiday hiatus?"
Mainelli goes on to note that CNBC gave figures of $18 million a year for a five-year-deal, around half as much again as he currently gets from radio and the kind of sum which Forbes Magazine estimated as his total income in 1999 from all sources.
Mainelli notes that Stern contributes handsomely to CBS-Infinity with estimates of $25 million a year advertising revenue for his New York outlet alone, never mind the 50 plus other stations to which his show is syndicated.
Mainelli also adds that only giant Clear Channel could really make a serious bid for his services and it doesn't look as if they have done so.
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2000-12-12: The next 3G mobile phone spectrum auction starts today in the US where the Federal Communications Commission is auctioning 422 licences in 195 markets.
This auction is expected to raise some $15 billion with a second auction in March to follow.
This compares with $35 billion for UK 3 G licences (RNW April 28) and $45 billion for those in Germany(RNW Aug. 19).
Already more than a hundred companies have applied to bid including giants such as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless.
The last of these has put down a deposit of $130 million for its rights to bid and bidding for major conurbations will start around $20 million.
Many US companies see 3G technology generating new business because of the additional facilities, such as Internet access it can offer.
Others fear that the costs are too high as evinced by the fall in share prices of European mobile companies following their high bids.
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2000-12-12: Another US audio dot.com has folded.
This time it's Riffage.com whose site now just carries a forlorn statement about it pioneering "efforts to unite fans and musicians -- building a loyal following for emerging artists and using the power of the Internet to expose new music."
It then adds that they cannot "cannot continue to service these fine communities in the current economic marketplace" and thanks everybody for their help over the 19 months of its existence.
Riffage site:.

2000-12-11:A little slim in the columns this week, partly because the election is still dominating US politics and partly because some of the stronger UK columns have not ended up on their paper's web site.
To start off with, some reflections from Chicago on the likely demise of classical Music at WNIB which has just been taken over by Bonneville International (RNW Dec. 1).
For once even the competition is expressing sadness as evinced in a Chicago Tribune article which quotes Steve Robinson, vice president of Chicago's other classical station, WFMT-FM, as saying, "It's a sad day for classical music in Chicago and the United States. We think it was fairly inevitable, and it was a great tribute to the Florians that they were able to maintain it as long as they did. But there's no jumping for joy here."
On the surface this may appear to be a local issue but, as the article makes clear, it's part of a larger picture.
To give a fairly full quote, "While WNIB's potential dismantling would leave less than a dozen commercial classical stations nationwide, it is not necessarily proof that Bach, Brahms and Bartok are on the wane."
"Chalk up the attrition of classical on the FM dial to radio industry deregulation -- which has driven the value of stations higher than the hottest tech stock."
. "The decline in classical radio has nothing to do with the popularity of the format, with listeners or with advertisers," said Ray Nordstrand, Robinson's predecessor at WFMT and now a marketing consultant to the station.
"It has to do with the astronomical property values of these licenses. WNIB, for its format, was doing quite well in terms of its ratings and sales."
" But now that companies can own multiple stations in major markets, properties are trading hands at a fever pitch, with big-time broadcast groups uprooting even the most stalwart formats to rake in huge ad dollars". "It's money. When they deregulated radio, radio as we always knew it was gone," said Kal Rudman, publisher of the radio industry trade magazine Friday Morning Quarterback.
"It's very bad, very bad. Everybody wants these facilities. These radio stations are a license to steal. They're gushing oil wells."
As far as Rudman is concerned, it isn't a matter of if WNIB will change formats, but when -- and to what kind of music.
And even though WXCD-FM 94.7 changed from classic rock to '80s rock Wednesday -- the same day WNIB's sale was announced -- Rudman said he wouldn't be surprised Bonneville takes WNIB in the same direction.
"The hot new format is '80s rock, all over the country," Rudman said. "Why? It's a demographics game and the people who grew up listening to '80s music -- 35 to 54 -- are a prime demographic target."
On to a theme we've raised before but this time reflecting technological as well as demographic targets from Paul Donovan in the UK Sunday Times.
He takes up the BBC's move online and in particular the use of webcams, writing, "Today there is a new mantra, Listen While You Surf. "
"Spawned by a generation that gazes at screens rather than labours in factories, it is the key to understanding why the BBC is now spending £3m annually - the equivalent of 70 people earning £40,000 a year each - on colourful, interactive, all-singing, all-dancing web sites, promoted on the airwaves with wearisome repetition."
"Yet another part of Radio 4's site, with new material on The Archers, goes online today. Jenni Murray can already be spotted via webcam on the Woman's Hour page, on at least one occasion wearing make- up for the benefit of watchers from cyberspace." Donovan links the development to a number of factors including the return to radio of Jenny Abramsky, creator of BBC News Online, more plugs for the BBC's first site, that of Radio 1, and research from America which showed that the Internet was affecting sleep and television habits but not radio.
Simon Nelson, BBC radio's new development manager, commented, "It showed that the Internet was impacting on sleeping and watching television, but not on radio usage."
He adds, "That was, quite simply, because you can listen while you surf, but you cannot sleep or watch television while you surf. With BBC radio having made a strategic decision to target 15- to 24-year-olds, we all felt that web sites had enormous potential."
Donovan then comments on some of the sites, some of the problems with rights to material, and some of the plans but concludes that "at the moment the web sites are little more than enjoyable but brazen BBC propaganda. We have no idea how many people log on, because the BBC refuses to say. "
He concludes, "If one doubts the propaganda element, remember that the Today web site includes among the names of its former presenters Melvyn Bragg (who did two shows) but not Peter Hobday (who did 14 years)."
"This has been pointed out to the web site manager, Chris Berthoud, and Today's editor, Rod Liddle, but the entry has not been amended in any way."
"But then Lord Bragg has to be cosseted because he is on Radio 4 every week, while Peter Hobday, sacked from Today in 1996 and now not even heard on Radio 3's Masterworks, has been quietly airbrushed out of history."
Which could take us back to the US elections but we felt it better to move on to Tanya Wilson in the UK Guardian.
Even not knowing her sex, you could take a good guess from the introduction to her column, "When Radio 1 announced that, from October, all its breakfast shows would be presented by women, it felt like A Good Thing."
"We were used to ladettes doing weekday breakfast - hard to imagine it was ever not thus - and the demise of Kevin Greening and Mark Goodier's weekend shows was never going to throw the nation into existential despair."
" In a wider sense, it was another sign that radio as a pocket of sexist resistance to social change was a thing of the past."
"In the bad old days, and they were not very long ago, Radio 1 was about as welcoming to women as a retrograde old golf club, with a bedazzling range of career options: middle-of-the-night shifts or answering the phone for DLT."
However she does go on to say, "The Good Thing feeling is less easy to sustain when actually listening to the early morning women,"
Later she adds, "….she looks like a young Laura Dern. I know looks shouldn't matter on radio but I've never quite got over seeing the Capital Radio mugshots in the station's window display as a teenager. They all looked like my friends' ugly dads. I changed station pronto. "
RNW comment: Sexism or ageism , prejudice or what? Well chew on the next comment," You don't want all female DJs to be Germaine Greer, but it would be nice if they made sense", and think about radio -no just think! Because one of the joys we fell about radio is that it's the quality of the sound that ultimately should matter. Webcams away-forget the appearance, listen to the quality when you can get it.
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2000-12-11: Another update on the Flood Tribunal into the award of Ireland's first national commercial licence to Century Radio.
And last week, which was dominated by testimony from Century co-founder Oliver Barry, ended with Mr Justice Flood telling Barry that he had given "unsatisfactory evidence" and that the matter would be referred to the Irish High Court if necessary.
"I do require openness and frankness, and when I find it isn't there I will take the necessary steps . . . to refer the matter to the High Court," he said in relation to what he termed a "remarkable lack of clarity" concerning some banking transactions.
Barry's evidence was adjourned until he could give more information to the tribunal about the accounts, which involved money transferred from Barclays Bank accounts in the Isle of Man.
Tribunal Counsel Patrick Hanratty SC asked about these accounts and also about a Cork bank account used by Barry's concert promotion company, Quality Artistes Management (QAM).
Barry had not disclosed the accounts and Hanratty said, "It seems to be a case of `catch me if you can', but you're not volunteering the information."
Barry's counsel said Barry had taken his inquiries into the accounts as far as he could; the Cork account was in the name of another QAM director who had to give her consent to Barry obtaining information and Barclays only kept records for five years so were unable to supply the required information.
Earlier Barry had given evidence about giving more than £10,000 in donations to politicians during the 1987 and 1989 Irish elections.
He said he had received receipts or letters of acknowledgement for each of them including amounts of £5,000 and £2,500 to Fianna Fáil members of government at the time and also various amounts of £500, £250 and £100 to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers.
He also said he had not asked the then broadcasting Minister Ray Burke for a receipt for a separate donation of £35,000 not had it been mentioned in any subsequent letters to him.
A letter from Mr Burke in July 1989 thanked Mr Barry for "his work during the campaign" and gave him numbers where he could be reached should he need to contact him for "advice or help" but did not mention the £35,000 donation.
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RNW note: Most of our report is culled from The Irish Times which has been carrying full reports on the Flood Tribunal. For their reports follow the link below: Look for Flood Tribunal .
Irish Times --search page

2000-12-10: Licence news this week. And nothing worthy from Australia or Canada on the radio front.
In the UK the Radio Authority has announced its intention to advertise for declarations of intent for two local licences next week
They are those for Stirling & Falkirk and for Stockport, both for 8 years from January 2003.
The current licensees are by Central FM Ltd for Stirling & Falkirk and by KFM Radio Ltd., broadcasting as Imagine FM for Stockport .
If only the existing holders apply, the licences will then be handled under the authority's fast track procedure.
The authority has also issued a schedule for licences to be advertised in the near future.
Following plans previously announced to advertise a Rugby small-scale licence around the turn of the year (RNW July 9), the following sequence of licences will be advertised: Pembrokeshire; Reading (small-scale); Chester or South Flintshire (small-scale); Mid-Ulster; East Midlands (regional) and Worthing (small-scale).
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)has invited comments on rule changes relating to US commercial radio markets (see below Contours1). It has also issued notice of rules concerning software-defined radio.
The proposals would permit equipment manufacturers to make changes in the frequency, power and modulation of such radios without the need to file a new equipment authorisation application with the Commission.
It would also permit electronic labelling so that a third party may modify a radio's technical parameters without having to return to the manufacturer for re-labelling.
Finally to move forward yet another technology, the FCC is to make spectrum available for fixed ku-band satellite services such as high-speed Internet access and is seeking comment about this.
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2000-12-10: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now asked for comment relating to its proposed changes in defining US commercial radio markets which imply a probably move towards commercial market definitions.
All the commissioners both concurred in the decision but to different degrees and from different viewpoints and issued separate statements.
The FCC says that its current method of defining a market based on "mutually overlapping" signal contours and of counting stations based on overlapping signal contours has sometimes led to results that are "at odds with commercial market definitions and economic reality."
It cited an example in Wichita, Kansas, where there signal contour method produced a market of 52 stations thus permitting a single owner of 8 stations, where the commercial market definition included only 24 stations which would have limited maximum ownership to six stations.
The FCC had suggested changing to a commercially defined definition but noted that, although Arbitron's classification covered 850 counties and 80% of US population, this left approximately 2250 more counties.
It also noted that it would need to consider the effect on FCC determinations when commercial market services changed their definitions and said it had considered retaining the signal overlap method for determining geographic markets but revise standards relating to the number of stations in the market and ownership limits.
The FCC is asking for comment on alternative counting methods which it lists on its web site but says it does not intend to apply any changes retroactively to existing ownership combinations. Commenting on the proposals, FCC chairman William Kennard says they represent " a critical step in bringing the Commission's rules in line with the commercial realities of the radio marketplace."
He adds that current methods have "the potential to produce unanticipated and anti-competitive results in particular cases."
Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who has long criticised consolidation in the US radio industry, says the proposals represent progress but are it is only a "small step on a long road."
She adds, "Real listeners in real communities have been harmed by a consolidation of the airwaves that should not have been permitted to take place." "Across America, in cities like Omaha (Nebraska), Wichita (Kansas), Youngstown (Ohio), Portland (Maine), Pine Bluff (Arkansas) and Augusta (Maine) listeners have been deprived of the broadcast diversity to which they are entitled and which the Commission is duty-bound to ensure."
"For those communities, today's notice of proposed rulemaking will provide cold comfort. We must now move with dispatch to spare other communities a similar fate." Commissioner Susan Ness also speaks of delays and bolting the door after the horse has bolted.
She concludes that the FCC should be "mindful of the law of unintended consequences."
"Any remedy we adopt must be applied prospectively and fairly, with cognisance of the reasonable market expectations of parties who hold combinations lawfully assembled under our existing rules."
"Finally, whatever definition we adopt should be consistent with the intent of Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in relaxing radio ownership restrictions."
The approval from the other two commissioners is from a different viewpoint.
Commissioner Michael Powell says he concurs, "for the sole purpose of correcting what may be an arbitrary counting methodology for determining the size and number of stations one may own in a local radio market."
Even more grudgingly, Commissioner Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth talks of concurring "for the limited aim of rationalising our arguably arbitrary and capricious methodology of counting radio stations."
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FCC web site - links to all statements.

2000-12-10: XM Satellite Radio has announced details of its third round of hirings in advance of its service due to next summer.
It includes three new production directors, two more music directors and seven new programme directors.
The new production directors are Tripp Fennell, until recently creative services director at WSHE, Orlando, Florida; Jordan "TAZ" Lerman who was formerly at WABX, Evansville, Indiana and Chicago underground music station WCRX and David Zeimer, formerly at WHFS, Washington, DC.
The two music directors are Bradley Jay music director for XM's dance music and Buddy Ladd is a music director for XM's American standards music.
The seven programme directors are Bobby Bennett (soul music); Bruce Kelly (contemporary music); Bob Mackowycz (USA Today); Maxx Myrick (Jazz); and Jessie Scott (Country music).
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2000-12-09: Moves already seem under way in the UK towards the kind of radio consolidation that has taken place in the US.
Perhaps anticipating the release, due next week of the UK government's White paper on Communications, which is expected to allow a greater ownership concentration, Scottish Media Group (SMG) has taken a 14.9% stake in Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH).
SMG declared a 2.9% stake in SRH before the market opened on Friday and then increased its holding by a further 12%. The stake cost £70 million and under current rules SMG could not hold more than 20% because of its TV holdings.
SRH owns stations in Ireland and Scotland, including Radio Clyde and Radio Forth, and its board is advising shareholders not to accept offers for the moment.
In a statement, SRH said, "The board of SRH anticipates that there will be significant changes to media ownership rules and this may open the way to a period of consolidation in radio."
"In view of this, the board strongly advises SRH shareholders to take no action."
SMG, which owns Virgin Radio, said it does not intend bidding for the whole of SRH.
Its statement said, "SMG intends to be a leading player in any consolidation of UK media and believes that this investment positions it well until the implications of the new legislation are clear." Currently there are seven main groups in British commercial radio: Capital, Chrysalis, EMAP, GWR, Scottish Media Group, Scottish Radio, and Wireless Group.
The major groups would like to see this reduced to three or four main companies with Capital Radio, EMAP, GWR, and SMG most likely to survive.
Of these groups, EMAP is rumoured to have already made moves, which would enable it to be an active player in radio consolidation.
It's said to be offering its communications division, which publishes, trade magazines for sale at around £750 million.
This would enable it to cancel its debt of around £650 million.
EMAP has recently lost its position in the UK FTSE 100 index after its shares dropped to under £8 from a year high of nearly £18.
EMAP's current radio holdings include Kiss FM, Piccadilly Radio in Manchester and Radio City in Liverpool.
Commenting on the likely outcome of changes under the White Paper, UK Times media correspondent Raymond Snoddy says it is likely to create a new batch of multimillionaires. He says that a bidding war is likely with all the top seven all initially wanting to be buyers rather than sellers.
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2000-12-09: The US Copyright Office has ruled that the 4000 or so US radio stations, which stream music over the Internet, must pay additional copyright fees.
''Transmissions of a broadcast signal over a digital communications network, such as the Internet, are not exempt from copyright liability,'' the Copyright Office said in a ruling to be published in the Federal Register on Monday.
The broadcasters' body, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), argues that they should not have to pay extra fees for streaming their broadcast content.
They said Internet-related copyright liability should be covered by the annual $350 million royalty payments they already make.
The Federal District Court in New York has yet to rule on a case brought by NAB against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) asking for a declaration that broadcasters were exempt from the additional fees.
Independent webcasters already pay fees and they may now make common cause with the broadcasters in negotiations over the fees to be paid, which could hit hard their already struggling industry.
The Copyright Office, which ruled against the broadcaster's argument that the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exempted them from extra payments, has said that the broadcasters should begin negotiating a fee schedule in February.
The Office however gave some consolation to the streaming industry by ruling that Webcasters are not interactive services which have to negotiate license fees for each individual song carried on the service.
This means that the webcasters and the broadcasters could agree to put Internet royalties into one pool, such as the Sound Exchange organisation including more than 2000 record companies, from which payment will be distributed to the record companies.
The ruling does not specify the amount of fees or when stations must pay them, but liability will date back to audio streamed from October 1998 when DMCA came into operation.
Until the matter goes further in the courts, it will still be uncertain what the full legal position is although payments will certainly be owed by any radio station that has streamed music broadcasts unless new legislation is brought in or there is a ruling contrary to the Copyright Office from the New York Federal District Court in the NAB law suit.
Whether or not the ruling almost kills already struggling audio streaming operations is up for debate but almost without doubt the lawyers will collect handy amounts from both the Recording Association of America (RIAA), representing the record industry, the Digital Media Association (DiMA), representing the webcasters, and NAB representing the broadcasters.
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2000-12-09: Redundancies are inevitable at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National division if budget cuts reported by the Sydney Morning Herald are put into effect.
According to the paper, executive producers were told on Friday that up to Aus$200,000 is being cut from their budget which would mean that there was not enough money to pay wages."
According to the paper, the producers were given six months to implement the cuts but also received an e-mail from the head of ABC radio, Sue Howard, saying there were to be no budget cuts or redundancies. The journalist' union has told staff to prepare for as many as 30 jobs being cut.
The paper says the cuts will affect Radio National Talks, which produces two thirds of the channel's programmes including many long interviews.
It adds that Radio National Arts, which handles the rest, is already pinched following a spending freeze. The paper also runs a second report on Radio National against the background of the imminent arrival of new manager, Mark Collier, due to move into his new office on Monday.
Collier was recruited from commercial radio but has so far refused comment about his plans for Radio National or its sister Parliamentary News Network.
His radio background was at top-rated Sydney station 2UE where he was news director and then general manager from 1982-1988. He has also done recent on-air work for the station.
The paper comments," He makes no claims to being an intellectual, has never made programs for pseuds and, frankly, doesn't look like a natural candidate for the top job in the brainiest part of the ABC."
The paper also says that Radio National's world is "is genuinely intellectual, but also a trifle stuck-up" and it notes that Radio National gets a paltry 1.4% audience share in Sydney.
It adds ,however, that it is also attracting a growing audience to its Web site which has some 145000 hits last week.
The Herald concludes that, although Collier has said privately that he will not "dumb down" the network, he will have to handle a difficult bunch of people by any standard.
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Sydney Morning Herald report (links to second article):.

2000-12-08: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped the two radio items expected to come up at Thursday's meeting (RNW Dec. 5).
Proposed rule changes to the way in which the FCC defines radio markets did not come up because the Commissioners had already agreed on details of their proposed rule.
No details have yet been released and current politics in the US mean that action is unlikely in the near future.
There have been suggestions that the FCC should drop its rule, which defines markets by signal contours in favour of using Arbitron -style definitions.
The second item, on the issue of "red flagging" when stations had too high a share of the market, fell through because Anderson Broadcasting had pulled its application to sell five stations in Bismarck, North Dakota, to Cumulus Media. Cumulus had been running the stations under a Local Management Agreement since the deal was announced last year and the future of the LMA has now to be settled.
If nothing else, the $3.75 million involved will help troubled Cumulus with another purchase.
It's planning to pay Lovett Communications $2 million for WSLE-FM in Cairo, Georgia.
Lovett is keeping of sister-station WGRA-AM
Other deals on the go include the sale by Cox Radio for $5 million of WHOO-AM in Orlando , Florida, to Disney-owned ABC Radio and of KOKE-AM, not yet on air but to be licensed to Pflugerville in Texas, for $2.3 million to Lasting Value Broadcasting Group.
And on a smaller scale but with more names to remember is the $1million sale of WNST-AM in Baltimore by Capital Kids Radio.
The buyer?
Nasty 1570 Sports, so-named because of the nickname of Baltimore Sports Talk host Nestor Aparicio who lined up the local investors making the purchase.
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2000-12-08: A look at some of the topics which have come up at this week's UBS-Warburg Media Conference, which heard a vote of confidence in radio from Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays (RNW Dec. 6).
Other expressions of confidence have come from Emmis Communications CEO Jeff Smulyan and Hispanic Broadcasting CEO Mac Tichenor.
Smulyan said he though radio advertisements were still cheap compared to other media.
Emmis, he said, had put up its prices already but had a long way to go and he expected Emmis to grow next year.
Tichenor said he perceives the Spanish language market in the US as still under-served.
He suggested that Hispanic would be interested in expanding beyond its current top 156 Hispanic markets to the top 20 and also building up at least three FMs and an AM in each market.
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2000-12-08: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined Viacom-CBS-Infinity station WLLD-FM in Holmes Beach Florida $7000 over a broadcast "the Last Damn Show" made in September last year.
The programme featured explicit lyrics, which were both sexual and profane.
The station defended the broadcast on the basis that current community standards find such material acceptable and that current prime-time shows use graphic language and show graphic sex scenes.
The FCC said that neither the material involved nor anything remotely like it had ever been considered acceptable for broadcast media.
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Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:

2000-12-07: Another update on the Flood Tribunal into the award of Ireland's first national commercial radio licence to Century Radio, which later went bankrupt.
The Tribunal has being hearing evidence this week from Century co-founder Oliver Barry, in particular over various payments he made, claimed for, or about which he forgot details.
Barry was stopped from completing a statement to the tribunal and told that he could only make it if it was relevant and not adverse to other parties.
Barry apologised to the Irish Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) for concealing the fact that a shareholder in Century Communications Ltd was John Mulhern, son-in-law of the then Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey.
"In hindsight it was totally wrong of us to do so," Barry said.
He added that Mulhern wished to remain private when the licence application was made in 1998.
Barry and co- founder James Stafford each invested £275,000 in the company and Mulhern £300,000.
Although he said the concealment was "innocent" Barry agreed that elaborate arrangements were made to keep Mulhern's involvement secret.
Questioned about his previous evidence of making a £35,000 political donation to then broadcasting Minister Ray Burke, Barry said he was taken aback when Burke asked him for £30,000 to help secure the second seat in his constituency.
However he decided to pay £35,000 in cash because the country had an interest in the return to power of if Fianna Fáil, which had legislated for independent broadcasting.
Barry insisted that he would not have made the payment without the approval of Mulhern (who has testified he was only told in 1989 after it had been made) and Stafford (who has testified he only learned of the payment in 1991).
Asked about a £66,000 payment into Century's capital account on behalf of Mulhern, he said he could not recall whether he made the payment.
Tribunal counsel Patrick Hanratty SC referred to a memo compiled by Century's former financial director Noreen Hynes, about payments to Century's Century's £900,000 paid-up capital and a shortfall of £90,000 in this.
The memo showed that Barry made a £33000 in March 1998 from the Quality Artistes Management (QAM) account and that a second payment of £66,667 was made on behalf of Mulhern.
Barry said he had not made the payment.
Hanratty then pointed out that the QAM account showed a debit item of £66,667 had been paid out on March 1st, 1989, and there had been a corresponding credit on April 3rd.
Barry agreed that it was possible he could have paid the monies for Mulhern and been reimbursed by him
On the matter of payments to RTÉ(state broadcaster) technical staff who had provided the transmission services for Century, Barry was asked about his claim to have paid £5000 in cash as against the £1600 or £1700 that RTÉ engineer Peter Brannigan had said he had received.
Barry insisted he had made one payment and the sum was £5000,money he had withdrawn from the bank. He said two people were involved, Brannigan and John McGrath, RTÉ's head of network.
McGrath had testified he received no payment.
Barry also testified about the difficulties of working for Century when it met financial problems.
He said £40,000 he was claiming was for 25 weeks work at £1600 per week. |He said he had saved the company at the time and earned "every single penny" of the payment.
Previous Barry:
Previous Ray Burke:
Previous Century Radio:
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Previous Hynes:
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Previous Mulhern:
Previous RTÉ;
Previous Stafford:
RNW note: Most of our report is culled from The Irish Times which has been carrying full reports on the Flood Tribunal. For their reports follow the link below: Look for Flood Tribunal .
Irish Times --search page

2000-12-07: Despite gloomy prognostications from various quarters , the US Radio Advertising Bureau has reported another month of growth in US radio in October.
This made it the 98th consecutive month of growth.
The gain for the month was 3% over October 1999, with local revenue gains of 6% being offset by a fall of 5% in national advertising.
September l revenues were similar. Overall revenue was up 3%, local revenues up 6% and national revenue down 6%.
The year to date figures , however, show how much slowdown there has been; national advertising was up 16%, local advertising up 14%, and overall figures up 14%.
Previous RAB (US):

2000-12-07 : Mexican anti-trust authorities say they will prohibit the planned deal by broadcaster Televisa and Grupo Acir Communications (RNW Sept. 20) to create the country's largest radio company with some 190 radio stations.
Under the planned deal, Televisa would have combined with US giant Clear Channel to buy Grupo Acir for some $100 million.
Televisa, which would first have bought 28% of Grupo Acir, would then have folded its Radiopolis radio group into new company Grupo Acir-Radiopolis.
This new group would also have operated Grup Acir's stations.
Televisa, which owns more than 1100 TV stations, would have had a 50.01% share in the new radio company and Clear Channel, already a partner in Acir, and Acir itself would each have held 24.995%.
Comisión Federal de Competencia ( Mexico's Federal Anti-trust commission) made the ruling on the basis that the merger would jeopardise competition in the country.
Commission president Francisco Sánchez Ugarte said that the decision had been made more difficult because Televisa had broadcast attacks on him, which he felt were an attempt to intimidate him and prevent a ruling unfavourable to it. In the attacks Televisa accused him of abusing his authority to aid a family member in business deals.
Televisa and Acir now have 30 days to file an appeal.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Mexico deal:.

2000-12-06 :Australian Broadcasting Corporation staff have now staged a 24-hour strike following their industrial meetings which disrupted radio yesterday (RNW Dec. 5).
More than 4000 staff are involved and pickets are expected outside the Corporation's board meeting today.
The Sydney Morning Herald reporting on the meeting in Sydney says Radio National journalist Jane Connors drew strong support for a speech in which she referred to the "decline in standards of competence at the top" of ABC management over the past eight months and said it was clear that many managers were just there for the money.
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Sydney Morning Herald report:

2000-12-06 Both the BBC and UK commercial station TalkSport are claiming victory in the settlement of a High Court action over TalkSport's broadcasts of commentaries on the Euro 2000 soccer tournament based on viewing TV broadcasts.
The BBC says it is a "victory for sport" because the agreement requires TalkSport to make frequent disclaimers when broadcasting unauthorised commentaries on sporting events for which the Corporation has radio rights.
Jenny Abramsky, BBC Director of Radio said, "The whole market for broadcast sports rights would have collapsed and sport might have lost a great deal of money if this hijacking of sports events had been allowed to continue unchecked.
The BBC statement says, "TalkSport has agreed that it will have to broadcast disclaimers at the beginning, every 15 minutes, whenever a goal is scored in football or a wicket taken in cricket, and at the end of any broadcast it might make in future of sports events for which the BBC has obtained official rights."
"The station has conceded that it must not represent its broadcasts during the commentary as being official or authorised or as containing genuine sound from the stadium."
"And TalkSport has further agreed that any advertising or promotion for such programmes must state that the broadcasts will be unofficial or unauthorised, that background sound comes from a studio and not the event, and that coverage is being described from television monitors and not from the event."
TalkSport in its turn says that is has won in that it can "continue to broadcast commentary of major sporting events off TV as it did during Euro 2000 - even if the BBC has rights to the event."
The station says it "plans to exercise this right every time it is excluded from the process of being able to bid for broadcast rights, as it was during Euro 2000 and the Sydney Olympics."
TalkSport, owned by the Wireless Group, had objected to the bundling of radio and TV rights by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Mike Parry, Head of Sport for TalkSport, said: "This agreement is what we wanted all along. "
"Whenever we are shut out from the bidding process for any reason, then we will exercise our right."
"That could mean, for example, doing commentary of the Grand National off the telly from Hereford racecourse."
"We will keep all our options open - but this settlement means we are no longer going to be locked out of any major sports event by the BBC here or anywhere in the world."
"The Wireless Group has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission in relation to the activities of the European Broadcasting Union, which sells TV and radio rights bundled together."
"TalkSport has been turned down three times for membership of the EBU, so it could not even bid for the TV and radio rights for Euro 2000 and the Olympics."
"TWG believes it should be able to bid for purely radio rights for sporting events."
Kelvin MacKenzie, chairman and chief executive of the Wireless Group, said he was "very chirpy" about the agreement and spoke of the BBC getting a "bloody nose" in the High Court action.
He also said he was now confident that TalkSport would be admitted to the EBU.
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TalkSport web site -news segment links to statement on the agreement. RNW comment: From the fact that the TalkSport site carries the full details of the restrictions required, we would give the BBC the edge in this case.
We suspect, however, that TalkSport will manage to join the EBU, which originally was exclusively comprised of traditional public broadcasters in Western Europe.

2000-12-11: The BBC arrangement for Radio 4 to spend most of the day with a Harry Potter reading (RNW Dec. 1) has now come home.
The Corporation's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, has bought Cover to Cover, a leading producer of unabridged readings of books in a deal worth around £1 million.
Cover to Cover, whose titles include Stephen Fry's readings of the Potter books, was set up in 1983 by former BBC producer Helen Nicoll after she noted that most audio books were heavily abridged.
It now has around 75 titles including classics such as the Jane Austin novel Emma read by Prunella Scales and Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights read by Patricia Routledge
The BBC, the biggest player in a UK market worth some £75 million a year, has more than 600 titles in its audio book business but it has mainly produced abridged versions.
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2000-12-06: US Internet streaming ratings organisation, MeasureCast Inc, has just released its first weekly list of the top ten Internet audio broadcasters in the US.
Boosted by the continuing US election story, a surprising six of the slots went to talk or news radio.
Heading the list was talk radio WABC-AM with a total time spent listening of 107,409 hours and cumulative listenership (unique listeners for more than five minutes) of 19,336.
It was followed by Urban R&B, The Beat, Los Angeles, with 59,590 listening hours and 6558 cumulative listeners and News/Talk WBAP-AM, Dallas-Forth Worth, with 53,188 listening hours and 7,755 cumulative listeners.
The company's demographic highlights showed 71% of the streaming audience to be men, 29% women. It also showed that 90 per cent of listening was on weekdays, three-quarters being between 0900 and 1900 EST. RNW note: A quick summing of the top ten shows the cumulative number of unique listeners as 46,314, a pretty paltry showing on a top story in a nation with a total population of some 450 million and the 18 million or so who listen each week to top rated US host Paul Harvey (RNW Nov. 11)
It confirms our view that, whatever the growth rate, Internet audio will supplement and complement, not supplant broadcasting.
Still in the US but with the old radio industry, the markets seemed rather more sceptical than the radio executives, in this case, Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays.
He was bullish about radio's prospects, telling analysts at the UBS Conference in New York that radio advertising growth will continue to draw from newspapers, which are becoming less effective.
Mays showed charts illustrating how radio revenues had increased year after year, with one exception, even in economic downturns.
The markets did not take heart however and radio stocks continued to slide on Monday.
Clear Channel was down just over 1% and Citadel fell around 10% to end up under $10. Troubled Cumulus dropped below $4 for a while
.Most recent Arbitron web ratings: (for comparison)
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December 2000 Archive

Prime Radio Stations