March 2002
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Feb 2002 
April
2002 
Links- internally where there are follow-up stories we try, at the end of each story, to put a pertinent link to the top of the next relevant story. Regarding external links see note at end of page.
RNW March comment looks at the pros (few, if any, we believe) and cons (significant) of further media consolidation.
RNW February comment considers whether charges and regulations proposed for streaming could almost kill off the idea.
RNW January Comment takes a look at regulation and censorship in view of current US divisions concerning "indecent" broadcasts.
2002-03-31:Australia was quiet on the radio front over the past week but a variety of issues and licensing decisions came up elsewhere.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was involved in smaller scale decisions including an administrative renewal of the broadcasting licence for the French-language radio network operated by Radiomédia inc. for the broadcast of the baseball games of the Montréal Expos, from 1 April 2002 to the end of the 2002 baseball season.
It also published a public notice of a power increase request in Ontario and approved a power decrease, also in Ontario.
The increase was from 298 to 1,430 watts for Milestone Radio's CFXJ-FM in order to improve the stations signal and the decrease was for from 96,300 watts to 70,000 watts for CFJB-FM Barrie-Orillia, Ontario (Rock 95).
The decrease was allied with a transmitter move to the site currently used by CKMB-FM, the licensee's other station serving the Barrie-Orillia market and was necessary to maintain the maintain the station's authorized technical parameters at its new transmitter site, which is approximately 100 metres higher than the present location. Rock 95 says the move to share the antenna will save it around CAD20, 000 a year.
Concern at the change was expressed by Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation (Bayshore), licensee of three radio stations in Owen Sound (CFOS, CIXK-FM and CKYC-FM), which argued that the proposed changes would put CFJB-FM's into much of the Owen Sound radio market.
Rock 95 said it would not significantly affect Bayshore's business and also, in response to an objection by Durham Radio Inc., licensee of CJKX-FM Ajax, which said the proposed changes would significantly increase interference by CFJB-FM, attached a letter from the Canadian Department of Industry that indicated that potential interference to CJKX-FM would actually be reduced.
On the business side, the CRTC has approved a takeover by Maritime Broadcasting System Limited, Summerside, Prince Edward Island, of CJRW-FM Summerside, from The Gulf Broadcasting Company Limited and a corporate re-organisation by North Superior Broadcasting Ltd., Marathon and Wawa, Ontario.
Under this, Mrs. Wendy M. Bell will acquire all the holding, amounting to around 11% of the company, held by Peter A Burns. Control of North Superior, which operates CFNO-FM Marathon and CJWA-FM Wawa, will remain with Spencer S Bell who holds more that 60% of the company's shares.
In Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has now signed a contract with NewsTalk 106FM, the new broad-based, speech-driven radio station for Dublin. The station is due to go on air in April along with Spin FM, the new Dublin youth-oriented music station.
In the UK, the Radio Authority has been involved in Access Radio again with the launch in Leicester of Takeover Radio, a new experimental analogue radio service for children and in Nottingham of Radio Fiza, a new experimental analogue radio service for the city's South Asian community.
The former is owned and operated by the registered charity, Takeover Radio Children's Media Trust and the latter is shared between the Asian Women's Project and the Karimia Institute.
The two launches mean that six of the 15 Access radio pilot stations selected by the Authority are now on-air; the others are due to follow within the next two months apart from Shine FM in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, which will broadcast for just a few months from the autumn (fall).
The Authority has also sought public interest comments on the acquisition by Kent Messenger Ltd of a controlling interest in Medway FM Ltd., which broadcasts Mercury 107.9 FM, the local radio station in Medway. The public interest test is required because the Kent Messenger operates a number of newspapers in the station's transmission area.
It has also published its assessment of the re-award to Premier Christian Radio of its Greater London local licence, commenting in particular on the "clarity of the application proposals" submitted by Premier and noting the significant part of the station's output that came from high quality outside broadcasts. It also noted approvingly the measures that the station had now introduced to ensure compliance with programming codes and the 1990 Broadcasting Act.
In Scotland, the Authority has received only one application for the new local FM licence for Skye & Lochalsh; this was from Cuillin FM Ltd., which is proposing a community-led service that will reflect the culture of the area and give prominence to broadcasts in Gaelic.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced the creation of the new federal advisory committee, the Media Security and Reliability Council (" MSRC") whose members will study, develop and report on best practices designed to assure the "optimal reliability, robustness and security of the broadcast and multichannel video programming distribution industries."
It will be comprised of senior executives of companies involved in mass media and will initially be chaired by Dennis J. FitzSimons, President and COO of Tribune Company.
On the regulatory enforcement front, the Commission has seen a judge halt its order for halted the revocation of the licences of WSTX AM and FM of Christiansted, Virgin Islands, from Family Broadcasting, Inc. Further hearings are now to be held (See RNW March 29).
In other actions, its enforcement bureau has
*denied an application by KASA Radio Hogar Inc for review of a USD15, 000 fine imposed last year (See RNW June 10, 2001) for various offences relating to not having proper monitoring equipment and not conducting equipment performance tests at KDAP-AM, Douglas, Arizona.
*proposed a penalty of USD10,000 on M& R Enterprises, Inc., licensee of Station WESL( AM), East St. Louis, Illinois, for repeatedly denying access to its public inspection files.
*proposed a penalty of USD 6,000 on Clear Channel for the June 2001 broadcast on WGBF (FM), Henderson, Kentucky of a tape of a phone conversation with an announcer at a rival station so as to ridicule him and without informing him of its intention to broadcast the conversation. The complainant had submitted a tape of the conversation and Clear Channel admitted the offence.
Previous BCI:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-03-30: Cumulus Radio has now completed this week's biggest radio deal, its USD230 million acquisition of Aurora Communications, which owns and operates 18 radio stations in Connecticut and New York. (See RNW Nov 20, 2001).
It's also completed its USD87 million acquisition of the three Nashville stations of DBBC LLC, which was owned by the Dickey brothers John and Lewis who are respectively Cumulus's Executive Vice President and President and Chief Executive Officer. The Aurora deal gained 99% support from those shareholders who voted according to Cumulus
Both deals were mainly comprised of stock or warrants: In the case of Aurora, Cumulus paid USD93 million in cash or assumed debt plus around 10.6 million shares of its common stock and also issued warrants to purchase 833,333 additional shares of its common stock. In the case of DBBC LLC the deal involved 5,250,000 shares of the Cumulus Class A Common Stock, the assumption of approximately USD21 million in liabilities of DBBC, and the issuance of warrants to purchase 250,000 additional shares of Cumulus Common Stock.
Concurrently with the announcement of the completion, Cumulus also announced that it had completed a USD400 million credit arrangement comprising an USD112.5 million revolving commitment, a USD112.5 million term loan and a USD175.0 million term loan.
The proceeds of this facility have been used to refinance amounts outstanding under current credit facilities, to fund the cash portions of the Aurora and DBBC acquisitions and to pay fees and expenses in connection with both the acquisitions and credit facilities.
In another sizeable deal, Lincoln, Nebraska-based Three Eagles Communications Inc has agreed its purchase for USD71 million by a group headed by Wachovia Corporation's investment arm. Privately held Three Eagles owns 35 stations in five states in the mid west and expects the deal to close within four months.
The group taking it over is comprised of Wachovia Capital Partners, Primus Venture Partners and Three Eagles' management team, with founder, chairman and CEO Rolland Johnson leading the plan on behalf of the management.
In Georgia, Paul Stone is to buy out the estate of his late 50-50 partner in Southern Broadcasting, Charles Giddens, from Gidden's widow Joanne.
He'll pay her USD15 million for the half of Southern she owns, with additional payment to be made should he sell the stations in the next few years. Southern owns ten stations and is buying two others, all in Georgia.
On the results front, Big City Radio's results for the final quarter of 2002 shows it still making losses but trimming them back significantly. In the quarter its net revenues were down nearly a fifth to USD4.5 million but drastic cost cutting took its negative Broadcast Cash Flow (BCF), which was USD771, 000 of red ink a year ago down to a loss of only USD93, 000.
For the full year net revenues were down 14% to USD20.5 million and negative BCF, excluding its Internet operation, which lost, another USD1.5 million, was cut to USD758,000 compared to USD 2.2 million on the minus side for 2000.
The company's 10K filing includes, as it did for 2000, a warning that there are doubts about the group's ability to continue as a going concern.
Big City raised USD34 million to ease its debt problems by selling its Phoenix stations to Hispanic Broadcasting for USD 34 million last September (see RNW Sept 8 2001).
It paid interest of nearly USD10 million on its bonds earlier this month but will have the same problem again on September 15th and says that it will have to raise the money through an equity issue, borrowing or more asset sales to meet the payment.
Should it not do so, and hasn't by the end of October reinvested in broadcasting assets around USD18 million (its cash in hand at the end of 2001)it will have to make an offer to repurchase its USD174 million's worth of outstanding bonds.
Back with the big players, a group including Viacom that owned a fifth of Westwood One in May 2000, has sold warrants for 1 million shares back to Westwood at a price of USD25.43 a share. Westwood, which has already spent nearly USD500 million on repurchases, earlier this week agreed to put an additional USD200 million into its re-purchasing funds (RNW March 28). This latest deal reduced the Viacom group holding in Westwood to just under 16%.
And finally a claim that in RNW's view would in a sane world have been better reported on April 1st, All Fool's Day, a USD 1.2 billion lawsuit against Clear Channel.
It comes from the family of a Binghamton, New Jersey, woman who died two years ago after she fell and struck her head when she was pushed or fell whilst waiting with her daughter, then aged ten, for the appearance of Britney Spears at a Clear Channel WMRV-FM station promotion.
The woman's widower alleges negligence by the station and its owners and has launched a total of 45 suits for damages of USD10 million plus in some cases, punitive damages of USD50 million.
Previous Big City Radio:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Cumulus:
Previous John Dickey:
Previous Lewis Dickey:
Previous Hispanic:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Previous Westwood One:
2002-03-30: The UK has seen two radio company closures over the past week (as well as the collapse of UK ITV Digital, handing Sky digital a commercial digital TV near-monopoly in the UK).
One was of a production company and the other of a digital radio station.
The latter was Stormlive, the digital station run by former DJ Bruno Brookes' company, which has now pulled the plug on the station and is to concentrate on its other activities.
Stormlive had been available via the Internet and Sky digital but suffered from having no audited audience figures on which to base advertising charges.
The production company was Wise Buddha Broadcast, which produced a number of shows for BBC Radio 1 and documentaries for BBC Radios 2 and 4. Wise Buddha's other divisions, WB Creative, WB Talent and WB Music, will continue to trade.
Previous Bruno Brookes:
2002-03-30: Former WQAM Miami morning co-host and sports announcer Jeff Deforrest, who in January (See RNW Jan 19) pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to a Miccosukee Indian Gaming marketing director to ensure that he got the contract to broadcast television shows from its Tamiami Trail casino, has been sentenced to three years probation and six months house arrest.
He will also have to do 80 hours of community service and must repay USD18, 312 to the Miccosukee Tribe
2002-03-29: A US judge has halted the revocation of the licences of WSTX AM and FM of Christiansted, Virgin Islands, from Family Broadcasting, Inc. and designated the case for further hearings.
The stations are owned by Gerard Luz James and his wife Asta Luz James and have been the subject of US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decisionsdating back to October 15, 1994 when
WSTX- FM discontinued broadcast operations, allegedly because of the station's close proximity to the sea and damage from Hurricane Marilyn. It remained off the air until January 18, 1997, and did not submit, as required, any written request to remain silent. Subsequently an administrative law judge ruled that the company was fit to remain a licensee despite dishonesty and violation of rules.
The FCC then issued a "show cause" notice requiring Family to show why its licences should not be revoked and a fine levied "not to exceed two hundred and seventy- five thousand dollars" in relation to various rule breaches including an unauthorised transmitter move.
Gerard Luz James and his wife are attempting to transfer control of the station to their adult children but the FCC has already ruled against the transfer (see RNW June 17. 2001) and argued that James' daughter Barbara James-Petersen, who has run the stations as station manager and is currently company President should have known of some of the violations at the time of their commission.
it also suggests she may still be under control over her parents as far as the running of the stations is concerned.
The hearings will consider these matters and also the question of whether Ms James-Peterson is qualified to continue running the stations and also how to ensure that her parents do not enjoy benefits from a transfer of the licences
Previous FCC:
FCC re Family Broadcasting:
2002-03-29: The trade body for UK commercial radio, the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA), in a report "OFCOM: Deregulating Commercial Radio"(RNW note:OFCOM is the proposed new UK Super regulator) has called for the BBC to come under the new British super-regulator in the same way as commercial radio does and has also expressed concern over what it terms "the Radio Authority's interference in the day-to-day operations of their businesses."
"These days," it adds, "the imposition of automation limits and prescriptions of where news bulletins are read from should not be tasks for a regulator. We believe that listeners will punish companies that dare to provide poor quality services."
Published thinking to date on OFCOM, it notes, has been limited to that from regulators in the form of the Towers Perrin Scoping Project, which it says, "was short on deregulation and consultation."
Calling for a proper recognition of the importance of radio by the new regulator, the report says," "Commercial radio is strong. Radio employs almost as many people as television, at the same time as increasing its share of advertising and audience, as television's declines. For these reasons, radio deserves better than being consigned to a solo silo."
"Like many other OFCOM regulated businesses, " says the CRCA, "radio will flourish under a deregulatory, streamlined regulator that is sufficiently flexible to respond to developing industries and is armed with sufficient expertise to recognise the ebb and flow of its role.".
On licensing it says that the current system should be maintained for new analogue licences, but existing analogue licences should only be re-advertised at the end of their term if the incumbent licensee fails to perform satisfactorily and analogue licences, like digital ones, should be 12 years long (rather than the current 8 years).
In addition it says OFCOM should recognise the impact of digital take-up delay on licensees by aligning analogue licences to the digital service to which they are tied.
The report recommends "the continuation of the existing 'beauty parade' system for radio licensing. We believe that this will deliver the greatest value to listeners, through the continuation of positive content promises."
It also says that it supports the continuation of positive content regulation and recommends that 'formats' should also be applied to BBC radio stations and wants all complaints referred in the first place to the company involved with complainants being told they can go back to OFCOM should they not receive a satisfactory reply.
"Commercial radio is strong. Radio employs almost as many people as television, at the same time as increasing its share of advertising and audience, as television's declines. For these reasons, radio deserves better than being consigned to a solo silo.
In similar vein on some fronts, the US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is arguing that deregulation and subsequent consolidation, far from negatively affecting competition and diversity have actually enhanced them.
In comments submitted to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on a range of issues relating to ownership of radio stations in local markets, it says that the FCC should simply stick to numerical limits related that were set down with relation to market size in the 1996 US Telecommunications Act.
It then argues that consolidation has produced greater programming diversity and significant efficiency benefits.
A study conducted by BIA Financial Network, it says, unequivocally demonstrates that the post-1996 consolidation in US radio has led to greater diversity of radio programming in local markets and a NAB study shows that the overall impact of this consolidation in the radio industry may be less than often assumed, as many stations rare still "standalones," or part of local duopolies in their markets. It also argues against regulations to protect advertisers from concentration in particular local markets and says that, if there is to be such regulation, it should be based on wider media advertising rather than radio alone.
RNW comment: somewhat disingenuously (we might even say a little dishonestly), the CRCA gives as a reason for some of these views, particularly those related to licensing, that it does not "want OFCOM to be required to undertake unnecessary work." Nothing of course to do with its member companies protecting what they hold and, of course, thereby increasing their companies' market valuation.
Similarly we feel much the same way about the motivation behind some of NAB's comments.
In some cases, we think the broadcasters' arguments may turn out to be justified but where they are not we would want to see suitable ways of protecting the "public interest" where a group is subsequently found to have abused the freedoms given to it. In our view, this should include, if actions are sufficiently gross, the withdrawal of all a company's licences with no compensation but somehow, we don't think either CRCA or NAB would feel confident enough to accept the challenge of a go-ahead on this basis.
Previous CRCA:
Previous FCC:
Previous NAB:
Previous OFCOM:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
CRCA web site:
NAB web site:
2002-03-29: Following in the wake of Volkswagen-Audi (See RNW March 28), Nissan has now announced that it is to make Sirius and XM satellite radios available in some of its 2003 models from fall this year. They include the Infiniti Q45, G35 and 135, the Nissan Pathfinder and the Nissan Murano.
Sirius receivers are also to be offered in the all-new 2003 Chrysler Pacifica sports tourer due to go on sale in spring of next year although it has not yet decided if they will be standard equipment
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Sirius web site:
XM Web site:
2002-03-29: Local revenues have come to the aid of yet another radio company, in this case Scottish Radio Holdings(SRH).
In a trading update issued in advance of interim results due on May 24, it says that for the six months to the end of March, like-for-like radio revenues have shown a 9% fall in national advertising revenue being offset by a 4% increase in local ones which now account for 53% of its commercial radio revenue compared to 50% a year earlier.
Overall SRH says group revenues for the six months to March 31, excluding acquisitions and disposals, will be 3% down on a year earlier.
Previous SRH:
SRH web site:
2002-03-28: A mixture of ups and downs mark this week's results so far.
It was an up from UK GWR Group, which owns Classic FM and 38 local stations. It has reported some improvement in the UK advertising market but says it is too early to "to be confident that these conditions reflect a sustained recovery."
In the quarter to the end of March it says it expects total group revenues to be up 1.4% tear on year but like-for-like revenues to be flat (made up of a 4.8% reduction in year-on-year national revenues and 2.7% increase in local ones).
For the six months to the end of March, the figures are worse with like-for-like revenues forecast to be down 6% and for the full year they are forecast to be down 5.5%.
GWR had benefited from a strong performance by Classic FM, which had one of its best ever months in March.
In contrast Jones Media Networks in the US has reported a revenue decline of 21% to USD18.7 million in the final quarter of last year compared to Q4, 2000 although it also says there have been "early indications of improvement" over the past few weeks.
Jones' net loss for the final quarter was up from USD1.2 million in 2000 to USD4.2 million in 2001 and consolidated EBITDA was down by nearly half to USD2.8 million; the percentage fall excluding results from Jones' discontinued Internet division was 54% down.
Jones' radio division broke even in the quarter compared to an USD800, 000 profit a year earlier with revenues down 9% to USD9.7 million and EBITDA was down 28% to USD1.8 million.
For the year, revenues were down 9% to USD6.7 million, and radio division revenues were down 5% to USD39.9 million; overall consolidated EBITDA for the year was down 62% to USD6.7 million and radio division EBITDA was down 40% to USD6.2 million.
Looking ahead, Jones Radio Networks says it expects full year 2002 revenues to be up 10% to USD44 million and EBITDA to be up by half to USD9.3 million.
Emmis Communications Corp. is also in a slightly bullish mood based on business so far. It now says that it expects to exceed the fourth quarter guidance it issued in January and says that for the quarter to the end of February it anticipates net revenue to top USD114 million and EBITDA to top USD23.3 million.
Emmis has also announced a public offering of 4 million Class A common shares at USD26.80 a share from its shelf registration in June last year.
Underwriters Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Credit Suisse First Boston have a 30-day option to buy up to 600, 000 shares to cover an over-allotments.
In all Emmis expects net proceeds of USD104.5 million which is to be used to pay down debt and possibly repurchase some of its outstanding 12.5% senior discount notes that are due in 2011.
Also on the stocks front, Radio One Inc has announced that it is selling 10 million shares of its non-voting D-class stock, 1.3 million from existing shareholders and 8.7 million new shares. The sale is part of the USD500 million shelf registration it filed in January.
Meanwhile Westwood One is to buy back more of its stock from its free cash. Its board has approved an additional USD200 million share re-purchase programme, to include open market and private transactions. Westwood One has already repurchased nearly 30 million shares of its common stock and warrants for around USD478 million.
CEO Joel Hollander said the company's free cash flow increased in 2001 to nearly $104 million and that growth was expected to continue this year. The repurchase he said were "consistent with our long-term objective of enhancing shareholder value by not only paying down debt, but also purchasing our common stock."
Previous Emmis:
Previous GWR:
Previous Hollander:
Previous Jones Media Networks:
Previous Radio One Inc.:
Previous Westwood One:
2002-03-28: Canadian broadcasting watchdog, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has condemned Calgary radio station CHRK-FM for running a contest in August 2002 that required the contestant to dance naked on a major traffic thoroughfare during the morning rush hour in order to win concert tickets.
In this case the male contestant (albeit women were also eligible) had used strategically placed Frisbees to offer partial cover and had painted his body but the Council concluded that to encourage the act was clearly a breach of its code.
It pointed out parallels between a previous contest for which a woman had ridden a bicycle naked down a main street so as to be eligible to win a cash prize.
In that case, the Council had said, "It is perfectly obvious to the Council that a nude woman (or, the Council assumes, a nude man) cycling down the principal avenue of one of the nation's largest cities could reasonably be expected to constitute a distraction for drivers."
It rejected parallels with Lady Godiva, noting, "When Lady Godiva, with an analogous attention-getting goal, tried the same thing in Coventry's marketplace in 1040 A.D., traffic was not as heavy."
In the latest case, the stunt was related to the John Mellencamp album "Dance Naked" and the prize was tickets to a Mellencamp concert but the council said this was not relevant to its finding.
The complaint made its way to the CBSC via the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which received a somewhat acerbic letter of complaint.
In part this read, "Both motorists and pedestrian traffic over the bridge were subjected to the sight of this nude male cavorting around. At that time of day there is a bumper-to-bumper stream of vehicular traffic and a heavy cyclist and foot passenger traffic. To expedite this activity the radio station furnished a "getaway" vehicle."
"No one in this city should be exposed (no pun intended) to this abhorrent behaviour in a highly public place."
"Calgary City Police responded to complaints and ticketed both the station and the idiot involved, but the radio station perverted justice by paying the ticket for the contest winner. There is no doubt that the IQ level of jocks on radio today is about that of a shrub but even for them this was more than a little over the top. It only proves that low lifes can be dredged up out of any sewer who want public attention badly enough, but I do not think our publicly licenced airways is [sic] the place for such trash. I hope that when this radio station's licence is up for renewal that this complaint will be part of the package when that licence is being considered. I also hope that the CRTC will be letting Rock 97 know that future infractions of encouraging abhorrent behaviour will be dealt with. The Calgary City Police have better things to do with their time than running around putting the lid on radio station trash."
In responding, the station programme director wrote, "Many of our listeners found the "stunt" amusing, including the ticket-issuing police officer who stated (in regards to stunting) "You've had the best reason for (stunting) so far, and I can't fault you for that". Even the newspaper article stated that the police officer "did allow himself a chuckle after he had issued [Mr. A] his ticket"… This contest, as all our contests, are [sic] always conceived and executed in the spirit of having fun and not intended to put people's lives in danger, intentionally break the law or expose anyone to 'abhorrent behaviour'."
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has denied an application by KASA Radio Hogar Inc for review of a USD15, 000 fine imposed last year (See RNW June 10, 2001) for various offences relating to not having proper monitoring equipment and not conducting equipment performance tests at KDAP-AM, Douglas, Arizona.
Previous CBSC:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
CBSC ruling:
FCC denial ruling:
2002-03-28: Sirius Satellite Radio, which posted a wider fourth-quarter net loss on Wednesday, is to bring its rollout forward by a month and be available throughout the US by July 1.
It has also renegotiated its USD150 million loan with Lehman Brothers to eliminate all covenants for 2002; the new covenants will begin in the first quarter of 2003 and require Sirius to report first-quarter revenues that year of USD 2.3 million. Lehman in return sees the strike price for its 2.1 million Sirius stock warrants reduced to USD from USD29, still around three times the current Sirius stock price.
At a conference call, Sirius CEO Joseph P. Clayton said that consumer satisfaction with the Sirius service had been better than expected and the first phase of its launch had been so successful that the company would "accelerate and expand" its nationwide rollout. Sirius, which launched its service in four states last month (See RNW Feb 15) will now be available in 18 more states by the start of May and a further 21 within two months.
Sirius says it now has a few hundred subscribers in its first four markets and expects to increase that to between 100,000 and 200,000 by the end of this year.
On the financial front, it said it had USD331 million in cash and marketable securities at the end of 200, which together with the proceeds of an equity offering in January that raised about USD158 million, gives it a cash balance of more than USD400 million.
In the final quarter of last year, Sirius had a net loss applicable to common stockholders of USD83.6 million (USD1.52 a share), up from a loss of USD54.1 million, (USD1.28 a share), a year earlier.
Chief Financial Officer John Scelfo said the company expects acquisition costs of about USD155 per new subscriber in 2002, higher than expectations, because Sirius has had to catch up to rival XM 's head start.
Sirius is charging USD12.95 a month for its service of 60 commercial-free music channels and 40 news and entertainment channels compared to USD9.95 a month charged by rival XM, which has more services carrying advertising.
Earlier this week Volkswagen-Audi announced that it has signed agreements to offer either Sirius or XM services, the first time that a manufacturer has announced deals with both satellite companies. Previous automaker deals have all been on an exclusive basis for one of the services.
Previous Clayton:
Previous Scelfo:
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Sirius web site:
XM Web site:
2002-03-27: As concern grows amongst broadcasters about the digital rights fees proposed by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) for streaming on the Internet (see RNW Feb 22), the lobbying is also being stepped up.
In the latest move, Arbitron has written to Congress suggesting that the fees should be dropped in favour of a five-year moratorium on fees for streaming media.
To back up its arguments, Arbitron has calculated the fees that would apply were streams to gain the same size audience as over-the- air broadcasts.
For the whole US radio industry, it says, this would be around USD2.4 billion a year, 13% of radio's total advertising revenue in 2001; for "one of the top national radio networks" fees would be USD358 million, currently amounting to nearly two-fifths of the entire network radio advertising industry revenue today; and for a top-rated New York music station the fees would be USD15 million a year.
"Streaming media," says Bill Rose, vice president and general manager, Arbitron Webcast Services, "serves the interests of the public by making available thousands of signals from around the country and the world. In addition, streaming media enables small community organizations with the ability for their message, music and voice to be heard in an affordable manner. Broad access through multiple points of distribution is crucial to serving the public interest because it will encourage competition, spur innovation and ensure diversity of voices on the Internet…"
"We foresee that the impact of these fees will dramatically reduce the consumer's choice of streaming content, limit the diversity of streaming 'voices' on the Internet, stifle competition among content providers and impede the growth of a popular new medium."
The letter also notes that the business model for streaming is not comparable to that for broadcast, having much lower entry costs but higher costs as audience size increases, contends that streaming cannot be copied and thus does not pose a risk to sales of recordings and says that "very few companies if any would be able to pay the cost. "
"Already," it adds, "a number of radio station group owners and webcasters have indicated that they will cease streaming as a result of the proposed new fees. Thus, the proposed fees are likely to create a business/regulatory environment that will limit competition, stifle innovation, reduce consumer choices and diminish diversity by concentrating the distribution of music to a handful of sources."
Previous Arbitron:
Arbitron letter:
2002-03-27: Leading Australian FM network Austereo has fought back against newcomer DMG's Nova in retaining its lead in the latest AC Nielsen McNair Australian ratings for Sydney but Nova has moved into first position in Melbourne.
On the talk front in Sydney, MacQuarie 's 2GB seems to have benefited from a revamp and Alan Jones defection to its breakfast slot from Southern Cross's 2UE where he had reigned supreme for years. 2UE again dropped share -it's now dropped from 13.2% two surveys ago to 10.7% -, although it retained second position overall, whilst 2GB increased its share by almost 50% overall; in the breakfast slot 2UE dropped from a top ranking 16.2% share to 11.5% putting it behind 2-Day which had a 14.1% share and not that far ahead of Jones who took 2GB's share up from 7.1% to 10.1%, just behind ABC 702 which increased its share from 9.5% to 10.3%
City by city, the top three were (previous % share in brackets):
Note- Triple M is now only a whisker ahead of ABC 702, which took its share up to 8.7% from 8.1%. DMG's Nova FM dropped share again, down from 8.6% to 8.3%, down from fourth position to fifth and 2GB, benefiting from Alan Jones as breakfast host, jumped up from 4.9% and seventh position to 7.1% and sixth.
*Adelaide: SAFM with 25.4 (26.5); 5AA with 15.4 (12.3) - up from third; 5MM with 11.8 (13.1)- down from second;
*Brisbane - B105FM with 19.5 (18.8); Triple M with 13.1(12.6 ; NEW97.3FM with 12.5(11.8):
*Melbourne - Nova 12.6 (10.5)- up from fourth; Fox FM 12.3 (11.6) - up from third and now equal with 3AW (12.1 and second); behind these was ABC 774 with 11.6(11.1):
Perth - 94.5FM with 22.5 (22.4) ; All New with 16.5(16.3); 96FM with 13.6(15.2)):
*Sydney, 2-Day with 13.2 (13.8); 2UE 10.7(11.9);Triple M 8.8 (9.1).
Previous 2UE:
Previous Austereo:
Previous Australian ratings:
Previous DMG:
Previous Jones:
Previous MacQuarie:
Previous Southern Cross:
2002-03-27: Internet listening, which had dropped the week before, rebounded by 5% in the week to March 17 according to latest figures from MeasureCast.
It says that during the week the top ten of the networks it rates streamed a combined total of 4,034,980 hours of programming - 66,827 more hours than the group streamed the week before - and the 1,248 stations it measures streamed a combined total of 6,423,886 hours.
At the top of the rankings, there was no change in individual station positions but in the network rankings, where Clear Channel retained the top spot, StreamAudio slipped from second to fifth place.
For the week to March 17, the top five stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets, were:
1: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 310,870 (296,256); CP 61,116 (55,439): Same position with both listening and reach up.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 223,639 (216,368); CP 68,683 (66,792): Same position with listening and reach up but still less than two weeks previously when it was in top spot.
3: Classical format King FM - TTSL 137,894 (119,657); CP 24,315 (23,714): Same position with listening and reach up but again listening was less than two weeks previously.
4: Classical format WQXR-FM, New York - TTSL 92,397 (89,339); CP 16,080 (15,913): Same position with listening and reach up but again listening was less than two weeks previously.
5: Rock format Internet-only station KNAC - TTSL 81,835 (78,057): CP 15,474 (15,314): Same position with higher listening and reach.
The top five networks for the same week (Previous week's figures in brackets) were:
1: Clear Channel Worldwide TTSL 1,088,273 (1,031,402) ; Cume 220,454 (210,406). Same position but higher listening and reach.
2: WARP Radio TTSL 616,479 (550,087) hours: Cume 133,111 (101,214) - Up from third with higher listening, and reach:
3: Radio Free Virgin TTSL 558,073 (527,466): Cume 128,853 (116,870) - Up from fourth with higher listening and reach.
4: Virgin Radio TTSL 449,078 (418,225): Cume 91,854 (85,602) - Up from fifth with higher listening and reach.
5: StreamAudio network TTSL 440,145 (624,781) : Cume 88,211 (133,523) - Down from second with significantly lower listening and higher reach.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-03-26: More than three quarters of Americans 12 or above listened to one or more network radio commercials each week last year according to the Winter 2002 RADAR (Radio's All Dimension Audience Research) audience report just released by Arbitron.
The report, covering January 24, 2001 to January 22 this year, shows more listening amongst prosperous Americans - more than 90% of adults in households with an income of USD70, 000 a year or more were in the network radio audience and more than 80% of adults with a college degree.
Heading the rankings in the 31 networks rated by RADAR were Westwood CNN Max Radio Network; Premiere Morning Drive AM and Network xb.
Previous Arbitron:
Arbitron web site:
2002-03-26: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has launched a promotional push for its Radio National channel, the station's first major campaign since 1994, in an attempt to raise awareness of the channel, especially amongst younger Australians. The campaign is centred on the channel's Breakfast programme and features adverts on ABC and SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) TV and cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne.
The campaign will also include newspaper inserts of full Radio National programme guides and the breakfast programme will include promotions for other Radio National programmes.
The ABC's Acting Director of Corporate Affairs, John Woodward, said the channel wanted to capital on an audience increase of more than a tenth last year.
"Radio National listeners are among the most dedicated of all ABC audiences," said Woodward.
"We get a tremendous amount of positive feedback from them. Through this campaign we hope more people will sample the station and judge for themselves."
Previous ABC Australia:
2002-03-26: Two Arizona radio deals to start the week: In Las Vegas, Hispanic Broadcasting has now closed its USD16 million purchase of country-format KPXC-FM, Las Vegas taking it up to three stations in the market, It already owned KISF-FM and KLSQ-AM.
Also in Arizona, Three Points Media is paying USD8 million for KKLD-FM in Prescott Valley.
Previous Hispanic:
2002-03-25: For our look at print comment on radio this week,. We have concentrated on various aspects of expectation and how far this has been met or not met.
Sometimes it's a matter of how well something is thought through to begin with and in other cases the factors that have the deciding effect come from the outfield.
In the first category comes a decision for a particular UK show reviewed by Elisabeth Mahoney in the UK Guardian: "On paper, it must," she writes, "have looked like a great idea: the Mark Radcliffe Show (BBC Radio 1), live from Alton Towers on Friday, with special guests and a preview of a new fairground ride called Air (largely because you're flung up into the stuff during it)."
"Given that Mark and Lard would try the ride out during the show, this would lend itself to lots of jokes about being 'on air'. "
Living in the UK, you might have thought that, whether they like the climate or not, the producers would have been aware of "the weather."
But, as Mahoney adds, "Of course the weather had other ideas about this particular Big Day Out. It was so windy that a platform they'd built to broadcast from had blown away and there was near-mutiny from guests ('I did think it wasn't the best idea," said Ralf Little, sounding chilly')."
"It is pouring and it is freezing," admitted Radcliffe, still seeming perky despite having to broadcast with "hail pouring into your face."
Not that much of an excuse there for not having thought things through a little: Nor, we would suggest was there for Felicia Middlebrooks of WBBN-AM in Chicago, unless she had the Rev Jesse Jackson ready and primed to come to her aid if demands for a near doubling or so of her pay came to nought with Infinity Radio.
As we've already reported (See RNW Mar 18) she is back and pretty well on the terms originally offered as far as can be gathered.
The question, as aptly put by Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times, is "Did the bosses of WBBM-AM (780) cave in to pressure from the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson? Or did Felicia Middlebrooks finally realize the terrible mistake she'd made and come crawling back to reclaim her old job?"
His answer? "A little of both, actually."
Feder in his column on Tuesday gave some background including details of a 1985 campaign against WBBM-Channel 2, also owned by Viacom, after it had demoted an African-American news anchor.
Of Middlesbrooks, Feder writes of what he calls " her scheme to orchestrate a racially charged letter-writing campaign, in which she raised threats of 'very serious long-term ramifications' if her salary didn't jump from its current USD350,000 a year to more than USD600,000" and notes that '"on her part, Middlebrooks finally dropped the self-righteous blather about 'fighting for women and/or minorities' and "'hanging the course of history' when it dawned on her that no other station would ever pay her as much to read radio copy."
Feder is also prepared to point out that the tale does not necessarily end there, however, noting that "It has become a fact of life in the Chicago broadcasting industry that managers who make any changes in the racial makeup of their top talent line-ups do so at their own peril. Like it or not, they know they'll have to answer to Jackson."
Hethen poses the question," What happens the next time Middlebrooks has to report a story involving the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson?"
Feder also takes up the questions raised by the Middlebrooks rumpus as far as her co-anchor is concerned.
"Through no fault of his own," WRITES Feder, "(Pat) Cassidy repeatedly saw his name--and his salary--bandied about in columns, news stories and e-mails about Middlebrooks' bid to achieve a quantum leap in her USD350,000 annual compensation. All the while, Cassidy was said to be making only half as much for doing the same job as morning news anchor."
Feder, obviously not an unalloyed fan of La Felicia, notes that after he wrote about the duo topping the ratings "Middlebrooks complained because Cassidy's name appeared before hers in two columns I wrote lauding their achievement.
Is that a guy thing?' Middlebrooks asked. (No, I assured her. It's an alphabetical thing.) " and then continues, "To his credit, Cassidy, 51, has held to the high road throughout his distinguished 33-year career in Chicago radio. Even when he was pressed Wednesday to talk about how the latest ordeal has affected him, he diplomatically declined. But his "no comment" spoke volumes."
"I'd just as soon not comment on any of this debacle because it's painful for the newsroom, painful for the radio station, and I just want to look ahead," he said. "I don't want to do anything that will contribute to more negativity because we've already had plenty of it in the press. I don't want to bash anybody."
Feder then asks a relevant question, "will bosses of the Infinity Broadcasting station bring him up to par with his partner? Given his innate modesty and preference for privacy, we may never know if or when that happens. "
RNW comment: Indeed so. We don't like a system under which giant companies can abuse their power, which is certainly a justified fear for talent in the US radio industry, but neither do we have that much time for puffed-up talent to that overdoes the "blather" , whether or not the individual sincerely believes the line they're spouting or is cynically manipulating things.
Nor, in the long run, do we think that there is an overall benefit in pushing things too far. Indeed, in this case we'd have loved to have seen Middlebrooks' salary trimmed to her co-anchor's benefit.
Moving on to another issue, but this time courtesy of the Chicago Tribune, former US Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow in an op-ed column entitled, "Why the world isn't listening to us. How is it that America, a nation founded on ideas--not religion or race or ethnicity or clan--cannot explain itself to the world?"
Minow looks at the current status of US broadcasting to the rest of the world. He first details some of the history of Voice of America, launched on Feb 24, 1942, with the words, "Here speaks a voice from America. Every day at this time we will bring you the news of the war. The news may be good. The news may be bad. We will tell you the truth."
Minow then notes the transferral of the system to come under the State Department after the war ended and comments on the dilemma on whether the VOA was to "be a professional, impartial news service serving as an example of press freedom to the world?"
"Or was it an instrument of U.S. foreign policy, a strategic weapon to be employed against those we fight? What is the line between news and propaganda? Should our broadcasts advocate America's values--or should they pro-vide neutral, objective journalism?"
He then writes, "Indeed, as the Cold War wound down, we forgot its most potent lesson: that totalitarianism was defeated not with missiles, tanks and carriers, but with ideas--and that words can be weapons."
"Even though Voice of America had earned the trust and respect of listeners for its accuracy and fairness, our government starved our international broadcasts. Many of the resources that had once been given to public diplomacy--to explaining ourselves and our values to the world--were eliminated."
After looking at the development of rival media sources such as Al Jazeera and noting that "The global marketplace of news and information is no longer dominated by the United States" , Minow comments, "the United States has an important story to tell, the story of human striving for freedom, democracy and opportunity."
" Since the end of the Cold War, we have failed to tell that story to a world waiting to hear it on the radio and see it on television. We have failed to use the power of ideas."
He comments of the current moves under way in the US to increase international broadcasts that they "late and, in my view, too timid. They are tactical, not strategic. They are smart, not visionary."
Minow then suggests that the US must define a clear strategic mission and vision for its international broadcasts, finance it properly(Minow suggests around 1% of US military spending would be about right), and then use the unique talent of the United States to "communicate that vision to the world."
He concludes that in the current world situation , "In virtually every case, those whose rule is based on an ideology of hate have understood better than we have the power of ideas and the power of communicating ideas."
"The murder of 2 million Hutus and Tutsis in central Africa could not have happened but for the urging of madmen with broadcast towers at their disposal. The same has been true of ethnic violence in India and Pakistan."
"On Sept. 11 everything changed except the way we think. It is hard to change the way we think."
"But we know that ideas last longer than people do, and that two important ideas of the 20th Century are now in direct competition: the ideas of mass communication and mass destruction. The question is whether we will be wise enough to use one to avoid the other."
RNW comment: Bearing in mind how much of the message will be directed towards the Arab and Islamic worlds, no matter how straight the reporting we cannot but see current US policies regarding Israel getting a two-finger response from those who see the Israelis as illegal occupiers of, and settlers in, Palestinian territory against whom resistance is justified and whom the US is supporting in defiance of what is just because of domestic political considerations.
Previous Cassidy:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Feder:
Previous Mahoney:
Previous Middlebrooks:
Chicago Sun-Times - Feder columns:
Chicago Tribune - Minow:
UK Guardian - Mahoney:
2002-03-25: According to the New York Times, the decisions of where tooth whitening advertisements are placed may make more difference to the future of US country radio than the music itself.
In an article in the paper headed, The Country Music Radio ignores, Neil Strauss takes up the issue of what does and doesn't make US country radio airwaves and why.
Pegging his article to the fact that the soundtrack to the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", the top Grammy winner this year, is getting very little play, Strauss reports on the tensions between the kind of music that country stations air and the traditions of the music itself.
He notes that some 2,1000 of 11,000 US commercial stations are country format yet " most of country's classic artists and styles have been getting short shrift on the air and, consequently, from the Nashville music industry."
"As a result," he adds, " Johnny Cash records for a rock label, Dolly Parton is recording bluegrass for an independent label and many other pioneers and talented newcomers can't get a decent record contract."
Strauss notes that most country music observers think the impact of "O Brother" on radio will be slight despite its success and quotes Eddie Stubbs, the announcer for the Grand Ole Opry and a D.J. on Nashville's WSM-AM as saying, "Sadly, radio did not embrace any of these people before the Grammys, and they're not embracing them now. It's a disgrace. The industry is deciding that it doesn't want to give the music a chance."
The reason says Strauss may be may be Crest Whitestrips.
Expanding on this, he writes, "Yes, Crest Whitestrips, the new dental whitening system. Because when you point a finger at Crest Whitestrips, you're pointing at Procter & Gamble, the product's maker and one of the largest purchasers of radio advertising time. And the major advertisers are the people who really control what you hear on the radio, especially country radio."
He then quotes Paul Allen, the executive director of the Country Radio Broadcasters (CRB), a trade association .
"Contemporary country radio is targeting young adult females," said Allen. "Now, why would you want to target them? Because that's what advertisers want."
"The young female adult is oftentimes a mom. She influences 90 percent of all the buying decisions in the household; she's a generation X or Y consumer, and not brand loyal. That's a very influenceable and key demographic to go after."
"Thus, because of Crest Whitestrips and the machine behind them, not just country radio has changed; country music has changed too."
Only those who don't listen to country radio, continues Strauss, still think the music is about beer and heartbreak. Today, the men are singing love songs and apologies to women while sassy women are singing about dissing the men.
And, adds Allen, "The recording academy recognizes the work of its artists and their music, from the standpoint of art, which is considerably different from what country radio is about."
"Country radio is purely about mass appeal music, and it has some very defined limits because there are some very defined demographics that the owners are tying to find through that music. Where the Grammys are about art, country radio is about the Benjamins."
And of course the Arbitrons. As the article notes, Arbitron recently issued a report as part of its "What Women Want" series which started last year (See RNW Oct 10, 2001) on what women want from country radio.
And that was family-friendly optimistic tracks, amusing DJs and also fewer commercials..
The best hope country some music commentators can come up with is to fragment the format, much as rock is broken into formats such as classic, hard, soft and alternative rock but others are sceptical and doubt if advertisers would find attractive the demographics that would go with such formats.
Previous Arbitron:
Previous CRB:
Arbitron web site:
Arbitron "What women want from country radio" report (396 Kb PDF):
New York Times report:
2002-03-24: The main news from the regulators this week concerned action by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in clearing the backlog of some of the red-flagged deals that had been on its books longest and the levying by the UK Radio Authority of a GBP75, 000 fine on Virgin Radio.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), has extended the licence area of the Melbourne community station 3RPH to include Warragul and Warrnambool. It has also sought comment on proposals to change specifications for the additional FM translator service at Rockingham for Perth commercial radio service 6IX-FM.
The changes are planned so as to improve the station's coverage in the southern part of its licence area:
Canada wasvery quiet but the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has issued a public notice asking for comment on various applications including Newcap's application for an additional 40-watt transmitter at Grand Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador , for CKXG-FM
There was nothing of note in Ireland but in the UK, the Radio Authority, has for the second time fined Virgin Radio GBP75, 000 , the largest fines it has ever imposed.
The latest fine concerned a broadcast in which a nine-years-old girl was encouraged to repeat sexually explicit words for a contest (See RNW Mar 20 ).
On the licence front , the Authority has re-advertised the Tunbridge Wells/Sevenoaks licence, currently held by Kent and Sussex Radio Ltd and has also announced that it received two applications for the Norwich digital multiplex licence.
These were from EMAP Digital Radio Ltd and Now Digital Ltd. Each has to carry the BBC local service, Radio Norwich, on top of which Emap is proposing 9 services. They are:
*Contemporary hits -Broadland 102 (provider: GWR Group plc) -subject to agreement.
*Gold - Classic Gold Amber (provider: Classic Gold Digital Ltd.) -subject to agreement.
*Dance - Vibe FM (provider: Eastern Counties Radio Ltd.) -subject to agreement.
*Rock - The Storm (provider: GWR Group plc) -subject to agreement.
*Local (Norwich) - Provider: Norfolk Radio Ltd.
*Local (Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft) - The Beach (provider: Tindle Radio Ltd.)
*Young pop - Smash Hits (provider: Emap Performance Ltd.)
*Country -3C (provider: SCORE Digital Ltd.)
*Student (18.00 - 06.00)/community (06.00-18.00) - Providers: confidential
Now Digital is also proposing nine services as well as Radio Norwich. They are:
*Contemporary chart hit radio- Broadland 102 (provider: Radio Broadland Ltd.)
*Gold- Classic Gold Amber (provider: Classic Gold Digital Ltd.)
*Dance- Vibe FM (provider: Eastern Counties Radio Ltd.)
*Local service (Great Yarmouth) - The Beach (provider: East Coast Radio Ltd.)
*Modern rock - The Storm (provider: GWR Group plc)
*Adult contemporary/green issues - Passion (provider: Passion for the Planet Ltd.)
*Either easy listening for 45 pluses
or contemporary and classic country Provider: confidential
*Pre-teen and teenage- Capital Disney (provider: Capital Radio plc)
* Access Norwich (including student broadcasting, and service for under-10s and their carers)- Various, including SBN/Livewire (provider: SBN Ltd.) and AbracaDABra (provider: Soundstart Ltd.)
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared four from five of its oldest red-flagged deals but sent the fifth to a hearing (See RNW Mar 21). It has also announced fines totalling USD21,000 on Emmis Communications for indecency offences involving the Mancow Morning Madness show (See RNW Mar 20 ).
Previous ABA:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
ABA web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-03-23:A reasonably good snapshot of the scale of US radio giant Clear Channel's operations during 2001 is given in the company's annual 10K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
It shows that it spent USD445 million in cash of buying 183 radio stations, some three quarters of the funds coming from monies connected with spin-offs from its takeover of AMFM. It was also involved in a swap of eight stations; spent some USD360 million on buying billboards and USD25 million in buying stakes in other outdoor companies; spent USD125 million through Clear Channel Entertainment on various events; and USD 80 million on the purchase of four TV stations.
Apart from the acquisitions, which totalled more than USD1 billion, it spent another USD660 million on capital improvements, USD145 million of it on radio.
This year it has bought six more radio stations and nearly 2000 billboards, excluding the USD800 million acquisition of the Ackerley Group, which has still not closed. Looking at its revenues, Clear Channel says 43% comes from radio, 31% from live entertainment and 22% from billboard with the remaining 4% from its other activities.
Previous Clear Channel:
Clear Channel web site:
2002-03-23: The release by UK Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie of the results of tests of the Swiss RadioControl audience measuring system (RNW Mar 22) have sparked hostile comment from some UK Commercial radio executives.
Phil Riley, chief executive of Chrysalis Radio, attacked MacKenzie for making his move without consultation with others in the industry and said that confusion would be created over the value of radio commercials.
"When we had more than one currency for advertising in the past it was a bloody disaster. This will be a bloody disaster and is not the right way forward," he told the UK Financial Times.
Currently the UK radio industry uses figures from RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research), which is jointly funded by the BBC and commercial radio.
There has been concern amongst radio executives for some time about the accuracy of the diary system with particular concern about how it would perform when there is a multiplicity of digital channels as well as the current analogue stations with suggestions that diary keepers over-record well-known stations because they list them on occasion when they have forgotten or not noted to which channel they have been listening.
At the same time, there s concern at suggestions that people are listening to radio for significantly less time according to thee RadioControl system than according to diaries.
RAJAR has acknowledged this concern and last year announced that it was going ahead with a number of developments including tests of meter measurements (See RNW Dec 18 2001).
Previous Chrysalis;
Previous MacKenzie:
Previous RAJAR:
Previous Riley;
Previous Wireless Group:
UK Financial Times report:
2002-03-23: Nashville Public Radio is to issue UD5.5 million in bonds to fund its USD2.5 million purchase of WNSG-AM, Nashville, Tennessee; like Colorado Public Radio, which also went to the bond market for funds earlier this year (See RNW Jan 18), it has been allocated a BBB+ rating by the Fitch Ratings Agency.
Public Radio Capital has advised Nashville Public Radio on the offering.
WYPR-FM, the former John Hopkins University public radio station WJHU-FM, is also expected to use the bond market to raise funds to finance its purchase of the station from the University.
2002-03-22: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed a USD21, 000 fine on Emmis Corporation for what it terms "wilfully and repeatedly broadcasting indecent language" in connection with three editions of Erich "Mancow" Muller's Mancow Morning Madhouse show in March and May 2001.
The complainant had in these cases recorded the programme and although Emmis itself does not keep tapes and said it could not verify the accuracy of transcripts supplied it argued that that the broadcasts were not actionably indecent by contemporary standards.
The FCC disagreed and said that material on all the broadcasts was patently offensive and levied the USD21.000 fine based on the base USD7.000 penalty it has set for such offences.
Previous Emmis:
Previous FCC:
Previous Erich "Mancow" Muller:
FCC Notice (includes transcripts):
2002-03-22: UK Wireless Group Chief Executive Kelvin Mackenzie has released the results of a test of the Swiss Radiocontrol radio audience measuring system which he says proves his contention about inaccuracies in the traditional diary method used by the UK RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) radio ratings organisation.
The system, which features a wristwatch monitoring device that automatically records what stations are being listened to, was tested for three months in the Windsor-Slough-Maidenhead (Star FM market) area of Berkshire; it is already in use in some parts of Europe. It has long been promoted by Mackenzie as superior to the diary system (See RNW Sept 5, 2000).
Mackenzie, whose talkSport station was shown to have four times the reach recorded under the diary method, told radio industry executives at a JP Morgan conference that the system showed that people listened to more stations than were show by the diary system but for less time.
He concluded that "advertisers, media sales houses and the financial markets are being "misled" and added of the figures, "They are still great for the radio business, but they don't look like the market that RAJAR would have us believe.
In general the results show stations to have a higher reach (all but four of the 23 stations monitored had more listeners) with a larger increase for national and speech stations.
In this case, the greatest increases were (descending order)
1 LBC;
2 London Live;
3 Spectrum;
4 News Direct;
5 Premier Christian;
talkSPORT came in at number six, which would make it the top UK commercial station in terms of reach were the pattern to be repeated nationally. At the other end Star FM, Jazz, Classic and Capital Gold recorded losses in reach.
RNW comment: We don't find it particularly surprising that the diary method, which we would expect to under-report short spells of listening to a station as would be done in tuning in briefly to a news or sports bulletin, has differences from the Radiocontrol system.
Certainly the pressure will now be increased on RAJAR but the devil, as always, will be in the detail. We wonder what the Mackenzie response would be if that showed most people tuning away from the Wireless Groups talkSPORT flagship whenever adverts came on; Would he remain so devoted an advocate if the system showed a lot more listeners but not for the adverts?
Previous Mackenzie:
PreviousRadiocontrol meter:
Previous RAJAR:
Previous Wireless Group:
2002-03-22: Beasley Broadcasting has now closed its USD23 million sale of WRNO-FM and KMEZ-FM, New Orleans, to Wilks Broadcasting LLC and has also announced new financing arrangements with its banks.
Under these its loan covenants will now allow its debt-to-EBITDA leverage to go to a maximum of 7.25 times at the end of this month, to be trimmed to seven times at the end of June, 6.75 times at the end of September and 6.25 times at the end of the year.
CEO George Beasley commented, "The New Orleans divestiture strengthens our balance sheet and enables us to focus on those stations we believe will offer the greatest return to shareholders. Continuing to reduce leverage through operational improvements and returning to cash flow growth are our top priorities in 2002."
Previous Beasley Broadcasting:
Previous George Beasley:
Beasley web site:
2002-03-22: The US Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC), a group set up in 1986 to remote minority participation in media and telecommunications industries, has come up with a suggestion for a new class of US radio stations to counteract what it terms "diminishing diversity of viewpoints and owners in radio."
The MMTC is suggesting that where a group owns several stations in a market, it would split one of its frequencies to accommodate such a station for part of the time and be allowed to acquire another licence.
The new stations would be devoted to non-entertainment programming such as news, public affairs, religious or public service programming and would broadcast at lest 20 daytime hours a week MMTC suggests that they be owned by small, disadvantaged businesses, including minority-owned companies; and share time on the frequencies held by existing "entertainment" stations.
2002-03-21: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared four out of the five transactions that had been in a red-flag backlog because of ownership concentration concerns.
It is to hold a hearing on a fifth, the takeover by Clear Channel of WUMX-FM, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a statement, FCC chairman Michael Powell, referred to "five of the oldest and most difficult radio assignment cases pending before us."
"Guided by the Communications Act, Commission precedent, and the Interim Policy we adopted in the Local Radio Ownership NPRM," he added, "we find in four of these cases that the license assignments are consistent with the public interest, and therefore we grant the applications."
"Relying on this guidance in our review of the license assignment in Charlottesville, Virginia, however, we cannot find based on the record before us that the license assignment is consistent with the public interest. Therefore, as required by the Communications Act, we designate that application for hearing."
Concerning concentration in this market, Powell notes "the top two owners would have a combined 94.2% market share."
"This level of concentration, in the absence of any countervailing considerations or public interest benefits, is simply too significant for us to conclude that, on balance, the transaction is consistent with the public interest," writes Powell.
"Accordingly, in this case, we designate, as we must, the assignment application for hearing to determine whether grant would serve the public interest, convenience and necessity."
In a dissenting note, the sole Democrat on the Commission, Michael J. Copps, says he would have sent deals in four of the areas involved for hearings.
He writes, "I have struggled to find the public interest in the grant of these transfers. Given the levels of market concentration - both of advertising and audience share - that will result from these transactions, I can support the grant of only one of the five transfers at issue here."
"That one transaction arises in a unique geographic circumstance, in which the potential harm to competition was not significant and was outweighed by the benefits of the transaction."
"In the other four cases, however, I find evidence of significant anticompetitive effects. I could not support grant of these transfers absent additional information on the public interest benefits."
The deals that were allowed were:
*the purchase in Laramie, Wyoming by Clear Channel of KCGY-FM from Gowdy FM 95, Inc.(this is in the Cheyenne market and the deal was supported by all the Commissioners although Copps said he was still "hesitant."
*the purchase by Cumulus of Mississippi stations WKOR-FM, Columbus, WMXU-FM and WSSO-AM Starkville, from Golden Triangle Radio Inc; and of WKOR-AM, Starkville, from Charisma Broadcasting Co; of WSMS-FM, Artesia, from Bravo Communications Inc; and of WJWF-AM and WMBC-FM, Columbus, from Radio Columbus, Inc.
*the purchase in Trenton, New Jersey, of WCHR-AM and WNJO-FM by Nassau Broadcasting from Great Scott Broadcasting.
*the purchase by Clear Channel from Cumulus of Alabama stations WGSY-FM)and WPNX-FM), Phenix City; WAGH-FM, Ft. Mitchell; and WBFA-FM), Smiths; and Georgia stations WMLF-AM and WVRK-FM, Columbus.
Separately from the above, the FCC has also cleared Cumulus's acquisition of Aurora Communications, which owns 18 stations in the North Eastern US (See RNW Nov 20, 2001).
This deal has still to be approved by Aurora shareholders at a special meeting on March 28.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Copps:
Previous Cumulus:
Previous FCC:
Previous Nassau:
Previous Powell:
FCC web site:
2002-03-21: UK Capital Radio in a first half trading update says that the UK advertising market is likely to remain depressed for the rest of the year.
The company says that its like-for-like radio is expected to be down 5% in the January to March quarter of this year; this, combined with a 9% decline in the October to December quarter of last year will mean a 7% decline in like-for like radio results in the six months to the end of March.
Analysts expect the company's advertising revenue to be up a little in the second half of the year because of World Cup soccer but full year revenues to be down by around 3% and pre-tax profits to be down by around 15% at GBP26 million.
Previous Capital Radio:
Capital web site(Investors section):
2002-03-21:US independent radio sales and marketing company Interep has reported a 26% fall in its fourth quarter radio commission revenues to USD19.5 million with operating EBITDA down a massive 91% to USD800,000.
For the full year its commission revenues were down 19% to USD 80.4 million and EBITDA was down 7% to USD5.6 million, including severance costs of USD3.4 million and USD1.2 million in fees relating to acquisitions. Without these the fall would have been 59%.
For this year, Interep is forecasting radio commission revenue flat to slightly up compared to 2001 with operating EBITDA increasing to a range of USD17 to USD18 million.
This would take Operating EBITDA Margins up to 21 - 23%, close to Interep's 2000 record levels
Ralph Guild, Chairman and CEO , commented that the company had made great strides to strengthen its core business throughout 2001 including efforts to streamline operations and enhance the capabilities of Interep's new business development program. "We believe that radio's share of the advertising dollar will have increased during this slowdown and our clients will enjoy the benefits as national advertising improves," stated Guild. "We have seen increased activity at the start of 2002 and expect national radio to return to steady single-digit growth."
Previous Interep:
Interep news release:
2002-03-21: Afghanistan now has one less radio station with the demise of US propaganda broadcasts from the planes of the 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, which has returned to base after six months of aerial broadcasts( See RNW Oct 20, 2001).
Described in an Associated Press story in various US newspapers as "One of Afghanistan's most popular radio stations" (RNW comment - with no substantiation or method of measurement noted!) the broadcasts were made from 40-year old C-130 aircraft that broadcast 10,000-watt signals containing a mixture of propaganda messages and Afghan music.
New York Times /AP report:
2002-03-20: UK Virgin Radio, which two years ago attracted the then-largest ever fine by the UK Radio Authority for breaking political impartiality rules during the London Mayoral election (See RNW Mar 17, 2000) has now matched its record with another GBP75,000 fine.
It was told the fine would have been even higher had it not taken appropriate steps to prevent a repeat.
The station had suspended the DJ involved, Jon Holmes, and he was fired shortly afterwards.
The news is yet another blow for Virgin's parent, Scottish Media Group (SMG), which delayed issuing its results last week whilst it renegotiated credit from its bankers; it is expected to have to write down as much as GBP100 million on its investments, particularly the 29% share it built up in Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH), for which it paid around GBP150 million and in Virgin, which was part of the Ginger Media Group for which it paid GBP225 million.
The latest fine was for a broadcast on January 18 this year in which a nine-years-old girl was encouraged to repeat sexually explicit words for a contest called "Swearword Hangman". For the contest listeners had to ring in and guess the letters which made up a phrase of swearwords and in this case the girl was asked to repeat thrice the phrase "soapy tit wank".
The Authority commented that the "resulting programme was highly offensive, and inappropriate even in the context of adult alternative comedy."
In a statement Authority Chair Richard Hooper said," The late night broadcast on Virgin Radio involving a child, for which the station is being fined GBP75,000, is totally unacceptable."
"This is a huge failure of compliance with the letter and the spirit of the 1990 Broadcasting Act rules on taste, decency and offence to public feeling."
"To its credit, Virgin Radio has acknowledged the seriousness of the complaint received, has made no attempt to excuse the content of the live broadcast, and has told us that it has taken steps to prevent this happening again."
"Without that immediate response, the Members of the Authority are clear that the sanctions imposed would have been even higher."
"I and my eight colleagues on the Radio Authority are fully aware that attitudes amongst adults, about programmes by and for adults, towards what constitutes indecency and offence have changed markedly over recent years. However, where children are involved, the Authority will use the full range of its powers to preserve clear standards of what is unacceptable, in order to protect children."
The fine was the sixth to have been imposed on Virgin Radio since it began broadcasting in 1993; apart from the two record fines; the others in reverse date order were
*January 1999 - GBP10,000 following after broadcasting information about an individual without permission in its breakfast show.
*April 1998 - GBP2,000 failure to broadcast community campaigns which were part of its promise of performance.
December 1994 - GBP20,000 for taste offences relating to comments in a late-night phone-in on sexual fantasies
*May 1994 - GBP5,000 for a presenter's sexual comments.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined Clear Channel USD6000 by for airing a phone call without permission. In this case the call was an answer phone message broadcast by WWDC-FM, Washington, but it led to a complaint by the machine's owner.
Clear Channel argued that the message was "generic" in content, not like another case when it aired an actual conversation taken from an answering machine but the FCC insisted that the rules were breached.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous FCC:
Previous Hooper:
Previous SMG:
Previous SRH:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
UK Radio Authority new release:
2002-03-20: XM Satellite Radio shares dropped more than 13% on Tuesday following a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in which its auditor cast doubt on its ability to continue trading without additional financing. The shares ended the day at USD13 after starting just over USD15, despite XM playing down the comment in the report, which they said had also been included in previous reports by auditors KPMG LLP.
In the annual form10K filing, XM is upbeat about the nature of its business and comments," Market data show strong demand for radio service. Over 75% of the entire United States population age 12 and older listens to the radio daily, and over 95% listens to the radio weekly. However, many radio listeners have access to only a limited number of radio stations and listening formats offered by traditional AM/FM radio. We expect XM Radio to be attractive to underserved radio listeners who want expanded radio choices. Market studies conducted for us project that as many as 49 million people may subscribe to satellite radio by 2012. We believe, based on our own recent surveys and work with focus groups, that there is a significant market for XM Radio."
It then notes, "We have raised USD1.5 billion of equity and debt net proceeds to date from investors and strategic partners; we are funded into the fourth quarter of 2002."
KPMG's caveat reads," The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company is dependent upon additional debt or equity financing, which raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
Regarding the KMPG caveat, XM refers to its substance then comments, "The selected consolidated financial data do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of that uncertainty. With the commencement of operations during the fourth quarter of 2001, we have recognized revenue and emerged from the development stage."
Previous XM:
Link to XM SEC filing:
2002-03-20: The BBC will again win this year's Sony Station of the Year award, currently held by BBC Radio 2 (See RNW May 1, 2001).
The nominees announced this year for the Sony Awards, often termed "radio Oscars", the finalists are BBC radios 2, 4, and 5 Live.
Competing for the top presenter award are Radio 1's Chris Moyles, Radio 2's Jonathan Ross, and offbeat comic Ricky Gervais, who appears on Xfm's breakfast show.
For the Breakfast Show awards, Radio 1's host Sara Cox is notable for her absence with the contestants being Radio 2's Terry Wogan, Kiss 100's Bam Bam, Viking FM's Hirsty's Morning Glory, Trent FM's Jo and Twiggy or Xfm's Christian O'Connell.
Also notable in the list are Kershaw siblings, Andy who was dumped by Radio 1 two years ago and joined Radio 3 - he is now in contention for two awards - the Music Programming Award for the Music Special Prize for a programme produced on his visit to Iraq - and sister Liz for the BBC Radio Northampton Liz Kershaw Breakfast Show.
The Corporation is also guaranteed a Gold in five other sections in which it has all the nominees.They are:
*The Breakfast News and Talk section for which the nominees are 5 Live's Five Live Breakfast: Holy Cross ; BBC news's Five Live Breakfast: New York, produced by BBC Radio News for Five Live; Good Morning Ulster - produced by BBC Radio Current Affairs for BBC Northern Ireland; the Ronnie Barbour Breakfast Show - produced by and for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and The Liz Kershaw Breakfast Show - produced by and for BBC Radio Northampton;
*The Feature Award for which the nominees are Omnibus: The Avega Widows - produced by BBC Leisure & Factual Entertainment Radio for World Service; Our Word Lives On - produced by BBC Radio Current Affairs for Radio 4; Roots Of Homophobia - produced by All Out Productions for BBC Radio 4; Someone Somewhere - produced by BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4; The Irving Trial: What Really Happened - produced by Above the Title Productions for BBC Radio 4.
* The Speech Award for which the nominations are A Caribbean Night - produced by BBC Factual & Learning Radio for Radio 3;On The Ropes: Judith & Alan Kilshaw - produced by BBC Factual & Learning Radio for Radio 4 ;Something Understood: Become As Little Children - produced by Unique the production company for BBC Radio 4;Sunday Service - produced by Ten Alps Broadcasting for BBC Radio Five Live; Susan McReynolds: The Nine-Line - produced by and for BBC Radio Foyle
*The Comedy Award for which the nominations are I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue - produced by BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4; Little Britain - produced by BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4; The Hudson & Pepperdine Show - produced by BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4; The Sunday Format - produced by BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4; Think The Unthinkable - produced by BBC Radio Entertainment for Radio 4;
*The Drama Award for which the nominees are A Woman In Waiting - produced by and for BBC Radio 4' Blunt Speaking - produced by Pier Productions for BBC Radio 4; Dear Doctor Goebbels - produced by Pier Productions for BBC Radio 4; Fall Out - produced by BBC Radio Drama North for Radio 4; The Prince Of West End Avenue - produced by BBC World Service Drama for World Service. The awards will be presented in May.
Sony Awards web site:
2002-03-20: Internet listening was down in the week to March 10 according to MeasureCast but at the top end Virgin FM increased its listening to move into top spot whilst in the network ratings Clear Channel retained its top spot and increased its listening.
For the week to March 10, the top five stations by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets, were:
1: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 296,256 (276,557); CP 55,439 (42,775): Up from second with both listening and reach up.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 216,368 (293,898); CP 66,792 (81,553): Down from top spot - listening and reach down.
3: Classical format King FM - TTSL119,657 (140,740); CP 23,714 (23,243): Same position with listening down and reach up.
4: Classical format WQXR-FM, New York - TTSL89,339 (95,576); CP 15,913 (15,255): Same position with listening down and reach up.
5: Rock format Internet-only station KNAC - TTSL 78,057 (72,966): CP 15,314 (14,625): Same position with higher listening and reach.
In the network rankings, MeasureCast's top five streaming networks the week to March 10 were (Previous week's figures in brackets):
1: Clear Channel Worldwide TTSL 1,031,402 (1,024,319) ; Cume 210,406 (128,487). Same position but higher listening and reach.
2: StreamAudio network TTSL 624,781 (626,950) : Cume 133,523 (102,089) - Same position with lower listening and higher reach:
3: WARP Radio TTSL 550,087 (595,220) hours: Cume 101,214 (134,248) - Same position with lower listening, and reach:
4: Radio Free Virgin TTSL 519,193 (527,466): Cume 116,530 (116,870) - Same position despite lower listening and reach.
5: Virgin Radio TTSL 418,225 (383,610): Cume 85,602 (66,683) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-03-19: Citadel Communications founder and former chairman/CEO, Larry Wilson, has left the company for what were described in an e-mail to staff by company president Bob Profit as "personal considerations."
He had remained with the company as CEO following Forstmann Little's purchase of it last year (See RNW Jan 17, 2001 ) but was left without a role last month when Farid Suleman was moved in as the new CEO, although the statement then issued said he would continue as chairman (See RNW Feb 22).
Wilson retains a personal stake in the company.
Previous Forstmann (Citadel):
Previous Suleman:
Previous Wilson: .
2002-03-19: The Australian Broadcasting Authority's second annual conference, to be held in Canberra at the end of April, will concentrate in the impact of digital technology and what will tempt viewers and listeners to switch over to digital.
On the radio side, it will look at the multiplicity of standards on offer and the business case for the adoption of digital technology.
ABA director of engineering Fred Gengaroli will assess the rival US IBOC (In Band On Channel) technology from iBiquity Digital Corporation and the European DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) standards.
Previous ABA:
Previous DRM:
Previous iBiquty:
ABA web site:
DRM web site:
iBiquity web site:
2002-03-19: The BBC Radio 4 "Desert Island Discs" programme marks its 60th birthday on Wednesday, March 20, with a gala evening in the Royal Festival Hall, London, introduced by Sue Lawley, the programme's presenter since 1988.
It will feature the BBC Concert Orchestra playing the choices most popular amongst its castaways, led by the Ode to Joy, from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and predominantly classics by European composers although Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue also gets a look in.
The idea for the show - a choice of eight records to take as a castaway to a desert island - came to its creator Roy Plomley in 1941 and he presented the first edition in 1942 with comedian Vic Oliver as his guest.
In 1951, the format was modified to allow the addition of a single luxury and in 1958 a book was added, The Bible and Shakespeare being currently exempted from allowable choices.
It was originally booked for an eight-week run but caught on and has now featured more than 2000 guests including five British Prime Ministers, royalty and a multiplicity of celebrities.
Plomley presented the show for 43 years and was succeeded after his death in 1983 by Michael Parkinson, who presented the programme for two years.
Although the format has not changed since his death, the emphasis has differed with Plomley's shows allowing the choice of music to be revealing of the guest's interests and character while Lawley operates in a more journalistic fashion and has suffered some criticism for "intrusiveness."
The show - Britain's third longest running, after the Daily Service (1928) and A Week in Westminster (1929) - attracts an audience of some three million for its weekly broadcast.
A hundred of the programme's "castaways