April 2002
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March 2002
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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 April comment looks at the the ways of ensuring diversity and choice in radio.
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.
2002-04-30: More results from US radio this week with Beasley Broadcasting exceeding its fairly modest guidance but still recording a quadrupled net loss for the quarter of USD10.3 million, 42 cents a share, compared to USD2.6 million, 11 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenues were down rather less at USD24.9 million, down 3.7% and BCF was actually up 6.8% at USD6.9 million. After-tax cash flow positively sparkled in contrast with previous guidance: It ended up as USD 4 million, 16 cents a share, compared to a forecast of three cents a share and a delivery in 2001 Q1 of USD2.8 million, 11 cents a share.
Beasley chairman and CO George Beasley said that March turned out to be a surprisingly strong month following a weak February and that combined with a 7% reduction in station operating expenses had helped the company exceed its guidance. Looking ahead, Beasley is forecasting second quarter revenues of USD27 million, BCF of USD8.5 million and ATCF of 13 cents per share.
In other US radio business, Cumulus Media and Triad Broadcasting have now announced that they have settled their legal fight over Triad's long delayed USD1.725 million purchase of WWLD-FM, Tallahassee, Florida. Triad first agreed to purchase the station in July last year and went to court in November, claiming that the planned closing date in October had passed and Cumulus was trying to renege on the deal.
Cumulus said the delay was because of a delay in its own closure on the USD 1.5 million purchase of WSLE-FM, Cairo, Georgia (now completed); Triad is now to get its hands on WWLD no later than the first of November this year.
Triad already owns WYZR-FM, WAIB-FM and WHTF-FM in Tallahassee.
Previous Beasley Broadcasting:
Previous George Beasley:
Previous Cumulus:
2002-04-30: Shortly after settling one case alleging discrimination in its promotion practices, BBC World Service radio is facing another claim.
In the previous case, Asian journalist Sharan Sandhu withdrew her claim following an out-of-court settlement of GBP50, 000 (See RNW April 27).
The latest case involves Perry Grambas who worked in the World Service Greek section on contract for five years.
He is claiming that he was unfairly repeatedly rejected for a permanent post despite a recent BBC ruling that allowed employees on long-term contracts to by-pass normal procedures and keep their jobs on a permanent basis.
His case, alleging racial discrimination and unfair dismissal is to be heard by an employment tribunal in June.
Previous BBC:
2002-04-30: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) executives are discussing the biggest overhaul in 30 years of the Corporation's 60-year-old radio group at board meetings in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that are due to end today.
Main changes proposed are to CBC radio's weekday morning shows and its Saturday schedule, which is due to include a live four-hour trans-Canada show.
The new schedules are due to debut in stages with the first due in mid-May and other changes being phased in until the fall but doubt is being expressed internally about the practicalities concerning staffing, particularly of the Saturday show, and a seeming absence of firm commitments to the new shows from current big-name CBC hosts.
So far only vague details of the changes, which are being introduced to attract more younger and minority listeners and reflect the country better, are in the public domain; they include the end of most current CBC Radio One morning shows and their replacement by two weekday morning programmes, one running from 0830 to 10.00 local and the second running to noon.
Previous CBC:
2002-04-30: Tomorrow sees the May Day "Day of Silence" by webcasters, designed to get media coverage of the problems faced if currently proposed royalty fees for streaming are put into effect.
Radio and Internet Magazine lists more webcasters who have now said they'll take part. Doubtless it will be reported in some quarters as a success: We'll cast an eye over the major US print media and report on May 2 how much cover we actually see.
RAIN web site (Links to Save Internet Radio site):
2002-04-29: We've a historical perspective for this week's look at print writers comments on radio. But first," One moment please, The Savoy has now been blown up by the crowd…"
That was one of the lines from the first episode of three programmes in BBC Radio 4's A History of Fear that looks at moments when Britain has been gripped by fear.
Whilst most people interested in radio and drama history will be aware of the Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre production of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds broadcast on CBS in 1938, comparatively few will be aware of a 1926 BBC radio spoof broadcast that had many Britons in, not to mince words, something approaching panic.
The broadcast was "launched" by a seemingly genuine news bulletin that ended with a report saying that "The crowd in Trafalgar Square is now assuming threatening dimensions…" before going to join the band at the Savoy hotel and then starting to introduce a lecture only for a "newsflash" saying how a lecturer, due to speak, had been grabbed by the crowd and was "being roasted alive…"
There were then reports of a mob was rampaging through London setting fire to buildings including the Savoy Hotel and the Houses of Parliament.
The broadcast's impact was heightened because of the circumstances - people had come to believe the BBC News (they had rather less trust in newspapers, which were widely recognised as partisan), unemployment was high, the miners were on strike, and the Russian Revolution was a fresh memory. Many people called the BBC, concerned that London was really in the grip of revolution.
No recording survives (unlike the War of the Worlds' recording --see link below) so it's impossible to estimate the actual quality of the broadcast from the reconstruction that was aired, but as Elisabeth Mahoney in the UK Guardian commented : "It's hard to believe, listening to a reconstruction of the broadcast (no original survives) that anyone fell for the buffoonery."
"After the limpest, most muffled explosion sound-effect, the announcer tells us that the Savoy Hotel has been blown up. There's a comic pause. 'That noise you just heard was The Savoy Hotel.' Another cheeky pause. 'Being blown up. By the crowd.' Big Ben has been reduced to rubble, the Minister for Traffic has been hung from a lamp-post ('correction: it was not a lamp-post but a tramway post that was used')."
The broadcast also featured in a review by Sue Arnold in the Guardian's Sunday sister paper, The Observer, in which she commented that it , "posed some interesting questions about our relationship with radio. We believe what we hear on radio because we can't see who's talking, and are therefore more willing to fantasise about probability."
Arnold then went on to draw some interesting parallels with today through her review of a BBC Radio 3 programme, "A Brief History of Irony".
"If Joe Queenan, the New York columnist famous for his character assassinations, had known about that BBC hoax," continues Arnold, "his Brief History Of Irony on Radio 3 might not have been quite so respectful to British humour."
"After 11 September, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter remarked that irony was dead. Certainly no one laughed for a while, until the Onion, a satirical US magazine, broke the ice with an article entitled 'Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell' ('We expected eternal paradise for this... '); other headlines included 'US Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We're At War With'. "
"Ian Hislop (RNW note - editor of the UK satirical magazine "Private Eye") reckons irony began here around 1500, but Australian writer Kathy Lette dates it back to the Garden of Eden."
"So when did irony reach Australia? asked Queenan."
"'With the convicts,' she said. "
"'So you got the ironic, funny convicts and we got the puritans,' said Queenan."
A line that, which in some ways wouldn't seem too inappropriate in the US National Public Radio series The Yiddish Radio Project that has attracted attention not only because of its content but also because of the reaction to it as a result of contemporaneous events. In the Chicago Tribune, Raoul V. Mowatt comments on the actual series which now has four of ten segments remaining (It's aired on Tuesday's on the NPR "All Things Considered" programme).
He quotes Henry Sapoznik, the music historian who started the project, as saying the programme's themes are universal. "This isn't just about Yiddish," he said. "It's about every ethnic group that struggles to maintain its identity."
But as Mowatt notes, some listeners have reacted more in relation to current Middle East tensions than to the origins of the programme itself.
The same point was made in an Associated Press report in the Baltimore Sun by Katherine Roth who reports that the broadcast has attracted anti-Semitic e-mails.
"The vituperative nature of some of the e-mail caught everyone off guard," Sapoznik, told the AP. "Some of it is what I call good old-fashioned nativist American anti-Semitism."
"For instance, one person wrote: 'How do you say bloody Israeli storm troopers in Yiddish?'
"Who in their right mind is going to conflate a program about Yiddish-speaking Jews from New York in the 1930s and Israeli soldiers today?" Sapoznik asked.
"If this was a series on Delta blues and there was turmoil in Mogadishu or Rwanda, no one would confuse American blacks from the Delta with warlords in Africa."
NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin said that NPR had received around 300 letters, half of which were negative, half of those being what he termed, "blatantly anti-Semitic." Some also said NPR coverage of the Middle East was biased toward Palestinians and accused it of using the Yiddish radio series to placate Jewish listeners.
After which, it's a relief to refer to another BBC Radio 4 programme, "A thousand Years of Jewish History", which has contained some fascinating and moving stories.
One anecdote from a repeat broadcast yesterday is worth noting. It came from a descendant, now an academic, of Russian immigrants to London's East End, which like New York and other major US cities earlier this century had a vibrant Yiddish culture.
His grandfather he recalled, poor though he was, always carried some money for beggars and would always not only give to whoever asked "black, white or yellow" but also thank them for asking.
The gift was one that benefited the giver and asked, what if the receiver was a scrounger, the grandfather told his grandsons that this was not a matter for him but between the recipient and his conscience.
And on Friday's when in his moth-eaten coat and top hat he walked past the London docks, the Catholic Irish dockworkers, who knew him, would tip their hats to him in respect.
Somehow one wonders how he might have responded to an Ariel Sharon?
Previous Arnold:
Previous Mahoney:
Previous Columnists:
Baltimore Sun/AP - Roth:
Chicago Tribune - Mowatt:
UK Observer - Arnold:
UK Guardian - Mahoney:
New Mercury Theater Archives (include War of the Worlds broadcast):
2002-04-29: Bill Wilson, the chairman and chief executive of Teamtalk, the online sports site and operator of TEAMtalk252, which took over the Atlantic 252 airwaves and in March turned it into a sports station (See RNW March 11) , has resigned.
His move follows an admission that costs associated with the launch were well above expectations.
The company is closing its European operations to trim costs and has warned that its results will be below expectations. It has also written off assets totalling GBP10.5 million.
TEAMt will now face a strategic review aimed at reducing costs dramatically under new executive chairman, Chris Oakley and says that following the review it expects to move into profit in two years.
Previous TEAMtalk:
2002-04-28: In the US the Federal Communications Commission seems to be having a crackdown on tower and emergency alert systems shortfalls but elsewhere it was mostly normal business for the regulators.
Australia was quiet with nothing of note on the radio side and in Ireland, the only radio related release from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland related to interim audience figures (See RNW April 24).
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was busy but mainly with routine matters including licence renewals and a large number of deadline extensions.
Renewals that went through included
*a one-year administrative renewal of the licence of CKBR-FM , Dillon, Saskatchewan;
*a six month administrative renewal of the licence for the English-language national audio programming undertaking, the National Broadcast Reading Service (Voice Print);
*and a similar six month administrative renewal of the French-language national audio programming undertaking, La Magnétothèque.
Deadlines extended included
*an extension until the end of this month for Natotawin Broadcasting Inc. to implement a new transmitter for of CJLR-FM La Ronge at Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan;
*an extension intil the end of May for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to commence operation of a new transmitter of CBLA-FM Toronto at Shelburne, Ontario;
*an extension until the end of May for Rogers Broadcasting Limited to commence operation of a new transmitter of CKKS-FM Vancouver at Whistler, British Columbia;
*a six-month extension until July 25 for Radio du Golf inc. to commence operation of a new radio transmitter of CJMC-FM Sainte-Anne-des-Monts at La Martre, Quebec;
*a six month extension until September for Cogeco Diffusion inc. to commence operation of a new transitional digital radio programming undertaking at Montréal and Laval, Quebec;
*a six month extensions until October for the commencement of operations of low-power type B native radio undertaking at Opaskwayak Cree Nation (The Pas), Manitoba;
*a 12-month extension until March next year for Communications CHIC (C.H.I.C.) to commence operation of a new radio programming undertaking at Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec;
*and a 12-month extension until March next year for Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. to commence operation of a new radio programming undertaking at Calgary, Alberta.
The CRTC has also approved a power increase for CJMS Saint-Constant, Quebec, from 5,000 watts to 10,000 watts during the day and from 1,100 watts to 5,000 watts during the night and transfers of control of CFOR-FM Maniwaki, Quebec; of CITB-FM Thunder Bay and its transmitter CIPR-FM Pigeon River, Ontario; and of Radio Beauce inc., licensee of the radio programming undertakings CHJM-FM Saint-Georges and CKRB-FM Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Quebec.
On the watchdog front in Canada, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled that various episodes of the Brother Jake Morning Show broadcast on CFMI-FM (Rock 101, Vancouver) in February and May last year were too sexually explicit for a time of day when children are likely to be listening. (See RNW April 25)
In the UK, the Radio Authority has said announced the results of its preliminary public interest test concerning the new East Midlands regional licence application by Smooth Radio East Midlands Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian Media Group plc. The authority says that it does not think the public interest would be adversely affected if the licence were awarded to Smooth Radio but is inviting further comment before a final declaration.
The Authority has also invited public interest comments on the application by another newspaper group for the same licence. This concerns the application by Vibe (East Midlands) Ltd., a company controlled by Daily Mail & General Trust, which runs a number of local newspapers in the area.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed fined for a whole run of tower violations, the largest relating to non-broadcast operations. They included a proposed penalty of USD153, 000 on AT&T Wireless Services Inc., and another of USD111,000 on SpectraSite Communications Inc. for a whole swathe of offences.
Largest radio company fine proposed is one of USD22,000 on Jamie Patrick Broadcasting, Ltd., licensee of KTRY- FM, Bastrop, Louisiana for violations including failure to install and operate Emergency Alert System (" EAS") equipment, and failure to maintain a public inspection file.
In another Louisiana case, the Commission has accepted a financial hardship argument from New World Broadcasting and reduced to USD 2,000 a proposed fine of USD11,000 in connection with defective EAS equipment at KCLF-AM, New Roads.
Previous BCI:
Previous CBSC:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
BCI web site:
CBSC web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-04-28: Michael Copps, the sole Democrat Commissioner on the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has hinted in a speech to the United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops in Dallas, Texas, that unless broadcasters take action to cut indecent broadcasts their acts, new laws may be brought in.
He also addressed the issues of media consolidation, his concept of public interest and the issue of broadcasters setting up their own code and also retaining tapes of programmes.
Copps first made come comments regarding the 'public interest', saying, " Not only do I find the concept attractive personally, but Congress made it the foundation of our communications statutes. "
"In fact, the term "public interest" appears 112 times in the Telecommunications Act of 1934 as amended in 1996."
He then spoke of the consolidation in US media, saying it "also presents us with serious questions of public policy" adding, "our people have always harboured a deep suspicion of excessive industrial consolidation, and they have always wanted sentinels at the gate to guard against it."
"Each proposed industry combination needs to be looked at on its merits - some are good, some are not - but the public interest test must be rigorously applied to every one of them... One of our most important jobs at the FCC must be the preservation of a bustling marketplace of ideas, diversity in sources of content in each community, and a multiplicity of voices to stir discussion and debate throughout the land. This is what nurtures our democracy. "
Concerning indecency Copps said that every day he hears from Americans "fed up with the patently offensive programming diet they are being fed."
"I hear, he continued, "from parents totally frustrated with the sexually explicit, profane and violent programming that increasingly commandeers the airwaves. I even hear from some broadcast station owners and managers that something needs to be done about it."
"Well, they're right: we as a society have a responsibility to protect children from content that is inappropriate for them and harmful to them."
"The FCC has a statutory obligation to protect children from obscene, indecent or profane programming, noted Copps, who continued, "I take this responsibility very seriously. But the process by which the FCC has enforced these laws places an inordinate responsibility on the complaining citizen. It's generally the rule that the Enforcement Bureau wants a recording or a transcript or something very detailed about any allegedly offensive broadcast. That strikes me as onerous. How is my wife, listening to the car radio while she is driving a van load of kids home from elementary school, going to record or write down an offensive broadcast that might come on the air?"
" Lack of information about what was said and when it was broadcast should not be allowed to derail our enforcement of the laws. If something is said on the public airwaves, a strong argument can be made that it should be part of the public record. "
Commenting on standards of broadcasts, Copps said, "Today's mad race to the bottom is sad. Shock broadcasting seems increasingly to be elbowing aside broadcasters' public interest obligations. The lowest common denominator is becomes the highest good."
He said that he thought the best people to sort out the problems were the leaders of the industry and called for a volunary code but also hinted at a threat of legislation,saying, "As I visit on Capitol Hill, several Members tell me they are thinking of introducing legislative remedies. That's out of my purview, of course, and I've been telling them that as far programming standards go, my emphasis is on the voluntary, although when it comes to indecency, the FCC does have statutory obligations. But on programming, maybe it is time for the Commission to consider what we can do."
Previous Copps:
Previous FCC:
FCC site -Copps speech:
2002-04-27: Hundreds of webcasters including a host of well-known names have now signed up for the May Day "Day of Silence" proposed by Radio and Internet Magazine founder Kurt Hanson to draw attention to the problems posed by the royalty rates suggested by the US Copyright Arbitration Panel, CARP, (See RNW April 24) according to the publication.
Amongst those that are listed as participating are Beethoven.com, KING-FM, Seattle and KPIG, Freedom, California; in addition a number of major names including Live365, ShoutCast and KNAC.com have indicated that they will support the protest with heavy schedules of public service announcements on the issue.
In its Thursday issue, RAIN quoted figures from Kevin Shively of Beethoven.com about the likely effect of the rates proposed by CARP.
Shively said that for eight of the larger independent webcasters - Beethoven, Digitally Imported, Radioio, Radio Paradise, SomaFM, 3WK, Wolf FM, and Ultimate-80s - the total hours streamed last year were 40 million hours.
Combined revenues for the year, he said, were USD93,000 but based on the CARP panel's recommended royalty rate, royalty payments due to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) would be USD710,000!
RAIN web site (Links to Save Internet Radio site)
2002-04-27: Fisher Communications, most of whose broadcasting stations are in the Pacific Northwest and were particularly affected by dot.com problems, saw a broadcasting division operating profit of USD786, 000 in Q1, 2001, become a USD764, 0000 loss in the first quarter of this year.
Overall Fisher reported a trebling of its losses, from USD2.3 million or 27 cents a share in the first quarter of 2001 to USD7.8 million or 90 cents a share this year.
Fisher's broadcasting division revenues were down 14% to USD 29.8 million with TV revenues, which were down 18%, worst hit; radio did better -its revenues were only down 4%.
Previous Fisher:
Fisher web site:
2002-04-27: The BBC World Service journalist who had claimed that she was passed over for promotion because of her colour and sex (See RNW April 17) has agreed a GBP50, 000 out-of-court settlement with the Corporation according to the London Times.
Sharan Sandhu had said the organisation was dominated by white males and had a colonial culture; the BBC welcomed the resolution of the case and withdrawal of the complaint. In a statement it said, "The BBC does not accept that Sharan's career was affected by sex or race discrimination. The BBC has shown Sharan exceptional goodwill and generosity. We do not recognise the colonial mentality she described."
"The BBC stands by the selection procedures, both successful and unsuccessful, that Sharan went through and believes that the procedures are demonstrably fair."
Previous BBC:
London Times report (requires registration):
2002-04-27: CNN Radio, which is marking its 20th anniversary this month, is to open a new state-of-the-art digital newsroom at the organisation's Atlanta Headquarters on April 29.
The facility will allow CNNRadio, which is distributed by Westwood One and whose services include 48 daily newscasts as well as news and feature feeds, to post audio reports as MP3 files on its web site for affiliates to access.
As well as its English-language service, the new facilities will also handle its Spanish radio services, formerly Radio Noticias, and its Spanish and Portuguese language Latin American web sites.
2002-04-26: US radio station sales dropped by 46% in number and by 85% in total value last year - to just under USD 4 billion - compared to 2000 according to BIA Financial Network (BIAfn).
It also notes that the decline was greatest in the larger markets-in the top ten only a tenth as many stations were sold.
Reflecting this, the average price paid also fell, by around USD10 million.
With the notable exception of Forstmann Little's purchase of Citadel, most of the deals were also for a small number of stations; 72% of station sales were single-station deals, up from 63% a year earlier.
2002-04-26: Two complaints against British Radio, one against BBC Radio 4 concerning fairness and the other about language used by Ali G on BBC Radio 1, were upheld by broadcasting watchdog, the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) in its March bulletin; this was the same number as in its March bulletin but a higher percentage as fewer complaints were received and upheld.
In all the commission lists 75 complaints compared to 91 in March, four concerning fairness (five in March) and 71 concerning standards (86 in March). Of the 72 concerning standards, no statements were required from the broadcasters in 64 cases, 53 of them TV and eleven radio.
Of the other complaints where statements were required, three standards complaints against TV were upheld and two not upheld and one against radio was upheld and another not upheld.
Of the four fairness complaints, one against radio was upheld, one against TV was partly upheld and two against TV were not upheld.
The fairness complaint against radio that was upheld involved an edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme Face the Facts concerning families who had been accused of harming their children
through Munchausen's Syndrome By Proxy. It referred to Professor Southall, employed by the North Staffordshire
NHS Trust and mentioned his refusal to discuss a particular case and also referred to his suspension on an unrelated matter, The BSC held that parts o the complaint were of particular importance to the Professor's reputation and upheld the complaint that he had been unfairly treated.
In the other case upheld against radio, a standards complaint against BBC Radio 1's Breakfast Show and an appearance by Ali G (See RNW February 19) ., the BSC noted that there had been an apology.
However, it commented, it "was extremely concerned by the lack of editorial control exercised during the interview, which gave Ali G the opportunity to swear, use sexual innuendo and offensive language without any significant intervention from the production team."
"The Commission considered," is wrote, "that the interview had been wholly inappropriate for broadcast at a time when significant numbers of children might have been listening."
"It therefore upheld the complaints and exceptionally, under Section 119 (2) of the Broadcasting Act 1996, required the broadcaster to publish a summary of this Finding in a form and at a time and date to be directed by the Commission."
Previous BSC/BSC Complaints Bulletin:
BSC web site (Note: This is a 'Flash' site: It links to the report in PDF format- 76 kb):
2002-04-26: Although it posted a loss of USD1.1 billion in its first quarter results, having included a USD1.5 billion write-down in the value of its Blockbuster video chain, Viacom, which owns CBS and Infinity Radio, performed better than had been expected.
The write down came under new US accounting rule SFAS No. 142 and Viacom says that Blockbuster is the only part of its business that will be affected by the rule.
Overall Viacom reported first quarter revenues of $5.67 billion, compared to USD 5.75 million in Q1, 2002; EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $1.09 billion, compared to USD 1.15 billion and free cash flow of USD380 million compared to USD348 million.
Its Infinity operations had revenues of USD 798.9 million, down 4% on 2001's USD 835.6 million and EBITDA of USD274 million, down 15% from USD323.1 million; most of the shortfall, however came from Infinity's outdoor operations with radio revenues down only 1%.
Looking ahead, Viacom says it continues to believe that this year it will achieve double-digit growth in EBITDA and in earnings per share. It says it believes that advertising revenues will be up in the second quarter of 2002, compared with the same quarter last year.
Viacom President Mel Karmazin said that he was anticipating increased radio revenues in the second quarter, adding, "We're seeing pacing up for the entire company - - for the entire radio group - - for the month of April. May is up stronger that April and we anticipate June to be up… What we're seeing is demand rising currently. It's increasing dramatically. .. there's no reason to believe that the third quarter will not be the same as the second quarter."
Previous Karmazin:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Viacom web site (links to results 100Kb PDF)
2002-04-26: UK Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin Mackenzie has thrown down the gauntlet to the British radio ratings company RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research), which is jointly funded by the BBC and commercial radio companies, and other radio companies.
Following his release of the results of a trial in the Windsor-Slough-Maidenhead (Star FM market) area of Berkshire of the Swiss Radiocontrol radio audience measuring system (see RNW March 22), MacKenzie now says his national station TalkSport is to launch a test that will compare the results of diary entries, the method currently used by RAJAR, and the meter system.
MacKenzie, whose station fared better in the earlier meter tests than in RAJAR's ratings (it had four times the reach), says the new test involving more than 300 people, will prove the diary system to be a fraud and put an end to arguments over which system is more accurate.
RNW comment: Rather than put forward our own views of MacKenzie (significantly uncomplimentary both as a member of the human species and as one whose views should be taken with anything less than a ton of salt), we include below some excerpts of comments by Phil Riley, chief executive of Chrysalis Radio, made in the UK Financial Times.
Riley was responding to the original test that involved a sample of 670 adults -more than twice the planned sample - compared to RAJAR's annual total of some 130,000 diaries. He also has been in radio long enough to be able to recall the problems of credibility with advertisers when the UK commercial radio companies and the BBC used different systems that gave widely differing results.
Among Riley's points about MacKenzie's original test:
* Claiming the rest of radio is not interested in electronic radio listening measurement is simply not true - and he knows it. RAJAR, on behalf of the entire industry, is committed to testing electronic measurement, and a large-scale project is under way to do just that.
*The Swiss "watch" system isn't the only meter being developed. The American research company Arbitron is also pioneering a "pager" style device, which works using an entirely different system of radio monitoring, and RAJAR is testing both.
*You'll not be surprised to hear that getting two different electronic devices tested to the satisfaction of everyone involved in the radio industry (the BBC, commercial radio and the advertisers) needs to be done carefully and thoroughly, and the final results are due out in the spring of next year - perhaps a long time to wait, if like Kelvin, you're still losing money hand over fist on your radio investment, but for the rest of us enough time to get it right.
*One of the most intriguing results of the wristwatch test was Kelvin's claim that Radio 3 has as many listeners as Classic FM. Now I don't want to get into a debate on the programming merits of these two stations here, but anybody who seriously believes that the eclectic and challenging output of Radio 3 is as popular as Classic's "greatest music of all time" approach needs their head testing, and any survey methodology which openly suggests such a result surely needs more work before being publicly unveiled as "the future of radio research".
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous MacKenzie:
Previous RAJAR:
Previous Riley:
Previous Wireless Group:
UK Financial Times - Riley report was published April 16:
2002-04-26: It would only happen in Ireland or would it? According to the Irish Times, outgoing Members of the Dáil (Irish Parliament) have been asked by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) not to give interviews to illegal pirate stations during the country's election campaign.
In a letter to the chairman of the Members Interests Committee, Tony Killeen, BCI chairman Conor J. Maguire says the proliferation of such stations is of concern and adds, "The situation is particularly exacerbated at the time of the run-up to an election such as we have at present. An issue that has created difficulty in addressing the problem has been that in certain parts of the country, illegal stations have been given credibility through appearances on air by public representatives."
He asks for an undertaking from the Committee, which vets the conduct of TDs (MPs) that politicians will refuse to co-operate with pirate stations but in his reply Killeen says the committee is not in a position to give a formal undertaking, as it does not control the behaviour of members.
RNW comment: On the basis that pirate stations are illegal and giving them an interview is aiding an illegal activity, one would have thought lawmakers would not need such an approach.
Previous BCI:
Previous Maguire:
Irish Times report:
2002-04-25: Regent Communications has announced an offering of 10.5 million common shares from its March shelf registration priced at USD7.50 per share, 40 cents below the company's closing price before the announcement.
It had initially planned to offer 8.25 million shares (See RNW April 4) but added more when there was strong demand. In addition to the offering, the underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.575 million additional common shares to cover over-allotments. Regent says it expects to raise around USD74 million after expenses from the offering.
Earlier this week, Sinclair Broadcast filed a shelf registration with the SEC to sell up to $350M in new stock, bonds or other securities.
Other US radio business news includes a number of deals, one of which is a USD3.8 million take over of KHPN-AM, Kansas City by ABC Radio. The station, which currently carries business news, will become a Disney children's outlet.
Also in the northern US, Impact Radio LLC is buying WQCT-AM & WBNO-FM Bryan, Ohio, from Williams County Broadcasting Systems Inc. and WLKM-AM & FM Three Rivers, Michigan, from Voice of Three Rivers Inc.
Further south Caswell Communications is paying USD450, 000 for WZJY-AM, Charleston, South Carolina.
Previous Regent:
Previous Sinclair:
2002-04-25: The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled that various episodes of the Brother Jake Morning Show broadcast on CFMI-FM (Rock 101, Vancouver) in February and May last year were too sexually explicit for a time of day when children are likely to be listening.
It found a number of items involving such topics as flatulence and bodily functions, as well as those containing sexual innuendo were in bad taste, but not in breach of its codes and that sketches that mocked identifiable groups on the shows reviewed did not breach the human rights provision of the CAB Code of Ethics because they did not reach the level of abusively or unduly discriminatory comment.
The CBSC was responding to a complaint from a listener at an electrical manufacturing firm who said he had reacted to a comment from a client. He complained to the station and, finding its response unsatisfactory, to the CBSC.
In making its ruling, the CBSC noted that, relating to "the matter at hand, not only might children have been listening when the remarks were made, but children were in fact invited to be listening and to participate in the "Kids' Joke Segment", which encourages children to telephone the station and recite a joke on air. The hosts then judge the jokes and reward the child who tells the best one."
"In those episodes reviewed, the young people identified themselves as being between the ages of eight and twelve."
In the case of a February programme involving discussion of sex on a workbench, the children's joke segment was only minutes before this discussion, said the panel.
It concluded in its ruling that, "The episodes included sexually explicit material which was broadcast at times of the day when children could be expected, and were encouraged by the broadcaster, to be listening, contrary to Clause 6, paragraph 3 of the Code of Ethics which requires that broadcasters ensure the proper presentation of opinion and comment."
Previous CBSC:
CBSC web site:
2002-04-25: BBC Radio 1 has tightened up its procedures for live interviews to be conducted at times when children may be listening.
The move follows complaints about an outburst by Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G) in February (See RNW February 19) .
Throughout his interview on Sara Cox's breakfast show Cohen peppered his appearance on Cox's show with obscenities and references to sex and drugs. and the BBC Complaints Unit ruled that the language used was not suitable for the time of broadcast.
The new procedures include a pre-briefing with the interviewee's representative, a face to face briefing with the interviewee on the day and a warning procedure which, if not adhered to, should result in the interview being brought to an immediate close.
In its Quarterly Complaints Bulletin for the period to the end of March, the Corporation lists a total of 186 complaints concerning 156 items compared to 265 complaints concerning 115 items in the previous quarter. It upheld 25, six of them partly, compared to 135, 56 of them partly, in the previous quarter.
Radio complaints on which there was comment, apart from that against Cox, included a complaint against:
*A report in From Our Own Correspondent that referred to "Israeli F16s dive-bombing low over" Gaza on a day when it had not done so, although the BBC noted that it had done this on a number of occasions
*A complaint against Taking Issue on BBC Radio 4 in which a studio guest misrepresented the manner in which a sufferer from Motor Neurone Disease (MND) would be likely to die. A briefing note was circulated to prevent recurrence.
*A complaint against a new report on the World at One that said British rail fares on a network had gone up 17% when the rise only affected first class tickets on one route.
* A complaint from a greetings card manufacturer against BBC Radio Five Live over a competition to produce a Christmas Card message that involved Hallmark Cards being a judge and whose prize was that they would use the message. Programme staff were reminded of the BBC's guidelines on undue prominence for commercial concerns.
The unit also noted that in the full year to the end of March, it had dealt with 794 complaints relating to 115 items: Of these it had upheld 231, 70 of them partly, in relation to 67 different items.
Previous BBC:
Previous BBC Complaints Bulletin:
BBC web site re complaints:
2002-04-25: Sirius Satellite Radio has agreed a deal with MediaBay and its Radio Classics subsidiary for the latter's collection of old-time radio to appear on Sirius channel 156.
The collection includes such artistes as Jack Benny, Burns and Allen and Fibber McGee and Molly. Sirius will also use the content on other channels.
At the start of this week, Sirius announced that it is to broadcast two-and-a-half hours a day of Tech TV content on its talk channel 116.
Previous Sirius:
Sirius web site:
2002-04-25: Veteran US newsman Edward de Fontaine, who was one of the staff at the launch of the Associated Press radio network, has died aged 72.
Born in Dubuque, Iowa, he first worked in radio in his hometown and after a spell in the army spent most of the 1960's as a foreign correspondent based in Europe.
He was assistant managing editor when AP radio was launched in 1974 and later became managing editor in charge of the network's editorial operations.
In 1982 he joined the Voice of America and was its Director/Broadcast Operations when he retired in 1997.
New York Times/AP obituary:
2002-04-24: With the deadline for a decision on Internet royalty rates under a month away, 20 members of the US Congress have written to the Librarian of Congress, James Billington, urging that the Library of Congress and US Copyright Office do not set royalty rates that would devastate web casting.
"We are concerned that the CARP proposal is contrary both to the intent of the DMCA and Congress' general policy not to stifle innovation on the Internet," says the letter drafted by Rick Boucher (Virginia), Chris Cannon (Utah ), and Jay Inslee (Washington).
The letter continues, "We want to ensure that all creators are fairly compensated for their work. We are concerned that the CARP-recommended rates for sound-recording copyright owners are, however, high in comparison to historical royalty rates, such as rates paid by terrestrial broadcast radio to songwriters and music publishers" and suggests that the omission of a percentage of royalties alternative "seems to undermine entirely the ability of small webcasters to survive."
Boucher and Cannon are behind the Music Online Competition Act that would amend some provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The fees proposed by the US Copyright Arbitration Panel (CARP) are 0.07 cents per performance for AM and FM rebroadcasts and 0 .14 cents per performance for Internet-only streams, plus a 9% ephemeral-license fee for all webcasters (See RNW Feb 22).
A number of webcasters ay the proposed rates would put them out of business and a group of California-based webcasters has urged California's Congressional delegation to support fair royalty rates for webcasting.
One of them, Bill Goldsmith of RadioParadise.com, commented, "The proposed fees would definitely put us out of business. If that happens, everyone loses: our listeners, the artists we play, and the record labels themselves. We'd see two years of hard work and sacrifice go right down the drain."
In another suggested protest at the proposals, Kurt Hanson, publisher of Radio And Internet Newsletter and founder of the SaveInternetRadio.org web site, has proposed a May 1 shutdown of Internet streams - the date was chosen in view of the International distress signal ,"Mayday" - to draw attention to the threat to webcasting.
He suggests that the "Day of Silence", combined with a request to our listeners to use the silent time on that day to write totheir Congressional representatives, local newspapers, and favourite journalists about their concerns, would create a media event that would increase support for opposition to the proposed royalties.
For those who felt they could not go silent for a whole day, he suggests periods of silence within each hour of programming - or periods of silence interspersed with public service announcements on the subject..
RAIN web site (Links to Save Internet Radio site)
2002-04-24: XM Satellite Radio's first quarter results show the company's subscription more than doubling but its losses were also up, although the company exceeded Wall Street estimates. At the end of the quarter XM had 76,242 subscribers, up 48,509 over the quarter. XM needs around 4 million subscribers to break even.
Its losses were USD112.3 million (including an operating loss of operating loss of USD98.4) up from USD36.9 million a year ago and the loss applicable to common shareholders was USD117.7 million, or USD1.56 a share, compared with USD42.7 million, or 80 cents a share in 2001. EBITDA was USD75.9M in red ink.
XM's revenues, which only started in the final quarter of 2001, were USD1.8 million for the quarter, USD 1.4 million from subscriber revenues and the rest from advertising.
In a conference call Chief Executive Hugh Panero said less than 1 percent of subscribers were cancelling each month. He added that 70% were paying quarterly and another 88% either for a year or six months in advance.
Panero added that XM remained on track to hit subscriber targets of 130,000 at the end of the second quarter, 200, 000 at the end of the third quarter and 350, 000 at the end of the year, noting that XM expected a boost towards the end of the year as General Motors included XM radios or options in 25 of its 2003 models. XM should also be helped by the launch of its lowest-priced receiver yet, a USD1999 Pioneer free-standing model that also requires an additional antenna costing around USD50, next month and the addition of Wal-Mart to outlets selling XM receivers.
Previous Panero:
Previous XM:
XM web site:
2002-04-24: Latest Irish audience figures from the JNLR/MRBI Interim Survey covering the period October 2001 - March 2002 show state broadcaster RTÉ maintaining or increasing its listenership and national commercial station Today FM also increasing its audience.
RTÉ Radio 1 increased listenership by 1% to 32% (+1), its Lyric FM channel also added 1% to move to 4% and its 2FM channel held on to 27% whilst Today FM took its listenership up 1% to 16%.
In Dublin, Lite-FM increased reach by 1% to 13% and new music service Country FM recorded a reach of 2%. Elsewhere County Sound in Cork increased its reach by 5% to 59% , a share just beaten in the Connaught/Ulster and Munster regions where 62% and 61%, respectively, of the population tuned into local radio each weekday.
Previous Irish Ratings:
Previous RTÉ:
2002-04-24: The most recent Internet ratings from MeasureCast show yet another rise in Internet listening which has nearly doubled this year and is more than five-and-a-half times the level of January 2001: in the week to April 22, it rose by nine per cent following a fall back the previous week.
At the top of the rankings, Jazz FM held on to the top station honours and Clear Channel was again the top network: Citadel Interactive made its debut in MeasureCast's network ratings at number 10. Within the station rankings, MEDIAmazing came back into the top five but in the network rankings it was a case of only musical chairs in the top five.
For the week to April 14, 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: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 306,125 (286,904); CP 75,109 (71,801): Same position with listening and reach up.
2: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 303,549 (259,822); CP 51,715 (48,736): Same position with listening and reach up.
3: Classical format WQXR-FM, New York - TTSL 202,428 (144,456); CP 44,205 (22,557): Same position with significantly higher listening and reach.
4: Classical format King FM - TTSL 133,473 (133,666); CP 21,527 (22,325): Same position with slightly lower listening and reach.
5: Listener-formatted MEDIAmazing - TTSL 80,306 (76,492) : CP 50,480 (46,829) : Up from sixth 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 1,486,503 (1,538,355) ; CP 264,319 (263,963). Same position with lower listening and higher reach.
2: Radio Free Virgin TTSL 767,617 (694,283): CP 157,040 (144,982) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
3: WARP Radio TTSL 604,418 (622,266) hours: CP 124,925 (130,895) - Same position with lower listening and reach.
4: StreamAudio network TTSL 574,834 (505,957) : CP 102,500 (104,478) - Down from fourth with higher listening and lower reach.
5: Virgin Radio TTSL 447,275 (380,913): CP 87,812 (80,071) - Up from fifth with higher listening and reach.
(RNW note - MeasureCast listed Virgin fourth but the numbers would indicate an error.)
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-04-23: According to the UK Radio Magazine, London AM station Ritz 1035AM has fired all its presenters and is now running in automated mode. The dismissals follow circulation of a fake news release on station letterheads saying presenters were owed thousands for work over recent months. Ritz chairman Tom Winter, says the magazine, said the news release "completely undermined" the station. He had told the magazine that the Ritz Music Group had invested more than GBP2.5 million in the station. GBP750, 0000 of that in the last year alone; the station, he said was costing from GBP60, 000 to GBP 70, 000 a month to operate but was producing no advertising revenues.
UK Radio Magazine- news pages :
2002-04-23: Australian group Southern Cross Broadcasting, which owns the top-rated Sydney talk station 2UE, has cut its profits forecast for 2002 to AUD32 million; its shares dropped by 12% to AUD 10.20 following the announcement, which it attributed to the effects of the weak Australian advertising market.
Southern Cross's talk network has been hit by a fall in national advertising revenue and also by the fall in its ratings following the defection of breakfast host Alan Jones to Macquarie Network's 2GB.
In the first ratings so far this year, 2UE's Breakfast show dropped to second place (See RNW March 27 ) and the company's revenues are rumoured to have fallen by almost a third.
Previous Jones:
Previous Macquarie:
Previous Southern Cross:
Southern Cross web site.
2002-04-23: The Winter Arbitron ratings just released in the US show news stations losing the edge they gained in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and music stations moving back to their former audience shares. News and talks station were down everywhere including major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Previous Arbitron:
Arbitron web site:
2002-04-22: For this week's look at print articles on radio, we have opted to consider one issue from various viewpoints. The issue is the one of "dumbing down", centred in this case on classical music and intelligent talk on radio.
On the first, the message from different sides of the Atlantic Ocean is in stark contrast.
In the UK, Vanora Bennett in her Saturday radio column in the London Times comments on Classic FM, which is ten years old in September. If it were a person, she writes, Classic would be "a small and unnaturally good child: studious, with clean knees and big gleaming specs."
When it was launched the expectation, she says was of an audience of 2.8 million a week; in fact it now has 6.7 million, more than a million of them under 25, and also attracts 364,000 children with weekend programming such as the Classic Tales slot, in which media stars read famous stories."
Classic's managing director, she says does not like comparisons with BBC Radio 3 but prefers to think of Classic listener's as Radio 4 fans. Nor does he want then unsettled by music: "We try to avoid doing anything which intimidates, assumes knowledge, or uses technical language unnecessarily," he says.
Not that Bennett is totally enamoured: "Listen to Classic FM's twee, timid choices, she writes," ("Mozart and Beethoven are fighting it out for the top slot today . . . And the winner is - Beethoven!") and you might easily find yourself wishing that the station would get a catapult, smash some windows and have some red-blooded, adventurous fun."
The situation for classical music in the US seems more parlous, although we do note that two classical stations are regularly in the top five in the Internet ratings published by Arbitron and MeasureCast, and in some ways there could be a comparison between their national reach and that of Classic as opposed to the ratings for local stations in the US where classical has had a hard time and is now down to less than 30 self-supporting stations.
That, of course, makes the classical output of National Public Radio (NPR), all the more important and its recent changes to its programming (RNW April 13) have attracted adverse comment in many quarters in terms of the perceived cutback in classical output.
So have similar changes at New York public station WNYC-FM that form a peg for comment about classical radio in the US by cellist David Finckel, and pianist Wu Han in the New York Times.
"Those of us who care deeply about classical music," they write, "fear that WNYC's action will do more than deprive local listeners of hours of extraordinary music; it will accelerate a national trend toward reducing the amount of great music broadcast on the radio."
" In our travels as musicians, we hear the same story all too often: A city used to have classical music radio, but the station was bought - or polled its listeners with an eye toward "better" demographics - and has switched to talk or to popular music formats. Great music on the radio is in dangerously short supply these days; in some places it has been abandoned altogether."
"Americans have always depended on public radio to educate, inform and enrich listeners. A radio station trying to do justice to the great art of classical music must take its mission seriously, programming with the integrity and intelligence of a serious arts institution."
"For public radio, this means putting to use a vast collective classical music library; broadcasting live events; exploring new kinds of compositions; and providing a stage for distinguished performers, composers and music scholars."
The New York Times also carries a number of letters on the subject of classical music broadcasts including one defending the NPR changes from Ken Stern, NPR's Executive Vice President.
He says the changes are "part of a carefully crafted effort to better serve the public radio music listener" and says the changes to its classical programme "Performance Today" will retain it as a showcase for classical music with the principal change being to "emphasize music performance and de-emphasize the long-form interviews that many feel interrupt the programming flow."
"We are also developing, in partnership with member stations," he writes, "a classical music stream that will complement our current offerings and provide another option for public radio stations to present listeners with sought after, high-quality music and cultural content. Classical music remains a vibrant part of public radio, and NPR will continue to seek to improve its service in this area."
Another letter, from North Carolina, blames part of the demise of classical music on other factors in addition to "dumbing down", saying that it has "been played to death."
"No composition, no matter how perfectly constructed," says the correspondent, " should be asked to bear the burden of endless repetition…"
"Serious music, to be sustained, requires living composers who are serious about reaching 21st-century ears through the classical idiom."
"Instead, contemporary compositions seem tailored to advance an academic career or to innovate for the sake of innovation. When heart regains its place next to intellect, and composers speak not to the privy few but directly to the human condition, then classical music both past and present will regain a place in our lives. "
Yet another correspondent, the music director at Michigan University's student run station, says that "classical music is being phased out by stations in favour of talk and news...this trend is motivated by the need for money rather than by a commitment to the public interest" but then calls for a widening of output.
" Public radio," he writes, "could serve the public good and simultaneously serve the broadest public taste if it were willing to embrace music like jazz, hip-hop and techno. All of these are serious and enduring and, if treated as such, can be the subjects of enlightening and stimulating radio." (RNW comment: Shades of jazz and world music on BBC radio 3????)
On to intelligent talk and Paul Donovan's column in the UK Sunday Times in which he laments the death of the "Brains Trust", the Saturday night BBC Radio 3 programme that deals with topics raised by listeners and is scheduled to be dropped in favour of "The Verb" hosted by Barnsley-based performance poet Ian McMillan.
Donovan quotes current Brains Trust host Joan Bakewell as saying, "It is sad, because it is just about the last place on the air where you can hear high-table conversation."
"Theodore Zeldin flew in from Paris to appear on it. AS Byatt came back from Provence. They enjoy meeting on it, just as listeners enjoy taking part afterwards. They fill the website with long essays on aesthetics and philosophy. But it is not being recommissioned. It has been quietly laid aside."
Donovan says that few programmes have such a distinguished history as the Brains Trust, which was born in 1941, had a spell on television and since 1998 has been on Radio 3.
"Some people," writes Donovan, " may think it is a dinosaur, whose extinction is long overdue" but the existence of other intellectual programmes do not have to mean killing the programme. "Its topics are chosen by listeners and reflect universal concerns. War and peace, love and hate, happiness and grief, choice and free will, and what Wittgenstein said on his deathbed ("Tell them I've had a wonderful life"). It imparts wisdom, as well as entertainment. It is too precious to be swept aside by new brooms, who see only cobwebs and not the furniture beneath."
He then suggests that if enough people write in to protest, the show could be saved, concluding, "Just because The Brains Trust began in the age of the wireless doesn't mean it is redundant in the age of radio."
Donovan's Irish colleague Gerry McCarthy, also laments some changes in radio talk in his column, commenting on a lackadaisical output from state broadcaster RTÉ's Sunday Show compared to the Sunday Supplement show on commercial rival Today FM.
"The original Sunday Show concept," he writes," was simple. Assemble a panel of articulate people, use the content of the Sunday newspapers to kick-start them and generate an open-ended debate on the day's issues. "
"On a good week you have highly topical subjects, panellists with a range of opinions and plenty of good old-fashioned argument. Even a bad week can be entertaining. But two factors are vital: the choice of panellists and the continuity of debate."
He then says the station has now lost the plot and the programme "its latest incarnation under Myles Dungan, the Sunday Show has degenerated into yet another magazine programme. It still sticks to the basic panel-plus-papers format, but makes the cardinal error of interrupting the conversation with promo slots, in which guests plug their latest book or record."
"Even when the guest has an interesting topic, the act of cutting back and forth between panel and pluggers spoils the programme's continuity."
"It would take a broadcasting genius to preside over such a scrambled-egg Sunday with any sense of authority; and Dungan is no broadcasting genius. "
"Neither," he continues, " is Sam Smyth, but his Sunday Supplement on Today FM has successfully inherited the discussion programme mantle."
"Smyth sticks tightly to the original format. Helped by his huge range of contacts in the media and politics, he almost inevitably has top-notch guests. "
"They may not always be household names, but Smyth knows how to create that vital aura which keeps listeners tuned in." "Last Sunday's mix, for instance, included barrister Gerry Danaher and journalist Damien Kiberd. They made serious points, they joked, they kept up a regular flow of informed opinion - and they sounded like they were having a good time. As a listener-cum-eavesdropper, you felt yourself wanting to nudge a little closer to catch every word. "
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous McCarthy:
New York Times -David Finckle and Wu Han:
New York Times letters re classical radio:
UK Sunday Times - Donovan:
UK Sunday Times- McCarthy:
UK Times - Bennett:
RNW Note - UK Times and Sunday Times require registration:
2002-04-22: Looking at the plight of Scottish Media Group (SMG), which last week finally announced its 2001 figures showing a GBP59 million profit in 2000 turning into a loss of GBP64 million in 2001, Heather Connon in the "Throg Street" financial column in the UK Observer, comments that it is hard to see where the money will come from "to repay its GBP393 million debt the June 2003 deadline set by its bankers without selling any of its assets."
She notes that in 2001, SMG's "radio and television businesses generated just £43.4m, and that was all used up on bank interest, capital spending and investment, so debt actually rose by £90m. The bank deal means it will have to find an extra £6m of interest this year, and while it can cut back on some spending, last year's restructuring programme will actually cost it £10m this year. "
Advertising revenue will have to rise sharply to boost profits enough to avoid disposals, she says, adding that the fact that SMG has written GBP56 million of the value of its 29/5% of rival Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) but refused to write down the goodwill on its GBP 225 million purchase of the Ginger Media Group, including Virgin Radio, suggests that it is determined to hold on to the latter business but is more likely to sell its SRH holdings than raise its stake in the company when new UK media cross ownership regulations are issued.
Previous SMG:
Previous SRH:
UK Observer report:
2002-04-21: The most important regulatory decision last week was the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval of deals connected with Telemedia's sale of its radio and television stations; elsewhere the activity was on a smaller scale.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) awarded the new Gosford licence to DMG Radio, which put in an AUD 31.5 million bid (See below ).
Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman, said the auction "indicates how commercially valuable the FM band is. The level of bidding demonstrates a real depth of interest in the market and shows that the radio frequency spectrum is a public asset of great worth."
The Authority also announced that it was withdrawing the open narrowcasting frequency 96.9MHz frequency in Moranbah, Queensland that had been one of 92 open narrowcasting licences for which it had invited applications.
Noting that no applications were received when the frequency was put up for auction in June 1998 and May 1999, the Authority said that in September 1999 the frequency was made available for a temporary community broadcasting service that was subsequently started by Rock FM in March 2000.
It is now seeking to change the Emerald Licence Area Plan to plan a permanent community radio licence on 96.9 MHz in Moranbah.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), as reported below, conditionally approved the sale of Telemedia's radio and TV stations and down the line sales of some of the stations.
The Commission also approved a new English-language FM community radio programming undertaking at the Okanese Indian Reserve, Saskatchewan, but only until August 2006 rather than the maximum seven years permissible because it wishes to review , at an earlier date, the applicant's performance in fulfilling the objectives for community radio stations.
Also in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council (CBSC), condemned the use by a Vancouver radio station of the term "bitch-slapped" in a sports report (See RNW April 19).
Things were fairly quiet in Ireland where the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) approved the signing of satellite content contracts with RTÉ (See RNW April 18).
It was also quiet in the UK, where the Radio Authority has published its assessment of the award of the Reading licence to New City FM against competition from four other applicants. Crown FM, Juice Reading, Reading 107 and RFM.
The winners are a group which includes a Surrey and Berkshire Newspapers, a subsidiary of Guardian Media Group and the Milestone Group, the company which runs Kick FM in Newbury and Kestrel FM in Basingtoke.
In members' view, says the authority, "New City FM presented a strong business plan that benefited from credible backing. Links with neighbouring stations and the local newspaper group will provide the station with good marketing and promotional opportunities."
New City FM plans to broadcast a full music-led service for an audience aged between 25 and 54.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission has been active on the disciplinary and technological fronts. As already report (RNW April 18 ) it confirmed an USD8, 000 fine on Eure Family Limited Partnership but reduced by USD3, 000 to USD 22, 000 another on Willis Broadcasting Corporation.
It also announced that an investigation by its Enforcement Bureau had led to an arrest concerning the operation of an unlicensed FM station in Brooklyn, one of more than 20 unlicensed stations that have been closed this year as a result of Enforcement Bureau investigations.
On the technological front, the Commission is now seeking comment on the National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC) report concerning iBiquity's IBOC (in-band-on-channel) hybrid mode AM/DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) system (see RNW April 9).
The commission also notes that additional tests are required to assess AM night time (skywave) propagation conditions and also because the iBiquity AM IBOC tests evaluated by NRSC were conducted using MPEG- 2AAC perceptual audio coding and iBiquity reportedly intends to use proprietary audio coding based on PAC, developed by Lucent Technologies, in its final AM IBOC DAB system.
During the week, FCC chairman Michael K Powell, testified before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives concerning the FCC fiscal year 2003 budget.
The FCC is seeking USD 278 million for the year and amongst the issues highlighted by Powell were enhancement of the Commission's independent technical and engineering expertise and enforcement of competition policy with specific mention of a request to "increase dramatically" the forfeiture amounts the FCC can impose.
Previous ABA:
Previous BCI:
Previous CBSC:
Previous CRTC:
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Previous Flint:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Powell:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
ABA web site:
BCI web site:
CBSC web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-04-21: The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has given its approval to various deals involved in the sale of Telemedia's TV and radio stations including the CAD255 million cash and stock deal to sell 21 radio stations in Quebec and the Maritime Provinces to Astral Media.
Canada's Competition Bureau is still blocking the sale of nine stations and Telemedia's interest in two others (See RNW Dec 23, 2001).
The bureau says that allowing Astral to acquire the Quebec stations would lessen competition in 6 radio markets but Astral and Telemedia have launched a court action to argue that only the CRTC had jurisdiction in the matter of broadcast licences. The case is due to be heard on May 13.
The CRTC has imposed some conditions including the divesting by Astral of CFOM-FM in Lévis, the maintaining of a high level of local programming, and the investment over the next seven years by Astral of CAD 13.6 million in the development of Francophone artists.
The CRTC has also approved Standard Radio's purchase of 64 radio stations and two television stations from Telemedia and the subsequent acquisition by Rogers Broadcasting of 14 of the radio stations (in Ontario) and by NewCap of 15 of the radio stations (in Alberta).
Standard retains the TV stations, 21 radio stations in British Columbia, one radio station in Alberta and 13 radio stations in Ontario.
In approving the deals, the CRTC commented that "One of the advantages of this transaction is the fact that together these companies will invest CAD23,756,000 towards the development of Canadian artists."
Previous Astral:
Previous CRTC:
Previous NewCap:
Previous Rogers:
Previous Standard:
Previous Telemedia:
CRTC web site:
2002-04-21: DMG radio has added yet another FM to its Australian stable; this time it took the new Gosford licence with a bid of AUD13.5 million to beat off competitor Austereo, which had bid AUD13.1 million.
Gosford, which is near Sydney, is one of Australia's fastest growing regional markets and is currently served by stations owned by RG Capital, which recently bought a 50% stake in Austereo Newcastle Stations (See RNW March 12).
The new station will be the 64th in DMG's network and it is expected to be in the running for new licences to be auctioned in the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast areas of Australia.
Previous Austereo:
Previous DMG:
2002-04-20: US radio advertising revenue fell back by 5% in February according to the US Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) but in a reversal of the trend for many months this time national revenues were up and it was local sales that caused the fall; This was put down to the lack of sweeps advertising this year because of the Olympics.
The split was national revenues up 1% compared to a year ago, local sales down 6% and combined sales down 5%; for the year to date the figures were national sales up 1%, local down 35 and combined sales down 2%.
RAB's Sales Index which relates to a base of 100 in 1998, before the dot com boom, showed the national index at 132.7, local index at 130.2 and the combined index at 130.6 for February whist for the year to date the respective figures were 129.8 national, 131.8 local and 131.5 combined.
RAB President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Fries commented, "Radio has a broad range of advertising categories which has sustained the medium through the recent turbulent economy."
"Radio revenues are strengthening each month, and as we look forward, the industry is poised for a steady growth recovery."
Previous Fries:
Previous RAB:
RAB web site:
2002-04-20: Yet again there have been quite a few US radio station deals over the past week.
They include:
*Three buys by Mapleton Communications. It's paying USD1.2 million to Winsome Media LLC for classic rock simulcast stations KXDZ-FM and KXTZ-FM, San Luis Obispo, California and USD 600, 000 to Central Coast Community Broadcasting for AAA-format KOTR-FM in the same market. When the deals are finalised, Mapleton will own 16 stations in California.
*A sale by Cox Radio of KCCN-AM, Honolulu to local businessman Duane Kurisu. The price is said to be around the same -- USD575, 000 - as it recently received for KRTR-AM in Honolulu.
* A sale by Silverado Broadcasting of Reno, Nevada, station KPTL-AM to Casino Radio for USD 350, 000. Silverado is keeping KNVQ-FM in the Reno market.
*A sale by Brown Family Broadcasting Inc., which is controlled by LA Tonya Brown, daughter of soul singer James Brown, of WAAW-FM, Williston, South Carolina, to Frank Neeley for USD7000. Neeley already owns two AMs in the state.
In addition to deals, XM Satellite Radio has announced the closure of its 13.4 million stock offering, which raised USD154 million (See RNW April 13). and Viacom, which had been expected to sell USD500 million in five-year notes at USD 998.40 per USD 1,000 of face value, with a coupon of 5.625% has boosted the offering to 700 million to meet demand.
In another cash-raising move, Christian-oriented Salem Communications has filed a USD240 million shelf registration that will allow it to raise funds by issuing new securities including stocks and bonds.
Salem founders Chairman Stuart Epperson and CEO Ed Atsinger are each selling 625K shares of Class A common stock.
The two each retain more than 3.5 million shares and own all of the Class B shares, which have ten times the voting power of the Class A shares. This will leave each of them still controlling around 44% of Salem's voting power.
Previous Atsinger:
Previous Cox:
Previous Mapleton:
Previous Salem:
Previous XM:
Previous Viacom:
2002-04-20: Dublin's second new station to debut this month, SPIN-FM, is now on air.
Targeted at the 15-34 year old audience, it says it will air no music dating back before 2000.
Earlier this month, NewsTalk FM went on air with a rolling news format (See RNW April 9):
2002-04-20: Entercom Communications appears to have won its battle for KWOD-FM, Sacramento, although Ed Stolz's Royce International Broadcasting hasn't ye given up the fight. Judge Sheldon Grossfield, who ruled in November last year that a 1996 letter of intent to sell the station to Entercom for USD 25 million was a binding contract, has now ordered Stolz to sign the FCC forms to transfer KWOD-FM Sacramento to Entercom on May 2nd.
The judge has yet to rule on damages to be awarded to Entercom for whom broker Larry Patrick, testified that the company's loss to date from the delayed closing was USD 7.1 million.
Stolz had delayed implementation of the judge's previous order by filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition (see RNW Jan 5) but that was dismissed because the judge assessed Royce International's assets to be far in excess of its liabilities.
Entercom is to place USD25 million in escrow, with USD15 million of that being immediately released to Stolz but Stolz says he intends to fight on, raising some interesting questions as to whether the judge may find him guilty of contempt, and possibly appoint a receiver to take control of the licence, if he refuses to sign the transfer forms.
Previous Entercom:
2002-04-19: Scottish Media Group (SMG) has written down investments by nearly GBP 60 million, taking it into a pre-tax loss for 2001 of GBP64 million compared to a profit of GBP59 million in 2000 but it says new banking arrangements place it in a strong position for the expected consolidation of UK broadcasting.
The write-downs were of GBP56.3million to to GBP89.3million for its 29.5% strategic holding in Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH), based on the SRH share price at the end of 2001 and of GBP 5million to GBP3.5million of its investment in Heart of Midlothian plc. (RNW note- this is the Hearts soccer club).
In its results for the year to December 2001, whose release was delayed whilst it re-organised its banking covenants (See RNW March 16). It now has a new deal that will take it through to June 2003.
SMG reports turnover down from GBP300.5 million in 2000 to GBP280.8 million last year; EBITDA down from GBP78.8 million to GBP65.7 million; Total operating profit - excluding exceptionals, online losses and goodwill amortisation- down from GBP70.3million to GBP57.2million; pre-tax profit down from GBP59.0million to GBP36.0million; earning per share down from 15 pence to 8.4 pence. SMG's dividend per share was less than half that of 2000 at 3 pence compared to 6.8 pence.
In its own presentation of the figures, SMG's headlines include "All divisions profitable with strong margins, despite advertising downturn"; "Cost reduction initiatives have delivered GBP5million of annualised savings"; "Well positioned to deliver strong growth from any upturn in advertising" and "Debt renegotiation successfully concluded." (RNW comment -the last of these is true, we suppose, albeit SMG notes that the renegotiation led to "a GBP5.9million exceptional charge in 2001 relating to fees, professional adviser costs and increased interest charges-- up 1.5%.).
In terms of its divisions, the bright spot was SMG's Out of Home Division, comprising outdoor and cinema advertising: This increased turnover by 16% to GBP33.4million and operating profits by 21% GBP5.2million (2000: GBP4.3million).
All other divisions reported falls in revenues: of 2% in its publishing division, of 11% in its TV division and of 17% in the radio division.
Radio, which is mainly the Virgin national commercial station, saw its turnover drop to GBP27.9million compared to GBP33.6million in the 10 months of SMG's ownership in 2000. Operating profits for the corresponding period were down 30% to GBP10.5million, some of which SMG puts down to a strong performance by Virgin in 2000 spurred by advertising around the Euro 2000 football
tournament and from dot.com advertisers.
SMG says that Virgin Radio's tight cost control has resulted in an operating margin of 38% that, although reduced from 12 months ago, is still industry-leading.
Looking ahead, its report says UK advertising has yet to show substantive signs of
recovery but declines have been getting smaller. It adds, "Encouragingly, the market is becoming more predictable and buying activity is reverting to more traditional patterns. In particular, radio, as the medium most able to take short-term money, is showing the first signs of recovery."
There has been widespread speculation that SMG would have to sell assets to ease its GBP 400 million of debt but according to the UK Guardian, the group has ruled out disposals.
The paper said that the group's finance director, George Watt, said SMG's balance sheet was secure, after it announced it had successfully renegotiated the terms of its loans and that the restructuring deal would allow the group to take a leading role in the media spending spree that it expects will be unleashed by the new communications bill next year.
"We are not breaking the group up. We now have a window to understand where media ownership is going and then decide on the right strategic moves," he said.
SMG's shares ended Thursday up nearly 6% at GBP1.52 compared to a Wednesday close of GBP1.44
Previous SMG:
Previous SRH:
SMG results (184 kb PDF):
UK Guardian report:
2002-04-19: Arbitron has announced first quarter revenues of USD65.9 million, up 9.5% on the same period of 2001: it has also signed 90-day renewals of its agreements with Viacom's Infinity and Disney's ABC Radio, both of which can now use its winter ratings book.
Negotiations for longer-term renewals are continuing and CEO Steve Morris told analysts they were "far along."
Arbitron's largest customer Clear Channel, a year ago took its negotiations right up to the wire, but signed a deal in the end and Infinity, its second largest customer, is expected to follow suit. Infinity accounts for around a tenth of Arbitron's revenues and ABC for around 3%; the two last minute deals have meant that around USD900, 000 of revenue will not now be listed in Arbitron's figures until the second quarter. Morris said the company was on track for full-year revenue growth between 9% and 11%.
Other numbers from Arbitron for the first quarter included earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of USD27.6 million, up USD 300, 000 from 2001 and net income of USD14.2 million, down USD2.1 million. Arbitron puts this down to higher costs including those related to development of its RADAR service and Portable People Meter.
Previous ABC, America:
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Morris:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Arbitron web site:
2002-04-19: The Canadian Broadcasting Council (CBSC) has ruled that CKVX-FM (Xfm, Vancouver), breached its codes when an on-air personality in a July 2001 sports report used the term "bitch-slapped" to describe the way the Seattle Mariners baseball team had dealt with their opponents.
The comment led to a complaint from a lawyer, who heard it whilst diving to court in connection with a case that involved a father who beat up his daughter because she was "disrespectful".
He wrote to the station which, after an initial exchange of letters, responded, "You correctly heard an announcer on Xfm use the term 'bitch-slapped'in reference to a baseball score the morning of July 30, 2001."
"The term is acceptable for use on Xfm, realizing it is accepted within our target audience as a phrase of celebration and/or victory. 'Bitch' does not refer to a female in this case, but rather something or someone that may be less significant."
"The target audience for Xfm is 18-24 year old men. Within this rock/alternative life-group, terms rejected by the mainstream as profanity, are acceptable and often have unique meanings."
" It is our intent to attract and retain these listeners. Again, please accept our apology for any embarrassment or inconvenience caused. If you wish to discuss this with me personally, please call the number listed below."
The complainant subsequently contacted the CBSC, commenting in part, "I don't care who you ask, the term "bitch-slapped", for an English language user, will denote the physical correction of a lesser [female] by a physical dominant [male], in this instance the alpha Seattle Mariners over their lesser opponents… Unfortunately I have to deal with acts of physical assault on a regular basis in my work."
"Such are common, particularly male against female. I take the position that the term 'bitch- slapped', if not promoting may well condone and certainly does not rebuff these acts. Such are not acceptable, nor is language which promotes it."
Ruling that the use of the term was inappropriate, the CBSC commented, "While the expression 'bitch-slap'may have more than one meaning, the B.C. Panel understands its use here to have been that identified by both the complainant and the broadcaster in its replies… While not extreme, the violent domination which is of the essence of the term is unacceptable on the public airwaves."
"There is in its use an assumption that this is an appropriate way to express a significant victory by one team over another. While verbs like smear, whip, stun, beat, pound, even massacre, as well as others, indicate substantial dominance in sports events, none of these has a sexist connotation."
"The Panel finds it curious and particularly unacceptable that the verb 'slap'would not likely even find its way onto the foregoing list of victorious verbs except in the circumstances in which it is attached to a feminine noun. There are many many ways to express sports dominance which are not attached to gender or other forms of submissiveness."
"There is a broad enough choice that no broadcaster can reasonably view itself as unduly limited by reason of the application of the industry's own restriction on the airing of expressions of violence against women."
"The use of 'bitch-slap' is not an option in such circumstances."
Previous CBSC:
CBSC ruling
2002-04-19: San Francisco public broadcaster KQED, which runs KQED TV and KQED-FM, has named Jeff Clarke, head of Houston's public television station, as its new president to replace Mary Bitterman, who announced in November that she was to leave to head the James Irvine Foundation (See RNW Nov 10, 2001).
Salary details have not been released but Bitterman was paid a total of almost USD 220, 000 in 2000.
Previous KQED:
2002-04-18: US National Public Radio (NPR) has purchased property in Culver City, California, to house a new USD 12 million multimedia West Coast Production Centre as part of its national expansion.
It will be the organisations first large production centre outside Washington, DC, and NPR says it plans to start moving into the building in September.
NPR's Los Angeles news bureau and the production staff of The Tavis Smiley Show will be the first groups to occupy the centre. Half of the cost has been raised form donations. The building formerly housed an Internet Company and was purchased from Welk Group Inc.
NPR president and CEO Kevin Klose said that the Centre would "deepen NPR's connection to the creativity, thought, diversity and trends that are hallmarks of the American West, bringing listeners a broader world of ideas, events and culture."
NPR Executive Vice President Ken Stern told the Los Angeles Times that said the expansion was key to the network's plan to overhaul its approach to arts, music and entertainment programming, announced last week (See RNW April 13) .
He noted that NPR currently has arts reporters stationed only on the East Coast and added, "American culture is by no means just New York and Washington. There are other voices out there."
"One of the things we want to accomplish here is to expand our arts coverage so it encompasses more of the country. And California is very much a thought leader."
The Times points out that it also houses around 13% of NPR's national audience, with nearly 3.2 million Californians listening to the network each week.
Previous Klose:
Previous NPR:
Previous Stern:
Los Angeles Times report;
NPR news release:
2002-04-18: Simon Cornes, currently Editor of Reuters Audio News, has been appointed Managing Editor of BBC Radio Derby and BBCi, Derby.
He takes over from Mike Bettison, who is now Managing Editor of BBC Radio Nottingham, on Monday, April 22.
Cornes worked for BBC Radio Gloucester as News Editor in 1988 and subsequently was Director of Journalism at the London College of Printing during which period he performed consultancy work for Manx Radio and Classic FM.
Previous BBC
2002-04-18: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has dismissed a petition from Eure Family Partnership to reconsider an USD 8, 000 fine imposed for failure to exhibit red obstruction lighting on its antenna structure in Mathews County, Virginia.
The fine had already been reduced from the base USD10, 000 amount after submissions by Eure.
Eure said that it used to monitor the tower via a dial-up device that was programmed to notify the engineer at WXEZ-FM, Yorktown, when it owned the station.
After it sold WXEZ in October 2000,. It leased space on the tower to Bullseye Broadcasting under an agreement that said Bullseye should monitor the tower lights and inform Eure of any failure. Bullseye had said that they did not know of the obligation and additionally that a dial-up device that was supposed to indicate failures had not been re-programmed after Eure sold WXEZ.
Eure repaired the fault and re-programmed the dial-up device following the complaint . The FCC said the original penalty had been reduced because of Eure's explanations and previous history of compliance with regulations but it insisted that as licensee Eure was responsible for ensuring compliance with the regulations..
The FCC has also partly relented on penalties imposed on Willis Broadcasting in relation to the operation of WGRM-FM, Greenwood, Mississippi. It had proposed a USD25, 000 penalty for failure to have operational Emergency Alert System (" EAS") equipment at WGRM- FM; failure to register WGRM- FM's antenna structure; and failure to make WGRM- FM's public inspection file available for inspection. Willis had originally not responded to the FCC notice of apparent liability but later explained that its president and chief executive officer was struck with a disabling illness that disrupted its normal functioning and led to its failure to respond .
It had also provided evidence that the tower was in fact registered but in the name of a Mr Clay V Ewing. The FCC therefore reduced the penalty by USD3,000 to USD 22, 000 but instructed Willis to update the antenna ownership records should Mr Ewing no longer own the structure.
Previous FCC:
FCC web site:
2002-04-18: