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June 2002 
August
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 July comment argues in favour of non-advertising funded public broadcasting..
RNW June comment considers when consolidation efficiencies cross the line into abuses of power.
RNW May comment looks at the future for Internet streaming.
2002-07-31: UK Capital Radio breakfast host Chris Tarrant may be going to quit the post that he has held for 15 years according to British newspaper reports.
The UK Guardian says Capital has admitted publicly that it is talking to him about new projects and adds that it has been an open secret for some time that he wants to leave the show.
The paper says that Andria Vidler, the managing director of the Capital FM network has said in an internal memo that the group is discussing other projects with Tarrant who has a GBP1 million a year contract and she told the paper," Chris is contracted until the end of 2003 and we are currently discussing a number of programme options with him. These discussions have not yet been concluded and no final decision has been reached"
The paper adds that analysts believe Tarrant is contracted to work the breakfast show until December this year and quoted one as saying his loss could cut the company's revenue by 3% with an even higher percentage effect on its profits.
Previous Capital:
Previous Tarrant:
Previous Vidler:
UK Guardian report:
2002-07-31: Westwood One has reported record revenue, operating cash flow, net income and free cash flow n the second quarter of the year with net revenues up 5% to USD 140.8 million from USD133.7 million for 2001 Q2; operating cash flow up 17% to USD52.6 million from USD45.1 million; free cash flow up 21% to USD 31.7 million (24 cents a share) from USD27.1 million (5 cents a share).
Net income was up to a record USD49.7 million from USD28 million, amounting to 26% on the basis that Westwood had adopted accounting standard SFAS 142 in January last year and 78% without taking this into account.
President and CEO Joel Hollander said he was " extremely pleased that Westwood One continues to deliver record operating results in a difficult advertising environment. We achieved these record results by sticking to the basics - focusing on developing new business and creating new and innovative programming while keeping a tight control over costs."
He added that Westwood believed "the best use for its available cash is to repurchase its Common Stock."
Jefferson-Pilot's communications division also had a strong second quarter although the company has a whole saw its net profits drop from USD134 million (87 cents a share) to USD134 million (83 cents a share). The communications division, which includes 17 radio stations, reported earnings up 21% to a record USD10.5 million whilst broadcast cash flow was up 9% to USD22.1 million.
In Canada, Toronto-based CHUM Ltd. reported third quarter revenues covering the quarter to the end of May, up 20% to CAD 131 million (around USD 83 million) but profits down 4% on last year at CAD7.37 million (around USD4.6 million), mainly due to increased operating expenses and interest charges.
Revenues were boosted by acquisitions, including the TEAM sport network and TV stations, without which they would have been up just over 10%.
Radio revenues were up 5.5% for the quarter at CAD 28.6 million (around USD18 million).
Back with the US radio business, Cumulus has now filed applications with the FCC to transfer ownership of its radio stations from its previous Illinois existence as Cumulus Media to newly created Cumulus Delaware Inc.
Cumulus will revert to its former name after the Delaware reincorporation has become effective.
Previous CHUM:
Previous Cumulus:
Previous Hollander:
Previous Westwood One:
CHUM web site (links to results -277 Kb PDF):
Westwood One web site (links to results):
2002-07-31: Britain's national classical music channel Classic FM, owned by GWR, has announced a wide-ranging number of changes that its news release indicate it is both to go for celebrity names to attract younger audiences and, at the other end of the scale, invade BBC Radio 3's territory with a daily Evening Concert programme of full musical works rather than excerpts.
It has also given her own show to 22-years old violinist Lisa Duncombe, who had written to the ten-tears-old station demanding more young voices on it.
She had written in the hope of gaining work experience but, following tests that showed her broadcasting potential, Classic's managing director Roger Lewis has now given her own show, Lisa Late and Live.
It will run for three hours on Fridays and Saturdays featuring recordings by young musicians.
Amongst the names to join the station are Independent Television News (ITN) newscaster Katie Derham, actor Stephen Fry, and ex-Virgin Radio and Heart FM presenter Mark Forrest. The last will become part of a Saturday morning host trio with Classic FM creative director, Tim Lihoreau, and newsreader Anne-Marie Minhall.
Derham will host a new afternoon show on Saturdays at 14:00 and Fry will present what the station terms an "authoritative but irreverent 20-part series tracing 1,000 years of classical music", The Incomplete And Utter History Of Classical Music, to be broadcast at the same time on Sundays.
Classic, which has been criticised for its policy of generally playing only short popular excerpts of classical works to the detriment of whole works, has build an audience of nearly seven million, more than three times that of BBC Radio 3, whose output is considered more demanding of attention but is now only a little more than 2 million a week.
RNW comment: Where, we wonder, will the adverts go during Classic FM's evening concert?
To us, the idea of breaking into many full-length pieces, even during intervals, with adverts for can be considered antithetical to the frame of the mind in which the music will be most appreciated. Classic FM does sterling work and we'd never find it really satisfactory to listen to a challenging full performance whilst driving whilst Classic often fits the bill.
In our view, licence fee funding gives BBC Radio 3 a freedom that should neither be underestimated nor undervalued to challenge an audience whilst commercial demands make this far harder for Classic FM.
Previous BBC:
Previous Classic FM/GWR:
Previous Lewis:
2002-07-31: New York headquartered independent recording company Artemis Records , which is not a member of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has announced that it is to waive royalty payments for any of its songs that are streamed on the Internet for a year from August 1.
The announcement was made by Chairman and CEO Danny Goldberg and President Daniel Glass. Goldberg commented that he and Glass hoped to stimulate Internet radio that they felt to be "an incredibly worthy marketing and promotional tool."
Companies wishing to use Artemis tracks have to sign an agreement, posted on the company's web site, that gives "the non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license during the Term to publicly perform and transmit the Masters on the Site without compensation to Artemis, provided that such performance and transmission are made solely as part of Company's non-interactive digital audio transmission of original programming produced for Internet transmission or as part of Company's non-interactive digital audio." The agreement also makes the streaming company liable for any costs or damages in connection with the agreement "EVEN IF ARTEMIS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF (OR KNOWS OR SHOULD KNOW OF) THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES (Artemis's capitalisation)".
Artemis also makes part of the agreement a requirement to provide information about use, saying in its contract, "Company shall maintain a comprehensive database of all public performances of the Masters transmitted hereunder and all ephemeral recordings of the Masters created hereunder. Such information, along with aggregate information regarding users of the Site, shall be provided to Artemis upon request (but in no event more than one time per week). The parties acknowledge that all such information is the joint property of the parties hereto."
RNW comment: Without being unduly cynical, the sceptical in us notes that Artemis retains all the power in this deal and can end it whenever it feels like it, that any problems end up being paid for by the webcaster and Artemis gets a one-way track to promotion plus a strong initial burst of publicity as well as being able to make a claim for the waived fees should it "reasonably believe" the webcaster to be in breach of the agreement.
Seems a fairly clear no-brainer for an independent label but maybe not so much of a benefit for webcasters overall and Goldberg, a former chairman and CEO of Mercury Records and Warner Brother Records and former President of Atlantic Records, has come up with a smart move with little downside.
We have refrained from adding to his upside by listing the artists it handles but will be interested to see if they suddenly get more publicity and sales.
Previous RIAA:
Artemis web site:
2002-07-31: Washington DC station owner Sima Birach, who has pulled the plug on Islamic programming on his former time-brokered WWTL-AM, changed its call sign from to WGOP-AM, and created a new talk station featuring conservative hosts and also Doug "The Greaseman" Tracht, is featured by the Washington Post in a report that suggests he's made the changes for the money but claimed his actions were determined by principle.
Tracht became infamous for his comments that led to his 1999 firing as morning man for classic rock station WARW-FM after making on-air comments including "No wonder people drag them behind trucks" relating to a Texas 'dragging death" case in which James Byrd Jr. was murdered when dragged behind a truck in Jasper.
Birach, an Orthodox Christian, agreed an affiliation agreement in June with Salem Radio Network to air such conservative hosts as
Dennis Prager and Michael Medved; He I also in the process of increasing the station's power from 5kW to 25kW, changing the city of licence from Walkersville, Maryland, to Poolesville, which is closer to Washington, and relocating the broadcasting tower to Damascus, Maryland.
The switch, as the Post headline puts it, "Trading One Type Of Excess For Another" followed months during which Birach defended as "free speech" the Moslem talk shows that often sometimes attacked Americans and Jews.
Now, it reports, Birach says he took offence all the time at "anti-Semitic" talk on the station, telling the paper, "They had contracts, so I had no choice but to stick with them… It drove me nuts. It seemed like I was pushing Islamic propaganda. I did bring it up with them many times, but they would keep trying to slip it in."
The Moslem broadcasters counter that Birach broke the contract, dropping their programmes without explanation, and quotes talk host Medhi Bray, blamed by Birch for the most incendiary comments, as saying "Sima went for the money. When he didn't have any money, he worked with the Muslims. We kept him afloat, advanced him money. Now he gets a better opportunity and he uses us as a whipping boy."
Mamdouh Rezeika, who runs the Islamic Broadcasting Network, said, "If this is about Mehdi Bray's style, why did Birach have him on the air for more than a year?… I respect and love this country. This is a big loss for our community. We need the radio to let our neighbours know us as we really are, not as criminals and terrorists."
Tracht, who spent years apologising for his comments, started his comeback by buying time for his show on AM stations like Birach's. He told the Post, "My show has never been about race. I told a joke, I apologized, and now it's time to move on. What more can I do? I'm a comedian. We're going to have a lot of fun like the old days."
Previous Salem:
Previous "Greaseman" Tracht:
Washington Post report:
2002-07-31: MeasureCast has announced new metrics that it describes as tailored for Internet radio broadcasters and that will, it says give more information than ever before including Average Concurrent Connections, Total Time Spent Streaming, Weekly Average Time Spent Streaming, Average Connection Length, and Total Connections.
The company now provides both the new reports and reports based on standard radio industry metrics, terms and definitions.
One change with the new system is one that will increase the recorded audience by ending of the five-minute rule under which anyone had to listen to a station for at lease five continuous minutes before being counted as a listener. Now, all streaming activity will be counted.
MeasureCast marketing Vice-President Bill Piwonka commented, "Traditional radio industry metrics were developed when precise measurement of actual listening behaviour was not possible, which produced metrics that gave only close approximations of audience size and listening time."
RNW comment: Only one question. When did a marketing man ever intentionally produce a new measure that showed a product to less advantage rather than more? If you've got an example, Please e-mail us. We'd love to give the honest individual some recognition. But check with them first lest it adversely affect a career.
Previous MeasureCast:
Previous MeasureCast Ratings:
2002-07-30: In an interview with the UK Guardian after being named as chairman of the planned new British media super regulator OFCOM (See RNW July 26), the economist Lord Currie of Marylebone has insisted that the fact that he had donated small sums to the ruling Labour Party will not impinge upon the independence of his judgement and suggested that he might already not be in full agreement with its plans to allow foreign operators to take over British broadcasters without reciprocal agreements.
"As a regulator my job is to achieve the statutory duties that are laid upon the regulator by parliament using the instruments that are available," he told the paper. "What I particularly think is not directly relevant. People who know me and have seen me in action know I'm not a party political person."
"When I advised Labour I was merely giving the best professional advice as a business economist. I gave exactly the same level of advice to two Conservative chancellors."
He said he was fully aware of the high profile the post would bring to him, adding that he was "doing it because I'm interested in regulation and creating a new organisation. The challenge of creating an organisation out of five different components that regulates effectively is a fascinating one."
On the question of the contentious plan to allow takeovers of British media companies by US operators when there was no reciprocity, a plan the British government insists it will push through despite opposition from a Parliamentary Committee set up to scrutinise the bill, he entered what might be termed a diplomatic caveat.
"The pure economist would say free trade is good whether or not you have reciprocity, he said, "but it is clearly not good for British-owned media if there is no reciprocity. A judgment has to be made on whether it is worth opening up to non-European media anyway."
Over the style to be followed by the new regulator he said, "In general I favour a light-handed style of regulation, with the proviso that where there is a major problem there could be a major intervention. We want to create the conditions in which dynamic, vibrant industries can develop. I'm a firm believer that if competition can work then that is the best thing."
He defended the plan to include content regulation in the new body's brief, saying, "Content regulation and economic regulation are different animals, but it is an advantage having them together in the same body because they are interrelated,"
Previous Currie:
Previous OFCOM:
UK Guardian report:
2002-07-30: Clear Channel has suspended San Jose shock jock "Mikey" Esparza for a week over jokes cracked about story of a seven-years-old Philadelphia girl who had escaped following her kidnap by chewing through duct tape.
After a news item had been read out on his show on KSJO-FM, Esparza cracked, "That's why I don't use duct tape. That's why I use nylon rope."
He then suggested, following a commercial break, that kidnappers buy tarps and use lye to dispose of murder victims.
Station general manager Joe Cunningham said Clear Channel was uncomfortable about the comments, adding, "We don't condone comments that make light of, or try to find humour in, something of that particular nature."
The station also broadcast a formal apology to listeners.
Previous Clear Channel:
San Francisco Chronicle report:
2002-07-30: Some signs of hopes for webcasters have come in a proposals from an "Internet Fairness" bill, introduced by Washington Democrat Jay Inslee with support from nine colleagues, that would drastically overhaul the webcast royalty ruling made by the US Librarian of Congress.
First payments, including back payments, are due under this in October and could well force out of business many more webcasters.
At the core of the proposal is an overhaul of the arbitration process used to set royalties combined with an interim position under which Internet radio stations that qualify as a small business under US Federal Government definitions would be exempted from the 0.07 cents per song per listener charge.
Inslee's news release says the bill was introduced because of disappointment over "recent imposition of high fees on web radio broadcasters and the resultant shutdown of many web radio broadcasts" and is "designed to make the copyright royalty arbitration process more fair for smaller entities, and will go before the House of Representatives' Judiciary and Small Business Committees..."
Another sponsor of the bill, Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher commented, "…both the CARP (Copyright Arbitration Panel) and the Librarian of Congress were working under a flawed law that has produced a royalty rate which harms not only the hundreds of webcasters that have already shut down operations, but also Internet users seeking innovative music programming and artists seeking alternative avenues through which to promote their music..."
The proposals, as well as giving temporary relief to small webcasters, call for future rates to be set on the basis of the 1976 Copyright Act traditional standards, not the willing buyer and seller one used in setting the current rate; for exemption of small business from requirements to pay to participate in future Copyright proceedings (RNW note- this requirement effectively disbarred small stations from putting their voice forward before the current rates were set and these were effectively based on just the Yahoo-RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) agreement that has subsequently been said by Mark Cuban, founder of Broadcast.com - taken over by Yahoo - to have set a high rate with the intention of driving small webcasters out of business - See RNW June 27), for future fees to comply with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, thus requiring specific consideration of the impact of decisions on small businesses; and for the elimination of "ephemeral" recording charges.
The RIAA is trying to avoid Congressional action, saying Congress should allow a compromise to be worked out by the parties on their own and suggesting that the recording industry has become a convenient scapegoat for businesses that were already losing money.
RNW comment: Another dissembling, mealy-mouthed comment as we see it: If the recording companies wanted to do so, they could already have come up with a generous proposal specifically designed to ease the problems of small webcasters.
Indeed, it might have been sensible to do so to avoid political intervention but we suspect they are feeling confident in their lobbying power.
The webcasting move followed another bill, sponsored by California Democrat Howard Berman and North Carolina Republican Howard Coble, chairman of the House subcommittee on intellectual property, that would allow groups such as the RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) immunity from actions they might take to disable, block or degrade a "'publicly accessible peer-to-peer file-trading network" if the copyright holder had a reasonable basis for thinking piracy was taking place.
The proposals does not specify what methods could be used to interfere with such networks and would not allow deletion of files but would limit the rights of anyone to sue if a file were accidentally erased.
RNW comment: Yet again another double-edged sword that, reasonable as it seems on the surface, does not in our view take enough account of the likelihood of large companies to push things to the limits when they see it as in their interest.
We would see this measure as much sounder with another clause that, where a jury can be convinced of a gross violation, damages capped at say USD 10 million but starting at something like 100, 000 times the cost to an individual or small business of costs shown to have been caused by the deletion would automatically be levied against the MPAA and RIAA, with not more than a hundred times the cost going to aforesaid individual or small business and the remained into a legal fund that other individuals could access where they think they have been unfairly treated by the MPAA and RIAA.
To be fair to the MPAA and RIAA, another clause should remove from the fund and return to them a hundred times up to USD 2 million the cost of fighting any case thus brought that fails.
The caps and destinations of the sums in each case, should mitigate individual greed and frivolous suits.
Previous RIAA:
2002-07-30: Seattle-headquartered Fisher Communications has announced a net loss for the second quarter of USD785, 000 before taking into account gains from of USD4.32 million from a sale and an interest-swap agreement; including the gains it had net income of USD3.5 million (41 cents a share) compared to a net loss of USD520, 000 (6 cents a share) in Q2, 2001.
Broadcasting division revenues were down 8% from US38 million to USD35 million; TV revenues were down 11% whilst radio revenues were flat.
Broadcasting operations income was down 34% to $3,958,000, compared with $5,220,000 last year.
Previous Fisher:
Fisher web site:
2002-07-29: History and politics each feature today in our look at print comment and cover of radio over the past week: The history first, as much for the content of some of it as for the fact it was on radio -but then much of it can't be as well done on TV because the technology of the times involved didn't include video and it's much easier to create a feeling of the past on radio than on a visual medium.
First, part of Sue Arnold's weekly radio review in the UK Observer, in which she reviews approvingly three BBC Radio 4 series that are well worth a listen however you can get them, on the web or off the airwaves or even via BBC's commercial arm if they all get issued as CDs or tapes.
Arnold starts, "Ask me what I remember most vividly about This Sceptred Isle, Radio 4 's award-winning history series, and it would probably be one of the lists - an Elizabethan breakfast menu before a day 's hunting; a list of armaments found in the wardroom of an eighteenth-century manor; a school clothes list for a Victorian public schoolboy."
"Kings and queens are all very well but it 's the bricks and mortar of history, the stuffing, not the cushion covers, that truly fascinate. What is the Domesday Book after all but a series of inventories down to the last pigsty, hedgerow and beehive?"
She then goes on to praise Melvyn Bragg's new series Voices of the Powerless, saying that the presenter "using the same techniques as he did so effectively in his last acclaimed series, The Routes of English, looks at the lives of ordinary people at certain critical moments of history, starting with the Norman Conquest and specifically William I 's merciless harrying of the North."
And for those who might think Saddam Hussein is uniquely nasty (and who have forgotten Richard Plantagenet and many other monarchs in history), a quick note of how William the Conqueror harried the north of England: "…William ordered all the peasants' crops and cattle to be collected up and burned so that around 100,000 men, women and children died of starvation and exposure. He built a castle, a tower and a cathedral in York, clearing the city of its inhabitants more ruthlessly than the French government making way for a new TGV track."
On to a different form of history, this time courtesy of Gerry McCarthy in his weekly column on Irish radio in the UK Sunday Times.
He looks at presenter Brenda Donohue's series Going Home on Irish state broadcaster RTÉ's Radio One, a series with nostalgia at its centre.
Its producer said, "Nostalgia for the past is something we all share, particularly for our youth and childhood. Going Home hopes to stimulate that", a statement that led McCarthy to comment "This vapid attempt to locate the programme's selling point summarises everything that is wrong with Going Home - or almost everything - because it takes little account of Donohue's weakness as a channel for nostalgia."
A programme with singer Brian Kennedy, whilst generally panned, got one positive comment, that a segment on his weekly confession " shone a brief light on one of the least spoken of divisions in Ireland: the difference between northern Catholic culture and that south of the border."
"The one in the republic began to turn secular much earlier. Even by the 1970s, hip young teens were too cool for confession. North of the border, identity is a different matter, and skipping a sacrament can seem like abandoning your tribe."
"Such illuminating glimpses were, however, " writes McCarthy, "rare. For the most part Going Home encouraged its guest to wallow in the minutiae of his early life…. Listeners want to hear of youthful indiscretions from minor celebrities - something confirmed by Donohue when she wheedled a story about teenage vodka drinking out of Kennedy. This is not nostalgia: it is tabloid radio that confuses titillation with cultural memory."
That comment on Catholicism is as good a link as any to comment in the Toronto Star by Linda McQuaig headed "Tame media kept gloves on" that slams the media cover of the Papal trip to Canada.
She began, "'HOW CAN one keep one's faith in a secular world?' asked the host of a CBC radio show. But as the papal coverage built to a deafening crescendo over the past week, until it was difficult to distinguish some of our main media outlets from the Vatican press office, I started to ponder a different question: "'How can one keep any sort of secular perspective in a world awash in faith?'"
"In fact, I suspect the world isn't as awash in faith as it may have seemed. Listening to people on the street, one got a more grounded view of the situation. But the mainstream media would have none of that, as the coverage soared with the flourish of full organ pipes."
"By midweek, those attending World Youth Day weren't just participants, they had been transformed into "pilgrims." Huh? Is that the CBC I just turned on or Radio Free Vatican? "
"The visit of a leader of one of the world's biggest religions is certainly a news story deserving coverage. But isn't the job of the media to cover an event, not to celebrate it?"
Most of the rest of the article attacks the Catholic Church from a feminist point of view, particularly as regards its attitudes to sex abuse and abortion, but the point regarding cover of such an event seemed worthy of note to us as did another strong opinion on the media, this time relating to US deregulation.
Writing in the Chicago Tribune on "Untangling the dereg mess", syndicated columnist Molly Ivins comes down hard on US politicians who allowed deregulation to happen and also on the media regarding cover of it.
"OK," she writes, " it's now hundreds of thousands of words past the WorldCom bankruptcy, with the media might of this great nation devoted to explaining it all to you, and there are still six words I cannot find anywhere--the Telecommunications Deregulation Act of 1996. Don't you think that's carrying our famously ahistorical journalism a little too far?"
" When the cause of a disaster is a mere six years back in time, surely even American journalists can dredge up a twinge or two of memory. For those of you not afflicted by Alzheimer's in recent years, Bob McChesney, the media critic and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, sums it up nicely: "'The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was one of the most important of the last 50 years. It was also the most corrupt and undemocratic bill of the time: It was of, by and for special interests. Most of the congresspeople who voted for it didn't even know what they were voting on.'"
"He understates. The bill was actually written by industry lobbyists, each of the several components of telecom snarling at one another like wolves over a piece of meat as they ripped up 70 years worth of regulatory experience. The wolves united once the bill hit the floor to push it through. We few, we happy few, who raised hell about it at the time had it condescendingly explained to us that the magic of the marketplace would take care of all our doubts."
"…Here's the result in terms of the great variety, the let-100-flowers-bloom they promised would accompany this flowering of competition: Clear Channel moves into a city and rents, say, a floor of a building, which is mostly a sales office but also has eight little closets for eight radio stations. The Play List is shipped in from headquarters and is the same all over the country, for Top 40 or Easy Listening or country--we have less and less sense of our localities, of our regional music, fewer opportunities for new talent. Actually, they've ruined radio."
Ivins goes on to comment in terms of other telecommunications areas, writing of the phone companies, "Prices are up, service is worse, and the '96 act opened the door for precisely the sleazy, rotten behaviour we have witnessed with Global Crossing and WorldCom. Not just opened the door, but invited it in and laid down the red carpet for it."
"Now connect the dag-nabbit, bobberty-doggin' dots here. This is not a business scandal. WorldCom is not just a corporate failure. This is about government. The government of this country has been bought by campaign contributions from corporate special interests. This is about the nexus between big corporations and government, the American keiretsu, the Establishment."
She concludes, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Because if we don't, it's going to get worse."
" The FCC is now chaired by the anti-regulation Michael Powell, who is determined to do for newspapers and television what has already been done to radio and cable."
Across the city in the Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Robert Feder was also having a go about media and the politicians, this time from the perspective of talent and the politicians, not the companies.
His column, "Should politicians help journalists fight battles?" was pegged to a meeting with NBC executives concerning union representation following the acquisition of Telemundo by NBC parent company General Electric and he makes the point that the journalists involved may feel beholden to the politician involved when they next cover a story about him.
"These are more than just hypothetical questions or topics for a slow day in journalism class," writes Feder. "They're real concerns that affect the quality of news you see, hear and read in the media. "
He then goes on to comment about the recent intervention by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson on behalf of Felicia Middlebrooks after she had been dropped by Infinity Radio's WBBM-AM following a walk out over a massive pay claim (See RNW March 17).
Pressed about precisely the issue of cover, he says Infinity bosses "acknowledged the obvious conflict and promised that Middlebrooks would not be allowed to deliver news stories involving Jackson."
So what happened. Writes Feder. "…'Newsradio 780' reported on Jackson's announcement naming the Rev. James T. Meeks as his eventual successor as head of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Who read the story? You guessed it: Felicia Middlebrooks."
RNW comment: We may think it impracticable that media stars, owners, or politicians , must be like Caesar's wife "above suspicion (That history again, this time courtesy of Plutarch, and an example of where text records have an advantage over audio), but we cannot but think that a democracy would be better served by an informed populace and for that, you need an informing media. Would anyone sensible, for example, ever have staked his or her fortune on information from any News Corporation source that involved News Corporation business without checking wider. Indeed one might ask why the US mainstream media, which has know for many years about the financial backgrounds of George Bush and Dick Cheney, didn't give it more prominence before things went wrong?
Venality? Self-interest? A bit of both, maybe, but at least the US system is openly political in areas where others just bury the politics.
Finally, a different note on which to end: This comes from the UK Sunday Times again and Paul Donovan whose column dealt with the split between national and local radio in the UK.
After noting that most nationally known radio stars in the UK are on national stations, he pegs an article on the strengths of local stations on a BBC series, " A Sense of Place", which will air every weekday at 22:30 GMT. from August 5 for nine weeks and will be preceded by a curtain raiser in the Radio 4 Archive hour on Saturday ( Aug 3) at 20:00 GMT.
"The content of the 45 programmes," writes Donovan, "varies enormously, from the Sikhs who sing of Ilkley Moor to the impact on Cumbria of its sheep, of which (despite the effects of foot-and-mouth disease) there are still six for every person. But what they all make you realise is just how much local radio, and BBC local radio in particular, has cemented communities by reinforcing their sense of pride and local commitment - through journalism and providing vital information, through sports coverage, through religious programmes, and so on. A Sense of Place is a sense of worth. "
"But local radio is popular as well as worthy. Although Radio 2 is now the most listened-to station in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Leicester, in other areas it is the local station that is the most popular."
"For example, the most listened-to station in London is Capital FM (followed not by Radio 2 but by Radio 4, reflecting the concentration of chattering classes down here)."
"In Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham, Glasgow and Swansea it is, once again, local commercial stations - Metro, City, Trent, Clyde and The Wave - that are the most popular."
Donovan then concludes by linking the performance of local stations to the draft Communications Bill under consideration in the UK. "One good thing about the draft broadcasting bill now being scrutinised at Westminster," he writes, "is that it enshrines the duty of broadcasters to emphasise local content and character, and all who value that protection should watch out that those clauses do not get diluted in its passage through parliament."
Previous Arnold:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous Feder:
Previous McCarthy:
Chicago Sun-Times - Feder:
Chicago Tribune -Ivins:
Toronto Star - McQuaig:
UK Observer - Arnold:
UK Sunday Times -Donovan:
UK Sunday Times - McCarthy:
2002-07-29: According to the UK Independent, the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Bill, a committee of peers and Members of Parliament set up to scrutinise the British Government's Communisations Bill is to reject plans to ease regulation by allowing foreign companies to take over British broadcasters even when their own countries, as in the US, do not allow such foreign ownership. I
The paper says the committee is also opposed to allowing large newspaper groups to take terrestrial broadcasters, a move that would affect any attempt by Rupert Murdoch's News International over Channel 5 TV. The government intended to go ahead with the deregulation before the new media regulator OFCOM was established but according to the paper the committee is likely to recommend that changes be delayed until OFCOM is fully operational.
A follow-up in the UK Observer, which has also seen the report, says that in opposing the change to allow takeovers, the committee argues that Britain has not been able to get a reciprocal agreement with America that British companies should be allowed to take over US TV stations and says that government arguments "lack force."
The paper says, however, that British Prime Minister Tony Blair would personally sanction overturning the committee's findings to push the changes through and in an indication of the likely spin to be put on his action quotes a senior source as saying "The committee seems to be trying to conceal its anti-American prejudice by way of weak argument."
RNW Comment: In view of the importance of broadcasting to a country's politics and culture, we tend to agree with the US stance on not allowing foreign control of broadcasters, although with suitable strong regulatory powers, which in our view should include rescinding of licences if need be, we could see a reasonably strong argument the other way.
We cannot, however, see it as other than craven or foolish to allow any such measure without reciprocity and suitable safeguards.
UK Independent report:
UK Observer report:
2002-07-29: Amid all the coverage about the Eddie and Jobi USD 21million deal with WBBM-FM in Chicago, one name conspicuous through its absence was that of former WBBM news anchor Karen Hand, a 20-year veteran at the station.
Her contract was not renewed (See RNW June 15) and, as Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times noted, she has been off the air since June 12. Hand is the special guest on Mancow's Morning Madness today..
(RNW note: We wonder whether either Eddie or Jobi gave a thought to Hand during their negotiations.)
Another Chicago station involved in hirings and firings, WUSN-FM has named Lisa Dent, former KIKK-FM, Houston morning host, as its new midday host. Bill Garcia moves from midday to evenings, taking over from Amy Davis who has been ousted.
At talk format WLS-AM, the news is the loss of its director of operations and programming Mike Elder who has resigned after six years in the post become program director of Boston talk station WRKO-AM.
Disney-ABC owned WLS was second overall and first place in afternoons in the Chicago Spring Arbitron ratings this year.
Previous Elder:
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Chicago Tribune - Feder columns:
2002-07-28: Last week was fairly routine for the regulators with a steady level of activity in most areas.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has again been focussed on community licences.
It has invited applications for new licences to serve the Port Pirie and Yorke Peninsula areas of South Australia and has allocated the new community licence for Ballina in New South Wales to Paradise FM Community Radio Association Inc to serve the general community. Paradise currently operates on the same frequency under a temporary licence.
The ABA has also extended by six months the deadline for 5SSA Adelaide to change the frequency of its Adelaide Foothills translator service. 5SSA now has to introduce the change by the end of March next year.
The Authority commented that it was able to allow the delay, which is linked to changes that will allow a new commercial licence for Adelaide, because it is not proposing to auction the new commercial licence until after September 2003
On the commercial licence front, the ABA has also announced that it is to auction two new commercial licence, for the Gold Coast and Nambour in Queensland on August 26.
It says it has received 11 applications for the Nambour licence, which has a reserve price of AUD 250, 000 (around USD134, 000) and eight for the Gold Coast, which has a reserve price of AUD 100, 000 (around USD54, 000).
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has given the go-ahead to a number of corporate reorganisations and a takeover.
In Ontario it has approved the takeover by John Sheratt, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, to acquire the assets of CJOJ-FM and CHCQ-FM Belleville.
The seller Anthony Zwigg owns Belleville Radio Limited and CHCQ Limited which in turn own CJOJ-FM, which has been operating for many years and CHCQ-FM, for which a country music format licence was awarded in 2000.
Sheratt helped with the establishment of the latter and operation of the former before deciding to make an offer for both stations, CAD $1.46 million for CJOJ-FM, and CAD 540, 000 for CHCQ-FM (a total of just under CAD 2 million- USD1.26 million).
The purchaser said that CJOJ-FM had been unprofitable over the past three years and that CHCQ-FM had not yet achieved profitability.
The re-organisations involved affect Rock 95 Broadcasting (Barrie - Orillia) Ltd., licensee of the radio programming undertakings CFJB-FM and CKMB-FM Barrie, Ontario, but does not change control of the station and Rawlco Capital Ltd., Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina, Saskatchewan, which wants to effect an intra-corporate reorganization within the Rawlco Group of corporations.
Ireland was quiet for radio but in the UK the Radio Authority has invited applications for the Additional Services licence that utilises the Radio Data System (RDS) sub-carrier of the INR1 licence currently held by GWR's Classic FM and covering 85% of the UK population.
The services use spare capacity in a channel and will be awarded to an applicant who makes the highest cash bid of those who submits applications meeting regulatory requirements.
The Authority has also announced that only existing licence holder , Alpha Radio Ltd., had submitted by its deadline an application for the Darlington area local licence to run from November 2003. Alpha will now be invited to apply for renewal under the Authority's "fast track" procedure.
The Authority has also published its Programming and Advertising Review for the second quarter of the year, during which it issued one yellow card warning to Thames Radio concerning achievement of the minimum level of speech defined in the station's format. It considered a total of 101 complaints in the quarter, 52 concerning programming and 49 advertising (See report below).
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a step closer towards its full complement of Commissioners with a Senate Commerce Committee passing Jonathan Adelstein's nomination on to the full Senate for approval (See RNW July 25).
The FCC has also trimmed back from USD20, 000 to USD 500 a fine proposed on C. W. H. Broadcasting, Inc. , the licensee of WHNY-AM, McComb, Mississippi.
The penalty related to a number of tower violations including failing to light and register three towers and to properly enclose one.
The fine had already been cut back to USD3, 500 in March this year on the grounds of the company's inability to pay because of the state of its finances, the death of its General Manager, and misplaced reliance on its engineer and staff.
The company appealed again and this time the FCC cut the penalty right back to USD500 on the basis of the station's efforts to make other repairs unrelated to the violations and because of further information, "some personal in nature" that had been provided to the Commission.
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2002-07-28: In its latest Programming and Advertising Review, published along with its quarterly Complaints Bulletin to the end of June, the UK Radio Authority headlines the issue of local news against a background of consultations regarding the idea of local "news hubs" that would allow a group of stations to centralise production of bulletins (See RNW June 21).
It summarises the arguments and its Director of Programming and Advertising, Martin Campbell, looks at the significance of the questions raised by the consultation, noting the requirement for British stations to broadcast a minimum level of news in line with their proposals in their licence application.
"Everyone is agreed that localness should be at the very heart of pretty nearly every local commercial station," he writes but then adds later that, "Many argue that when researchers ask listeners about local news they will always say they want it - whether or not they actually listen to it."
"They say it's part of the 'halo' effect, when people tell researchers what they think they should say, and not what they actually want to say."
"Then again, radio is a passionate medium, and passions are never higher than when something is taken away from a schedule, or under threat of eviction. By the same token, good local news is just as difficult to identify when it is absent as when it is present."
In the Review, the Authority also notes that in the first six months of the year it dealt with a total of 301 complaints, in relation to which it upheld 15 programming-related complaints and 31 that were advertising related.
In the second quarter, the Authority received 52 programming complaints, upholding seven- fewer than half the total upheld in the same period of 2001, and 49 advertising complaints, upholding 12.
Details in the Complaints Bulletin show a breakdown (Q2, 2001 figures in brackets) of Programming complaints as follows:
* Accuracy - One (Seven) of which none (four) were upheld; *Balance/Bias and Fairness - six (10), of which none (three) were upheld;
* Taste and decency - 22 (25) of which five (six) were upheld; *Promise of performance or format - three (One) of which One (none) were upheld and
* Other 20 (eight) of which 1 (four) were upheld. These total 52 complaints (51) of which seven (17) were upheld.
The Advertising complaints breakdown (again with 2001 figures in brackets) was:
* Harmful - Eight (One), of which one (none) was upheld;
* Misleading 19 (12) of which four (One) were upheld;
* Offensive 20 (28) of which seven (One) were upheld and
* Other - Two (Two), of which None (None) were upheld. These total 49 complaints (45) of which 12 (Two) were upheld.
The Promise of performance complaint, concerning which a yellow card was issued to Thames Radio, Kingston of Thames, concerned the level of news output of the station.
Its format described the station as providing "full service of music, news, community issues and information for 25-54 year olds" and also said that news and information "must feature strongly" as well as providing minima.
The Authority said, "From our detailed monitoring we concluded that there was an absence of speech items and local news, and that the music output did not comply with the station's Format."
Of the six Balance and Fairness complaints, two involved complaints of anti-Islam stance or comments and another of a pro-Israel bias but none were upheld.
The Taste and Decency complaints upheld involved:
*Magic-FM, Manchester - a complaint that a presenter told a caller to "bugger off" and also used the word "bloody" frequently. The station said the comment had been made in a jovial manner but the Authority, whilst agreeing, said the station should steer away from these words or phrases in future.
*Heart FM - London. A listener complained that remarks made by a presenter following the airing of a Britney Spears record "condoned "the sexual abuse of young girls by their fathers".
The Authority says, "We heard the Britney Spears record end with the lyrics "hit me baby one more time", which were followed by the presenter's remarks. He said, "just the once more...is it good for you Britney?...Yeah, I know - I could be her father - I tell you if she was my daughter I'd still be bathing her". It was told the station, which referred to the link as a "momentary lapse of judgment" had severely reprimanded the presenter and taken him off air for three days.
*TalkSport - a complaint that a presenter's remarks were an attempt to incite racial hatred for political gain. The presenter was a political figure and, although the Authority did not uphold the racial hatred complaint, it held that not enough care had been taken concerning rules when elections were pending.
*TalkSport - a complaint that a caller had been allowed to make offensive comments about the Royal Family on the day of the Queen Mother's death. The caller had initially spoken of praising the Royal Family but after he was put on air "changed tack, declaring that he was really a republican and that he thought, "they should shoot the fucking lot of them. How's that for your national radio? Fuck you, pal". The delay mechanism was not used and the comments were therefore broadcast."
*Isle of Wight Radio - a complaint of salacious comments and speculation that a caller's husband was having an affair after the caller had asked for tips on removing lipstick from clothing. The station responded that the call had been a set-up and the caller was a relative of one of the presenters. The Authority held that listeners could have been left "feeling concerned for her, and offended by the way in which the presenters had handled a delicate issue."
*Virgin FM, London - a complaint over the playing of the Sex Pistols' 'God Save The Queen' after a news
bulletin that had reported the Queen's intention to deliver an eulogy about her late mother. The complainant thought "this was ill-timed and insensitive" and the Authority agreed.
The "Other" complaint that was "partially upheld " involved Island FM in Guernsey and complaints by Channel TV that comments made by the station about its coverage of a Royal visit to he island implied that it had been inaccurate and were "derisive and untrue."
It lodged a complaint but said there had not been a response.
The Authority commented that "the matter could, and should, have been dealt with at 0840 on the morning of the broadcast, perhaps by putting the CTV spokeswoman to air to correct what had been said and to defend CTV's position" and agreed that Island FM had not dealt thoroughly with the complaint.
Advertising complaints upheld included complaints about:
Harmful:
* A National Drugs Helpline advert that was said to have portrayed drug taking too graphically at times when children were likely to be listening.
Misleading:
*An advertiser that said it was the "number one nursing agency in Wales", when this claim could not be substantiated.
*An "only on ITV" advert for cover of Formula One Grand Prix racing that was inaccurate on the particular occasion.
*An NSPCC (National Society for the Protection of Children" advert that began as nursery rhymes but turned into descriptions of parents hitting children and which the complainant said was causing more harm than good" to young children who would not understand the advert's meaning.
Offensive:
*A government advertisement about the consequences of driving when tired that the complainant felt was not appropriate at times when young children might be listening.
*An advert for "de-activated" weapons that the complainant said was inappropriate in a climate of street crime. This advert breached the relevant code.
*An advert in which someone said to a psychiatrist that he was "a vegetarian who is addicted to Walls bacon." There were three complaints about the advertisement and the Authority held that the idea that the bacon was so tasty as to tempt a vegetarian would have been acceptable in a programming sketch but not when its purpose was to sell meat.
The Authority also upheld two complaints against satellite station Asian Gold Radio, one concerning a presenter's description of singer Talet Mahmood as a "donkey" that was upheld as a Taste/Decency complaint and another that alleged hat the Punjabi news out put station of both Asian Gold Radio and another satellite station, Sukh Sagar Radio, was sponsored in breach of codes.
Previous Campbell:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
Previous UK Radio Authority Review and Complaints Bulletin:
UK Radio Authority web site (links to Review - 150 Kb PDF and Bulletin 675 KB PDF)
2002-07-27: BBC Radio 2 Controller Jim Moir has signed a new contract to run the channel and the digital service 6 Music until December 2003, ending months of speculation as to whether he would leave when his current contract expires at the end of this year.
Commenting on the appointment, Moir said, "I'm very pleased to have been invited to remain as Controller Radio 2 for another year.."
He then went on to confirm that Jeremy Vine, currently a BBC TV Newsnight programme presenter, had signed a contract to present a new midday show for Radio 2 starting in January.
The Vine show will replace (Sir) Jimmy Young's show and Vine commented, "I am absolutely thrilled to bits - there can't be a better job for a journalist anywhere on radio."
"Stepping into Sir Jimmy Young's shoes is a frightening thing to do, but I've got a great production team and together we'll do our best to meet the high standards of the Radio 2 audience."
Jenny Abramsky, Director of BBC Radio and Music, said she was "delighted" that Moir is to stay on at Radio 2, adding, "2003 will be an important year for us. I'm pleased to be able to have Jim at the helm and Jeremy Vine fronting such a key strand."
Moir, who reached the normal BBC retirement age in November last year, has been with the Corporation since 1963, when he joined as a production trainee.
He took over his current post in January 1996 and under his direction Radio 2 has become the most listened to channel in Britain and won three Sony "Station of the Year" awards.
Vine began his BBC career as a news trainee in 1987 following a traineeship with the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
He has worked as a reporter on BBC Radio 4's breakfast show, The Today Programme, and has also bee a presenter on that show, Radio 4's 1700 PM show as well as standing in for Young on Radio 2 and fronting programmes on BBC Radio 5 Live. He took on his current Newsnight role in 1999.
Previous Abramsky:
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BBC announcement:
2002-07-27: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has named TV journalist and CBC veteran Anna Maria Tremonti as host of a new 90-minute weekday morning show to run from November 18 between 0830a.m. and 10a.m. as part of its re-vamp of its Radio One channel under which the "This Morning" show is being dropped.
The show, as yet without a title, is due to start in November and will be followed on air daily by a two-hour national "Canadian lifestyles" show hosted by Shelagh Rogers that will air from October 14. New morning shows will air from the beginning of September (See RNW June 6)
Adrian Mills, executive director of programming for CBC Radio One said that he termed the introduction of the shows "phased in" and referred to the new output as a "a three-pronged delight" for the audience. He said the Tremonti show was designed to challenge "conventional wisdom and be a little more provocative and surprising."
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2002-07-27: According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Macquarie Broadcasting Network has asked for police advice about complaints made by 2GB presenters that are alleged by Moslems to be racist and derogatory.
The paper cites chief executive, George Buschman, as saying a sponsor had passed on an emails from a complaining Moslem to the network, and it would seek police advice.
"We are accused of not dealing with these complaints but we are actually active in dealing with them," he told the paper. "[Muslim critics] are asserting or attributing the remarks to Jim Ball [an early morning presenter on 2GB]. We assert they are not correct."
The paper says the e-mails variously accuse Ball of referring to Moslems as "sewerage of humanity", accuse presenters including top-rated morning host Alan Jones of making derogatory remarks about Australian Moslems and others, such as Phil Clark, of allowing such comments from callers on air.
The most complained about incident, says the paper, was a Jim Ball show on July 17 in which Ball commented on the Moslem women's veil as "rubbish - I am putting it right on the line - we are dealing with a bit of laundry ... If a religion, any religion, bases itself on bloody laundry, it has a major problem."
He also said some Moslems were "the raw sewerage of humanity, and I don't apologise because they are".
Moslem leaders in Sydney, says the paper, have been circulating a list of 2GB sponsors for people to contact.
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Sydney Morning Herald report:
2002-07-27: Jacques Tortoroli has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of Infinity Broadcasting and Westwood One, a post in which he will report to John Sykes, Chairman and CEO of Infinity Broadcasting and Joel Hollander, President and CEO of Westwood One.
Tortoroli, who was most recently CFO of the e-Services consultancy Scient, Inc., has also worked for advertising agency Young & Rubicam, Inc. and for PepsiCo, Inc.
The Westwood One CFO post became vacant in February when Farid Suleman has left that post and his post as President and CEO of Infinity Broadcasting Corporation to become a special limited partner at Forstmann Little & Co., the buyout firm that owns Citadel Communications (See RNW Feb 22).
Sykes moved into his Infinity posts in March from Viacom's VH1 cable music TV network (See RNW Mar 18)
Previous Forstamann Little (Citadel owner):
Previous Hollander:
Previous Sykes:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
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2002-07-27: Arbitron is to expand its Portable People Meter (PPM) market trial following comments from its Radio Advisory Council and through the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB).
It says it will set up a new, separate, pane, of around 1, 000 consumers in the Philadelphia Radio Metro Survey Area and agrees in principle with industry requests for a second PPM trial in one of the top 25 Hispanic Markets in the US.
The new Philadelphia panel would allow comparisons with data being produced by an existing Philadelphia panel that have raised some concerns about anomalies between diary and PPM results (See RNW June 18).
Arbitron Spring data shows the differences between diary and PPM results as less than 5% but industry leaders would like a study of the economic impact of a switch to PPM from diary.
Arbitron president and chief executive officer Steve Morris commented, "Through our Radio Advisory Council and through the Radio Advertising Bureau, our customers have asked for expanded market trials to give the industry the information it needs to embrace the Portable People Meter as an improved means of measuring radio audiences."
"Arbitron welcomes the involvement of our radio customers in the PPM development process. We are confident that any expansion of the trial would further demonstrate the validity of PPM, paving the way for industry-wide acceptance of our new audience measurement system. With that ultimate goal in mind, we intend to deploy this expansion of the trial while maintaining our overall financial plan for 2002."
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2002-07-26: Viacom, which owns Infinity Radio and controls Westwood One, has reported a sharp increase in its net earnings for the second quarter of the year, aided by adjustments because of changes in accounting standards.
Its overall revenues for the quarter were USD5.85 billion compared to USD5.71 billion in the same quarter of last year but net revenues were USD547 million (31 cents a share) compared to USD17 million (1 cent a share) in Q2 last year.
Without the adoption of accounting standard SFAS 142 in 2001, the second quarter earnings a year ago would have been USD524 million (29 cents a share).
Most of the improvement came from its cable, television and video businesses; radio revenues were virtually flat with Infinity figures going only slightly up, from USD985.2 million to USD985.4 million.
infinity EBITDA was 6% down , from USD 436 million to USD409 million, but its operating income was sharply up, from USD122 million to USD350 million.
Chairman and CEO Sumner M. Redstone said, "Viacom turned in an outstanding performance in the second quarter of 2002, particularly in light of the continuing challenges of a slow recovery in the overall economic environment... by every operational measure revenues, operating income, net earnings and EBITDA, Viacom delivered record second quarter results and is on track to achieve our full-year targets."
Viacom president and chief operating officer Mel Karmazin said the results showed the "unique value of our mix of businesses and the strength of our position in those businesses," adding, "Significant ratings momentum and programming successes at CBS, UPN, MTV, Nickelodeon, TNN and BET, as well as at our radio and television operations are also contributing to Viacom's performance."
"Radio reported higher revenues in the second quarter, its first year-over-year revenue growth since the fourth quarter of 2000. In the current quarter, radio pacings are up high single-digits, our television stations are pacing up double-digits versus the same prior-year quarter, and Outdoor pacings continue to show improvement."
Viacom shares ended the day a little more than 2% up at USD 35.15.
Also reporting in the US was Cumulus, which posted a second quarter profit of USD10 million (9 cents per share) compared to a loss of USD12 million(47 cents a share) in Q2, 2001.
Net revenues, aided by acquisitions, were up nearly 27% for the quarter to just under USD70 million from USD55 million and EBITDA was up nearly 75% from USD14.7 million to USD 25.5 million. Same station net revenues were up 4.4% from USD54.5 million to USD56.9 million.
Lew Dickey, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Cumulus is pleased to report strong revenue performance in Q2 2002 along with the Company's achievement of its seventh consecutive quarter of EBITDA growth and BCF margin improvement."
Cumulus said it expects pro forma net revenues in the third quarter to be up between 5% and 5% and
earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization to increase between 13 percent and 15 percent, both compared to Q3, 2001.
Cumulus shares ended the day nearly 8.5% up at UD 11.15.
North of the border, Montreal-based Astral Media has reported a 74% rise in its third quarter profits to the end of May from CAD 8 million (CAD 0:17 a share) to CAD 14.1 million (just under USD9 million)(CAD 0.28 a share) , fuelled by its TV and billboard businesses.
Total revenues, adjusted for changes in accounting were up from CAD88 million to CAD105 million but radio revenues were only up slightly, from CAD 12.9 million to CAD 13.4 million; Radio EBITDA declined from CAD 3.0 million to CAD 2.7 million compared to an overall EBITDA increase from CAD20.5 million to CAD26.7 million.
President and CEO Ian Greenberg said the company was well in line with its targets for the full year, saying, "Our television and outdoor advertising groups led the way with third-quarter revenue increases of 22 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. Our radio group's performance is consistent with that of the Quebec radio market in the current year and its revenues increased by 4 per cent in the quarter."
Astral, whose CAD255 million acquisition of Telemedia's 19 radio stations in Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, was agreed in May 2001 and approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in April this year (see RNW April 21) now says the deal is not expected to go through this fiscal year because of a challenge to the deal by Canada's Competition Bureau.
Another Canadian Group. Corus Entertainment Inc, has warned investors that it is likely to miss its 2002 targets because of a slowdown in radio advertising and problems caused by the ending of a supply agreement with Munich-based RTV Family Entertainment AG which ran into difficulties when its main customer, Kirch Holding GmbH, collapsed.
Corus says its EBITDA target may slip from CAD165 million into the CAD155-160 million range, with some CAD 3 million of the shortfall resulting from national advertising sales problems for its radio stations.
Corus reported a profit of only CAD463, 000 (CAD0.1 a share) for the quarter, compared to CAD103 million (CAD2,43 a share) in Q2, 2001, despite increasing revenues to CAD149 million from CAD138 million.
Previous Astral:
Previous Corus:
Previous Cumulus:
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Previous Karmazin:
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Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Astral site (Links to 400kb PDF shareholders report and 811 kb results & growth PDF):
Cumulus site ( Links to results news release):
Corus site:
Viacom-CBS-Infinity site (Links to results 232 kb PDF)
2002-07-26: The Dean of City University Business School in London, Lord David Currie, has been named by the British Government at the chairman of the planned new British media super regulator OFCOM, whose remit will cover regulation of broadcasting, telecommunications and the management of radio spectrum.
The appointment of the 56-year old peer, who is expected to work up to four days a week for a salary of around GBP135, 000 a year, has led to complaints from critics who say the government has appointed too many Labour Party sympathisers to broadcasting jobs.
Both the BBC chairman Gavyn Davies and director general Greg Dyke are supporters of the ruling Labour Party.
The Opposition Conservative Party shadow trade and industry secretary Tim Yeo accused the government of politicising posts that should be independent and said it was "extremely unfortunate" that this post had gone to someone with close ties to the Labour Party, adding that OFCOM needed to be totally independent of the government and set a high standard of impartiality.
Previous OFCOM:
2002-07-26: The new deal signed by WBBM-FM in Chicago with its morning duo Eddie and Jobi (See RNW July 17). is leading to speculation about any likely knock-on effects for others in the city with the Chicago Tribune reporting that some consider it an anomaly and others expecting other big names to benefit.
Todd Musburger, a Chicago attorney who represents several local personalities, told the paper, "Certainly every deal of this kind has repercussions, and I can assume that all the radio execs and talent paid close attention to this story. I would expect the salary curve to bend, as it should."
Others were less certain. Lin Brehmer, morning personality at WXRT-FM, commented, "How likely is it to trickle down? Probably not likely at all. Each individual disc jockey is an entity unto himself."
The likelihood, the report indicates, is that there will be some rises for the big names, particularly in morning drive times.
It cites figures from a National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) survey that showed an average morning personality pay packet in the top 15 markets last year being USD 312, 000 with the top figure reported to it of USD1.6 million; in 1996 the average was USD142, 000 and the top figure was USD 600, 000
David Gunzerath, the NAB's vice president of research and planning, said DJs seemed to be benefiting from competition: "Morning drive is the most lucrative day part for radio stations," he added. "They're willing to invest more money because they are able to make more money."
The benefits, however, are overwhelmingly seen as available only for the star names. "Somebody who can't support that will get laughed out of the room," said Eliot Ephraim, a lawyer-agent who represents Don and Roma (Wade) on WLS-AM and John Landecker on WJMK-FM.
"Somebody who can will have to be taken very seriously."
Previous NAB:
Chicago Tribune report:
2002-07-26: The probability of pirate radio on the Internet is raised by an article in the UK Guardian that considers the financial problems webcasters are facing and that were exacerbated by the recent US Copyright royalty payments ruling that demands payment of $0.0007 per song per listener.
In the article Peter Rojas notes that, even before copyright fees are taken into account, many stations were finding it difficult to get revenues to pay for bandwidth alone.
The solution it says for many stations may be to go for pirate broadcasts using a programme called "Peercast"; this used the same protocol as Gnutella, meaning that instead of a stream emanating from a known server, users pass audio and video streams to each other.
Rojas quotes Giles Goddard, a video programmer for Nintendo, who created Peercast, as saying that this means that every listener is also "functioning as a broadcaster."
Peercast can be downloaded for free and, says the article, is simple to use and install, although it is still a little "buggy."
Rojas says that, at the moment, he could only find half-a-dozen stations but as the number of Peercasters increase it should be possible to search by quality and genre for a desired station.
To set up a station, he adds, needs extra MP3 software such as Winamp and a freely available plug-in like Oddcast or Shoutcast for your MP3 software, which converts what you're playing on your computer into a digital audio stream. Peercast takes this stream online by connecting to Gnutella, and lets others on the network know your webcast is out there.
Rojas points out that, although the software has benefits for a pirate in being difficult to trace a stream, the system also has potential benefits for legitimate webcasters because it reduces the need for expensive bandwidth.
"With Peercast," he writes, "every person who tunes in to a station is also relaying it to others in the network, demolishing the one-to-many model of broadcasting and inverting the economics of webcasting." "Each person in the network shoulders part of the burden, redistributing the webcast to others, meaning there are virtually no additional bandwidth costs. As demand grows for the stream, so does its availability as listeners or viewers use their own bandwidth to relay the stream."
Peercast site:
UK Guardian report:
2002-07-25: US Radio giant Clear Channel has reported flat revenues for the second quarter of 2002 of of USD2.17 billion, compared to 2001 revenues of USD2.18 billion but it made a profit of USD238 million (39 cents a share) compared to a Q2 loss of USD237 million (40 cents a share) in 2001.
Within the earnings were some USD21 million of pre-tax gains (2 cents a share) relating to asset sales and a litigation settlement. Clear Channel also noted that had it adopted FAS142 relating to goodwill and other intangibles at the beginning of last year, Q2 earnings for 2001 would have been USD104 million (17 cents a share).
Clear Channel had originally scheduled its earnings release for next week but moved it up following Tuesday's sharp fall in its stock that had followed the announcement that Randy Michaels was to move from its radio division to become CEO of its new technologies division (See RNW July 24) .
Clear Channel chairman and chief executive Lowry Mays said the company had brought forward the results to speedily deal with "very negative rumours being suggested in the marketplace which have no basis.''
"It's my hope and desire that accelerating this release will put the recent innuendos to
rest so that we can get them behind us," he continued. "We are doing what's most important for this Company, focusing on the fundamentals of our business and operating (as we have done historically) to create shareholder value. Further, despite the recent performance of our stock and the overall volatility of the stock market, we believe the fundamentals of our business remain sound."
Clear Channel also reported EBITDA OF USD627 million compared to USD611 million for Q2 2001; it said on a pro forma basis, second quarter 2002 revenues declined 4 percent compared with last year's second quarter revenues of $2.24 billion and pro forma EBITDA was $625 million, an increase of 1 percent, when compared to $621 million for the second quarter of 2001.
Within its divisions, radio revenues were up 5% over 2001 Q2 to USD991 million and EBITDA was up 9%; pro-forma revenues and EBITDA were up by the same percentage.
Outdoor revenues were up from USD 461 million to USD474 million but pro-forma revenues were down 5% and EBITDA was down from USD167 million to USD145 million with pro-forma EBITDA down 18%.
Entertainment revenues were down from USD697 million to USD619 million and Entertainment EBITDA was down from USD56 million to USD52 million with pro-forma revenues down 14.4% and pro forma EBITDA down 11.5%
Clear Channel shares fell on Wednesday to USD20 at one stage but ended up 32 cents at USD25.32.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Lowry Mays:
Previous Randy Michaels:
Clear Channel web site (Links to results 47kb PDF)
2002-07-25: EMAP's Manchester KEY103 radio station is promoting both the station and its special Commonwealth Games restricted service licence through a 160 feet (50 metre) long airship that has been given permission to fly around Manchester during the games.
The airship will be used for traffic and travel information as well as being used to host live shows.
Previous EMAP:
2002-07-25: Jonathan Adelstein has moved closer to becoming a US Federal Communications Commissioner after the Senate Commerce Committee approved his nomination.
This now goes before the full senate, where Arizona Republican Senator John McCain is blocking all nominations until Democrat Ellen Weintraub is confirmed to a seat on the Federal Election Commission.
Previous Adelstein:
2002-07-25: An overload of the US National Weather Service's Emergency Alert System (EAS) prevented Washington's news station WTOP-AM from passing on a warning concerning a severe tornado to smaller stations on April 28 according to an AP report in the Baltimore Star.
The paper says that the system is designed to relay warnings affecting up to 28 counties but became overloaded because the storm affected 31 counties; it caused a strong tornado that caused five deaths and damage estimated at USD120 million in Southern Maryland.
Most larger broadcasters receive the warning through satellite links of from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radio but some smaller ones relied on an alert sent to WTOP via a phone line and then automatically passed on but on April 28 W|TOP failed to receive the alarm according to weather service spokesman Curtis Carey.
Jim Farley, WTOP's vice president of news and programming, commented, "We are the top of the food chain, but we weren't able to pass the warning along to the other stations because we never got it."
Previous WTOP:
Baltimore Sun/AP report:
2002-07-25: MeasureCast's latest Internet ratings show a jump of 26% in its Listening Index to an all-time high in the week to July 14 with more listening to 24 of its top 25 stations; listening it says has gone up nearly one-and-a-half times since January this year. (RNW note: As we have already commented, with many smaller - and not so small, like KPIG.com - sites stopping streaming we would expect an increase for those stations that are left as some people move over rather than turn off.
For the week to July 14, MeasureCast's top five stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) with in brackets TTSL and Cume persons (a measure of the cumulative audience -CP) for the previous week - were:
1: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 362,831 (325,982); CP 67,861 (59,216): Same position with higher listening and reach but listening was less than in the week to June 23.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 289,880 (322,005); CP 67,630 (67,002): Same position with lower listening but slightly higher reach.
3: Classical format WQXR-FM, New York - TTSL 184,782 (145,046); CP 34,809 (33,030): Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Sports talk format ESPN TTSL 161,040; CP 32,650. Not in previous ratings during holiday period but in week to June 23 was fifth with TTSL lower at 147,727 and CP higher at 37,073.
5: Classical format KING-FM - TTSL 127,006 (93,683): CP 21,686 (20,714) Same position with higher listening and reach.
*Internet-only market match Adult alternative Radioio, which was fourth in the previous ratings, fell to sixth despite higher TTSL of 118,111 compared to 107,877
The top five networks for the week to July 14(Previous week in brackets) were:
1: Clear Channel Worldwide TTSL 1,973,769 (1,514,308) ; CP 359,292 (321,390) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
2: Radio Free Virgin TTSL 781,926 (606,439): CP 160,716 (148,468) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
3: WARP Radio TTSL 694,577 (512,301) hours: CP 160,716 (98,141) - Same position with higher listening and reach but listening was lower than in week to June 23.
4:Internet Radio Inc TTSL 593,328 (512,301) : CP 187,854 (180,803) - - Same position with higher listening and reach.
5: Virgin Radio TTSL 516,983 (458,762) : CP 94,229 (87,373) - - Same position with higher listening and reach but both were lower than in week to June 23.
The top five simulcast stations for the week (Earlier figures in brackets) were:
1: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 362,831 (325,982); CP 67,861 (59,216) - Same position with higher listening and reach although both were lower than in the week to June 23.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 289,880 (322,005); CP 67,630 (67,002) -same position but lower listening and reach.
3: Classical format WQXR-FM, New York - TTSL 184,782 (145,046); CP 34,809 (33,030) -same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Sports talk format ESPN TTSL 161,040; CP 32,650. Not in previous ratings during holiday period but in week to June 23 was fifth with TTSL lower at 147,727 and CP higher at 37,073.
5: Classical format KING-FM - TTSL 127,006 (93,683): CP 32,650 (20,714) - Down from fourth despite higher listening and reach.
*Classic rock WFXZ-FM, which had been fifth with TTSL 58,008 and CP 6,945 fell to sixth despite higher listening with TTSL 79,192 and reach, up to 7,649
The top five Internet-only stations for the week (Previous week in brackets), were:
1: Adult alternative Radioio - TTSL 118,111 (107,877) ; CP 33,009 (30,468) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
2: Listener-formatted MediAmazing - TTSL 94,982 (76,524) ; 41,583 CP (37,869) Same position with higher listening and reach.
3:Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville -TTSL 83,711 (63,944); CP 13,342 (13,497) - Same position with higher listening but lower reach.
4: Pure Rock KNAC.com - TTSL 63,825 (51,291) ; CP 15,707 (15,338). Up from sixth with higher listening and reach.
5: Alternative Rock 3WK Underground Radio TTSL 61,597 (49,183): CP 16,641 (15,105) - Up from eighth with higher listening and reach.
*Country format Internet only Bluegrass Country fell from fourth to sixth despite higher TTSL of 59,053 compared to 53,659 and Artists match MUSIC MATCH, which had been fifth, dropped out of the top ten..
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-07-24: XM Satellite Radio shares fell by nearly a quarter to USD4.00 from USD 5.38 on Tuesday after the company announced increased losses but also exceeded its subscriber goals for the quarter to the end of June.
During the quarter XM reported revenues of USD3.8 million but its loss was USD122 million, or USD1.38 a share, compared to USD44 million, 76 cents a share, during the second quarter of 2001 when it had not yet launched its service.
It had 136, 000 subscribers at the end of the quarter and says it expects to reach 200, 000 by the end of the current quarter and 350, 000 by the end of the year.
Increased losses had been anticipated as XM developed its service; its customer care and billings operations, for example, was up to USD3.9 million compared to Usd1.6 million and marketing costs were up to USD46.8 million from Usd7.3 million. XM says it has funds to keep it going into the first quarter of next year.
XM's rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, which began its service later, also suffered on the market on Tuesday with its shares dropping nearly 18% to USD 2:08. Over the past week, Sirius has seen a fall from just under USD3.50 and XM has fallen from just under USD6.50. Over the past year, Sirius stock 's high was USD13:05 whilst XM reached USD20.68.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Sirius web site:
XM web site:
2002-07-24: Randy Michaels has stepped down as Clear Channel radio chairman and CEO to become CEO of the New Technologies Division of the company, in which role the company says he will be "focused on the changing technological landscape including interactive, wireless broadband and satellite technologies."
Clear Channel President and Chief Operating Office Mark Mays, who will stand in as Clear Channel radio CEO while a successor is found, paid tribute to Michaels by saying, "Randy has been, and continues to be, a great contributor to Clear Channel. Without his vision and foresight we would not have been able to develop the best, most well positioned, unduplicatable collection of radio stations in the world."
"Randy's greatest strength is his ability to see how the radio industry will evolve long before it does. In his new role, Randy will be able to utilize this strength to enable us to react better to the advent of new technologies and their impact on the Company."
Michaels commented, "I am excited about the opportunity to once again look out in to the future and help shape the way we will adapt to it. I enjoy the challenge and stimulation of breaking new ground and look forward to this newly created position."
No mention was made as to whether Michaels, who ran the radio division from Covington, near Cincinnati, would be moving to Clear Channel's headquarters in San Antonio, Texas.
Michaels developed his career at WLW-AM in Cincinnati then helped build up Covington-based Jacor Communications Inc. to own hundreds of stations before it was bought by Clear Channel in 1998 for some USD4.4 billion.
Clear Channel's shares fell by 16.5% on Tuesday, ending the day around USD25, after opening just under USD30.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Mark Mays:
Previous Randy Michaels:
Clear Channel announcement ((21Kb PDF):
2002-07-24: Looking ahead to the announcement of who is to head the new OFCOM super-regulator of British media, expected before the British Parliament goes into its summer recess, the UK Guardian says Richard Hooper, chairman of the Radio Authority, and Lord Currie, the dean of City University, have emerged as the frontrunners. It adds that Hooper was one of only two existing regulators to have been interviewed for the post, the other being Oftel chief executive David Edmonds. Other names in the hat were reported to include Adair Turner, vice chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, and Lord Eatwell, the chairman of the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA).
The paper reports that Whitehall sources, who said Hooper was frontrunner amongst existing regulators was regarded as a "safe pair of hands" but there were concerns over problems he could face in managing the integration of the five existing bodies that will be subsumed into Ofcom. About Lord Currie, there was concern whether he would give up other commitments to allow him enough time to do the job.
Previous Hooper:
Previous OFCOM:
UK Guardian report:
2002-07-24: US-based media and marketing research company Arbitron has announced the signing of long-term deals with Mexican broadcasters Grupo Radio México, Grupo Radio Centro and ACIR to provide Guadalajara radio market ratings.
In addition, a number of advertising agencies and media buying services that currently take Arbitron's Mexico City ratings services have extended their contracts to include Guadalajara.
Arbitron began ratings operation in Mexico City in Fall 2001 and started conducting measurements in Guadalajara at the start of this month.
Clara Carneiro, vice president, Latin American Marketing, Arbitron Inc., commented, "With our expansion into Guadalajara, we will continue to create a new radio audience measurement standard for Latin American broadcasters and agencies."
Arbitron will conduct its surveys in Guadalajara in the same way it has handled its Mexico City surveys, by using a Spanish-language version of its standard seven-day diary that will be filled in by some 2,300 residents of the city who will be recruited by visiting agents; the agents will collect the diaries and they will then be shipped to Arbitron's Columbia Research and Technology Centre for processing and tabulation using the company's existing processing infrastructure.
The first Guadalajara report should be available in early November.
Previous Arbitron:
Arbitron web site:
2002-07-24: Looking at the latest Washington radio ratings, the Washington Post headlines the loss of a quarter of its audience by Disney-owned news-talk WMAL-AM whose morning show fared even worse; it dropped a third and fell from fifth to eleventh in the rankings. WMAL has tried a large number of co-hosts and sidekicks to go with morning host Andy Parks.
Commenting on the reason for the fall, the paper quotes WMAL's president and general manager, Tom Bresnahan, as saying, "The truth of the matter is, some of our listeners didn't like the changes we made and they obviously let us know."
Referring to the morning show, he added," "Someone said to me, 'If you're used to eating two strips of bacon, two eggs and a cup of coffee every day for breakfast, and one morning you get a cup of tea, pancakes and grapefruit juice, it can screw up your whole day.' That's what it was like for us."
Overall in DC, urban hit station WPGC-FM was top ranked, followed in second place by all-news WTOP-AM-FM, which led morning and evening drive.
In Chicago, Disney fared rather better with Roe Conn and Garry Meier in the overall lead for ABC's talk-format WLS-AM during the afternoon drivel; they were also first in the 25-54 demographic although Steve Dahl on Infinity's WCKG-FM, took top place amongst men in that demographic, despite being tenth overall.
WLS itself was second placed overall, behind WGN-AM, for whom Spike O'Dell led the morning drive rankings.
Infinity's WBBM-FM, which had pulled its morning duo Eddie and Jobo (Ed Volkman and Joe Bohannon) in a contract dispute (See RNW June 1) lost audience and dropped from a 4.2 share to 3.5. The duo went back on air this week after signing a seven-year renewal deal totalling more than USD20 million (See RNW July 17).
Previous Disney-ABC: