August 2002 Archive
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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 August comment considers RDS -Radio Data Services- and where they are a benefit and where they could be a fatal negative.
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.
2002-08-31: Robert Reilly has resigned as director of Voice of America (VOA) after a year in the post and has been succeeded by former Time magazine correspondent David Jackson.
Reilly, who was involved in controversy over clashes with the station's journalists when attempts were made to prevent the broadcast of an interview with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar (See RNW Sept 25, 2001), said in a statement that he was resigning "to seek opportunities in which I can more directly employ my talents in helping support the President and this Administration in the war against international terrorism."
Reilly said he would remain with VOA for a period of time to help the new director and new Broadcasting Board of Governors chairman during the transition.
Jackson, who was with Time for 23 years retired from the magazine last year and became editor of the Pentagon's anti-terror web site. He said, "I'm very excited about this opportunity to join such a respected organization, and I'm looking forward to working with my fellow journalists to carry on and enhance VOA's worldwide reputation."
He also announced that Marie Skiba, currently the acting director of VOA's television service, will serve as VOA chief of staff during the transition.
Previous Reilly:
Previous VOA:
VOA announcement:
2002-08-31: BBC Radio 1 breakfast DJ Sara Cox has signed a new three-year deal reported to be worth GBP 1 million with the Corporation even though latest ratings show the show losing around 700,000 listeners a week during the past year.
The deal will take her pay above that of Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine who is to replace Jimmy Young on BBC Radio 2 next year for around GBP250, 000 a year and is around twice the reported salary of Cox's predecessor Zoe Ball who was reported to earn around GBP150, 000 a year for the breakfast show and hosting a children's TV show.
Ball, who increased the show's listening figures by 2 million a week, has recently opted to join London commercial station XFM (See RNW Aug 26).
Cox increased the figures at fist, peaking with a record 7.6 million a week; this has now fallen to 6.9 million.
A Radio 1 spokesman said: "Radio 1 is the perfect home for an original talent like Sara Cox, so we are really pleased that she has signed to the station for a further three years."
Cox, whose current contract ends in April next year, said, "Radio 1 is the best place I have ever worked. The breakfast show means such a lot to me, especially the listeners who I love, so I'm over the moon."
Previous BBC:
Previous Ball:
Previous Cox:
Previous Vine:
Previous Young:
2002-08-31: The Boston Beer Company has now run adverts in Boston newspapers apologising over the Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) "sex in St Patrick's cathedral stunt"; this had been demanded by a number of Boston bar owners as a condition of ending their boycott of the company's products. The bar owners have not yet confirmed they will end their boycott following the action.
The company's founder and chairman, who was in WNEW in New York when the stunt went to air, had already posted an apology on the company web site (See RNW Aug 28)
Previous Opie and Anthony:
2002-08-31: Salem Communications has announced its completion of the USD650, 000 acquisition of KHCM-AM (formerly KJPN-AM) in Honolulu from International Communications Corp. and is to switch it to a country music format on Monday (Labor Day). The station is Salem's fourth in Honolulu.
Salem has also announced that it is to re-launch its Phoenix KCTK- AM as news-talk KKNT-AM tomorrow(Sept 1) . Its line-up is to include Pat Porter as morning show host; current morning host Tom Brown will move to host the morning show on Salem's KPXQ-AM, a Christian Talk station.
Previous Salem
2002-08-31: India is considering a plan to allow educational institutions to set up their own radio stations.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj said the idea for the proposal came from the concept of community radio in other countries and initially would be targeted at colleges and residential schools.
"In our proposal, we want schools to start off with this because there is a lot of scope, and we want to improve the quality of education," she told the Times of India.
"Class lessons, lectures, extra information, educative programmes and programmes created by students can all be aired within a limited radius of access. There is immense potential for interactive radio with phone-ins.''
Times of India report:
Previous Indian Radio report:
2002-08-31: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) web site, which was attacked three days ago and headlines and stories altered to give a slant opposed to its views, is now back up again. It makes no mention of the attack on the site.
Previous RIAA:
RIAA web site:
2002-08-30: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced that it is to drop the "Evening Session" Radio 1 show, which was a significant factor in the launch of bands such as Blur and Oasis in the 1990s.
The show, broadcast from 2000-2200 local time for three days a week and presented by Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley, was associated with the Britpop era, has been on the air for 11 years; it will cease at the end of this year. Whiley left the show several years ago and is now a Radio One daytime presenter but Lamacq still presents it and also presents his weekly Lamacq Live show.
BBC Radio One says the replacement show will have a new format and presenter but will still emphasis new acts and music. "It has been an amazing show, but we've got to freshen the schedule up and keep it relevant," he said.
Previous BBC
2002-08-30: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)web site, which was attacked on Wednesday, was still out of action when we checked Thursday evening.
The site was hit earlier this month by a denial of service attack but the latest attack involved the posting of an altered version of the site with false headlines including Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry" and "RIAA willing to try alternative approach to music sharing" as well as saying that the organisation would no longer oppose illegal file-sharing.
The site was taken down shortly afterwards .
Previous RIAA:
RIAA web site:
2002-08-30: Chicago WGCI-FM afternoon host, DaVante Stone, who is known as "The Stone Pony" has been dropped by the urban-contemporary station and is now job-hunting according to Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Stone, whose contract runs to March will be paid until then but Feder says WGCI operations manager says he will be free to accept employment elsewhere. He will replaced from September 16 by weekend host Sam Sylk.
Previous Feder:
Feder Sun-Times report:
2002-08-29: Canadian broadcaster CHUM has given up on some of its sports radio network earlier than expected and put their former rock and roll programming back on Ontario stations in Toronto, Kingston, and Kitchener-Waterloo and a fourth station in Halifax, Winnipeg.
It has also fired 44 employees including morning show co-host Paul Romanuk and Jim van Horne, both of whom left the Sports Network to join CHUM's TEAM network.
Romanuk was on a guaranteed three-year contract and van Home on a guaranteed five year contract.
The Toronto Globe and Mail says other stations from the TEAM network will run local sports including stations in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver.
It said Romanuk accused CHUM of filing to adequately market and promote the new station , saying, "The big CHUM machine, as it turned out, had about as much horsepower as my electric toothbrush. A year after we launched, a ton of people still didn't know who we were." He also said staff were misled and that only three weeks ago he was told CHUM was still committed to the format.
CHUM radio president Jim Waters, said the paper, said on CHUM's specialty channel CP-24 that the sports format was not continued because of low ratings and weak revenue, commenting, "In 15 months, we did not do well. It didn't show signs of growing much and we failed to cut into our competition's numbers."
Previous CHUM:
Toronto Globe and Mail report:
2002-08-29: Hispanic Broadcasting has announced agreement on a USD22.5 million cash deal to but five FMs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from Simmons Media Group.
Hispanic says that it anticipates closing the deal in the fourth quarter of this year. The stations involved are KKRG-FM-Albuquerque, KIOT-FM-Los Lunas, KOSZ-FM-Rio Rancho, and KRQS-FM and KKSS-FM in Santa Fe.
Another deal expected to close then or early next year is Regent Communications USD62 million acquisition of 12 stations from Brill Media that has now been approved by the bankruptcy court (See RNW Aug 24). Regent says it expects to begin operating the stations pursuant to a local marketing agreement by mid-September this year.
And in Texas, Entravision has now closed on its USD35 million purchase of KTCY-FM in Dallas from Spanish Broadcasting System (See RNW June 11). It now owns or operates three Fm and two AM stations in the city -- KKDL-FM, KTCY-FM, KZMP-FM, KRVA-AM and KZMP-AM.
Previous Entravision:
Previous Hispanic:
Previous Regent:
Previous Spanish Broadcasting System:
2002-08-29: Some bar owners in heavily Catholic Massachusetts are boycotting Boston Beer Company products in protest over the Anthony and Opie (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) show "sex in St Patrick's cathedral " incident in New York according to the Boston Herald.
It quotes one bar owner as saying, "The Catholic Church is going through enough, they don't need another kick in the teeth" and says the boycott will continue until the company publishes an apology in Boston and New York newspapers.
Boston Beer chairman and founder Jim Koch, who was in WNEW-FM's studios at the time of the stunt, has apologised on the company's web site (See RNW Aug 28).
New York's Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights said it was ``satisfied with his apology,'' reports the paper.
But it adds that the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts has joined bar owners in requesting more forceful actions that show Boston Beer's regrets. The paper says its Executive Director C.J. Doyle wants Boston Beer to stop ``subsidizing radio stations that are Catholic bashers.''
Customers, however, says the Herald, are less harsh on Boston Beer and quotes on as saying," I can see why they'd place the blame on the sponsor, but there are plenty of other corporate sponsors that could be blamed for much more ridiculous stuff. I'll continue to drink Sam Adams every once in a while."
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Boston Globe report:
2002-08-29: In its latest Internet rankings, MeasureCast records a listening rise of 4% in the week to August 18 and again highlights the success of Christian music format Educational Media Foundation (EMF), which took places in the top ten simulcast rankings with its L-Love and Air 1 stations.
For the week to August 18, 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 343,131 (322,257); CP: 60,821 (64,407 Same position with higher listening but lower reach.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 323,295 (312,957); CP 73,495 (70,649): Same position with higher listening and reach.
3:Contemporary Christian Music K-Love - TTSL 207,822 (200,975); CP 25,102 (22,799). Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Sports talk format ESPN TTSL176, 660 (178,108); CP 35,748 (35,190). Up from fifth despite lower listening although reach was higher.
5: Classical music format WQXR-FM 165,966 (172,122); CP 26,416 (26,831). Up from sixth despite lower listening and reach.
*Adult alternative Radioio fell from fourth to sixth rank with TTSL down from 180,841 to 155,927.
The top five networks for the week (Previous week in brackets) were:
1: Clear Channel Worldwide TTSL 1,181,617 (1,198,191); CP 262,039 (274,285) - Same position despite lower listening and reach.
2: Radio Free Virgin TTSL 837,344 (839,331): CP 157,210 (158,484) - Same position despite lower listening and reach.
3: WARP Radio TTSL 716,081 (673,912) hours: CP 157,210 (106,951) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Virgin Radio TTSL 449,205 (435,839) : CP 82,067 (88,514) - Up from fifth with higher listening but lower reach.
5: Internet Radio Inc TTSL 406,608 (616,349) : CP 194,494 (198,806) - Down from fourth with higher listening.
The top five simulcast stations for the week (Previous week in brackets) were:
1: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 343,131 (322,257); CP: 60,821 (64,407 Same position with higher listening but lower reach.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 323,295 (312,957); CP 73,495 (70,649): Same position with higher listening and reach.
3 Contemporary Christian Music K-Love - TTSL 207,822 (200,975); CP 25,102 (22,799). Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Sports talk format ESPN TTSL176, 660 (178,108); CP 35,748 (35,190). Same position despite lower listening although reach was higher.
5: Classical music format WQXR-FM 165,966 (172,122); CP 26,416 (26,831). Same position despite lower listening and reach.
The top five Internet-only stations for the week (Previous week in brackets), were:
1: Adult alternative Radioio - TTSL 155,927 (180,841); CP 40,872 (40,904) - Same position with lower listening and reach.
2: Listener formatted MediAmazing - TTSL 89,029 (90,432); CP 45,293 (45,696) Same position with lower listening and reach.
3:Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville -TTSL 85,620 (88,303); CP 14,026 (14,245) - Same position with lower listening and reach.
4: Pure Rock KNAC.com - TTSL 82,219 (81,649); CP 18,637 (18,674). Same position with higher listening but lower reach.
5: Country format Bluegrass Country - TTSL 68,982 (64,581); CP 16,911 (16,452) Same position with higher listening but lower reach.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-08-28: The head of Boston Beer Co., which had been providing prizes for the Anthony and Opie (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) show and advertising on Infinity's WNEW-FM, has said that he was at the station when the sex in St Patrick's cathedral broadcast was made and was caught off guard.
''Live radio is meant to surprise, and I was surprised,'' Boston Beer chairman and founder Jim Koch told the Boston Globe. ''It was a bad mistake on my part not to get up and walk out.''
He has posted a statement on the company's web site formally apologising to all who were "those upset or offended by the incident on the Opie and Anthony show and by our association with it" and continuing , "We were not in control of the program, and it was never our intention to be part of a radio station promotion that crossed the line...my presence on the show was a lapse in judgment, a serious mistake, and I regret it. We are re-evaluating our policy on radio station appearances."
In the ''Sex for Sam'' promotion, named after the company's Sam Adams beer, prizes for couples who had sex in public places included a trip to Boston to the company's annual festival and concert
Opie and Anthony have promoted the "Sex for Sam" contests for three years with Boston Beer buying adverts on WNEW and providing pizes.
In New York the Daily Post reported on Monday that Opie and Anthony supporters believed that the duo were in talks with Clear Channel but the latter has now delivered a firm no to them. It quoted an unnamed source as saying that Opie and Anthony may find it hard to get work, commenting, "They do have a big following, but there are certain areas where you just don't push it. There are now many advertisers that won't go near them,"
WNEW is currently filling the afternoon slot with Ron and Fez (Ron Pennington and Fez Whatley) and is to run four-hour segments of The Best of Ron and Fez until firm decisions are made; Infinity's Los Angeles talk host Tom Leykis is filling in the nightly slot formerly taken by Tom and Fez.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Boston Globe Report:
Boston Beer Company site:
2002-08-28:The holder of the London-wide country music AM licence, Ritz 1035, has gone into receivership according to the UK Radio Magazine.
It says that Country 1035 Ltd, which was acquired earlier this year by the Mean Fiddler Music Group (See RNW May 29) is thought to owe around GBP100, 000 to various creditors and GBP200, 000 to EMAP for its digital radio platform.
The magazine says that following the acquisition a row developed over non-payment of Ritz debts with the Mean Fiddler Group denying responsibility and Ritz appearing to back pedal on previous assurances to pay up.
The UK Radio Authority is to decide next week whether to approve the transfer of the licence to the new owner; it has already said that if necessary arrangements are not put in place to satisfy creditors the licence cannot be transferred and will be revoked.
Previous UK Radio Authority:
UK Radio Magazine site:
2002-08-28: In US radio deals, Backyard Broadcasting has upped its stations from two to 22 and Saga Communications has added two more stations in Tennessee.
The Backyard deal was a USD42 million all-stock acquisition of Sabre Communications' 20 stations: seven in Indiana (WHTI-FM/Alexandria, WHBU-AM/Anderson, WURK-FM/Elwood, WHTY-FM/Hartford City and WXFN-AM, WERK-FM & WLBC-FM/Muncie), seven in New York (WGMF-AM, WNGZ-FM & WNKI-FM/Elmira, WWLZ-AM & WPGI-FM/Horseheads and WHDL-AM & WPIG-FM/Olean); and six in Pennsylvania (WCXR-FM/Lewisburg, WBZD-FM/Muncy, WZXR-FM/South Williamsport and WWPA-AM, WILQ-FM & WSFT-FM/Williamsport). Backyard's first two stations were WRXW & WTYX in Jackson, Mississippi.
The Saga acquisitions were simulcast pair WDBL-AM & FM, Springfield, Tennessee, for which it is paying USD1.5 million to Tuned-in. The latter will be left with just one Nashville station and Saga will now have seven stations in the area. It already owns two AMs and three FMs in Clarksville.
Previous Saga:
2002-08-28: Montreal-based Astral Media is reported to be talking to a new company, formed by TVA Group Inc. and Radio Nord Communications Inc. of Hull, Quebec, about a radio stations deal. Suggestions are that Astral may be considering selling the company some or all of the 19 French-language stations it was to acquire from Telemedia Communications Inc. as part of a CAD 255 million deal that was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in April (See RNW April 21) but is still being opposed by Canada's Competition Bureau.
Previous Astral:
2002-08-27: Following the departure of Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia), Infinity's WNEW-FM in New York has still announced no permanent replacement.
It has been airing Los Angeles Talk show host Tom Leykis together with Ron and Fez (Ron Pennington and Fez Whatley) to cover the afternoon to evening slots and there are rumours that the latter, WNEW's regular evening hosts, could take over the Anthony and Opie afternoon slot.
In Washington, DC, WJFK-FM, where Opie and Anthony replaced Don and Mike (Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara) last year in the afternoon slot, the latter were back in the slot with speculation that they could end up moving back permanently from the 11am to 3 pm show where they were moved after G. Gordon Liddy was dropped.
Previous Don and Mike:
Previous Liddy:
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
2002-08-27: Two new commercial FM licences in Queens land, Australia, have gone to Hot Tomato Pty and onestore.com.au Pty Ltd.
Hot Tomato put in the winning bid of AUD26 million (around Usd14 million) for the new Gold Coast commercial FM, and onestore.com.au Pty Ltd has taken the Nambour licence for AUD8.2 million (around USD 4.5 million).
Commenting on the auction, Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) chairman Professor David Flint said, "The ABA is very pleased with the result of today's auction," said Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman. "It 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. When these new services go to air, they will add to the diversity of radio services for listeners in the Gold Coast and Nambour markets."
Previous ABA:
Previous Flint:
2002-08-27: The effects of the copyright fees ruling by the US Librarian of Congress is hitting the 1300 college broadcasters in the country hard according to an AP report in the San Francisco Chronicle that says most of them may have to close down.
Stations that have already halted or suspended webcasting include University of California-Los Angeles Radio, KBVR at Oregon State University and New York University's WNYU and Will Robedee, vice chairman of Collegiate Broadcasters Inc. said that within days of the decision, he was "receiving e-mails from radio stations saying, 'We're going down. You can add another station to your list'."
Fees will be retroactive to 1998 and some stations , including WNYU, were closed before the ruling because of the fear of large costs.
Gabriel Mousesyan, an economics major and general manager of WNYU, which killed its four-year-old webcast in April, commented, "We didn't want to be liable for any of these huge fees that would cripple us or threaten our existence."
Fees for non-profit webcasts were set at 0.02 cents per listened per song with an extra 8.8% to cover temporary copies needed for streaming and for WNYU, which had around 100 listeners on average, there would be retroactive fees approaching USD10,000. The minimum charge is USD 500, covering an average of some 20 listeners.
San Diego University's KCR station operates on a tight budget of USD3,500 a year, making USD500 from this a significant amount.
In addition to the royalty costs, the requirements for reporting listeners, which have yet to be released, will also impose an additional burden.
Rachel Bradley a graduate student and KCR's station's general manager said the Internet had become a "vital part" of its broadcasting but then added, "We are a non-profit radio station on a college campus, so your options for funding are very limited. How many bake sales can you do, and how many bowling fund-raisers can you have to offset the costs?"
San Francisco Chronicle/AP report:
Collegiate Broadcasting web site:
2002-08-26: Our look at print comment on radio over the past week ranges from the Opie and Anthony row had in terms more of where it's going than where it has been or is currently, which we have covered in our regular reports to other forms of taking risks on radio and two reports on services that ought to give many terrestrial broadcasters pause for thought.
One concerns the reason a DJ might go for a small station rather than one with twenty times the audience, the other a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation service of niche music on its satellite TV service
The best single article we found on the possible implications of the Sex in the cathedral incident came from the Chicago Tribune where a report by Raul V. Mowatt commenced by saying that, although the shock jocks may have been fired, "the fallout nationwide may not be over."
The case, it said, "raises questions ranging from the role of free speech to the extent of corporate citizenship."
It then offered a range of comments, including the views of Tobe Berkovitz, a professor of communication at Boston University who said "It lowers the bar for the most outrageous thing anybody can do in major-market radio" but then went on to suggest that the duo, who were previously fired by Entercom for a 1988 April Fool's Day announcement that the Mayor of Boston had been killed in a car crash, might well be hired elsewhere.
"It raises the stature of these guys for the type of people who would listen to them," said Berkovitz.
Chicago shock-jock Erich "Mancow" Muller, no stranger to penalties for indecency, said he thought Opie and Anthony had gone too far.
"You're going to say things you regret," Muller said. "You're going to do things you don't like. It happens. But this was so calculated to me."
But he also expressed concern that the incident might trigger a government clampdown on free speech. "In a free society, they have a right to do these things, but we have a right to fight back, and I encourage people to do that," Mancow said.
And on the question of where the blame should be laid, Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers Magazine, said that it should be directed at Infinity and Viacom since the hosts were simply performing the job for which they had been hired.
On, however, and to a UK Times radio column by Vanora Bennett that puts the question of radio hosts' behaviour into a comparison that sheds a different light on such matters and indeed to any penalties that may be imposed.
It was pegged to a review of the new BBC "black music" digital channel and the publicity descriptions of it in terms of "bravery."
Commenting on the idea, Bennett wrote," The last time I heard so much about bravery was at the Sony Awards, where one middle-of-the-road, middle-aged, well-paid DJ after another went on stage to collect his prize, do a little victory waddle, and tearfully thank his boss for 'having had the courage to let me play my music'."
"It was as if they were getting medals for heroism. The bosses were moist-eyed, too. Amid so much mawkish self-congratulation, it didn't seem polite to wonder just how brave you have to be to let experienced DJs pick their own tunes. "
"To put these British heroics in proportion, I've been reading a book about radio reporting in China. It tells the story of Xinran, who presented a programme about women for eight years from 1989. Quietly, she teased stories out of timid women who had never before dared talk about their terrifying lives under communism. Equally quietly, but fearlessly, she pushed back the bureaucratic boundaries that had prevented journalists until then from reporting the truth."
"Her programme, Words On The Night Breeze, genuinely changed people's lives. Making it put Xinran's integrity, peace of mind and personal safety on the line, night after night. "
RNW comment: Indeed so. Unlike billions round the world who have committed no offence other than to be born in the wrong country, Anthony and Opie are unlikely to go hungry. And maybe a bit more of that integrity might go down well in US corporate life: The problem is it wouldn't be entertaining or good for the US psyche to hear too much truth about a society where the shock jocks and conservative hosts attract a significant enough audience in certain demographics to make them very wealthy indeed compared to an emergency worker.
Still in the UK and a stand-in Radiowaves column in the UK Sunday Times by Patricia Nicol gives a plug to London-based commercial music channel XFM (owned by Capital Radio and also on various digital stations) that is irreverent but not to the degree of some of its US counterparts.
"They have their own way of marking anniversaries on XFM, she commences her column. " A fortnight ago, I left for work to the sound of a synchronised 25-lavatory salute reverberating around the kitchen. This royal flush, to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of the King, was one of several Elvis-themed pranks on the station's inventive and irreverent Christian O'Connell breakfast session that morning."
Nicol then goes on note that former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zoë Ball is joining the station, which has an audience of only half a million "mostly male musicheads "for its drive-time slot today, working Mondays to Thursdays, despite approaches from BBC Radio 1 with an audience of some 21 times as large and Capital itself with an audience of more than five times as large.
The reason? "We give our presenters a carte blanche," says Sacha Taylor-Cox, the head of press at XFM. "We don't have a play list and they don't have to play chart pop. Also, for Zoë, there's the advantage that a lot of the bands we play are people she knows. It's just like hanging out for her."
Nichol then comments on other output from the station noting of one show that "although key in kick-starting the bootlegging trend" it is "more specialist than most females ever allow their music passions to become" but goes on to comment, "few can match XFM's verve and the sense that its DJs love being there. In fact, it seems to be becoming the type of music station Radio 1 has often spoken of aspiring to be, without ever quite managing - possibly because there's nothing very rock'n'roll about a public-service remit."
Another plug for a service came from the Toronto Globe and Mail where Russell Smith wrote of the benefits of the Galaxie music network which helped him to what he termed, "the joy of listening to beautiful music without blabber and schmaltz -- music radio as it should be."
The service he writes is "radio that you can't get on your radio" and is received from satellite by connecting a stereo to the TV set to give "uninterrupted music of your choice -- highly specialized choices, too: specific kinds of folk, ambient electronica, chamber music -- 24 hours a day, without any light-hearted anecdotes about bird watching, or sudden switches to new-age pop."
"And the music is brilliant: as challenging or as mindless as you want. I sit there in front of the TV for hours (while others are splashing about in the sun and waves, like normal people, as my mother always told me I should do), absorbed by the choices made by the mysterious genius who programs, say, the chamber-music channel. There might be an obscure little Saint-Saëns piece, followed by a classic like Death and the Maiden, followed by something eerie by Schoenberg. It's music for people who are interested in music. Obviously the programmer is someone very clever and educated, a total music dweeb. And there's nothing at all to indicate who it is."
"There's nothing to watch on the screen, of course, except the name of the composer and the piece and the people playing it, but I keep checking that screen because most of the pieces are ones I don't know, so I want to learn what they are …"
Smith then goes on to consider the effects of a terrestrial broadcaster trying to put out programming like this "…The only people who listened would be people with an interest in serious music -- which might, I venture, be a group as large or even larger than retirees with an interest in bird watching. And it would be much cheaper to produce; since it's not about information or "personalities," you don't have to pay news-gathering services, or the massive salaries that "personality" hosts demand."
"So why," he asks, "didn't the CBC think of it?"
"Well, actually, they did. This is what fascinates me. Galaxie is a branch of the CBC, and a highly successful one. It is based in Ottawa. The general manager is an old-school CBC music expert called Alain Pineau. The DJs who program the music are experts on one, and only one, genre. (The brain and sensitivity behind the chamber-music channel, for example, is Bill Skolnik, a composer, musician and former CBC Radio music producer). They have an ingenious system of programming: The DJs live all over the country, and work from home. They use a computer program called Selector, which can access the entire CBC musical archive. Everything is lined up and played by the computer. It's like a vast and sensitive jukebox."
He then writes of plans to put the service on the Internet via high-speed providers whose subscribers would get it for free as a signing-up perk with Galaxie itself receiving a small fee from the service provider for each subscriber.
"This," he writes, " is an ideal use of the million-channel universe: It's ultra cheap, ultra niche marketing. A channel on chamber music has horizontal rather than vertical appeal: It's not a particular age group or geographic region that's going to listen, but 22-year-old music students and 70-year-old intellectuals in different parts of the world. And it's so cheap to put new specialty music channels up there can be one for every minute niche. If I were a regular radio producer, I would be scared by this. If the music you want comes for free, over the Internet, it's going to put bad radio out of business.
Previous Ball:
Previous Bennett:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Mowatt:
Chicago Tribune - Mowatt:
Toronto Globe and Mail - Smith:
UK Sunday Times - Nicol:
UK Times - Bennett:
2002-08-26: Lord Puttnam, who chaired the joint parliamentary committee that considered the British Government's Communications Bill, has called for the new OFCOM super-regulator to be given tough powers to prevent media takeovers that are not in the public interest.
Giving the annual "World View" lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival he accused past governments of lacking the nerve to take on giant conglomerates and referred to the way News International was permitted to build up a newspaper and satellite TV empire, something he said had given "tremendous power to a single unelected conglomerate."
This he said had led to something he considered "unhealthy" for the "competitive ethos of business" and the "vibrancy" of British democracy.
Puttnam calls for the new super regulator to be properly staffed to allow it to take on the role and concerning the democratic aspects of allowing massive media conglomerates, said, "'If we are remotely serious about that attractive mantra diversity and plurality' then we can't just leave it to the market, or for that matter to the Government of the day, who may be guilty of their own set of preferences."
He also spoke of the need for the public interest to be "actively defined and protected" and said the government knew it needed to introduce safeguards if it wanted to get the bill though Parliament.
Before his speech, the UK Observer reported that a suggestion calling for such powers was buried in the report on the government's draft Communications Bill and had been described by the government as very interesting".
Puttnam said he was surprised the recommendation had not been picked up by the media and the Observer noted that UK media deals involving newspapers can already be subjected to a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN).
The paper says the clause proposes that regulators should consider whether all potential media deals would "'guarantee a balanced and accurate news service, a clear differentiation between the free expression of opinion and news and a range of voices to satisfy a variety of tastes and interests."
The Observer then quotes an unnamed member of the committee as saying, "'Puttnam knows that when the UK's big newspaper groups with ambitions to move into radio and television discover this plan they won't take kindly to it. It is designed to stop media firms from moulding their acquisitions in their own image. This has always been the time bomb in the report waiting to explode."
Previous OFCOM:
UK Observer report:
2002-08-26: A clash is in progress in New York between Clear Channel and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) over the issue of voice tracking.
A New York Times report on the matter, the practice of replacing live local DJs with pre-packaged shows that combine music, banter, weather and listeners' calls to mimic a live broadcast, starts by noting the success on WWPR-FM in the evenings of a show pre-recorded in Los Angeles by "Theo" and notes that New York, where Clear Channel owns five stations, is the only city where it does not use voice tracking, which is prohibited under agreements with the unions.
The company slipped in the Theo show as a syndicated show, although the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) disagrees.
The paper quotes Peter Fuster, a New York negotiator for AFTRA, as saying, "They want to destroy local radio. My first priority is to protect our members' jobs. My second is to prevent these stations from becoming the McDonald's of radio."
The union contracts for WWPR-FM (Power 105.1), WLTW-FM (Lite FM 106.7) and WKTU-FM (KTU) have all expired, and Clear Channel is refusing to renew them unless voice-tracking is permitted. Contracts for its other two stations, WHTZ-FM (Z-100) and WAXQ-FM (Q104), expire soon.
"The audience stands to benefit," Tom Owens, a Clear Channel senior vice president for programming, told the paper, "What we are doing is providing a superior entertainment product." Clear Channel says it will use voice-tracking sparingly, probably on graveyard and weekend shifts
On the other side, says the paper, the DJs say they are less concerned about their job security than the impact on radio culture.
It quotes Johnny Sialiano, KTU's morning host whom it described as one of the few DJs willing to give his name" as saying, "Overnight slots are the training ground for young talent. We'll be robbed of new voices and neophytes."
In contrast to this an unnamed DJ from Lite FM commented, "We don't mind the concept of voice-tracking in the sense that we'll gladly export our voices. We just want to be the talent pool."
RNW comment: Our reading of this is that Clear Channel will succeed, a few New York DJ's will gain extra money for tracking for other stations, and that the New York talent pool will gradually be denuded. Sialiano at least may have had the courage to speak his mind but he won't be able to win any fight on the issue on his own and the technology involved would allow Clear Channel to replace all its New York staff with outside voices in the short term should there be a dispute.
Perhaps the best hope the lesser names have is that Clear Channel has high profile political problems at the moment, assumed by many to be the reason Randy Michaels was moved out of its radio operations, and that it may choose to avoid a fight. Give things time though, and the idea will be back
Previous AFTRA:
Previous Clear Channel:
New York Times report:
2002-08-25: The main news this week is in a sense yet to come as the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continues its enquiry into the Opie and Anthony "Sex in St Patrick's Cathedral" stunt and stations all over the US wonder whether the duo have opened the door for a new flurry of tightening up by the Commission: Elsewhere things were fairly much routine.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has allocated new community licences for Adelaide and the Adelaide Foothills.
The former has gone to Fresh Broadcasters Incorporated, which is offering a youth oriented service, and the latter to Music Broadcasting Society of South Australia Inc., which is targeting the audience for "fine music and the arts." In all there were five applications for the Adelaide licence and six for the Adelaide Foothills one.
In Tasmania,the ABA has invited applications for four new community licences to serve Hobart South, Tasman Peninsula, George Town and Northern Midlands in Tasmania. Applications have to be in by September 18.
The Authority has also proposed to alter area plans in Queensland and Victoria.
In Queensland it has announced changes for commercial radio services for the Remote North East Zone under which it will make an alternative medium power frequency available at Mount Tamborine for the commercial radio service, 4SUN and for licensee Sun FM's additional service, 4RBL.
The ABA is also making frequencies available for additional low power in-fill translators for both services at Eagle Heights and Canungra.
In Victoria, the changes are in the plans for the Mildura/Sunraysia area by formally changing a frequency nominally assigned for community radio retransmission to an open narrowcasting service. In 1996 the frequency concerned was allocated to the Association of the Blind Ltd (now called Vision Australia Foundation) but the organisation subsequently advised that it would not need the translator for five years and in 1997 it was made available for five years for an open narrowcasting service whose licence was bought by Tately Pty Ltd.
The ABA wishes to formalise the change and also propose operation from a nominal site in Mildura rather than the Robinvale site specified in its original plans.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has issued three-month administrative renewals for a number of stations in Québec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and Alberta where there are issues that affect normal renewals due on August 31.
Stations involved are Coopérative de travail de la radio de Granby 's CFXM-FM, Granby, Québec; Entreprises Radio Etchemin inc.'s CFOM-FM, Lévis, Québec; Astral Radio inc.'s CKRS-AM, Saguenay (formerly Chicoutimi), and CHIK-FM, Quebec, both in Québec; Réseau des Appalaches (FM) ltée's CFJO-FM, Thetford Mines, Victoriaville and Lac Mégantic, Québec; Newcap Inc.'s CFSX-AM, Stephenville, Channel-Port-aux-Basques and St. Andrew's, Newfoundland and Labrador; 614546 Saskatchewan Ltd.'s CJDJ-FM, Saskatoon, Sasktachewan; and O.K. Radio Group Ltd's CFGP-FM Grande Prairie and Peace River, Alberta.
Ireland was quiet on the radio front apart from some new staff appointments
In the UK, the Radio Authority has awarded the Hereford/Worcester AM and FM licences to their existing holders. There had been no other applicants for either the AM licence, held by Classic Gold, or the FM licence, held by Wyvern FM
The Authority has also updated its tariff table: The only change is the addition of a GBP20,000 new Additional Services licence application fee; this licence relates to the RDS(Radio Data System) sub-carrier of the Independent National Radio (INR1) that was advertised last month (See Licence News July 28)
On the digital front, the Authority has announced that at the end of the month it will invite applications for the digital multiplex for Stoke- on-Trent and the surrounding area.
In the US, as well as the Opie and Anthony saga, the Federal Communications Commission has confirmed a fine of USD 12,000 on Madison Broadcasting (See RNW Aug 20).
It has also red-flagged Saga Communication's USD12 million acquisition of KDEZ-FM, KDXY-FM and KJBX-FM, in Jonesboro, Arizona, that was announced earlier this month (See RNW Aug 13 ). If the deal goes through Saga and Clear Channel will together control some 95% of the market's revenue.
Saga has also lost out in another FCC ruling, this time its petition to deny the sale of WYVR-FM in Petersburg, Illinois, by LUJ, Inc to Long Nine Inc. Saga had argued that the application for the sale in 2001 was falsely certified complete when it in fact "omitted, without explanation, all of the Agreement's schedules.
Long Nine Inc had responded that the omitted schedules " contained proprietary and other information not germane to the subject application, and there was nothing in the record to dispute Long Nine's claim."
The FCC accepted that it had breached its own rules requiring sale application to include "all" requested information but decided that the deal should stand and modified its rules to allow the omission of "exclude non- material contract attachments."
Previous ABA:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Saga Communications;
Previous UK Radio Authority:
ABA web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site :
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-08-25: Streaming pioneer KPIG, owned by Mapleton Communications, which cut its streams last month in the wake of the royalties ruling from the Librarian of Congress (see RNW July 20) has now returned to the Internet, but its no longer there for free.
The station's output is now part of a package from RealNetworks with around 40 other channels including channels from the BBC, US National Public Radio and classical station KING-FM for which there is a charge of USD5.95 per month.
Previous Mapleton:
2002-08-24: More developments have piled up in the Sex for Sam feature in the Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) show in which people received a prize for engaging in sex in risky places and which took the shock jocks a step too far with the sex in St Patrick's Cathedral incident in New York.
Infinity's WNEW-FM, New York, has now axed the show - although the shock jocks remain under contract - in the wake of the protests over the incident and Westwood One has stopped syndication of the show.
Following this, the Catholic League has withdrawn its call for revocation of the licence of WNEW-FM and asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to end its investigation into the matter, which was announced late yesterday.
However, the FCC, having started the process, is continuing with its investigation. It is asking for full details from Infinity, not only including documentation regarding the planning and broadcast of this particular incident but also of other broadcasts "whereby it encouraged participants to engage in public sex."
It instructs Infinity to " modify immediately its document retention policies, if necessary, to ensure that no arguable relevant documents are destroyed" and also specifically requests information on the relationship between Infinity and producer Paul Mercurio, who was involved in giving details of the activities via a cellphone,
The news of the show's end came in a short statement issued late on Thursday just after we had published yesterday.
It said," "Based on recent events, The Opie and Anthony Show has been cancelled, and will be replaced by other programming beginning tomorrow."
The outlook also looks fairly grim for WNEW general manager Ken Stevens and programme director Jeremy Coleman, currently under indefinite suspension.
Infinity has put in interim general managers at WNEW and WJFK , which were overseen by Stevens but at the moment is not suggesting his dismissal.
Characteristically the station's web site, which has avoided discussion of the matter, simply removed mentions of Anthony and Opie.
It made no mention of the replacement with its schedule simply listing Ron & Fez from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a blank until the duo were listed again from 7pm to 11p.m.
Infinity's news station WCBS did carry the story, as did its WINS station site. Both radio stations in the stories on their web site also noted that Westwood One, the Infinity-controlled syndicator of the show although the latter was also not making note of this itself on its web site.
Following the decision, William Donohue, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said that he would ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to end its investigation into the matter and withdraw the League's request for revocation of WNEW's licence.
The League's web site however was still carrying attacks not only on the WNEW show but also on parents Viacom and CBS and, by name, Viacom chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone, and late night TV host David Letterman.
Concerning Letterman, the League said, "Unfortunately, David Letterman is piling on as well. His monologue on Monday included a joke about people having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral and then getting ordained. Last night he used the St. Pat's incident again, though this time he crossed the line for sure: he made reference to a priest molesting an altar boy in the Cathedral.
"David Letterman works for CBS and CBS is owned by Viacom, the same parent company that owns Infinity Broadcasting which, in turn, owns WNEW, the 'Opie and Anthony' station. There is obviously something twisted going on at Viacom and we intend to find out what it is and then act on it."
An earlier posting headed, "VIACOM: FIRST IN CATHOLIC-BASHING BROADCASTING" (League's capitalization) had referred to a letter written to Redstone "asking him to do something about his company's apparent disregard for Catholic sensibilities."
Further on it commented, " Just as Enron is now synonymous with corporate irresponsibility in the energy sector, Viacom is fast becoming synonymous with corporate irresponsibility in the broadcasting sector."
The FCC, which had held back on action, on Thursday sent a letter to WNEW asking for documents related to the broadcast and information about who approved the program.
FCC chairman Michael Powell issued a statement saying, "I am deeply disturbed about the reports. I have directed the FCC's enforcement bureau to proceed immediately with a thorough investigation."
He has also published on the FCC web site, not only his statement, but a copy of the letter sent to Infinity by Charles W Kelley, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau's Investigations and Hearings Division as well as a copy of the complaint sent by Donahue and a transcript of part of the show.
As well as the WNEW site, the official Anthony and Opie site had nothing on the matter, just a still: on the "unofficial" Anthony and Opie " site however, there were postings in support of the shock-jocks.
One called for a rally to save their show at 3pm Friday afternoon but, probably realistically, included the line "We don't know what the hell is it's going to accomplish, but it should be one hell of a farewell party!"
RNW comment: Having read the transcript sent to Infinity, it is obvious that we were mistaken yesterday as to the existence of a tape of the relevant part of the show but feel our other comments remain sound providing the FCC sticks to the policy it had previously announced.
In terms of the language used and what actually happened, the show would seem to us to be extremely offensive to the Catholic Church (which we note seems to have eschewed action itself and left the League to raise the matter) but the language used was nowhere near as indecent as material that has escaped penalty in the past.
The most offensive segments seem to be those that effectively defend the acts by attacking the church--see below..
In one early comment from Mercurio from the Cathedral steps he comments on the response they are getting and says that one person yelled, "That's a church. You should be ashamed of yourself"
To this the host responds, "Yeah, can't you do some paedophilia?"
Later, after the security guard has asked them to leave, he exchange goes:
Mercurio:" Listen, we just need to use the restroom, don't be such a …what are you being so difficult for. This is a sacrilegious place, this is a Catholic church."
Security guard: "Be quiet."
Mercurio: "No. I'm not gonna be quiet. I can say whatever I want to say. Just because you have a blue jacket on with a patch on doesn't mean you have authority over me. When they give you a walkie-talkie that doesn't mean you take over my Constitutional rights. We're gonna go, alright? We can do whatever we want. No harm, no foul. Not a problem what priests do to kids, though, either?
Woman: "Yeah. That's right."
Mercurio: I guess if the doors are closed it happens on the alter, right? [garbled] Nothing like meat and potato sex to turn that church around, right? …A little homosexual sex…{inaudible}…everybody out here…"
Security Guard {inaudible}
Mercurio: I'm a scumbag? What the Catholic Church has done to kids for 435 years? How could you be part of that? You're culpable. You should be ashamed of yourself. Maybe meat and potatoes sex is what the church needs. [Yelling} Sep up! Be Counted! And that was a balloon knot just so you know [laughter].
Mercurio:[yelling} "Where's your God now?"
Host:[laughter] "Whoa!"
Mercurio: "Alright, we're moving on. We'll call you back.
Host: "Wow!"
Host: "Oh my God. 27 points. 25 points with 2-point conversion and eternal damnation.
Host: "We should be allowed to just give him 200 extra points!"
There is more transcript but the above gives a fair flavour of the show. We hold absolutely no brief at all for the Catholic Church and would find many of the points raised, if brought up in another context, to be acceptable responses but not in the context of any place of worship.
In English legal terms the actions are clearly ones likely to lead to a "breach of the peace" and we suspect that not many years ago exactly that would have happened. The response in this case to bring in the police was reasonable and we stick to our view that those who set up such a situation should be held equally culpable with the couple involved (who could be jailed for a year). Such a sentence would have been far more effective in curbing the errant hosts than the pay-off they are likely to negotiate to end their long-term contract with Infinity.
We would equally agree that for a station to be involved in organising such a stunt should mean it is penalised but can't see that the actual broadcast was as serious a breach of regulations as many that have passed without sanction.
Interestingly enough, revocation of a licence, might be more justifiable under the rules in terms of an organisation being fit to hold a licence. We note here though, that in the case of Michael Rice, who was imprisoned for charges involving sex with minors and thus deemed unfit to remain a licensee, he lost all his stations (See RNW July 6, 2002).
The logic would thus be a loss of all Infinity's licences but that isn't going to happen; the question to us, therefore, is how far rules may be bent to assess a penalty that the broadcast itself probably doesn't deserve or whether the approach by the Enforcement Bureau will concentrate on the commissioning of the act. Wee suspect that it'll be around Christmas time before a ruling is made and that it won't be a present for Infinity.
Previous FCC:
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Redstone:
Previous Stevens:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Previous Westwood One:
Catholic League news releases:
FCC Enforcement Bureau letter to Infinity plus complaint (555 Kb PDF)
FCC web site (Links to Powell letter and above):
Unofficial O & A site:
WCBS report:
2002-08-24: Regent Communications has announced a successful bid of approximately USD62 million for 12 radio stations from the bankruptcy administrative officer for Brill Media.
The stations involved are WIOV-FM and WIOV-AM serving Lancaster-Reading, Pennsylvania; WBKR-FM, WKDQ-FM and WOMI-AM serving the Evansville, Indiana and Owensboro, Kentucky markets; KTRR-FM and KUAD-FM and a construction permit for an FM station serving Fort Collins-Greeley, Colorado; and KKCB-FM, KLDJ-FM, KBMX-FM and WEBC-AM serving Duluth, Minnesota.
Up to half the sum will be in Regent's common stock, although Regent can substitute cash for the stock portion of the transaction if Regent's stock falls below USD7.50 per share within the relevant time period before closure of the deal. The rest of the payment, which will not be less than USD31 million, will be in cash.
The deal is subject to the regulatory approval and the bankruptcy court's final approval.
Regent chairman and CEO Terry Jacobs, commented, "Located in five very attractive middle markets, these stations have leadership positions, strong technical facilities and the ability to generate an internal rate of return in excess of 25% over the next five years."
Previous Jacobs:
Previous Regent:
2002-08-24: LmiV, the local media Internet venture set up two years ago by Bonneville International Corporation, Corus Entertainment, Emmis Communications, Entercom Communications, and Jefferson-Pilot Communications, has announced that it is to close down as an independent operating company from the end of next month.
In the announcement made by the company, LMiV President and CEO Jack Swarbrick said, "The two things that were of critical importance to the mission of LMiV - the production of standard-setting websites for radio stations and the creation of a revolutionary model for cooperative initiatives among media companies - will continue. They just will no longer be done by LMiV."
He added, "Unfortunately, the fundamental change in the economic viability of streaming and the recession in the broadcast advertising market have conspired to cause many radio stations to reduce the resources they are allocating to their interactive efforts. As we continued to encounter prospective customers who loved our product but couldn't find the funds in the 2003 budget to become an affiliate, we knew that it was time to shut down LMiV."
LmiV's first station was Emmis's Q101 in Chicago (See RNW June 30, 2001) but consistently failed to meet its targets, In December last year it laid off around a third of its then 45 staff but was still talking of growing from 30 active sites to 125 by the end of March this year. It reached around 60 stations but, although this was insufficient to justify its existence, there was praise from member organisations for the progress made.
Emmis Chairman and CEO Jeff Smulyan, who was also LmiV chairman, commented, "This was an ambitious project that taught us a lot about the power of collaboration and the possibilities of the Internet. As a result of the tremendous online content and creative solutions generated by LMiV and our own people, Emmis Interactive enjoyed remarkable product success and revenue growth. We look forward to continuing to leverage the success for Emmis, our LMiV partners and others throughout the industry."
Previous Bonneville:
Previous Corus:
Previous Emmis:
Previous Entercom:
Previous Smulyan:
LmiV site:
2002-08-23: Although it's now a week since the start of the row over the sex in St Patrick's cathedral incident and lots of complaints have been made (See RNW Aug 20) it would appear none of them have been formal complaints that would allow the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate the incident.
The incident involved a stunt contest on the Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) show on Infinity's WNEW-FM in which couples took part in sex in unusual places..
No complaints so far , it seems, fit the necessary FCC criteria that the complainant must provide a tape or transcript to back up their complaint.
The question of this requirement has been brought up a number of times by Democrat Commissioner Michael Copps, who has called on a number of occasions for broadcasters to keep recordings of their shows although so far he has held back from making it a formal requirement to keep tapes as is required in a number of other countries and most broadcasters have not taken up the idea.
RNW comment: Looking at the FCC's clarification of its indecency rules issued in April last year (See RNW April 7, 2001) we rather think that, even if a proper formal complaint is brought, the rules might well allow WNEW to escape any penalty.
The rules require that a broadcast be "patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium" and it also "must describe or depict sexual or excretory organs or activities."
The FCC says, "The more explicit or graphic the description or depiction, the greater the likelihood that the material will be considered patently offensive."
Without having the chance to listen to the broadcast, we would surmise that it may be adjudged "tasteless" and it certainly was offensive to many, both Catholics and non-Catholics, in New York but it may well fall outside the FCC rules (unless the activities were full sexual intercourse -the defendants say they were fully clothed and did not engage in full sex- and graphically described) and to us the main offence is not in the broadcast but in the stunt itself.
Logically therefore the obvious course of action, since the hosts were obviously as complicit in the stunt as producer Paul Mercurio that, would be for them also to be prosecuted individually in relation to the actual acts rather than the broadcast.
That said, we are rather surprised in view of the publicity this case has had that tapes have not been forthcoming and their availability publicised: maybe Opie and Anthony has a very low listenership amongst Catholics and can also rely on few of its audience thinking it worth recording for a replay.
We do note that, as US regulations are currently framed and applied, broadcasters have no real incentive to keep recordings that could be used to incriminate them. Nor, it would seem to us, do they generally have much incentive to take great care regarding matters that may lead to complaints since the fines recently imposed have been comparatively small.
Indeed action by advertisers in reaction to or in conjunction with pressure group complaints seem to have been much more effective than any formal regulations. To us this seems to bring the rules into disrepute and they should either be strengthened or abandoned.
The question of requiring organisations to keep tape logs is one that some might argue could all foul of the Fifth amendment, albeit we would see the requirement as being on the organisation not the individual and we have no sympathy with organisations being treated as if they have "human rights" without a corresponding treatment for offences which would, for example, see almost automatic manslaughter jail sentences for company board members and senior executives in cases where lack of care leads to deaths.
We feel the current case is likely to bring pressures for changes in the regulations and tend to the feeling that they are necessary. An obvious one would be a dual-set of default penalties: Maybe around the current level for those broadcasters who agree to keep tape logs and massively more - say 100 times --whenever a log has not been kept or they do not so agree.
If nothing else this would make for some interesting calculations by the accountants! Does a broadcaster risk rather more fines in the current USD 4000 to 7000 range and accept the cost of keeping recordings or risk fines of USD 400,000 to USD 700,000. The latter would be fewer but the level of publicity greater, thus evening things out.
Again in our dreams but the idea isn't totally without merit and allows broadcasters to choose themselves which way to go!
Previous Copps:
Previous FCC:
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
2002-08-23: A totally different story of radio self-sufficiency comes from an Associated Press report that looks at two public stations that are nearly independent of the big companies not so much as in what they broadcast but in that they generate their own power from natural resources most of the time.
One station featured is WJFF-FM in Jeffersonville in the Catskill Mountains; the other is KBSJ-FM in Jackpot, Nevada.
WJFF is powered by turbines in the basement of Malcolm Brown's house; they're fed from a trout stream and power the house and WJFF's studios in a chalet overlooking Lake Jefferson. There's even power over to sell.
The impetus for the station came firstly from Brown's desire to get "off the grid" and then comments from a visitor.
After researching the power project Brown spent USD 100,000 building the powerhouse, laying pipe from the dam, and installing generators and the water-powered turbines.
After things were up and running a friend visiting Brown complained he'd miss the next episode of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion because of the Catskills' dearth of radio stations and the suggestion was made to build a station. The subsequent process of gathering signatures, raising money, filling out government grant forms and building a studio, took four years and the station hit the airwaves in 1990.
In Nevada, the power for all-news KBSJ's transmitter comes from three windmill generators on the 8,700-foot peak of Ellen D Mountain, 12 miles south of Jackpot. They churn out enough power for the 5,000-watt station , run by Boise State University with studios (powered from the grid) in Twin Falls, Idaho, and mostly offering programmes from National Public Radio
Station chief engineer Tom Lowther said the wind-generating system, with its 13,000-pound storage battery and voltage inverter, cost less than $300,000 -- much cheaper than an eight-mile spur from the nearest utility lines.
The need for the station at Jackpot, says the university, was related to a need for a local station that could carry news of an emergency should there be a spill or highway closure affecting US93 along which run trucks taking nuclear waste to a nearby federal repository.
The wind and stream, says the report, can provide power for most of the year but back-up power has to be used in August when the winds are low and the Catskill rains scarce.
San Francisco Chronicle/AP report:
2002-08-22: Infinity Broadcasting, which allowed Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) on the air last Friday after Thursday's sex in St Patrick's Cathedral incident, but then starting putting out "Best of " shows, has now said the pair will be off air indefinitely.
It has also suspended general manager Ken Stephens and programme director Jeremy Coleman while it reviews the matter
Re-runs are continuing while the pair remain suspended.
The incident, part of a regular show feature for which six couples were given a list of 54 high-risk locations at which to have sex in New York, led to calls from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights for WNEW-FM's licence to be revoked and for a heavy fine on the station's owners, Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting.
The couple involved, Brian Florence, 37, of Quantico, Virginia, and Loretta Lynn Harper, 35, of Alexandria, Virginia, were arrested on charges of public lewdness and producer Paul Mercurio was charged with acting in concert. The lawyer for them said the couple were only simulating sex.
When they appeared in court on Wednesday, the judge refused their request to be allowed not to attend the next hearing due on October 2; prosecutors had objected and commented that if they travelled to New York to commit a crime they could come to the city for a court date. They were heckled as they left the court.
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Stevens:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
2002-08-22: John Hogan, the new Clear Channel Radio CEO has pledged a more collaborative approach to the job than his predecessor Randy Michaels.
"I think the biggest change people can expect is, we will have a more collaborative, more cooperative attitude with our competitors inside the radio industry and we will be more open with the record industry and recording artists," he told the Los Angeles Times.
He also said that he would end the division's use of Michael's private company Radioactive through which Michaels had billed the company when its executives flew on his private plane. Last year Radioactive received around USD450, 000 for "consulting and transportation" according to the paper, which notes that his base salary was just above USD500, 000.
Another change that is to follow Michael's move is a relocation of the radio division's headquarters from Covington, Kentucky, to Clear Channel's San Antonio, Texas, HQ. Hogan is to move there and the radio division's chief financial officer, Jerry Kersting, is also expected to relocate to San Antonio.
Clear Channel employs some 40 people at Covington and a company spokeswoman told AP no decision had yet been made on how many of them would be affected by the change and noted that many of them worked in areas such as research that might not be affected by the change in HQ. Hogan, who has an office in Cincinnati, had been living in Atlanta.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Hogan:
Previous Michaels:
Los Angeles Times report:
2002-08-22: Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment has announced agreement to sell CKDO-AM and CKGE-FM in Oshawa, Ontario, to Durham Radio Inc., which owns and operates country format stations CJKX-FM and CJKX-FM-1.
Corus acquired CKDO AM and CKGE FM in 1999 when the company purchased Power Broadcasting Inc.'s broadcasting assets comprising 17 radio stations and four television stations in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
Corus Radio President John Hayes said, "after conducting a detailed strategic review of the market, we concluded that our best strategy would be to focus on other parts of our radio business. We believe that these stations are a better fit for Durham Radio Inc. which already operates in the market with a strong country FM format."
Previous Corus:
Previous Hayes:
2002-08-22: The Librarian of Congress is arguing to the US Court of Appeals that webcasters who did not take part in the CARP (Copyright Arbitration Panel) process that set royalty rates for streaming music should not be allowed to file an appeal against his decision.
A report by Kurt Hanson in his Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN) says that librarian James Billington is saying that they would not be an "aggrieved party" because they did not take part in the CARP proceedings.
Hanson notes that to take part in the process a webcaster had to commit to "an unknown portion of the million-dollar-plus cost of the proceedings 'in such manner and proportion as the arbitration panels shall direct.'"
He also notes that this meant that a webcaster without major resources would first be barred from taking part in the proceedings and subsequently not allowed to object to the decision in court and comments that "This process stinks."
RNW comment: It seems to us that, had the US the equivalent of a human rights act, any reasonable court would throw out Billington's motion with contempt.
Indeed it seems further that it would be fairly easy to replace Billington and a not unreasonable action to take on the basis that the attitude displayed makes him unsuitable for virtually any form of public office where ordinary members of the public have an interest.
It would be equally reasonable on that basis to conclude that the money he had been paid so far was taken partly under false pretences and thus no compensation should be due for the firing of any such jobsworth.
Only in our dreams, but we can at least hope that the court slaps him down with some harsh words at the very least.
RAIN website:
2002-08-22: Latest Internet ratings from MeasureCast show listening up 3% in the week to August 11, the first weekly increase since July 14; In the rankings the top stations remained unchanged and newcomer L-Love Radio held on to its third position, helping Educational Media Foundation (EMF), which streams it, Air 1 Radio, and World Wide Worship, into the MeasureCast Top 10 Internet Radio Networks at number nine.
For the week to August 11, 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 322,257 (344,061); CP : 64,407 (63,895) Same position with lower listening but higher reach, although latter still lower than two weeks ago.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 312,957 (278,927); CP 70,649 (64,545): Same position with higher listening and reach.
3:Contemporary Christian Music K-Love - TTSL 200,975 (196,999); CP 22,799 (20,482). Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Adult alternative Radioio - TTSL 180,841 (173,352); CP 40,904 (40,585). Same position with higher listening and reach.
5: Sports talk format ESPN TTSL 178,108 (162,874); CP 35,190 (33,262). Same position with higher listening and reach.
The top five networks for the week (Previous week in brackets) were:
1: Clear Channel Worldwide TTSL 1,198,191 (1,429,679) ; CP 274,285 (323,062) - Same position with lower listening and reach.
2: Radio Free Virgin TTSL 839,331 (820,209): CP 158,484 (158,233) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
3: WARP Radio TTSL 673,912 (627,055) hours: CP 106,951 (100,705) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Internet Radio Inc TTSL 616,349 (579,887) : CP 198,806 (193,284) - Same position with higher listening.
5: Virgin Radio TTSL 435,839 (466,621) : CP 88,514 (91,429) - Same position with lower listening and reach.
The top five simulcast stations for the week (Previous week in brackets) were:
1: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 322,257 (344,061); CP 64,407 (63,895): Same position with lower listening but higher reach.
2: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 312,957 (278,927); CP 70,649 (64,545) : Same position with higher listening and reach.
3: Contemporary Christian Music K-Love - TTSL 200,975 (196,999); CP 22,799 (20,482). Same position with higher listening and reach
4: Sports talk format ESPN TTSL 178,108 (162,874); CP 35,190 (33,262): Same position with higher listening and reach.
5: Classical format WXQR-FM - TTSL 172,122 (121,788); CP 26,831 (21,856). Up from sixth with higher listening and reach.
*Classical format KING-FM fell from fifth to sixth with listening down from 142,387 hours to 127,605 hours.
The top five Internet-only stations for the week (Previous week in brackets), were:
1: Adult alternative Radioio - TTSL 180,841 (173,352) ; CP 40,904 (40,585) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
2: Listener-formatted MediAmazing - TTSL 90,432 (94,650) ; CP 45,696 (46,144) Same position with lower listening and reach.
3:Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville -TTSL 88,303 (86,107); CP14,245 (13,768) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
4: Pure Rock KNAC.com - TTSL 81,649 (76,941) ; CP 18,674 (19,051). Same position with higher listening but lower reach.
5: Country format Bluegrass Country - TTSL 64,581 (62,249); CP 16,452 (15,745 ) Up from sixth with higher listening and reach.
*Alternative Rock 3WK Underground Radio fell from fifth to sixth with listening just up at 64,389 hours compared to 64,165 hours.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-08-21: The two top US radio groups have announced senior executive appointments.
At Clear Channel John Hogan has been appointed CEO of the company's radio division following Randy Michaels' move to head Clear Channel's New Technologies division (See RNW July 24).
Hogan, the President and Chief Operating Office of Clear Channel radio, actually takes over from Clear Channel President and COO Mark Mays, who has been acting CEO of Clear Channel Radio since Randy Michaels' move.
Hogan, who has been Clear Channel Radio's COO for a year, was formerly one of the division's Senior Vice Presidents and during his year as COO assembled the division's teams of Senior and Regional Vice Presidents.
Commenting on the appointment, Mays noted the extensive search for a new CEO amongst internal and external candidates and commented:"The radio industry and our company is full of tremendous talent, it was a pleasure to speak with so many qualified candidates. In the end though, this was an easy decision."
"John brings the combination of sales leadership, operating vision and industry experience that is so important to our next phase of growth. With much of the acquisition activity behind us, the overriding operating goal is to grow our business organically, leveraging assets now in place. John is both uniquely suited and qualified to lead that charge."
At rival Infinity, owned by Viacom, former Clear Channel Sr. Regional VP John Fullam has been named as President/COO. The appointment is the highest level one made by new Chairman/CEO John Sykes who recently recruited Andy Schuon as President of Programming and David Goodman as Executive VP/Marketing.
Commenting on the appointment, Sykes said, "John's managerial and leadership skills for the past 26 years have made him one of the radio industry's most respected leaders."
"He has enjoyed an unvarnished track record of success operating multiple groups of stations in some of the largest markets in the nation."
Fullam replaces Dan Mason, who is to continue as a consultant to the Infinity.
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Previous Mason:
Previous Mark Mays:
Previous Randy Michaels:
Previous Sykes:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
2002-08-21: SMG has announced that it has appointed Adam Singer, former chief executive of cable company Telewest and a member of the SMG board as a director nominated by Telewest, as an independent non-executive director.
Singer, says the group will be "eligible for appropriate directors' fees", which last year were GBP25, 000 in cash and shares for most of the company's eight non-executive directors.
Telewest, which is seeking to sell its 17% stake in SMG (See RNW Aug 14), had two directors on SMG's board; its other nominated director Stephen Cook will remain as their representative on SMG's board.
Commenting on the appointment, made after a full nomination process, SMG chairman Don Cruickshank said: "Adam's an experienced and far-sighted director, whose knowledge of the communications industry has been of great value to SMG over the years. I'm delighted that he has agreed to stay on the Board and that the Group will continue to benefit from his knowledge and judgment."
Singer was ousted from his post at Telewest, which he had held for two and a half years and which paid some GBP700, 000 a year plus bonuses, at the end of July; Under his leadership the company had built up debts of some GBP5 billion and its market value fed from some GBP12 billion to GBP120 million
Previous SMG:
2002-08-21: Latest Irish ratings from the JNLR/MRBI survey, covering the period from July 2001 to the end of June 2002, show that independent radio has lost 1% of its share since the survey to the end of March but it is still ahead of state broadcaster RTÉ; independent stations had a combined listenership of 53% compared to RTÉ's 47%; For the period to June 2001, independent stations had a 55% listenership.
Within the RTÉ figures, Radio 1 had a listenership of 31%, down 1% on the previous quarter but up 1% on a year ago, 2FM held on to the 27% it had in the previous quarter, and Lyric FM held on to the 4% it had in the previous quarter.
National commercial channel Today FM held on to its 16% in the previous quarter up 1% on the figures for a year ago.
Excluding counties Dublin and Cork, the independent sector had a reach of 56% (down 2% on the previous year), Today FM increased its reach by 2% to 18% and RTÉ Radio 1 and Lyric retained their reach of 29% and 3% respectively whilst its "FM gained 1% to 33%. Of the independent local stations Highland Radio gained 4% to go to a 76% reach and increased its share by 3% to 66% and NorthWest Radio gained 2% to go to a 70% reach and increased its share by 2% to 55%,
In Dublin, FM104 had a listenership of 215, down 1%; 98FM has 19%, down 2%; Lite FM had 12%, down 1%; and new entrant Country 106.8FM had a 2% listenership for the six months to the end of June this year.
In Cork, County Sound increased its reach of a year ago by 1% to 57% and new independent youth service Red FM has a reach of 16% for the six months to the end of June this year.
Previous Irish Ratings:
Irish Ratings for 2001-2001 year:
Previous RTÉ:
2002-08-20: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now received a whole bundle of complaints about the Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) generated stunt that led to two of the shows listeners and producer Paul Mercurio being arrested in connection with what Commissioner Michael Copps has termed a "a running on- air broadcast of a sex act in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York as part of a radio stunt."
The couple, Loretta Lynn Harper, 35, of Alexandria, and her boyfriend, Brian Florence, 37, of Quantico, both in Virginia, were participating in a WNEW-FM/"The Opie and Anthony Show" contest to see who would have sex in the riskiest place.
The couple were arraigned on charges of public lewdness, third-degree obscenity and exposure and are due back in court for a hearing tomorrow.
According to the New York Daily News, during the broadcast on Thursday's Opie and Anthony show, as Mercurio phoned in reports, the hosts awarded the couple "Twenty-seven points. ... Twenty-seven points and eternal damnation!"
After the arrests, Anthony commented from the studio, "Oh, boy. Well, that's the first time one of our teams have ever been arrested."
The two have not commented on the matter although one said at the start of the next day's show that the station lawyers had forbidden them to say anything and lamented, "We're here to do a radio show and we can't talk about the biggest thing to do with this radio show."
The station General Manager Ken Stevens in a statement said, "WNEW regrets the unfortunate incident that took place …We apologize to anyone who has been offended and have taken measures to ensure that it does not happen again."
According to the paper this, if anything enraged New York Catholics further and the paper quoted William Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, as saying of the statement, "This makes it worse. This is so insulting it is incredible. Unfortunate incident? Broadcasting a live sex act in a cathedral packed with worshipers on the Feast of the Assumption?"
The League has filed a formal letter of complaint with the FCC and is calling for WNEW's licence to be revoked, a call that was taken up by Copps.
In his statement he said he expected the complaint to be on the fast- track at the Commission and added "If these complaints and press accounts prove true, this Commission should consider the strongest enforcement action possible against this station, up to and including revocation of the station's license."
RNW comment: Normally we would have laughed out of court the idea that the FCC would revoke a licence for shock-jock excesses but in this case we would have a nagging concern were we the station owners, albeit we still tend to think that a hefty fine is the most likely response.
If, however, the Commission feels that it has to take strong action when abuses are serious - an approach that Commission Chairman William Powell has suggested he might support with comments concerning tough regulation when necessary but tolerance of minor abuses - this case would certainly fit the bill for strong action. Either way, we'd think Opie and Anthony might be wise to examine job opportunities outside radio just as a precaution.
Still with the FCC and disciplinary action, the Commission has Upheld Penalties totalling USD12, 000 on Madison Broadcasting Group for failure to post its antenna structure registration (" ASR") numbers and its failure to maintain specified painting on its five antenna structures in
Lynchburg, Virginia. Madison had been issued with a Notice of Apparent Liability for the amount at the end of April but had argued that it could not afford to pay and that the violations were not wilful. The Commission said that Madison's argument, and a supplemental argument based on the subsequent dismantling of the towers and the statement that the company's president did not know of the need for action and thus was not acting wilfully, were not accepted and upheld the penalty.
Previous Copps:
Previous FCC:
Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Powell:
Copps statement:
FCC notice re tower fines:
New York Daily News report:
2002-08-20: Duncan's American Radio has reported a drop of 4.6% to USD16.7 billion from USD 17.1 billion in US radio industry revenues in 2001 compared to 2000. The fall was the first after nine consecutive years of grown and was put down to the effects of the dot.com bust and the September 11 attacks.
For this year Jim Duncan is forecasting revenues are being flat or falling up to 3%.
Within the figures, Clear Channel is listed as top biller with a total of USD3.5 billion, followed by Infinity Radio with USD2.2 billion, Cox Radio third with USD433 million, ABC Radio fourth with USD 386 million and Entercom fifth with USD358 million.
2002-08-20: According to the UK Independent British TV companies Carlton and Granada have refused SMG's asking price of around GBP350 million for its television and do not intend to get into a bidding war over the interests.
The paper says that Carlton and Granada want to drive the price down but notes that venture capital firm Apax and other private equity houses including Candover are also thought to be interested in a purchase of the interests.
Previous SMG
UK Independent report: