October 2002 Archive
- Front Page
- About this site
- Freelance bulletin board
- Site audio files
- Radio Stations
- Other links
- Story Archives Index
- Personalities Archive Index
- Organisations Archive Index
- Comment Index
- Your feedback
- Browsers and players
Prime Radio Stations
ABC, Australia
Home
page
Radio
Australia
ABC, Anerica
News
audio
BBC:
World
Service
World
Service Business
Reports
UK--Radio
4
CBC,Canada
Radio
1 live feed
Hourly
newscast
Voice of America
Audio
News reports
WORLD
NEWS RADIO
(on-demand
audio reports)
ZDTV Radio
Technical news -home page
September 2002 -
November
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 October comment looks at the responsibilites of democratic societies and their broadcasters in ensuring adequate and fair news and information broadcasts.
RNW September comment looks at the Opie and Anthony "Sex for Sam" stunt row and concludes that it should stimulate discussion on what regulations the Federal Communications Commission should apply in future but that there should be no sudden severe penalty imposed in this case.
RNW August comment considers RDS -Radio Data Services- and where they are a benefit and where they could be a fatal negative.
2002-10-31: More strong results have come from the latest batch of third quarter results in the US, although Beasley Broadcasting was an exception in revenues, which rose only 0.35% to USD28.8 million from USD28.7 million.
However its net income went into the black at USD1.5 million (6 cents a share) compared to a loss of USD 1,5 million (48 cents a share) in the third quarter of last year. For the final quarter, Beasley says it expects revenues of around USD31 million with same-station revenues forecast to grow 3%.
Cox Radio beat analysts expectations with revenues for the quarter up 13.4% over 2001 Q3 from USD99.2 million to USD 112.5 million with net income more than quadrupling from USD3.6 million (4 cents a share) to USD17.8 million (18 cents a share): Cox notes that had accounting standard SFAS No. 142 been in operation for the whole of 2001, its net income for the third quarter would have been USD12.8 million (13 cents a share). Broadcast cash flow was up 18.5% to USD45.4 million from USD38.3 million and free cash flow was up just over 75% to USD 25.6 million.
Within the figures, national revenues rose 17.5% to USD 23.8 million and local revenues rose 12.1% to USD82.4 million.
President and CEO Robert F. Neil commented, "We are pleased to report third quarter financial results which exceeded our guidance on all measures."
"Revenue growth this quarter was substantial, up 13%, while our broadcast cash flow margin was up 170 basis points over last year. Perhaps most importantly, we delivered free cash flow of almost $26 million this quarter, an increase of 75% over last year's third quarter." "These record results were driven by company-wide strong performance with exceptional results from our Houston, Tampa, Long Island and Louisville clusters."
"Finally, we are pleased to report that the advertising environment remains strong, and while economic and political uncertainty surround us, we are on track to post record results for the full year 2002."
For the fourth quarter of 2002, Cox Radio says it expects net revenues of approximately $108 million; broadcast cash flow of approximately $42 million; and earnings per share of 15 cents.
Radio One Inc. reported net broadcast revenues up 22% on 2001 at USD 80.5 million and same station revenues up 13%; Broadcast Cash Flow was up 25% overall at USD43.1 million and same station BCF was up 20% and net income went into the black at USD12.8 million (12 cents a share) compared to a loss of USD10.1 million (11 cents a share) for Q3, 2001.
EBITDA was up 24% to USD 39.9 million; after tax cash flow at USD 21.6 million (21 cents a share) was up 77% and free cash flow at USD 19,1 million (18 cents a share) was up 87%,
CEO and President Alfred C. Liggins, III, commented, "This was another great quarter for us as we continued to deliver some of the highest growth rates and margins in the industry."
"We have weathered an uncertain economic environment and competitive entry in several of our markets and are well positioned to continue our industry outperformance in the upcoming quarters, which is remarkable given the tough comps that we are up against relative to most other industry participants."
"We are cautiously optimistic that the strength we have seen in radio advertising over the past several months will continue well into next year."
Executive Vice President and CFO Scott R. Royster added, "In addition to our strong operating performance, our balance sheet continues to improve markedly. Our leverage has fallen below five times EBITDA, and we are pleased to announce that we recently took advantage of historically low interest rates and, effective early December, 2002, fixed rates on $200 million of our bank term debt at swap rates ranging from 2.55% to 3.39… down from an average fixed swap rate of 6.41% we have been paying for the last two years. This action should benefit net income and free cash flow and enhance our financial flexibility in 2003 and beyond."
For the fourth quarter of 2002, Radio One says it expects net broadcast revenue of approximately $76.9 million, BCF of approximately $37.4 million, EBITDA of approximately $34.2 million, ATCF per share of approximately $0.16 and net income per share (before preferred dividends of $0.05 per share and one time and/or extraordinary items, if any) of approximately $0.09-0.10. This would represent double-digit growth in same station net revenue for the quarter.
Saga Communications net revenues for the quarter were up 13.5% over 2001 at USD29.8 million; Broadcast cash flow was up 19.6% to USD 11.9 million and After tax cash flow was up 27.7% at Usd6.9 million (33 cents a share). Saga's net income was up 62% to USD4.4 million (21 cents a share).
Same station net revenues within this were up 9.5% to USD28.7 million with same station BCF up 17% to USD11.7 million.
Saga's radio revenues were up 12.5 % at USD 23.7 million with radio BCF up 16.8% at USD11.1 million and radio operating profit up 30.7% at USD 9.8 million.
For the fourth quarter, Saga expects net revenues of $29.2 million; broadcast cash flow of $10.9 million and after tax cash flow of $6.1 million (29 cents a share).
Previous Beasley:
Previous Cox:
Previous Liggins:
Previous Neil:
Previous Radio One Inc:
Previous Royster:
Previous Saga Communications:
2002-10-31: Latest Australian ratings from the AC Nielsen McNair survey show Macquarie's Sydney 2GB further increasing to its lead over Southern Cross Broadcasting's 2UE in the talk stakes; although its share fell from 10.0 to 9.6, it kept the second spot whilst 2UE, which lost share from 8.8 to 8.0 plunged to seventh rank. Austereo's 2-Day kept the top spot, with its share up from 10.5 to 11.7. ABC 702 went the other way, taking its share up from 7.9 to 9.4 and moving into third rank from eighth. DMG 's Nova fell from fifth to sixth..
In the breakfast competition, Alan Jones retained the top spot for 2GB but his share slipped again, this time from 13.6 to 13.4 but in the mornings, John Laws lost his top spot for rival 2UE to 2-Day as the latter's share increased from 9.6 to 10.9 and his fell from 11.3 to 10.1, equal with Ray Hadley at 2GB who saw his share drift slightly down from 10.3. City by city, the top three were (previous % share in brackets):
*Adelaide: SAFM with 24.7 (27.3); 5AA with 17.9 (17.1); MIX with 12.0 (11.6) was up from fourth - 5MMM with 11.5 as in the previous survey fell to fourth:
*Brisbane - B105FM with 17.2 (19.8); Triple M 14.3 (14.3); NEW97.3 FM 12.2 (12.9). No change in rankings but B105 and NEW97.3 FM continued to fall back while Triple M held steady.
*Melbourne - Fox FM 13.6 (13.9) losing a little share but moving into top spot: ABC774 12.7 (12.1)- gaining share and moving from third into second spot; 3AW 12.0 (14.0) - losing share again and falling from top to third: Nova moved up from fifth spot last time when it had an 7.8 share to fourth with a 9.4 share.
*Perth - MIX 94.5FM with 22.6 (22.9); All New 92.9 with 17.0 (16.5); 96FM with 13.6 (13.2) - no change in rankings:
*Sydney, 2-Day with 11.7 (10.5); 2GB 9.6 (10.1); ABC702 9.4 (7.9) - up from eighth: Triple M with 8.9 (8.7) fell from third to fourth and 2UE with 8.0 (8.8) - plunged from second to seventh whilst Nova with 8.2 (8.2) fell from fifth to sixth.
Previous Austereo:
Previous Australian ratings:
Previous DMG:
Previous Hadley:
Previous Jones:
Previous Laws:
Previous Macquarie:
Previous Southern Cross:
2002-10-31: The BBC has hauled Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles over the coals for threatening to "tear the head" off a rival DJ, according to the UK Guardian. The action was taken following a complaint about comments made by Moyles on his show in response to comments in a tabloid newspaper by rival DJ, Neil "Dr" Fox, from Capital FM.
Fox has said he'd like to get in the ring with Moyles for an edition of a TV series and Moyles in his show said, "I'm going to rip that guy a brand new hole. I'm gonna tear his head off and poo down his neck."
The BBC programme complaints unit commented that the "remarks had been prompted by personal comments from the rival DJ. However, what began as a humorous response became too forceful and prolonged."
Previous BBC:
Previous Moyles:
UK Guardian report:
2002-10-31: The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled that comments made that "some women need a slap in the face" (translation) on the radio program Champagne pour tout le monde broadcast on CKRS-AM, Chicoutimi, Quebec, promoted violence against women and breached its codes.
It has also ruled that an ethnic joke broadcast on the Scruff Connors and John Derringer Morning Show on CFYI-AM, Toronto, as tasteless but did not breach its codes.
The Quebec decision related to conversation between Louis Champagne and his co-host Brigitte Simard who had reported during the entertainment news segment of the show that singer Whitney Houston had separated from her husband after a history of physical abuse. Champagne responded that Houston "liked to be beaten" and, when Simard attempted to change the subject, Champagne repeatedly insisted, "some women need a slap in the face."
The broadcaster has suggested in a letter that Champagne was using sarcasm to denounce the cycle of violence that becomes common-place in some women's lives and that he in no way intended to encourage or endorse violence against women.
The Quebec Panel rejected this proffered justification and found the broadcaster in breach of both the CAB Code of Ethics and the CAB Violence Code:
In the Toronto case, the hosts had poked fun at Chinese food, adopting a mock Chinese accent, and also Swedish, German and French accents.
The exchange led to a complaint from the Chinese Canadian National Council, which stated that the "sarcastically stereotypical content" was derogatory and disrespectful towards Chinese Canadians.
The panel, although commenting on the poor taste and puerile nature of those who find foreign accents, particularly when coupled with halting English, to be funny, said that the comments had not breached its codes.
It added that it considered them "unpleasant, desensitizing and unreflective of the public responsibility that those seated at the microphone ought to carry but not so hateful, demeaning or degrading as to be considered to be abusive or unduly discriminatory."
Previous CBSC:
CBSC web site:
2002-10-31: New York disc jockey Irving Bynum, known as DJ Biz at Albany urban contemporary station WAJZ-FM, is in a stable condition in hospital after being slashed in the face and shot four times when he was attacked as he got into his car in the station's parking lot according to an AP report.
The AP says he was able to give police a description of his attacked and quotes Albany Broadcasting Company's general manager Paul Vandenburgh as saying he didn't know of any possible motive for the attack.
San Francisco Chronicle/AP report:
2002-10-30: US radio giant Clear Channel's third quarter results show its revenues up 1.7% on 2001 at USD 2.34 billion and radio revenues up 11.3% to USD 964,123; Overall free cash flow (EBITDA less interest expenses, taxes and non-revenue producing capital expenditures) was up 108% to USD419 million (USD0.66 per share), compared to USD201 million or USD0.33 per share for the same period in 2001.
On a pro forma basis, overall revenues were down 2.9% to USD 2.31 billion but pro forma radio revenues at the same USD 964,123 total were up 9.4%.
Net earnings were USD213 million, or USD0.34 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2002 compared to a net loss of USD232 million or a net loss of USD 0.39 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2001 although Clear Channel notes that had FAS (Financial Accounting Standard) 142 been in force throughout 2002, net earnings for the third quarter of that year would have been USD119 million or USD0.20 per diluted share.
Adjusted EBITDA (operating cash flow less corporate expenses) was up 11% to USD616 million for the quarter and EBITDA was USD418 million, an increase of 18% over the same period in 2001; On a pro-forma basis overall EBITDA was up 8% to USD 612 million, and radio EBITDA was up 17% to USD 419 million.
Commenting on the overall figures, chairman and CEO Lowry Mays said, "I am proud that Clear Channel is on a strong and steady course to compete fairly in our industries, grow our business honestly and manage our business with integrity. The fundamentals of our business are sound, and I am very proud of the results we are seeing as our people continue to focus on serving our customers and communities."
On the radio figures, Radio CEO John Hogan said, "The third quarter, my first as Radio CEO, saw a number of positive moves."
"Our markets continued gaining traction through strong revenue growth. Our structure and initiatives continued supporting the decentralized responsibility and accountability of our managers, while providing unparalleled resources to help them run their clusters."
Looking ahead, Clear Channel is forecasting fourth quarter EBITDA in the range USD 525-550 million, which would be an increase of 48% to 50% on the same quarter of 2001; based on this estimate it says it expects to generate a total of some USD1.2 billion in free cash flow for the full year around 50% more than in 2001.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Hogan:
Previous Lowry Mays:
Clear Channel web site (Results are 33kb PDF)
2002-10-30: The UK commercial radio lobby looks as if it may have pushed the British government into a re-think of its "three plus the BBC" proposals in its draft Communications Bill that would have insisted that for a local market there should be a minimum of three owners of commercial radio stations as well as the BBC.
The broadcasters under the aegis of the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) had argued that this would mean that radio was over-regulated compared to the BBC and wanted the rules changed to a minimum of two commercial owners.
Capital Radio chief executive David Mansfield had been particularly outspoken in attacks on the proposals (See RNW Oct 21)
The government has now indicated it may accept the radio companies' arguments and change the rules to "two plus the BBC"
Previous Capital:
Previous CRCA:
Previous Mansfield:
2002-10-30: In its latest Programming and Advertising Review, published along with its quarterly Complaints Bulletin to the end of September, the UK Radio Authority again headlines the issue of local "news hubs" that would allow a group of stations to centralise production of bulletins, an idea that it rejected last month (See RNW Sept 12).
Its main feature deals with its approach to the idea and it also has a second feature on its AM strategy published earlier this month (See RNW Oct 6).
In its complaints bulletin, the Authority says it considered 46 programming-related complains, down from 64 in the third quarter of last year and 50 relating to advertising, up from 41 in the third quarter of last year (See RNW Oct 25, 2001).
The Complaints Bulletin shows a breakdown (Q3, 2001 figures in brackets) of programming complaints as follows:
* Accuracy - One (Five) of which None (Three) were upheld;
*Balance/Bias and Fairness - Six (Three), of which None (None) were upheld;
*Taste and decency - 26 (38) of which five (nine) were upheld;
*Promise of performance or format - Eight (Eight) of which None (None) were upheld and
* Other Five (10) of which Three (One) were upheld. These total 46 complaints (64) of which eight (13) were upheld.
The advertising complaints breakdown (again with 2001 figures in brackets) was:
* Harmful - Three (One), of which None (None) was upheld;
* Misleading 21 (32) of which Four (Six) were upheld;
* Offensive 20 (Six) of which Three (One) were upheld and
* Other - Six (Two), of which Two (None) were upheld. These total 50 complaints (41) of which Nine (Seven) were upheld.
The taste and decency programming offences which were upheld included:
*A complaint against a Sunday morning programme on Key 103, Manchester, which included banter about premature ejaculation and that was held to be unsuitable for broadcast at a time when research showed the station had a significant child audience.
*A complaint against Kiss FM, London, over the lyrics of the Ja Rule and Ashanti song Always on Time. The station had played the song as part of a 20-minute mix and said the producer had not checked the mix thoroughly; The Programme Director said when the lyrics were heard on air, he immediately instructed the DJ to talk over the mix and end playing the song as soon as possible. In ruling the Authority noted the station's speedy action.
*A complaint against Xfm, London, that the complainant thought was offensive to a member of Professor Stephen Hawking's staff and that, through a computer-simulated voice ridiculed his disability that meant he speaks through a speech synthesizer.
The Authority rejected this part of the complaint but held that the call should not have been broadcast without gaining permission of the member of staff.
* A complaint against Virgin over a promotion for a late-night phone in that the complainant felt contained references to a 'hard on' and 'shagging her brains out' that were inappropriate for an early evening broadcast.
Two other complaints were considered resolved. One was against Wave Fm, Solent, and concerned what a complainant thought was an unnecessarily explicit news report about an assault in which the victim's eye was dislodged. The item had only been broadcast once from copy from a local news agency.
The second, against Spectrum Radio, London, concerned the use of the phrase "'taking the piss" during a morning broadcast during school holidays. The station had taken action against the presenter and apologized.
The "Other" category complaint upheld involved a call by Wave FM to the breakfast crew concerning RAJAR audience figures that was later broadcast as "live" although the complainant station said its crew had not been made aware that the call was being recorded. In addition, they said, it had been edited to give the impression that the crew agreed with the Wave presenter.
Wave's Programme Controller had said he was "shocked" to hear the piece and had reprimanded the presenter.
Authority Members felt was no excuse for either the surreptitious recording or misleading editing and said they were also very disappointed that boundaries were breached within such a poor piece of radio. However, they added, having regard to Wave's reaction and its previous good record, they decided that a stern warning to the station regarding future compliance would suffice, rather than a fine on this occasion.
Also upheld was a complaint against RAM FM, Derby, over a phone call to a school, which had been broadcast without gaining permission
(RNW note: By our calculations this meant two upheld complaints in the "Other category", despite only one being listed in the Authority's summary, which, we also noted, only listed four taste and decency cases upheld, not the five in their summary.)
Advertising complaints upheld included the following:
*A complaint against Invicta FM concerning a phone-in to a premium rate number that the complainant said had led early callers to remain on the line although they had no chance of winning.
*An advertisement by Teeside Health Authority concerning the MMR (Measles, mumps, rubella) inoculation that termed it the "safest" way to protect a child. The complainant said that the matter of the "safest" way to protect a child was the subject of controversy and the Authority held, that although this was the British government's position, rules had been breached by not putting the advert through RACC clearance.
*A Volkswagen advert that implied, according to the complainant, that one of its features meant the car could not "slide sideways on a frictionless surface"; an unsubstantiated claim that the complainant said was "a very dangerous untruth."
*A complaint against a Glasgow company that advertised it would "halve any competitor's quote" without exception but then refused to do so on the basis that the advert covered only a particular laminate in one colour.
* A complaint against a kitchen and bathroom company that claimed that its products were made in its own factory when they were not.
*A complaint about an advert referring to sexual ability, penile size problems, premature ejaculation and circumcision that was broadcast in the morning despite approval on the basis that it should not be scheduled when children might be listening.
* An advert that described getting products elsewhere as " a waste of space", thus breaching rules on discrediting other products or services.
The Authority also upheld complaints against a number of stations involved in its Access Radio Scheme.
These included:
*A complaint against Switch FM, Belfast, whose presenters the complainant said had promoted loyalist paramilitary organizations and was not impartial and was offensive. The station denied the allegations but could not provide a recording, so the complaint was upheld under the authority's policy on this.
*A complaint against Birmingham station Kerrang Radio over its airing of an Eminem track that contained obscene lyrics.
* A complaint against Hull University station Jam 1575 that had disparaged callers: The authority said it found it did not think the audience in this case would have found the comments offensive but they themselves considered them unprofessional and inappropriate.
Three complaints were also upheld against satellite service licensee Panjab Radio.
One involved complaints from members of the Hindu Community regarding a broadcast made from a Sikh perspective that was held not to have been balanced or allowed the expression of views from another perspective; another on a similar basis that the Authority's expert said included comments from the presenter that appeared to be " inaccurate and therefore likely to be offensive to Hindu beliefs"; and a homeopathic clinic advert that had not been given RACC clearance.
Previous UK Radio Authority:
Previous Authority Bulletin/ Programming and Advertising Review:
UK Radio Authority web site (Links to Bulletin - 487Kb PDF - and Review 273kb PDF):
2002-10-30: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed two fines totalling USD 13,000 against Mount Rushmore Broadcasting, Inc., licensee of Station KAWK-FM, Custer, South Dakota, and KZMX-FM, Hot Springs, South Dakota
One was of USD10, 000 regarding KAWK's for operation of an "unlicensed aural broadcast auxiliary station" and the other was of USD 3000 concerning KZMX's the failure to establish monitoring procedures and schedules to determine compliance with operating power and modulation levels, and Mount Rushmore's failure to have positive on/ off control of the transmitter.
Notices of Apparent Liability were issued in May but there had been no response filed.
Previous FCC:
2002-10-30: Although many US public stations have been hit by a downturn in sponsors, public support for the fall pledge-drives of two of the largest stations have both produced strong results.
In New York City, WNYC-FM raised just over USD1.24 million from a record 12,391 listeners, a sum only exceeded by last year's record USD3, 1 million raised after the station's transmitters were destroyed in the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Commenting on the results, WNYC President and CEO Laura Walker commented, " We are deeply gratified by this enormous outpouring of public support. In the current economic climate, as people narrow their choices of which non-profit organizations to support, we are also grateful that WNYC Radio remains at the top of people's lists. We feel privileged that our listeners, in such overwhelming numbers, continue to support the programming they rely upon."
In Chicago, WBEZ-FM raised a record USD1, 5 million from more than 11,00 listeners. Its president and general manager Torey Malatia said in the current economic climate the sum raised was a "monumental goal" and added, "The success of this drive clearly states that Chicago Public Radio is a vital resource in the community."
Previous WBEZ:
Previous WNYC:
2002-10-29: Radio led the US advertising recovery at the start of this year with TV following in the second quarter and the communications industry did better than the US economy as a whole according to the latest issue of Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Annual Communications Industry Report just released.
VSS says that a recovery that was beginning in August last year until it was hit by September 11 began to re-emerge this year, led by radio, which posted an upswing in the first quarter.
For 2001 overall it says adjusted total revenues for publicly reporting communications companies inched up 2.5 percent to $261.7 billion in 2001, and adjusted total operating cash flow edged up 1.7 percent to $54.8 billion in 2001. Operating cash flow return on assets dropped to 7.6 percent, down 5.6 % since 1998, mainly because of write-downs at companies with Internet-related assets.
James Rutherfurd, executive vice president and head of investment banking at Veronis Suhler Stevenson, commented, "The communications industry was hardly immune from the economic downturn, but when compared to the economy as a whole and to other industries, it didn't do badly."
"….We believe some signs are now pointing toward a stabilized recovery of the industry."
"What the CIR shows is the background to today's environment: A technology meltdown and an economic recession that worsened following the September 11 terrorist attacks caused the first communications spending decline in decades. This combination of negative trends took a massive toll on the advertising industry, which trickled down into just about every communications sector. However, in the first half of 2002 we have seen some signs of a turnaround."
The report also notes the scale of media consolidation in the US with a total of 560 publicly reporting companies in 1999 dropping to 440 in 2000 and then to 353 in 2001.
In radio, the report says that over the past five years , the 25 publicly reporting radio station networks and station broadcasters' in the US had adjusted total revenues down 1.6 % to $6.8 billion, with 21.7 percent CAGR growth.
Total operating income was down 30.1 percent to $698.8 million, but over the past five years, operating cash flow margins increased at a compound annual rate of 24.0 percent.
Consolidation in the segment helped the value of assets increase 10.9% to $50.8 billion, while total operating cash flow increased 18.3 percent to $2.5 billion.
The operating cash flow margin was 36.6 percent, higher than 2000 levels and slightly off 1999.
Operating cash flow return on assets was 5.1 percent, a slight decline of 3.8 percentage points since 1998.
The top three companies in the segment were Viacom, Clear Channel Communications and Westwood One.
Veronis Suhler Stevenson web site:
2002-10-29: The BBC's Asian Network has now been re-launched as a national radio station, the latest to go on air of the BBC's five new national digital channels approved by the British government in September last year (See RNW Sep15, 2001) to go on air.
The channel was previous available only in the Midlands; it is now available not only nationally on digital channels but also via the Internet and in some areas on AM frequencies either full-time as in the Midlands or in the evenings as in parts of Lancashire, southern England and Yorkshire.
BBC director of Radio Jenny Abramsky said the Corporation had failed the country's Asian population and noted that when she launched Radio 5 Live it had an Asian and Afro-Caribbean programme, adding that the problem had been not having enough spectrum, something that digital radio had enabled them to address.
The station has had a re-vamp to coincide with the launch and now includes a new daily-phone in, presented from London by Sonia Deol, formerly with BBC London, following its breakfast show, which is still broadcast from Leicester and is hosted by Gagan Grewal.
After Deol's show the afternoon show is broadcast from London followed by a drive time show from Birmingham. It is keeping its devotional music hour from 5-6 am, serving Asian Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs
In all the station has a staff of around 70 full-time and 30 part-time and a budget of GBP3 million (USD 4.7 million) a year; its mix is mainly Indian music plus news and talk programming.
The BBC is also investing around GBP1 million (USD 1.55 million) in creating a radio soap opera for the network, which it hopes will help develop Asian talent and that is expected to be on air by 2004.
Previous Abramsky:
Previous BBC:
BBC Asian Service web site:
2002-10-29: Toronto-headquartered Canadian Broadcaster CHUM has reported full year profits to the end of August of CAD 14.1 million (USD 9 million), down nearly a fifth from CAD 17.5 million (USD 11,2 million) in 2001.
It had a final quarter loss of CAD 4 million (USD 2.55 million) or CAD 0.35 a share because of higher operating costs and interest expenses related to acquisitions; this compared to a 2001 final quarter profit of CAD 1.6 million (USD 1million) or 0.14 CAD per share.
Revenues for the final quarter were up to CAD 116.87 million (USD 74.4 million_ from CAD103.8 million (USD 66.2 million) but operating expenses were up by more, to CAD111.3 million (USD 71 million) from CAD 95 million (USD 60.6 million); for the full year revenues were up 16.2% to CAD480 million (USD 306 million) from CAD413 million (USD263 million).
In August, CHUM, which owns 28 radio stations, pulled the plug on its TEAM sports network, which had failed to pull in listeners (See RNW Aug 29)
Previous CHUM:
2002-10-29: Two of Britain's troubled commercial radio companies, Capital Radio and Virgin, which both did badly in the latest ratings, suffered again on Monday, one from the weather, the other from the loss of two more hosts.
Storms in Britain and the English Channel hit Virgin Radio, which has organised a weekend trip to Amsterdam for some 65 of its 80 staff. The gale force winds led to the cancellation of all flights to Heathrow on Sunday and Virgin was unable to get them back for its Monday morning programmes.
Thos on the trip included breakfast host Darryl Denham, whose show was hosted by Russ Williams.
The defections were from Capital Radio, which has now lost Cat Deeley and Edith Bowman, who said they had dropped their Sunday afternoon show because of TV commitments.
Their slot will now be taken over by Big Brother TV show winner Kate Lawler and former children's TV host, Andi Peters, now head of children's TV at Channel 4.
Previous Capital:
Previous SMG (Virgin owners):
2002-10-29: Long-time Toronto radio host, Earl Warren Segal, known just as Earl Warren, has died aged 69. His 52-year broadcasting career included 22 years as host of the House of Warren on CFRB-AM.
He joined the station in 1961 and hosted his midday mix of music and chat until 1983 when the station shifted to a news-talk format.
Warren was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and worked as an announcer on a number of stations in western Canada before joining CFRB. After he left them, he moved to FM 108 in Burlington, Ontario and then joined CHWO in neighbouring Oakville where he hosted a Saturday show aimed at seniors. When the station switched frequencies to AM 740, Saturday Seniors became The Earl Warren Show, broadcast on Sunday mornings.
Toronto Globe and Mail obituary:
2002-10-28: Possibly because there seems to be broader cover of radio, as opposed to simple reviews, in British newspapers than in American ones, this week's look at print comment on the medium is mainly made up from British sources.
In one area, however, the US press often seems to outperform its British counterparts: that of consideration of technology.
Last week was certainly an example of this with an article, "Thinking of Radio as Smart Enough to Live Without Rules" by Peter Rojas in the New York Times.
It's a bit futuristic, and maybe optimistic, but the thought is a fascinating one, namely that advances in "cognitive radio" could make it possible to consider spectrum as limitless and in effect create what might be thought of as Internet radio over the air.
The basic idea behind it all is to create "smart radios" that are linked in a web in which the signal is sent in packets on constantly changing frequencies much as files are sent from origin to destination on the Internet.
Current policies regarding spectrum says the report "are to a large extent based on technology of 70 years ago, when radios were not able to differentiate well between different types of signals."
"But," it adds, "the problem of signal interference - the bane of broadcasters and the rationale behind licensing - is not some immutable law of physics.
Former Lotus Development Corporation vice president David P. Reed, who was an early designer of Internet protocols and is now an independent consultant in wireless networking, commented, "Radio waves are like light waves - and light doesn't mess up other light."
Edmond J. Thomas, chief of the US Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology, added, "Cognitive radio gives us the opportunity to utilize the spectrum in a way that was totally impractical before."
"A cognitive radio will be able to sense its surroundings and the presence of other signals and then adapt - changing its modulation language and output energy - in cooperation with the other cognitive radios around it."
Under such a system, every wireless device, including cell phones, and car radios, would send and receive signals and could pass along traffic for everyone else; the devices would encode their signals and broadcast them across a wide set of frequencies rather than just one specific frequency, enabling them to broadcast without interfering with others nearby.
When receiving, they would use their processors to sort out the encoded signals. They could also make more efficient use of licensed portions of the broadcast spectrum without causing any interference by "interweaving," or automatically shifting frequencies when the license holder needs that portion of the spectrum.
Some parts of the technology have already been developed for use in areas such as wireless Internet but, as the article points out, there are obstacles in the way of development not merely because of technological problems but also because of the influence of vested interests such as existing licensed holders of spectrum including cell phone operators and broadcasters.
However, as the report also points out, the Federal Communications Commission has already helped promote technologies, such as Wi-Fi, that use unlicensed spectrum it had opened up and it has already approved changes to allow the development of high-speed communications using Ultra Wideband technology, which broadcasts at very low power across a wide slice of the spectrum.
Until developments of such technology, however, there will remain pressures on sparse licenses spectrum and, in the US at least, almost anything seems to go if a lawyer reckons a rule can be exploited.
A particular area of concern, raised last month in a New York Times report on the success of right-wing evangelical Christian broadcasters in pushing US National Public Radio off the air in parts of Louisiana, Indiana and Oregon, was picked up in the Toronto Globe and Mail in comment by VisionTV president Bill Roberts.
Picking up on the report, Roberts says of the Christian broadcasters' moves, "There is nothing illegal about it. These partisan religious stations are simply exploiting existing provisions in federal law to silence NPR, which they deem to be unacceptably liberal and secular in its outlook."
The result, he says, is that "A broadcast service that stands for pluralism, tolerance and the free-ranging exploration of ideas is giving way to others that promote a socially reactive agenda."
Roberts then continues, "This may seem a matter of negligible interest to Canadians. But such a development is troubling, for a couple of reasons."
"First of all, it facilitates the encroachment of extremist religious views on the mainstream media. The dangers inherent in this should be obvious: Just witness the violent outrage that flared recently, after the conservative preacher Rev. Jerry Falwell told 60 Minutes that the Prophet Mohammed was a terrorist.'"
"Second, the end run on NPR attests to the vulnerability of public and public-service broadcasters throughout North America."
Roberts then says that he does not see a similar situation arising in Canada
(RNW Comment: Nor would we hope elsewhere: We've seen enough of Taliban-type controls of broadcasters and some of the US religious right are just as nasty, restrictive and bigoted.
Fortunately they lack the power to enforce death sentences for adultery or anything else, even if they are in favour of Israel to bring on a second coming in which Jews who do not convert to Christianity will all be destroyed).
He does pick up however, on the threat to broadcasters with a public-service mandate and comments on the threat to them from various groups including commercial broadcasters and also from the effects of technological change.
In Canada, he singles out the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and also such television organisations as provincial educational networks, as well as specialty channels with a "public-service" mandate, like VisionTV and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
RNW comment: The same is true in the UK where Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and others with vested interests are again attacking the BBC.
In particular one of the journalists employed by Murdoch is arguing that the licence fee may breach Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, which guarantees the freedom of expression because insistence that a fee has to be paid is constraining his freedom to receive broadcast information.
For a report on this in the UK Daily Telegraph follow the link below.
Our view, when the verbiage is stripped away, is that the objective is not freedom but elimination of the BBC as a major force, to the commercial advantage of those, such as Murdoch who, for example, dropped the BBC from his satellite channel to China, and who we believe have a very limited concept of and commitment to the idea of "freedom".
Roberts then argues that many Canadians do not fully realise what they would lose, commenting that, "Viewers who crave something more substantial generally tune in to public-service channels. Because they do not concern themselves with serving a corporate agenda, these networks are able to devote airtime to content that profit-driven broadcasters deem to be "uncommercial." They investigate complex moral, ethical, political and spiritual questions, entertain alternative views on issues such as Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism, and give voice to marginalized communities, including aboriginal Canadians."
"The genius of Western democracies." Says Roberts, "has been to find unity in diversity. We have built societies in which people of different faiths and cultures manage to live together -- not perfectly, by any means, but without the violent upheavals still common in many parts of the world. And public-service broadcasters play their modest part in maintaining this delicate social balance."
Still with Murdoch but in this case a radio review in the UK Times that has a dig at the British versions of the US shock-jocks. In it Vanora Bennett starts with a dig at Jon Gaunt's show on BBC London adding some balance with another at James Whale on TalkSport.
On the former she starts with an e-mail read out on Gaunt's show, "OBVIOUS, ISN'T IT? We need eight-lane motorways. Two lanes for HGVs, one for women, and the rest for the real drivers" and then later comments, "If you've ever wondered where London cabbies get their knee-jerk hang 'em, flog 'em ideas from, the answer is right here. Gaunt and other hard-right "shock jocks" are surely the whispering voices on the taxi radio that's always on the other side of the glass partition."
A later comment puts the show into perspective: "Think of it as an exercise in anthropology and it's fascinating stuff, even if you aren't the white, middle-aged, male driver it's supposed to appeal to."
Bennett then notes a factor about the shows that seems common on both sides of the Atlantic when it comes to shock-jocks. "…they don't tolerate dissent. Gaunt does read out the occasional howl of protest from a listener, but only to knock it down. "
And later of Whale: "….there is no such genteel discussion with callers who dare to disagree with Whale's thesis that not just Islam, but all religion, is evil and should be banned. They get cut off. And they get laid into on air once they've gone."
In marked contrast to the shock-jocks output is the idea of civilised dialogue that her Sunday Times colleague Gerry McCarthy refers to in his radio column. "Fights, as long as they are not too unruly or savage, are widely held to make good radio," writes McCarthy, then adds, "What this overlooks is the power of civilised dialogue - Andy O'Mahony's performances on RTE have long been the gold standard for this type of broadcasting. It also overlooks the power of a single voice."
McCarthy then gives various examples, all as it happens from the output of the state broadcaster, RTÉ.
Finally another contrast, this time a UK Guardian review by Elisabeth Mahoney of Capital Disney, the new digital station dedicated to children and a channel that on the surface one would have expected the paper to regard as a "good thing." Well not quite so, in Mahoney's view.
The station, she writes, "….is struggling to claim shiny, happy novelty." "'When you hear Kylie and Shaggy and Gareth,' a jingle purrs, 'you've found Capital Disney.'"
"Or any other chart-based music station, adds Mahoney. "It's early days yet, but too much of the station's output (also available on its website at www.capitaldisney.co.uk is replicated elsewhere, and with considerably more oomph."
"What struck me most in the first week's broadcasting was how little it felt geared specifically towards children other than in some rather puerile chat between tracks. Just as Radio 2 or Virgin should feel alien to youngsters, so I had expected to feel excluded from a station articulating the passions, concerns, tastes and humour of a young audience. Only the jokes succeeded in doing that."
"Instead, it felt drearily, limply familiar, from the putrid playlist (The Ketchup Song, Gareth, Will, S Club Juniors, and Declan Galbraith) to the inane, undemanding banter. Nigel Mitchell, presenting the breakfast show, explained on Wednesday that it was a "very special day in the history of the world" because if "2002 was 4004BC, the world would begin in about 40 minutes", according to some new calculations. Mitchell didn't let the fact that 2002 isn't 4004BC stop him from "celebrating" with a track from P Diddy."
The review has more of the same, with a little bit more "style" in the positive sense of the word: on the station itself, after a brief check, we'd go along with Mahoney's comment, "But with nothing to distinguish the daytime show from playing CDs in your bedroom, there's precious little to keep new listeners switched on. "
Previous Bennett:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Mahoney:
Previous McCarthy:
New York Times - Rojas:
Toronto Globe and Mail - Roberts:
UK Guardian: Mahoney:
UK Telegraph on BBC Licence fee:
UK Sunday Times - McCarthy:
UK Times - Bennett:
2002-10-28: US National Public Radio (NPR) has set November 2 for the grand opening of NPR West, its new USD13 million west coast multimedia production centre in Culver City, California.
The centre, which will eventually accommodate up to 90 employees, is to house NPR's Los Angeles news bureau and the staff of the Tavis Smiley Show and other programmes. It is NPR's largest facility outside Washington, DC.
Previous NPR
2002-10-27: Last week was mainly a matter of routine work for the radio regulators with no major issues to the fore.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has issued its annual report as well as dealing with a few licence matters and also clearing Sydney 2GB and Alan Jones of any impropriety concerning Telstra's sponsorship of Jones' breakfast show (See RNW Oct 20).
The Annual report, as well as summarising complaints dealt with during the year (See RNW Oct 25). also noted that the ABA had dealt with changes of control notifications relating to 104 commercial radio licences, a 67.7% increase on the previous year.
It also noted that its income from commercial broadcasting licence fees, which are based on broadcasters' revenues, increased by 3.4% on the previous year to AUD 218.6 million ( USD121 million); of this most came from TV licences with the country's 245 commercial radio licences producing income of AUD 15,6 million (USD8.7 million), up 7.6%.
On the licence front, the ABA has changed the category of a planned community service at Robinvale, Victoria, to an open narrowcasting service.
The frequency concerned was originally allocated to the Association of the Blind Ltd (now called Vision Australia Foundation) in 1996 for a community service in Mildura/Robinvale with transmitters planned at Mildura and Robinvale. The Association subsequently said it could not set up the Robinvale transmitter for five years and the frequency was allocated as an open narrowcasting licence for five years to Tatley Pty Ltd. The Association now says it will not be able to establish a Robinvale transmitter and Tatley has now had its licence renewed for a further five years.
The ABA has also extended for 12 months until October 23 next year, the deadline for Perth Community Services 6AR and 6NR to convert their existing AM services to FM.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved a number of new licences and power amendments. These included:
Ontario:
* A power reduction from 50,000 watts to 42,000 watts by CJOJ-FM Belleville. This is to be accompanied by a transmitter location, for which approval is not required.
Saskatchewan:
*Approval of a new 5.4 watts developmental community English and French language FM in Zenon Park:
*A power increase from Radio CJVR Ltd., to increase the power of its transmitter, CJVR-FM-2 Waskesiu Lake, from 7,100 watts to 11,000 watts. This transmitter carried the programming of CJVR-FM Melfort, and the application was made to maintain the coverage area from its transmitter that would have been provided by its originally proposed site, to which there had been objections.
The power increase was objected to by Central Broadcasting Company Ltd., licensee of AM and FM stations in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which said its stations have been serving the Waskesiu Lake for over forty years and alleged that the true purpose of the proposed power increase is to extend CJVR-FM's signal into Prince Albert, not to serve Waskesiu Lake.
In Quebec, the Commission approved the transfer of effective control of Radio Beauce, licensee of radio programming undertakings CHJM-FM Saint-Georges and CKRB-FM Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Quebec, to Guy Simard, who after the transfer of the company's common voting shares held by Mrs. Marie Jalbert would control 70% of the voting interests in the licensee.
The shares in the stations, which have been unprofitable over the past three years, are being sold for CAD 432,000 (USD 275,000).
Ireland was quiet apart from the release of latest radio ratings (See RNW Oct 24) and in the UK the Radio Authority dealt with only one licence matter. This was the new Gairloch and Loch Ewe licence in Scotland for which it has received only one application, from Two Lochs Radio (Wester Ross Radio Ltd.), which is proposing a community-based service in English and Gaelic with a wide range of music plus a significant speech-based output.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has issued two "show cause" notices concerning stations operatng below the minimum requirements of their licences.
In North Carolina, the "show cause" order related to a request filed by Piedmont Communications, Inc. and Old Belt Broadcasting Corporation asking for changes in the license for WJMH-FM, Reidsville, North Carolina, and WJMA- FM, Orange, Virginia.
The petitioners wish to change WJMA's community o f licence to Midlothian, Virginia, to provide that community's first local service associated with the request is another for a channel change for
for its broadcasts at South Hill, Virginia, and reclassification of and a channel change for Entercom's WJMH to allow the other moves.
WJMH currently operates from an antenna below the minimum Class C height, making it subject to a to reclassification as a Class C0 and the Commission says that Piedmont's request for reclassification therefore has sufficient public interest benefits and justifies the issuance to Entercom of an order to show cause why WJMH should not be reclassified and moved to another channel.
Entercom now has until November 25 to show why the changes should not be made or, if it wants to seek a construction permit to increase its antenna height to class C standard, file such an application within 180 days of reponding to the show cause decision.
In a similar case in Tennessee, Ronald C Meredith seeks the allotment of a channel at Lake City, Tennessee as that community's
first local FM service to accommodate which WDOD- FM, Chattanooga will have to move channels. Again WDOD-FM is operating below minimum class C standards because of its antenna height and is subject to reclassification as a Class CO.
WDOD of Chattanooga, Inc. has, like Entercom, until November 25 to reply with arguments against the classification or to apply for a construction permit to take its antenna up to class C standards.
The FCC also fined Florida pirate Richard Muñoz USD10,000 for unauthorised operation of a station (See RNW Oct 25) and allowed Backyard Broadcasting's purchase of Sabre Communications (See RNW Oct 24).
The Commission has also accepted for filing New Radio's application to purchase 22 Marathon's stations in Illinois and Wisconsin (See RNW Oct 3)
Previous ABA:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
ABA web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site :
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-10-27: UBC subsidiary Unique Interactive has added SMG Radio to the users of its proprietary ManDLS web-based software, which allows monitoring and updating of text messages on its British national Virgin Radio and Liquid London DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) services from anywhere in the world.
The service is already being used by Chrysalis Radio and Classic Gold Digital to provide dynamic content such as song and artist information, news headlines and promotions, on their text services. In all there are now 28 DAB services in Britain using the system.
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous SMG:
Previous UBC:
2002-10-26: DMG Radio Australia has announced a deal involving a station swap with RG Capital and the purchase by the latter of a half-share in DMG's new Gosford licence for AUD6.75 million ( circa USD 3.75 million).
The station swap involves DMG's two stations in Bendigo, Victoria, 3BOFM and Star FM , being "exchanged" for RG Capital's Sea FM in Gosford, New South Wales.
DMG Radio Australia Pty Ltd, bid AUD13.5 million (circa USD 9.85 million) for the Gosford licence at an Australian Broadcasting Authority auction in April (See Licence News April 21). The new Gosford station is expected to launch next year and the two companies plan to house it, Sea FM, and RG Capital's other Gosford station (2GO) in the same premises.
Previous DMG:
Previous RG Capital:
2002-10-26: BBC Radio 1 has announced that it is to give a major boost to six new artists in January as part of a "OneMusic Unsigned Week" that will run from January 10.
The acts will be selected from demos sent to the station and will then be added to the station's specially created "unsigned list" and will each be played around six times during the week. The station currently runs an A, B, and C list of songs played regularly during the daytime.
Alex Jones-Donelly, Editor Radio 1 Music Policy said he had always wanted to do more following the channel's OneMusic day in May this year that also aired music from new artists and added, "We're looking to do this several times a year so if your music doesn't get played now we want you to carry on sending it in"
Previous BBC:
2002-10-26: Internet webcaster Live365, whose appeal to the US Copyright Office to allow it to hold off paying webcast royalties until its appeal against the rates has gone through the courts was rejected earlier this week (See RNW Oct 22) has now taken its case to the Washington, DC, Circuit Court of Appeals.
Live 365 is making the appeal on the same basis as that rejected, saying the rates are arbitrary and violate the US Constitution's First Amendment because they make webcasting prohibitively expensive.
The company streamed more than 9 million hours in August according to the latest Arbitron webcast ratings.
2002-10-26: Latest Internet ratings from MeasureCast show listening down 1% and Internet-only stations taking nearly two-thirds of the top 25 places with five entries in the rankings from MUSICMATCH.
For the week to October 13, 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: Internet only artist-match MUSICMATCH - TTSL 288,417 (197,002); CP 106,763 (68,655). Up from fourth with much higher listening and reach, but TTSL was still higher two weeks ago, when the station was second.
2: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 274,690 (311,541); CP 64,830 (69,264). Down from first with fall in listening and reach.
3: Adult alternative Radioio - TTSL 231,069 (234,493); CP 48,432 (51,150). Same position with lower listening and reach.
4: Contemporary Christian Music K-Love - TTSL 215,388 (235,097); CP 26,862 (29,564). Down from second with lower listening and reach.
5: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 208,184 (175,528); CP 64,470 (59,821): Up from sixth with higher listening and reach.
*Classical format WQXR-FM fell to sixth place with TTSL down from 195,573 to 195,224.
The top five networks for the week to October 6 (Previous week in brackets) were:
1: Clear Channel Worldwide TTSL 1,336,472 (1,240,705); CP 298,867 (291,805) - Same position with higher listening and reach.
2: MUSICMATCH Inc. TTSL 1,169,097 (774,004); CP 359,614 (223,943). Up from fourth with much higher listening and reach.
3: StreamAudio TTSL 934,322 (1,035,037) ; CP 138,140 (150,430). Down from second with lower listening and reach.
4: Radio Free Virgin TTSL875,025 (1,016,360): CP 166,889 (183,298) - Down from third with lower listening and reach.
5: WARP Radio TTSL 648,803 (664,962) hours: CP 107,043 (107,891) - Same position with slightly lower listening and lower reach.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-10-25: Viacom Inc. has reported record third quarter earnings with revenues and operating income up in every part of its business; overall its revenues were up 10% at USD6.3 Billion, helped by a 14% jump in advertising revenues.
Reported Operating Income jumped to USD1.3 Billion from USD194 Million whilst Reported Diluted Earnings Per Share were36 cents compared to a loss of 11cents per share in the third quarter of 2001;
Viacom says that had accounting standard SFAS142 been in operation last year, its operating income would have been USD1.1 billion, and diluted earnings per share would have been 31 cents, making the increases 18% and 17% respectively.
Within the divisions, cable and TV performed strongly with revenues up 13% and 14%; Infinity Broadcasting, which includes outdoor advertising was helped by a 10% growth in radio revenues to a 6% increase to quarterly revenues of USD 968.2 million.
Overall Total EBITDA was up 56% to USD1.526 billion and that for Infinity was up 2% to USD 380.6 million. Infinity's operating income was up to $322 million from $61 million but had SFAS 142 been applied in 20001, the increase would only have been 2%.
Viacom chairman and chief executive Sumner M. Redstone commented, "Viacom's record third quarter performance was outstanding, with revenues and operating income up across every one of our segments."
"We are confident in our ability to deliver on our full-year financial targets for 2002, and we see the growth of our businesses becoming even more robust as we move into 2003."
President and Chief Operating Officer Mel Karmazin said, "Our record third quarter results demonstrate the underlying vibrancy of our core businesses, the continued strengthening of ad sales, and the strategic validity and superior execution of the Viacom/CBS merger. Viacom turned in the best third quarter in its history, and the pacings in our advertising-supported businesses continue to be strong in the fourth quarter. Indications for the first quarter (of 2003) are unbelievably strong, and we are strategically positioned in the strongest categories of advertising by design."
In Canada, Montreal-headquartered Astral Media has also reported stronger results in all its divisions compared to a year ago; For its final quarter to the end of August, its revenues were up 16% to CAD 102.3 million (circa USD 255,000) and profits, excluding non-recurring items, were up 52% to CAD16.1 million or CAD 0.21 cents a share (USD10.3 million or 13 cents a share).
Astral's net results include a CAD5.6 million (USD3.6 million) charge linked to the write-down linked to the sale of seven stations that Astral has to dispose of to gain regulatory approval of its CAD255 million (USD164 million) purchase of 18 Telemedia stations.
The deal was finally approved last month by Canada's Competition Bureau (See RNW Sept 4)
Within its divisions, Astral's radio stations showed revenues up 3% to CAD13 million (USD 8.3 million) and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) up 38% to CAD3.6 million (USD2.3 million).
In other North American radio business, Disney's ABC Radio has agreed a USD650, 000 purchase of KALY-AM. Albuquerque, New Mexico from Septien and Associates and Convergent Broadcasting LLC has agreed a USD1 million purchase of WVOD-FM, Manteo, North Carolina, from Orbit Communications LLC for USD 1 million.
Previous Astral:
Previous Disney-ABC:
Previous Karmazin:
Previous Redstone:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Astral web site (Flash site - results are in PDF format):
Viacom web site (Rresults are in PDF format):
2002-10-25:The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has upheld a fine of USD10, 000 on a Florida pirate, Richard Muñoz for unauthorised operation of a station in Naples, Florida.
The case involved operation of a station from the Tree of Life Church that, when checked by agents, was shown to be putting out a signal around 90,000 times the strength permitted for an unlicensed low-power station.
Muñoz, the pastor of a Spanish-language ministry called Mission Possible Ministries, told the agents at the time of their visit in April this year that a friend had submitted an application to operate the station to the FCC and had advised him that he could operate the station while the paperwork was being processed.
He was told this was not the case and that he had to shut down the station but, following another complaint, agents again found the station operating in May.
A warning letter was sent to the church's head pastor who responded by saying that Muñoz leased space for the radio station from the Tree of Life Church, and that the Tree of Life Church had no control over its operations; he added that Muñoz had told him after the April inspection that the matter was one of a misunderstanding or misplaced paperwork but had closed down the station after he spoke to him about the letter.
Muñoz claimed that the station was using the time between the FCC's first and second visit to notify listeners that the station had to go off the air and that neither he, nor the church, had the funds to pay the fine, but, said the FCC, he knew he was operating illegally and had provided no documentation to substantiate his appeal against the fine on financial grounds. It therefore upheld the penalty.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), although continuing to insist that it received no evidence of breaches of its commercial radio standards in regards to the Telstra sponsorship of the Alan Jones Breakfast Programme on Sydney 2GB (See RNW Oct 20) has now said that it obtained further details from the station.
It was assured that Jones received no contractual benefit from the arrangement between 2GB and Telstra and that Jones contract with 2GB was not affected by the deal. It says that, after examining the 2GB-Telstra agreement in confidence, it is satisfied that there was no breach of the codes.
The ABA has also released its annual report for 2001-2002, which shows a reduction of more than a third in breaches of its codes over the total for the previous year. In all the Authority found there were breached of codes in 91 cases compared to 143 the previous year; of these 71 related to codes of practice and 18 relating to licence conditions.
The main reduction in breaches was in commercial radio, where there were only five breaches of codes, compared to 36 in 2000-2001, but of these 29 related to findings in the "cash-for-comment" enquiry.
Of the 18 license-related cases, 16 related to community radio; 12 of these were linked to conditions prohibiting the broadcasting of advertisements, a doubling of the number of this type of case compared to the previous year.
There were also two breaches of Australia's Broadcasting Services Act, one related to a community broadcaster continuing operations beyond the period of its licence and other of a community service being broadcast without a licence.
Previous ABA:
Previous FCC:
Previous Jones:
ABA web site (annual report is 99Kb PDF):
FCC web site :
2002-10-25: Latest UK radio ratings from RAJAR (Radio Joint Audio Research) show UK radio continuing to reach 90% of the potential 15-plus audience in the country with weekly reach up 27,000 a week to 44.097 million in the quarter to September 15.
Within the figures, the BBC lost some 44,000 listeners a week and had the same 52.6% share of listening and commercial radio increased its audience by 203,000 listeners a week, although national commercial networks lost audience and in all it only had a 45.3% share of listening, down from 45.5% in the previous quarter.
The big gainers in the quarter nationally were:
BBC Radio 1, which increased its weekly audience by 353,000,helped greatly by Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley (Mark and Lard) whose afternoon show gained some 750,000 listeners a week whilst most other shows, including the Sara Cox breakfast show had fairly stable figures;
BBC Radio 4, which increased its weekly audience by 156,000 listeners; and
BBC Radio 3, which increased its audience by some 144,000 listeners a week.
In London, Chrysalis's Heart FM took is share of listening up from a 12.8% share in the previous quarter to 13.6% and its breakfast show, fronted by Jono Coleman and Emma Forbes, recorded a 26% increase and increased its reach by some 176,000 listeners to 862,000.
Big losers nationally were:
BBC Radio 5, which dropped 822,000 listeners a week;
BBC Radio 2, which dropped 557,000 listeners a week, although it kept its most listened to status;
and SMG's Virgin Radio, which had a dismal time and lost 105,000 listeners a week and now only has a 6% reach compared to 8% a year ago.
In London, the big loser was Capital Radio whose overall listening share was down from 10.3% in the previous quarter to 8.8%. Capital has lost 124,000 listeners over the past three months and its breakfast show, hosted by Chris Tarrant, lost 160,000 listeners to 1.6 million; Over the past year, the station has lost 267,000 listeners a week.
Capital, which said its figures showed a different picture, suggested that listeners might have tried other stations following Tarrant's public statement saying he was going to leave, a decision that he reversed at the last moment although he will now only host the show from 7:30 am instead of 6a.m. Capital's shares fell some 5.5% to 557.5p on the release of the figures.
Overall BBC network radio lost 19 000 listeners a week although its share of listening was up from 41.3% to 41.4%.
Within the figures, compared to the previous quarter:
*BBC Radio 1 gained 353000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 10,879 million, a weekly reach of 22%, up from 21%, and a listening share of 8.8%, up from 8.3%.
*BBC Radio 2 lost 557000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 12,485 million, a weekly reach of 25%, down from 27%, and a listening share of 15.2%, down from 15.6%.
*BBC Radio 3 gained 144,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 2.165 million, a weekly reach of 4%, as before, and a listening share of 1.3%, up from 1.1%.
*BBC Radio 4 gained 156,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 9,912 million, a weekly reach of 20%, as before, and a listening share of 11.8%, up from 11.3%.
*BBC Radio 5 Live lost 822,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 5,837 million, a weekly reach of 12%, down from 14%, and a listening share of 4.3%, down from 4.9%.
On the commercial side for national networks:
*GWR's Classic FM lost 4,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 6,679 million, a weekly reach of 14%, as before, but a listening share of 4.5%, down from 4.9% as listening hours decreased from 51,313 hours to 47,353 hours a week.
*The Wireless Group's TalkSport lost 9,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 2,392 million, an unchanged weekly reach of 5%, and an unchanged listening share of 1.7%.
*Virgin (Owned by SMG --total including all AM and FM) lost 105,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 3,001 million, an unchanged weekly reach of 6%, down from 7%, and a listening share of 1.6%, down from 1.7%.
Previous BBC:
Previous Capital:
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous GWR (Classic FM owner):
Previous RAJAR:
Previous Wireless Group (TalkSport owner):
Previous UK audience figures:
Previous SMG (Owns Virgin):
RAJAR web site (links to quarterly reports):
2002-10-25: US late night host Art Bell, whose Coast-to Coast AM is syndicated by Premiere Networks, has announced for the third time that he is to retire.
Bell announced the retirement on his show, giving the reason as back problems. He says he will turn over the show to regular guest host George Noory at the start of next year: Until then the show will continue with its current schedule of three nights of Bell, three of Noory, and one of Barbara Simpson. He added that he would serve as an occasional guest host for Noory.
Bell first announced his retirement in 1998 following the kidnapping and raping of his son, an offence that a Nashville station accused bell of committing but for which a teacher was subsequently charged and convicted. He then again said in April 2000 that he was retiring but returned to the show in January 2001 (See RNW Jan 6, 2001).
Previous Bell:
Previous Premiere:
2002-10-24: Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), used by record companies to track how often their songs are played on radio stations, is coming under increasing pressure from MediaBase, bought three years ago by radio giant Clear Channel, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It reports that Clear Channel's radio programmers are giving back-up to MediaBase's sales staff in what recording industry executives say is the latest example of the radio giant's attempts "to tap into the tens of millions of dollars spent on radio promotion by major record labels."
The paper says that Clear Channel denies that it requires its stations to use Mediabase data but that recently Cubby Bryant, music director at Clear Channel's Z-100 in New York, said in an e-mail to a label pitching a new record that the station only looks at Mediabase for song information.
"I thought I'd give you the scoop. We only care about Mediabase numbers," he said in the e-mail.
He told the paper the policy was not part of a mandate from Clear Channel management but added, "We knew the rest of the country wasn't quite on the Mediabase bandwagon yet…after awhile we said we should start spreading the word."
The report says that recording executives say Z-100 isn't the only Clear Channel station with this policy and also says that Mediabase offers its service more cheaply than its rival in many cases because it is "effectively subsidized by its deals with stations."
The two services are compiled on a different basis. BDS puts inaudible "tags" in new songs then looks for the tags using computer-equipped radio tuners in more than 125 markets; the data is then forwarded to BDS, which collates it and compiles nationwide information for delivery to its customers.
Mediabase samples, broadcasts from radio stations, and sends audio feeds to 135 music experts scattered around the country whose task is to identify the clips; their information is entered into a log that is sent to a central database for collation and Mediabase says its system has the advantage in that it can identify a "leaked" song that would not be picked up by BDS.
The paper says that, as the major record labels try and cut costs, they are questioning whether they can support two services and notes that earlier this year Universal Music threatened to drop BDS; it adds that Mediabase's influence is growing and notes that its charts serve as the source for rankings in programmes such as "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40," which is syndicated by Clear Channel unit Premiere Radio Networks.
In all Mediabase has around 1,100 station clients, around a quarter of which are owned by Clear Channel, and BDS has around 350.
A Clear Channel told the paper she was not aware of any of its stations using BDS services but BDS said that wasn't because they weren't interested: Rob Sisco, executive vice president for Nielsen BDS said, "Many Clear Channel programmers have told us they would prefer to subscribe to BDS but are forbidden to by corporate edict."
RNW comment: We are not normally in favour of massive punitive damages but this seems to us a case where Nielsen should either shut up or have the courage to put some money where its mouth is and launch a suit against Clear Channel. If there is evidence, we would favour a massive punitive award, say something like a century's income for BDS!
Previous Clear Channel:
Los Angeles Times report:
2002-10-24: In Australia, DMG Radio, whose Nova network has bitten into Austereo audience, has now poached one of the latter's executives.
Cathy O'Connor is to leave Austereo, where she was Sydney general manager in charge of the 2Day FM and Triple M stations for nearly a decade. To become DMG's managing director, metropolitan stations, with responsibility for Nova stations in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne and also DMG's Adelaide and Brisbane stations.
O'Connor will be working to DMG chief executive Paul Thompson, who appointed her to her current post in 1993 when he was at Austereo.
Previous Austereo:
Previous DMG:
Previous Thompson:
2002-10-24: Irish ratings for the six months April to September from the JNLR/MRBI survey show Dublin's two new stations failing to make much headway; Newstalk and Spin, whose figures are only available for this period, gained reaches of 2% and 3% respectively.
Among the older-established stations in the city, FM104 maintained its listenership figure of 20%; 98FM saw a 2% increase in reach to 20%; Lite FM was down 1% to 12%; and Country FM's held on to its 2%.
Nationally RTÉ Radio One lost share and independent local stations gained it compared to the previous six months.
Independent local stations took a 54% share, up 1%; RTÉ Radio One was down 3% to 29%; 2 FM retained its 27% of listenership, Today FM was up 1% to 17% and Lyric FM held on to its 4% share.
Excluding Dublin and Cork, local radio stations in Connacht/Ulster had a 66% listenership for weekdays, up 4%; for Munster the figures was 60%, down 1%; and he rest of Leinster had a 49% Listenership, up 4%.
In Cork, new station Red FM recorded a reach of 20% and Cork 96FM/County Sound dropped 4% to 55%.
Previous Irish Ratings/RTÉ:
JNLR web site:
2002-10-24: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now given the go-ahead for Backyard Broadcasting's USD42 million purchase of Sabre Communications and its 20 stations in Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania (See RNW Aug 28).
Last month it had red-flagged the purchase of the six Pennsylvania stations in the deal because of concerns about revenue share and ownership concentration (See RNW Sept 11).
Previous Backyard:
Previous FCC:
2002-10-23: Canadian teenagers listen to radio the least of main demographic groups in Canada according a survey conducted last autumn by Statistics Canada and released this week.
The survey showed that adult males and females of the same age group listened to radio for much the same time but teenagers listening was significantly less than other groups during weekday day-time.
Between 0800 and 1900, they listened on average only 4.7 hours a week compared to 16.1 hours for adults, a finding put down by the agency in part to the easier access adults generally had to radio during the day. At weekends and later in the evening, listening was much the same.
Women tended to listen to radio more as they got older according to the report but men's listening peaked in the 35-49 demographic and then started to decline.
Overall Canadians average just over 20-hours a week, with listening to state broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) rising with income; the survey showed that Canadians with a grade school education or less spent four per cent of their radio listening time tuned to the CBC while those with a university degree spent 18 per cent of their listening tuned to the CBC.
Overall, according to Statistics Canada, private radio stations in Canada employed just over 9,300 people in 2001, up from just over 8,550 in 1997: Operating revenues for the same years had increased to CAD1.05 billion (circa USD670 million) in 2001 from CAD870 million (circa USD555) in 1997 and profits before tax were up CAD99 million (USD 63million) from CAD68 million(circa USD43.4 million).
In format terms, the most popular stations were adult contemporary, which accounted for 23.1 per cent of total listening hours, down from 24.6% a year earlier.
Golden oldies were second with 18.2 per cent of listening hours, up from 14 per cent in the fall of 2000, followed by talk radio, with 13.3 per cent, up from 10.3 per cent, a rise in part attributed to the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks.
Album-oriented rock format had the largest fall, from 7.8% to 3.1%.
Previous CBC:
Statistics Canada web site:
2002-10-23: Chicago WSCR-AM (The Score) afternoon host Mike North has signed a new deal, whose value is reported by Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times as USD7.5 million, to stay with the station for five years from July next year.
North, described by Feder as a "former hot dog stand owner", "self-styled Chicago street kid" and "Senn High School dropout" will more than double his current salary of USD700, 000 a year.
Neither North nor executives of Infinity radio, which owns the station, would confirm details of the agreement but North, who Feder says negotiated the deal without an agent, commented," "I'm happy that I'm going to be here for a long time."
"The Score has always been my passion. I've been here from Day One, and I've never wanted to work for anybody else. I love all the people at the Score. For a guy who came from where I was a little over 10 years ago, I can't believe the position I'm in now."
Feder comments that by renewing North more than nine months before his current contract expires, Infinity pre-empted what could have been an even costlier bidding war for his services. He notes that, although its revenues are more than $10 million greater than that of ABC's WMVP-AM, the Score is locked in a ratings death match with the ESPN Radio flagship, which beat the Score for the first time ever in Arbitron's spring survey.
Previous Feder:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Chicago Sun-Times report:
2002-10-23: Continuing its talent hunt ahead of its re-launch of its LBC talk station, UK Chrysalis has now hired Steve Kyte, the deputy controller of BBC Radio 5 Live, as its editorial director.
Kyte was praised in an e-mail sent by Radio 5 Live controller Bob Shennan to his staff, which said his efforts had "been crucial to the extraordinary success 5 Live has enjoyed over the years."
Previous BBC:
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous Shennan:
2002-10-22: Arbitron has announced details of the release of its Maximi$er Plus national regional radio audience information service that is designed to allow stations to view ratings information on clusters of stations in US markets.
The service will give access to a database of diary-level information from all of Arbitron's 286 Maximi$er local market services including such details as demographic and socioeconomic information including data such as income and education. It will also provide information on race and ethnicity in some 130 Black markets and 80 Hispanic markets.
Arbitron Radio's SVP and general manager Scott Musgrave said the service would allow stations to "compete with other media on a broader level and greatly expand their pool of potential advertisers."
Previous Arbitron:
2002-10-22: The US Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, has denied an appeal by Internet-only channel Live 365 for a stay in royalty payments that became due on Sunday.
Live 365 had claimed that the rates decided by the Librarian of Congress were arbitrary and that they would violate the First Amendment by forcing webcasters out of business but the arguments were given short-shrift, as was the broadcasters' appeal for a stay in payments until their appeal was heard (See RNW Oct 15).
2002-10-22: GWR's Abracadabra children's radio station, which is currently only broadcast on a London digital multiplex has gained more backers in its bid to take over the London AM licence currently held by Liberty Radio.
Former BBC Radio 1 breakfast and current Xfm drive-time host Zoe Ball and her father Johnny Ball, a children's TV host of the 80's, have joined politicians including former culture secretary Chris Smith and Britain's Conservative opposition leader Ian Duncan Smith in expressing support for the bid.
The station broadcasts a mix of music from classical to pop plus songs of interest to children such as rhymes and novelty tunes as well as stories, news and educational programmes. The licence is expected to be awarded next month.
Previous Ball:
Previous GWR:
2002-10-22: The US Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) has elected David Kennedy, President and Chief Operating Officer of Susquehanna Radio Corp., as chairman of the RAB board of directors for a two-year term starting on January 1 next year.
He will take over from Clear Channel Radio SVP David Crowl, who will remain on the board and RAB executive committee when his chairman's term ends.
The RAB board also elected Infinity SVP David Pearlman as vice-Chairman and Buckley Broadcasting COO Joe Bilotta as chairman of its finance committee.
Previous RAB:
RAB web site:
2002-10-21: For our look at comment on radio over the past week, we lead today with the question of digital radio, but from a non-US perspective, since the US is out of step with the rest of the world.
In the Toronto Star, Melissa Leong, looks at the different routes to digital radio being taken by the US and the rest of the world in the wake of the US decision to authorise IbIquity's IBOC (in band, on-channel) system that crams the digital signal into the existing analogue frequency.
Canada, as has the rest of the world so far, had opted for DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) using separate spectrum and has so far has the same experience as most of the world in that only a few listeners have taken to the technology.
The debate at the root of the FCC decision is fairly succinctly summed up by comments in the article.
David Bray, chairman of the programming committee of DAB for Canada, made the technical and quality point when he commented of the US system," "It's a makeshift solution at best. The bandwidth isn't anywhere near Canada's. The fidelity is quite limited."
Countering that, the US response was in terms of practicality and the marketplace. Peter Doyle, chief of audio division in the media bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission(FCC) , said of DAB, "It's been a worldwide failure as a technology based on consumer interest. There wasn't a big pull demand to adopt this technology."
The Bray comment on the market take-up was to accept the point but ask for time: "It's just in its infancy, said Bray of DAB. "Do you know how long it took for FM to catch on? Fifteen to 25 years."
In marked contrast to the FCC view of the success of digital radio, the UK experience as reported on by Vanora Bennett in her UK Times radio columnar seems to be that the demand is there but only if the price is right. The UK has encouraged broadcasters to move into digital by guaranteeing extensions of their analogue licence should they provide a service on the relevant digital service but receiver purchase has been very slow as they were priced in the hundreds of pounds.
Now receivers are being offered at GBP99 and Bennett writes, "Something very strange is happening in gadget shops up and down the land."
"After years of worry over whether any of Britain's Luddite radio listeners would ever want to replace their trusty trannies with expensive digital technology, suddenly everyone wants a digital radio at the same time. Certainly before Christmas."
"I have just been trying to buy one, and found the kind of shopping frenzy out there that you usually only associate with designer handbags. "
What has made the difference, she says is the receiver price but getting one for Christmas may prove a problem, she adds with one major chain reporting none left available and another listing a ten-week waiting list.
On to the Internet and whatever may happen now as far as royalties are concerned it is looking as if many more small streaming operations are going to close, particularly amongst college stations, which were the focus of an article in the New York Times by Jennifer Medina.
Some 70 college stations she says have pulled the plug on Internet streaming because of copyright fees and reporting requirements.
"It just wasn't worth it. Where are we supposed to get this money from?" said Dave Black, general manager of WSUM-FM, the student-run radio station at the University of Wisconsin.
Medina notes that Internet activities have been stopped or cut back at university and college stations in big cities like Los Angeles and New York as well as smaller centres such as Oregon State.
The college stations will have to pay a USD500 a year base fee retroactive to 1988 and 0.02 cents per song per listener and Will Robedee, vice president of Collegiate Broadcasters Inc. commented, "For a lot of these stations, it could be devastating. There are constantly calls from stations deciding whether or not to continue their Webcast."
Even without the fees, regulations also require stations to keep detailed records of playlists and to submit records electronically, a chore that seems daunting for many stations, particularly those specializing in obscure or decades-old music.
Unlike the industry giants, where playlists are often rigorously controlled, most student disc jockeys choose songs on a whim, jotting down the information as they go along, making the entering of the required information a major task.
And what of the DJs at commercial stations nowadays? Well not many of them get much say in what they play, according to Geoff Boucher in the Los Angeles Times.
He pegs his intro to Tom Petty's song, "The last DJ" and its lines,
"There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice."
Petty, says Boucher, blames the conglomerates for endangering the "autonomous DJ" and quotes him as saying, "Radio was once regional, as different as every town...More and more, the whole country is listening to one station ... music is something that is magical, ultra-magical, and radio was an art form. Now it's something cold and different."
"In the 1960s," writes Boucher, " it was the DJ who most often determined what was played. Now it is market research and consultants. DJs often have their music programmed, making their shifts the steady work of an autopilot."
He then quotes Fred Jacobs, whose Detroit consulting firm he describes as one of the most powerful in rock radio as saying that the advent of programming software in the 1980s that marked the end of DJs picking the next song.
Jacobs says stations are now more in sync with listener taste than in the past when, as Boucher puts it, "fickle DJs could pull a station's playlist toward the obscure fringes."
The giant in the US radio business is, of course, Clear Channel and its spokeswoman Pam Taylor blamed much of the change on the spread of the "box stores" saying that the spread of Wal-Mart and mass retailers pushed out mom-and-pop businesses in small towns, thus taking away the bread-and -butter advertisers for independent radio stations and mo