August 2003 Archive
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July 2003 - September
2003 
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 how different regulatory regimes have affected the success of digital radio.
RNW July comment - More of what - or is the technological fix a pipedream? Is technology that could potentially add thousands of broadcast channels a move forward or a delusion without the political will to give access to the airwaves?
RNW June comment - our view of new US media regulations introduced this month.
2003-08-31: The major regulatory news still concerns new US media regulations, due to take effect on September 4 barring court intervention, but there was also a reasonable level of activity elsewhere.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has now invited applications for a new Adelaide commercial FM licence (See RNW Aug 30); it has also allocated two new community licences in Victoria: One goes to West Gippsland Community Radio Inc (3BBR) in Warragul and the other to Horsham and District Community FM Radio (3HHH) in Horsham.
Each was the only applicant for the licence and is already broadcasting on the frequencies under temporary community broadcasting licences that expire on 31 August 2003.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has again been involved in a number of licence issues, renewals and amendments. In order of province they include:
Alberta:
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of the licence of CJPR-AM, Blairmore, and its transmitter CJEV-AM, Elkford, British Columbia.
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of the licence of CHTR-FM Drumheller.
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of the licence of CBPJ-FM-1, Waterton Lakes National Park.
British Columbia:
Approval of New low-power English-language Type A 5-watts community FM in Lillooet.
Approval of new very low power 1.8 watts English-language specialty FM radio programming undertaking in Sunshine Valley, British Columbia. This will be the first service in the valley and programming will include music, local news and weather and community programming.
Renewal until 31 January 2004 of the licence for developmental campus radio programming undertaking CFBX-FM, Kamloops,
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of the licence for Standard Radio's English-language radio network in Fort St. John, for the purpose of broadcasting portions of the programming from the radio station CHRX-FM Fort St. John.
Newfoundland and Labrador:
Approval of new low-power 50-watts English-language Type B community FM radio programming undertaking in Lewisporte, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Ontario:
Second extension, this time until November 4, of deadline for Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. to commence the operation of new native FM to serve Ottawa/Gatineau (formerly Ottawa/Hull) in Ontario and Quebec.
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of licence for CIDC-FM, Orangeville, together with removal of licence requirement to spend CAD 3000 annually on Canadian Talent Development; in its place the station is proposing to spend CAD 27,000 annually on local talent development initiatives. The licensee is also authorized to use an SMCO channel for distributing ethnic programming in German.
The CRTC has also approved an application by CJRT-FM, Toronto, to use subsidiary communications multiplex operations (SCMO) channel1 for an Urdu-, Hindi- and English-language service - 60% in Urdu, 30% in Hindi and 10% in English. There had been two interventions against this, one by community-based campus radio CIUT-FM Toronto, whose facilities are already used by Sur Sagar Radio Inc. to provide an SMCO service to Punjabi and Hindi communities in Toronto and from AJIT Newspaper, Advertising, Marketing and Communications Inc., which provides an SCMO service over the facilities of CFNY-FM Brampton that is directed to the South Asian community and offers a substantial amount of Urdu programming.
Quebec:
Approval of a new French-language not-for-profit AM - 1,000 watts daytime and 100-watts night, in Gatineau, Quebec, and Ottawa, Ontario, with programming oriented to children and youth. The station was denied access to contributions by broadcasting distribution undertakings to Canadian programming and eligibility for CAB contributions to Canadian talent development.
Saskatchewan:
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of the licence of CFSW-FM Chaplin.
Renewal until 31 August 2010 of the licence for Harvard Broadcasting Inc.'s English-language radio network (Saskatchewan Roughriders Football) in Regina, to broadcast football games of the Saskatchewan Roughriders as well as the Canadian Football League's Western Conference semi-finals and final, and the Grey Cup Game.
Approval of extension until August 10 next year of time limit for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to commence the operation of the new transmitter of CBK-FM Regina, in Prince Albert
There was nothing on radio from Ireland but in the UK, the Radio Authority has been involved in five automatic licence renewals on the basis that the holders of these licences are all providing, or are contractually committed to provide, digital sound programme services on relevant local multiplexes.
The stations involved are Classic Gold's Reading, Basingstoke & Andover AM and GWR's Broadland FM in Norwich, Trent FM in the Nottingham/Derby area, 2-Ten-FM covering Reading, Basingstoke & Andover and Beacon FM in Wolverhampton/Shrewsbury & Telford.
The Authority has also announced that it received only one application for the local digital multiplex licence for Cambridge and the surrounding area. It was from GWR subsidiary Now Digital Ltd., which is proposing a service of an initial seven services plus BBC Radio Cambridgeshire; three more services are to be added later.
The initial commercial services proposed are:
*Contemporary hit radio - Q103 (provider: Cambridge & Newmarket FM Radio Ltd.)
*Modern rock - The Storm (provider: The Storm (Digital Radio) Ltd.)
*Chart hits - Smash Hits (provider: Emap Performance Ltd.)
*Dance - Vibe FM (provider: Eastern Counties Radio Ltd.)
*'Access' - various services including s student broadcasting from 19.00 - 00.00.
*SBN - (provider: SBN Ltd.)
The Authority has also announced the result of its public interest determination into Sunrise Radio Ltd's proposed acquisition of Mean Radio Holdings Ltd., licensee of Mean Country 1035 AM; it concluded the takeover could not be expected to operate against the public interest, although it also noted that any request to change the station format would need Authority approval for which it would have to be shown that the change would not narrow the range of programmes from independent radio services for audiences in the licence area.
Looking to the future, the Authority's successor, the new super-regulator Ofcom, has now announced that responsibility for issuing Radio Restricted Service Licences (RSLs) will be transferred from the Radio Authority to Ofcom when the relevant powers are vested in Ofcom under the Communications Act 2003; this is expected to take place towards the end of this year.
In the US, the main focus in public attention to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) still relates to its new media regulations due to come into force on September 4, although they could be stayed by a lawsuit by the Prometheus Radio Project (See RNW Aug 20); there is also renewed interest in Low Power FM with the agency opening a window that will could speed up the start of broadcasts for many of the applicants who hold one of 286 mutually exclusive LPFM applications.
The FCC is now to allow stations to submit major changes to their applications including frequency changes that could allow new stations if agreement is reached between the parties on who will amend their original applications. The FCC is also reactivating its LPFM channel-finder tool to aid applicants search for available alternative frequencies and will expedite the processing of all settlement requests filed by the end of October.
Following a petition from National Public Radio, Inc. ("NPR") and the International Association of Audio Information Services ("IAAIS") the FCC has gone part of the way in extending the deadline for comments relating to the Mitre Corporation's Technical Report, "Experimental Measurements of the Third-Adjacent- Channel Impacts of Low- Power FM Stations".
The two parties wanted to extend the deadline by 90 days until December 10 (See RNW Aug 19) but the FCC felt this was too long and is only allowing an extension until October 14.
In other actions, the FCC has also reduced from USD 22,000 to USD 10,000 penalties proposed for EAS and tower offences on the licensee of two Washington state AMs (See RNW Aug 30).
Previous ABA:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Ofcom:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
ABA web site :
CRTC web site:
FCC web site :
UK Radio Authority web site:
2003-08-31: US Spanish language network Radio Unica has now paid the USD 9.3 million interest on its 11 3/4% Senior Discount Notes due 2006.
The company had opted to use its grace period for the interest (see RNW Aug 6) but had to pay by September 2.
Previous Unica:
2003-08-30: The UK Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) has reported UK commercial radio revenues for April to June this year up 3.3% on a year earlier to GBP144 million (USD 225 million), boosted by a 9% increase in spending from FMCG advertisers led by giant Proctor and Gamble whose annual spend on radio has increased 72%.
P&G's rivals, Kimberly Clark, increased its spending on radio even more dramatically in percentage terms, taking it up nearly 15 fold from GBP 81,000 (USD 127,000) last year to GBP 1.2million (USD 1.9 million).
The Bureau also reported local revenues up 10.6% year-on-year, to just under GBP 41 million (USD 64 million) for the quarter.
Commenting on the figures, Michael O'Brien, Director of Marketing Operations at the RAB said, "Commercial Radio continues its steady growth during challenging times for the advertising industry. The influx into radio by FMCG advertisers - who are traditionally big TV spenders - is a great endorsement of radio's ability to drive sales, something demonstrated by the recent "Radio: The Sales Multiplier" research."
Kimberly Clark Media Director Europe Oliver Cleaver commented that radio "is a Swiss Army knife kind of medium - there are quite a few jobs it can do. For example, we use it for one brand simply to have a conversation with our users; for another brand we have a more aggressive and short-term radio strategy to communicate offers linked to retailers; for a third brand we have a year-round radio sponsorship. I think this indicates the versatility of the medium across a range of very different communication tasks."
Previous UK Radio Advertising Bureau:
2003-08-30: In more US radio deals, US giant Clear Channel is again selling rasher than buying, this time in Pennsylvania.
On the block for USD 11.3 million to Forever Broadcasting are News/Talk/Sports WTNJ-AM and country WMTZ-FM, Johnstown, which are valued at USD9.13 million, plus Clear Channel's rights to purchase WICT-FM, Grove City, from GOCOM for USD 2.8 million.
Forever in turn is selling its Country format WVSC-AM, Somerset (Johnstown), to Vital Licenses for USD 25,000 in cash.
Still in the wings, however, is the Univision takeover of Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (HBC) that had been expected to get Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval by the end of this month and which has already been passed by the Department of Justice.
Speculation is now that the announcement will be made on September 4, when the agency's new media regulations are due to come into effect unless stayed by the courts (see below).
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous FCC:
Previous Univision-HBC:
2003-08-30: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reduced from USD 22,000 to USD 10,000 penalties imposed on Jean J. Suh, licensee of KSUH- AM, Puyallup, and KWYZ- AM, Everett, both in Washington State, for failure to have operational Emergency Alert System (" EAS") equipment, failure to conduct required weekly and monthly EAS tests, and failure to post the Antenna Structure Registration number so that it is readily visible on or near the base of the KWYZ tower.
The original penalty of USD 22,000 was proposed in October last year but Ms Suh, a Korean American with English as her second language, asked for a cancellation or reduction to no more than USD 3,000 saying that after the test EAS equipment had been modified to facilitative automatic transmission rather than manual and subsequently, when this did not work, had purchased new equipment. She also said she had previously thought she owned the tower and had registered it in her name but found she only leased it and since the lease expired had been renting it on a month-to-month basis whilst negotiating a purchase or new lease. She also said the penalty would cause financial hardship to the stations.
The FCC on this basis cancelled a USD 10,000 for failure to repaint the KSUH tower as often as necessary to maintain good visibility and the USD 2,000 forfeiture for failure to post the ASR number but it did not accept the other arguments.
Previous FCC:
2003-08-30: The US Courts may yet delay final implementation of the US Federal Communications Commission's new media rules following the filing by a lawsuit by the Prometheus Radio Project.
In its submission the community radio group contends that without a stay the rules, due to go into effect on September 4, will mean a "massive consolidation of the broadcast industry will occur before judicial review can be completed."
The project also notes that there is "a very significant possibility that Congress will overturn all or part of the [FCC] order."
An oral hearing by the US Appeals Court has been scheduled for September 3.
The new rules have also come under attack from other media diversity groups including the Amherst Alliance that, in a joint filing with the Virginia Center For The Public Press to the FCC - the first on the matter - contends the FCC should have, but failed to, give serious consideration to the "option of lowering the previously applicable radio-ownership limits."
It accused the FCC of ignoring most of the "huge input" it received on the matter including most of the evidence against the eventual decision, of using evidence to justify the decision that was "incomplete, inaccurate, irrelevant or otherwise seriously flawed" and also argued that "The Chairman of the FCC, and others on the Commission, appear to have misunderstood the intent of Congress in writing the pivotal statutory directive they were attempting to implement."
"We are grateful," it wrote, "that the Commission chose not to raise the previously applicable limits on radio station ownership. Nevertheless, the Commission erred by never giving serious consideration to the option of lowering the previously applicable radio ownership limits."
It then asked that the FCC re-open the June 2 decision for the limited purpose of comparing, and choosing between, 2 options- the radio rules adopted on June 2 and "the unexamined alternative of rolling back the previously applicable ownership ceilings and creating, through selective divestiture, more opportunities for small broadcasters to enter the marketplace."
Previous FCC:
Amherst Alliance web site:
Prometheus Radio Project web site:
2003-08-30: Vancouver CHMJ-AM (Mojo Radio) has been rapped over the knuckles for references to the Holocaust in its broadcast of an episode of the US Loveline radio show in December last year but another complaint against the same station concerning a broadcast the same month of an annual segment of thel Tom Leykis Show concerning drunk driving was ruled not to have breached Canadian codes.
The condemnation came for a Loveline Show in which the host Adam Corolla who had suggested a telephone sex operator seeking advice on how to make her clients stay on the phone longer should use words like "Holocaust," "Vietnam" and "cancer" to dampen her clients' ardour.
He then responded with a sarcastic, "Yeah, yeah, burn those Jews. Gas 'em in the shower, baby. Yeah, yeah" after the caller had said, "Well I'm wearin' a nice black garter. Mmm just thinkin' about the Holocaust right now. Oh this is too much.".
The broadcast led a listener to complain that it was " was offensive, racist and ridiculed the Holocaust experience."
The broadcaster responded that the Holocaust was used as a word reflecting unpleasant images and that the humour in the segment was solely related to the inability of the caller - who had never heard of the Holocaust - to understand what was suggested to her and noted that the " broadcaster's programming responsibility does not extend to questions of good taste.".
The CBSC's British Columbia Regional Panel rejected one complaint under its Human Rights Clause saying that that it did not find any of the comments to be advocating violence toward the Jewish population or was an attempt to denigrate or insult Jews.
It found however that its codes been breached, ruling that, "The humorous constructs erected here on the base of great tragedy constitute improper comment. The broadcast of this segment of Loveline constitutes a breach of the standard requiring the 'full, fair and proper presentation of news, opinion, comment and editorial.'"
The Leykis show had attracted a complaint that it broadcast was glamorizing irresponsible behaviour and "ensuing carnage on the roads."
The CBSC noted that the host suggested that segment, in which he invited listeners who were driving drunk at that very moment to call in to the show was a "holiday tradition" and that he explained that the purpose of the segment was to prove that despite all the announcements and warnings many people continued to drive while drunk. He also commented on ambiguity in thinking about the offence - a combination of calls for strong action against offenders linked to a desire for leniency from those who had been caught.
It also included an exchange between a driver, who said he had drunk a gallon (4.5 litres) of beer and another caller who attacked him calling him a "moron" and saying he could kill a child.
The CBSC ruling said it wished to make it " perfectly clear that it has no stomach for the promotion of drinking and driving" but after careful analysis had concluded "the goal of the show was decidedly not irresponsible."
Previous Leykis:
Previous CBSC:
2003-08-30: Australia's newest radio station, community station FBi 94.5 FM in Sydney, went on air full time at noon on Friday, following a long fight involving trial broadcasts and protracted legal battles that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
It was established in 1995 in response in response to calls from the city's music and arts communities for a service focusing on the city's cultural life. It was finally awarded its full-time permanent licence in May 2001 (See RNW Licence News May 27, 2001).
The station has a full-strength signal, for which as a community station there was no charge whereas DMG paid a record AUD 155 million (USD 99 million) for its licence for Nova FM in the city (See RNW May 25, 2000).
FBi promises that half its musical output will be Australian content with half of that from Sydney itself, adding on its web site "FBI is committed to giving the local music industry more than just a leg-up, we're here to hoist the legs, arms, head and heart of the beast."
Its regular weekday programming includes The Bridge that runs from 8pm to 10 pm and features two hours of unsigned Sydney bands on Mondays, a city music retrospective on Tuesdays, new Sydney albums on Wednesdays, a weekly 'what's-on' guide on Thursdays and the best of the city's electronica and hip-hop on Fridays.
The All Day Launch, under the guidance of breakfast host Jess Keeley, a former late night Triple-J broadcaster and ABC TV children's host, featured local artists, including hard rock Front End Loader, grunge pop singer Dave McCormack and dance electronica's Baggsmen.
Also in Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has now invited applications for a new commercial FM station in Adelaide together with a translator service for the Adelaide Foothills area.
Previous ABA:
FBi web site:
2003-08-29: Long-time Chicago rock'n'roll radio host John "Records" Landecker has been dropped along with his morning show co-host, Leslie Keiling, and producer, Rick Kaempfer by Infinity's oldies station WJMK-FM.
His contract expires at the end of next week and is not being renewed and the station web site is no longer promoting him.
Reporting in the Chicago Sun-Times Robert Feder says Ken Cocker and John Calhoun will become fill-in hosts on the station's morning show whilst a permanent replacement is sought and quotes WJMK vice president and general manager as saying "We thank John, Leslie and Rick, and wish them the very best in their future endeavours" before going on to portentously promote the station by adding, "The ongoing changes and improvements at WJMK continue."
Feder says that the decision did not seem to be a surprise to 56-years-old Landecker whose ratings had slipped and quotes him as saying, "My heart was definitely in it. I did everything I was told to do by every management I worked for. I played ball with everyone--and that's probably why I was there for 10 years."
"But as a professional broadcaster, I just had a gut feeling this is the way it was going to go."
Landecker began his Chicago career with WLS-AM in 1972 and has also worked at WLUP-FM and WCKG-FM as well as WJMK. He says he hopes to return to radio eventually and in the meantime is to continue his movie reviewing on TV.
Previous Feder:
Previous Landecker:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Chicago Sun-Times report:
2003-08-29: BBC Radio 1, whose audience was down significantly in the latest official UK RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) radio ratings (See RNW Aug 1) tops the ratings for under-45s, although its audience then falls, according to latest rival figures from GfK Media GB.
Its National Broadcast Media Survey for the period from April 21 to July 20 showed the station reaching 40% of UK adults aged 16-44, followed by that demographic by BBC Radio 4 with 30% and then BBC Radio 2 - the official rankings leader - with 28%, BBC Radio Five Live with 17% and then commercial talkSPORT with 14%.
TalkSPORT, which is lower ranked by RAJAR, is owned by Wireless Group whose chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie is pushing the alternative ratings.
In the over-45 age group, Radio 1 slips to sixth place, with Radio 4, Radio 2, Classic FM, Radio Five Live and talkSPORT taking the five top ranks.
GfK adds that the results should also give some comfort to Sara Cox, whose Radio 1 Breakfast show is performing poorly according to the official figure; GfK says the audience for her flagship show is growing.
Overall the weekly reach figures for the main UK networks from GFK for the period from March 24 - June 22 (with in brackets GfK prior period to June 22 and then RAJAR figures to the end of June) in rank order were:
BBC Networks:
BBC Radio 4 - 18.05 million (17.5 million; 9.70 million): Reach up from 39% to 40%.
BBC Radio 2 - 15.74 million (15.67 million; 13.03 million): Reach unchanged 35%.
BBC Radio 1 - 12.62 million (12.52 million; 9.87 million): Reach unchanged 28%.
BBC Radio Five Live - 8.82 million (9.80 million; 5.80 million): Reach down from 22% to 20%
BBC Radio 3 - 4.30 million (4.0 million; 2 million): Reach up from 9% to 10%.
Commercial networks:
talkSPORT - 7.16 million (7.17 million; 2.16 million): Reach unchanged at 16%.
Classic FM - 6.81 million (6.95 million; 5.57 million): Reach unchanged at 15%.
Virgin - 4.24 million (4.40 million; 2.80 million): Reach down from 10% to 9%.
Previous BBC:
Previous GFK ratings:
Previous MacKenzie:
Previous RAJAR ratings:
Previous Wireless Group:
2003-08-29: Commercial Radio Australia has announced six nominees for the Best New Australian Artist on Commercial Radio for 2003, sponsored by Austereo and part of the 2003 Australian Commercial Radio Awards.
All of the nominees made the Top 50 singles chart for the first time and remained there for 10 weeks or more during the judging period (July 2002 - June 2003); they are Bec Cartwright, Sophie Monk, Androids, Delta Goodrem, Emmanuel Carella and Amiel.
The award is designed to aid development of new artists or groups based in Australia, with the winner being chosen by voting from commercial radio program and music directors, using eight criteria including the artists' potential to succeed, the appeal of the original material performed, their credibility as a performer, CD sales and listener requests
The winner will receive AUD 50,000 (USD 32,000) worth of airtime across the TODAY and Triple M networks to promote current or future releases.
The award is among 28- including news, talkback, sport and music - to be presented at the 2003 Australian Commercial Radio Awards gala - the 15th year of the awards - ceremony in Sydney on October 18.
Previous Austereo:
Previous Commercial Radio Australia:
2003-08-29: Both satellite radio companies in the US have announced further automobile related developments,
For Sirius it is agreement with RiverPark, Inc., the exclusive distributor of Visteon products to the motorhome market, to offer Sirius as a factory-installed feature on a 2003 models including Winnebago, Fleetwood, Newmar, Gulfstream, Monaco, and Four Winds International.
XM is launching a 10,000-Mile Drive Across America from Manhattan on Labor Day on September 1; two XM disc jockeys driving a customized Cadillac Escalade SUV will attempt to visit and broadcast from every one of the 48 states where XM Satellite Radio is available in just two weeks.
XM has also announced that it has begun an offer to exchange all the 12% senior secured notes due in 2010 that it issued in June as part of a private placement with a new series of 12% senior secured notes due in 2010.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
2003-08-29: The latest Arbitron Internet Broadcast Ratings just released show no changes at the top, although stations had lower listening because of the power outage in the US and Canada that began on August 14.
The fall included the listening for top-ranked news/talk station WLS-AM, whose listening was down from 190,821 hours to 174,064; it also dropped a rank, from 12th to 13th, presumably because over-the-air radio listened to on automobile and battery radios was a much more likely choice in the circumstances.
For the week to August 17, Arbitron'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 (*Non Commercial) - TTSL 595,527 (624,275); CP - 177,668 (190,887). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
2: AOL Top Country (Internet-only) Country format (Commercial) - TTSL 279,116 (281,163); CP - 114,410 (118,113). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
3: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin AM & FM (Commercial) - TTSL 260,776 (277,784); CP - 50,539 (52,971). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
4: Smooth Jazz format AOL Smooth Jazz (Commercial) - TTSL - 252,335 (260,783); CP - 58,346 (60,390). Up from fifth with lower listening and reach.
5: AOL Top Pop (Internet-only) Top 40 (Commercial) - TTSL 246,839 (262,835); CP - 156,872 (169,856), Down from fourth with lower listening and reach.
The top five networks for the week to August 17 (Previous week's figures in brackets) were:
1: AOL Radio@ Network (Commercial) - TTSL - 5,945,898 (6,111,483); CP - 1,571,746 (1,588,010). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
2: LAUNCH TTSL (Non commercial) - 3,220,546 (3,916,999); CP - 679,562 (738,186). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
3: MUSICMATCH Inc. (*Non Commercial) TTSL - 1,739,554 (1,813,042); CP - 383,684 (412,757). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
4: The Adsertion Network (Sales Network) TTSL - 1,142,127 (1,243,222); CP - 129,855 (139,637) - Same rank with lower listening and reach.
5: Warp Radio (Sales Network) TTSL - 755,896 (748,748); CP - 126,296 (125,059) - Same rank with lower listening and reach.
Arbitron does not now rank Content Delivery Networks (CDN) alongside other networks but does report on them; for the week the top Content Delivery Networks were Live365 with TTSL 2,288,089, down from 2,472,764 TTSL and StreamGuys with TTSL 437,887, down from 501,630.
Previous Arbitron Internet Broadcast Weekly Ratings:
2003-08-28: Detroit-headquartered Crain Communications Inc. has announced agreement to sell its two Pine Key, Florida, stations to newcomer to radio Cooke Broadcasting LLC subject to FCC approval.
The company did not confirm the price, reported as around USD 3 million depending on station cash flow, of the stations - Classic Hits WWUS-FM ("US-1 RADIO") and Smooth Jazz ("Conch FM").
They have been owned by Crain for nearly 20 years.
Cooke Broadcasting is commonly owned with Cooke Communications LLC, which owns Florida Keys newspapers and web sites.
John Kent Cooke, Sr., the former NFL Washington Redskins owner and operator who heads Cooke Communications, commented, "The radio stations are a natural extension of our commitment to providing the best local coverage in the Florida Keys."
"Since the purchase of The Key West Citizen, and the Free Press papers three years ago, we focused heavily on local news coverage for our readers and with keysnews.com we expanded that coverage."
"With the purchase of US-1 Radio and Conch-FM our goal is to continue to provide our community with the most comprehensive news coverage and entertainment in the Florida Keys."
In other US radio deals, Michigan charts pop station WCFM-FM, registered to Clare, is being sold by Goldsen Broadcasting for USD 2.88 million cash to newcomer Greenax Broadcasting.
Also in Michigan, Grosse Pointe Farms- headquartered Saga Communications has announced the repurchase of 99,000 shares of its Class A common stock this month under its previously announced Stock Buy-Back Program.
In all Saga has now spent some USD 6.7 million of the existing USD 10 million authorized under the arrangement; the latest shares were bought on the open market and also from Saga President and CEO Ed Christian, who exercised stock options and sold the shares directly to the company.
In Missouri, AAA KLQR-FM, Clinton, is being sold for USAD 1.9 million cash by B&F Broadcasting Inc. to Educational Media Foundation. Educational Media is to petition the FCC to change the status to non-commercial.
Previous Christian:
Previous Saga:
2003-08-28: Clear Channel has named Joe Bevilacqua, currently Regional VP/Programming for Clear Channel's Eastern North East trading area and Program Director for WHJY-FM, Providence, to take over as OM/PD of rock format DC101 in Washington from veteran Buddy Rizer, who has resigned after being at the station since 1988 and PD since March 2001.
Bevilacqua has been WHJY PD for 5 years and took over additional RVP/Programming responsibilities in December last year.
Rizer told FMQB that he made the decision to go and has no clear plans as yet, commenting, "I'm looking forward to a nice long sabbatical to figure out what my next challenge will be. Radio is all I've done since I was 15 years old. The tough decision to leave was entirely mine, and one I'm very excited about."
Previous Clear Channel:
FMQB site:
2003-08-28: In a further extension of its terrestrial digital radio network, the BBC has now started transmission from Dover, Bromsgrove & Salisbury. They are the first new DAB transmitters to go live under a BBC plan that will increase its digital coverage to 85% of the UK population by the middle of next year.
The move adds around a potential half million listeners to the digital service which, including simulcast analogue networks and digital-only services, now carries 11 channels.
Previous BBC:
2003-08-28: Isothermal Community College in Spindale, North Carolina has decided to keep its non-commercial classical station WNCW-FM but will change its programming according to the Greenville News.
The college trustees, who had been looking at options because of the effect on its funds of the fall in the stock market, voted to keep the licence but change its operating principles to add news content, set up closer involvement with the college broadcasting curriculum and also conduct a review of federal, state and other broadcasting guidelines.
Station manager David Gordon commented of the changes, "They're not a radical departure from anything we're doing right now. We should have clear guidelines. That's a good thing. That's a good thing that's come out of this."
Previous WNCW:
Greenville News report:
2003-08-27: US radio giant Clear Channel is to target the bottom line rather than market share for its stations according to a report in the San Antonio Business Journal.
It says radio CEO John Hogan is directing a shift in emphasis at the company, which saw profits increase despite a revenue decline in the second quarter of this year.
The report says the move was made in part because of the company's size:" "We have had the benefit of looking at what is going on in a wide range of markets where we do business," explains Hogan. "We can now see how things can be done differently."
He says that the adjustment is beginning to make sense to the company's market managers, commenting, "One of the things long important to and characteristic about radio has been market share."
"But while we want to be focused on competing against other radio stations, we want to be even more focused on profitability than market share now."
The policy is likely to curtail activities in some areas and Hogan comments concerning non-traditional revenues, "We no longer want to do the events that cost USD100 to make USD110. We're looking to get a 2-1 return on our NTR events. That's the kind of event we want our managers to create or get involved with."
Another area being put under the accountants' scrutiny is sports-rights feeds where decisions over whether to carry a team's games will depend on whether it's a "good business deal, no matter how popular (the team)."
Already Clear Channel has opted not to continue with the Dodgers in Los Angeles after five years of broadcasting the Major League Baseball team's games.
CCR is also paying attention to other areas such as keeping track of its commercial inventory through implementation of the Tradewinds system, a proprietary tool the company is using at roughly 98 percent of its stations.
Hogan says it allows market managers to better control commercial airtime but denies that the company is involved in "cluster selling" saying, "There is a misconception that we bundle and sell our stations. That's not the case. Worse yet, we think that's bad business."
One area where change has already come is a slowdown in acquisitions - the article notes that Clear Channel took over only four stations in the first half of this year - and Hogan commented, "We felt there were better uses of our cash flow than acquisitions. We made the decision instead to pay down our debt."
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Hogan:
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2003-08-27: Classical music is to return to the airwaves of New Hampshire state capital Concord after a three-year hiatus thanks to a Low Power FM project by a non-profit group that wants to fill the void left when New Hampshire Public Radio dropped classical music from its programming.
Local music enthusiasts in conjunction developed the project with Harry Kozlowski, program director for the Concord radio stations WJYY and WNHI, and local musician and composer Patrick Hebert.
The new station, WCNH-LP, which has now had its licence approved by the Federal Communications Commission, is also being helped by New Hampshire Public Radio, which is offering the new station full use of its classical music library and hopes to be on air by October. It will have no studio and few overheads; Hebert will design the play lists, Kozlowski will act as station manager and the main voice and will read most station announcements, and music will be programmed in advance and sent to an unmanned transmitter from a computer in his home studio.
The station is being set up by Highland Community Broadcasting, which needs to raise USD 25, 000 to start up in addition to which Kozlowski estimates it will need about USD50, 000 a year to run.
The money will have to come from listeners and sponsorships and Kozlowski hopes that eventually the station will be able to broadcast recordings of local concerts; he's also hoping to start spotlighting young, local talent.
Concord Monitor report:
2003-08-27: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is under fire over disciplinary action taken against radio presenter Stephen Crittenden concerning an article written for the Sydney Morning Herald last month.
Crittenden, host of ABC Radio National's "The Religion Report", is a long-time ABC employee, having first joined the Corporation in 1989 as a reporter on ABC Radio Current Affairs programmes; his article looked at Samuel P. Huntington's 1996 book on growing Islamic unrest, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.
In the book Huntington described Islam itself as a problem for the West, writing, "The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power."
Crittenden in his article commented that, "the Huntington thesis seems to have been remarkably prescient in the light of recent world events".
He had not sought permission for publication and was suspended by ABC's head of national talk radio, Mark Collier, who had apparently asked to see the article before granting permission to publish because of the sensitivity of the topic.
An internal investigation concluded that he had engaged in "serious misconduct" and he could now face dismissal.
Crittenden's supporters, accuse ABC management of wanting to suppress religious and cultural debate and Graeme Thomson, the national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union's ABC division, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the management's actions were short-sighted.
There has also been criticism of the ABC for double standards such as comment by Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute, who in the Australian Age wrote… "it is impossible to justify an evident double standard whereby Crittenden has been stood down for an uncontroversial article on so familiar a topic as Huntington's clash-of-civilisations thesis, while some of his ABC colleagues can barrack for Saddam or bag Howard in their newspaper columns with impunity."
RNW comment: We have some sympathy with the ABC in view of the attacks on the BBC for various print work by its correspondents including one report on the BBC Today Programme concerning "sexing up" the risks from Iraq's weaponry before the war on Iraq - exacerbated by a newspaper article by the same correspondent in which he named Prime Ministerial aide Alastair Campbell as being responsible for alterations to a report.
The ABC like the BBC has come under attack from its government for being anti-war (not a problem from the supine commercial US media which has only now started to devote attention to foreseen problem areas of the action - in other words when it was too late) and we suspect part of the reason for ABC sensitivity lies in this background.
At the same time in our view, if it was changing policy or had decided to be tougher about enforcing existing policies about comment by correspondents on sensitive topics, the ABC should have made this crystal clear by issuing a suitable memo and copy of its stance and rules to all staff.
In this case, it does appear that Crittenden might have reasonably assumed from comments that others were being allowed to make that he was entitled to write the article. The ABC equally had a right to ask for prior approval of articles by staff -- and indeed of others who might have to decide whether they could continue with an article and their ABC roles.
Ideally we would hope that a settlement can be made that allows Crittenden to stay, to apologise if he had indeed gone ahead with publication but refused advance sight of his article to his ABC boss, and for the ABC to issue appropriate guidelines to all and then ensure it has a consistent policy about outside work by staff and contributors.
Previous ABC, Australia:
Previous Collier:
The Age - Henderson comment:
2003-08-27: US Pacifica radio has now passed new by-laws with the approval of its Interim Board and three local advisory boards and nominations for board seats at the network's five stations are to open soon.
Election coordinators are already working at KPFK-FM, Los Angeles, KPFT-FM, Houston, and WBAI-FM, New York, and are expected to start soon at KPFA-FM, Berkeley, and WPFW, Washington, DC.
The new organization is described on Pacifica's web site as a "a hybrid model of a workers' collective and a membership organization of engaged listener-sponsors."
Previous Pacifica:
2003-08-26: In a potentially significant extension of the current "play-it-again" service that allows BBC radio programmes to be accessed online for seven days after their initial broadcast, BBC Director General Greg Dyke has announced plans to open up its archive for private, but not commercial use, in the UK.
The idea was put forward by Dyke during his delivery of the Richard Dunn Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival and concentrated on TV with Dyke commenting of its TV library that it was probably the "best in the world."
"Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution," said Dyke. "But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that. For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this treasure trove of BBC content available to all."
The archive would be made available through The BBC Creative Archive that would would make selected BBC material available and Dyke commented, "I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion."
"In particular, it will be about how public money can be combined with new digital technologies to transform everyone's lives," he added, commenting that commitment was also needed from a wide range of organisations including local government, educational establishments and charities as well as the commercial sector in partnership with publicly funded partners.
RNW comment: In view of the recent attacks on the BBC's licence fee funding, by Internet and media companies and particularly by operatives of Rupert Murdoch's News International including Sky satellite TV - which seems to have almost exhausted the market of those prepared to pay around three-times the BBC licence for what is in essence a sports service plus a few extras and thus has a tremendous financial interest in weakening the BBC - we expect this plan also to get a fair amount of negative publicity.
Having no such vested commercial interests we feel the idea of, to use the BBC's phrase, "Creating public not private value", should be welcomed as being in the public interest far more than continuing any of Murdoch's empire for a day longer.
We hope of course that the plan can also be extended to audio archives, possibly on a basis, as we have suggested before, of a lower quality streaming signal for free and a high quality downloadable service being offered for a fee. We would certainly consider the idea of offering downloads from a BBC radio archive catalogue as potentially being an excellent birthday or Christmas present and could be suborned very slightly (in other words we'd publicise the idea anyway as well worth while) were the BBC to offer us a voucher or two.
In commenting on the TV archive, Dyke highlighted the idea of it being used in a pupil's homework; since radio archives date back much longer than TV, span a wider range of topics because getting pictures was not an essential component of their production, and are also portable and could be played back in an automobile, we hope the focus on TV doesn't lead the BBC to neglect the audio archive in this venture.
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Previous Dyke:
Greg Dyke speech:
2003-08-26: In more developments at two troubled US radio broadcasters, Big City's board has unanimously adopted a plan to dissolve the company and Fisher Communications has announced that it has received a NASDAQ Notice of Potential Delisting.
Big City, which once owned 12 stations, has already sold 11 of them and is negotiating the sale of the remaining one, WYYX-FM, licensed to Morris, Illinois; last month it completed the sale of another Chicago area station, WVIV-FM, the former WXXY-FM, Highland Park, to HBC Illinois, Inc., an affiliate of Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (See RNW July 23).
Last year Big City defaulted on its senior discount notes due in 2005 and since then has been paying these off through the sales; it says it cannot say what, if anything, will be left for shareholders when it has paid all its liabilities.
Seattle-based Fisher, which has also been selling stations, received its delisting note because of delays in filing its quarterly 10-Q report for the quarter to the end of June this year; Last month it announced that it is to restate its financial results for 2002 and the first quarter of 2003 (See RNW July 21) and until this is done it cannot file the 10-Q.
Fisher has to request a hearing by the 28th of this month and says it intends to do this and automatically stay the delisting; it adds that it is working diligently to complete the restatement of its financial statements and expects to file the Quarterly Report as soon as possible.
Pending the hearing, Fisher stock will continue trading on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "FSCIE" but Fisher says that after the restatements are completed and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is filed, it will seek NASDAQ approval to again trade under the symbol "FSCI."
Previous Big City:
Previous Fisher:
2003-08-26: Bustos Media Holdings, which at the end of last week agreed a USD 2.8 million purchase of Adult standards KKSN-AM, Portland, Oregon, from Entercom (See RNW Aug 21), has now added another Portland station to take its holdings up to four AMs in the market.
It's to pay USD 1 million in cash for KGUY-AM, Milwaukie, Oregon, which is already simulcasting the regional Mexican "La Zeta" format of Bustos's KMUZ-AM; Bustos's other station in the market is KKGT-AM.
Previous Bustos:
2003-08-25: The US and Canadian blackout that gave radio a boost as power-hungry TVs became unusable will certainly have led to a spike in listening in the areas concerned but equally certainly many of those potential new listeners will certainly revert to their old habits.
At the same time other technological developments are offering opportunities that did not exist a few years ago, such as niche stations on the Internet, complete with worldwide audiences, and maybe even, thanks to the political pressures that the US's new media regulations have thrown up, a speeding up of the commissioning of low-power FMs in the US as we reported - with due scepticism - in licence news yesterday.
Most of the attention, however, seems to have been devoted over recent years to music, news and community stations with radio drama getting very little look-in.
There are signs, however, according to a New York Times article by David Cote that radio drama is at least alive in the US.
"In fact," he comments, "there are hopeful signs - the rise in popularity of audio books, the ease of digital recording, the advent of content-hungry satellite radio, even a trace of interest by public radio - that could lead to a renaissance."
"While DVD's have become very popular with the other arts, producers of radio drama make more modest use of technology - mainly through compact disc burners and the Internet to distribute their work to a wider audience."
Cote comments on some plans in the US but it is noticeable how much relates to public radio rather than commercial channels, much as it does in the UK although the commercial OneWord digital channel is a welcome UK exception to the rule.
"The popular art form that drew families around the radio to hear Welles, Jack Benny and countless detective, western and soap opera serials did not simply vanish when television began to dominate in the 1950's," comments Cote.
"Through the 1970's and 80's, radio drama enjoyed the support of NPR, which produced series like "Earplay" and "NPR Playhouse" for a new generation. American playwrights, including David Mamet, contributed scripts, which combined the nostalgia of old-time radio with the sophisticated literary tradition of the British Broadcasting Corporation."
The support has waned though and NPR Playhouse went off the air last fall but audio books, suggests Cote, may yet provide a basis for a renaissance. Production of the books is a billion-dollar industry and Cote notes that Eileen Hutton, a board member for the Audio Publishers Association, estimates that perhaps 5 percent of the country's 23 million regular consumers of audio books buy radio drama.
Also encouraging is the growth of satellite radio, which also offers radio drama - the Sonic Theater channel for example on XM that broadcasts existing work by US producers plus programmes from the BBC and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which continue to produce radio drama.
Which if nothing else, is an early cue to recommend the current BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, which was one of Sue Arnold's choices in her weekly radio review in the UK Observer.
She commented of the production, "Having read the book, seen the film [RNW note: A 1993 release directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox Christopher Reeve, and Peter Vaughan) and heard the radio adaptation by James Friel of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, I can honestly say that it was the radio play that moved me most."
" If you thought Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson as Stevens and Miss Kenton were perfect, Ian MacDiarmid and Julia Ford were a match made in heaven. Forget Bogart and Bacall, Hepburn and Tracy or even, for Radio 1 fans, Pitt and Aniston. MacDiarmid and Ford were phat."
Back towards the mainstream, the dropping audience of the BBC's popular music channel, Radio 1, has continued to attract comment about its prospects and the changes that should be made.
Among them was a UK Times article by Adam Sherwin that summed up the station in terms of a dilemma "between playing commercial hits and discovering new talent."
Sherwin writes that Alex Jones-Donelly, who controls the channel's playlist, has opted not to play the UK Number 1 by Blu Cantrell and comments that, "It sounds like the act of man with a death wish, with Radio 1's target 15-24 audience being lured away by commercial stations where listeners are never more than five minutes from a top five hit."
Jones-Donelly, however, continues Sherwin, has to face the "pressure being heaped on Radio 1 to observe its public service obligations and uncover the next Coldplay or Ms Dynamite."
"The BBC," continues Sherwin, "has set Radio 1 a target that 40 per cent of its output must be British-based music."
"It is not an obligation that its competitors are required to match. At Chrysalis's Galaxy network of dance stations, which has 10 million listeners, Blu Cantrell and American R&B dominate… Radio 1 must be all things to all music fans, but impatient listeners, with tribal tastes, can depart to niche stations."
"Kerrang! offers numetal to 770,000 listeners on digital radio, a rapidly growing market. The number of 4 to 14-year-olds listening to commercial radio rose to 6.5 million in the last quarter, a record high."
Virgin Radio has also seen potential benefits in moving away from a diet of hits and claims that two thirds of its most-played tracks are from UK artists, a higher ratio than Radio 1.
Virgin Radio programme director Paul Jackson says: "We do not have a policy to play a certain amount of British music, but with the wealth of talent there is in the country, how can any station have less than half its music from here?"
"For the first time last year rock albums outsold pop albums; so many of these new bands are British - The Darkness and The Coral, for example. We have a great rock history in the UK, and we want to support the talented artists that this nation produces."
Radio 1 reports Sherwin it to face the challenge head-on and he notes "Radio 1 can claim to have given the first plays to 10 of the 12 artists nominated for this year's Mercury Music Prize, an award seen as the best guide to the most innovative new artists."
Still with music, but moving to politics, back in the USA the Dixie Chicks, who are currently on tour - and due back in London next month- were taken off air by many stations following lead singer Natalie Maines' anti-Bush and anti-war comments made in London in March and the UK Guardian's Nigel Williamson joined them.
Their comments to him could well inflame some Americans afresh, although presumably some of the immediate disrespect for freedom of speech that led to death threats and the trashing of Emily Robison's Texas ranch has abated.
Commenting on the furore and threats made at the time, Maines said, "We were told the official White House quote on our ordeal."
"I thought it was going to be something empowering about the first amendment and our rights as American citizens. I don't know why I thought such an educated thing could have come out of there. Instead it was, 'Their fans have spoken.'"
"Which makes your mind go back to the death threats and the trashing of Emily's ranch and the corporate banning," commented fellow-Chick Marty Maguire.
"So is the President condoning those things?" Robison demands.
"He was asked about the end of the war in Iraq, and he said, 'Freedom is a beautiful thing and these people now have a right to speak and we've given them that'," recalls Maines. "It was everything he should have said when he was asked about us."
Finally technology and a look at digital radio's future in Canada as seen by Keith Damsell in the Toronto Globe and Mail: in it he says the future of digital broadcasting in the country has been clouded by the announcement that Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. is to file to start a service in Canada in conjunction with XM.
Steve Edwards, vice-president of corporate engineering and technology at Rogers Broadcasting, seven of whose stations currently broadcast in digital, said that without question the move wouldn't help with their aims for DAB, terming it another "distraction."
The article notes that only hundreds of digital receivers have so far been sold and a Radio Shack subsidiary that was selling two receivers - priced at CAD 299 (SD 210) and CAD 399 (USD 280) - has now stopped selling them and is to pin its hopes on a CAD 99 (USD 70 ) receiver.
The company's associate vice-president of merchandising David Easden commented, "We ended up with a very cool radio that a number of early acquirers bought in to, but kind of a radio that's out of the average individual's reach. It's great technology but it hasn't maybe taken off quite the way I think the industry had hoped it would."
In that environment, any possible alternative such as satellite could have a serious effect and Ottawa-based broadcasting engineering consultant Wayne Stacey said the future of the medium "is something that's going to have to be debated by the industry and the regulators over the next six to 12 months as to whether the rollout plan that we had is still viable or whether it needs to be adapted."
Previous Arnold:
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2003-08-25: BBC World Service is to broadcast a series of programmes on monsters - of the imaginary and real varieties - next month starting on September 2.
The series on imaginary monsters starts with a programme that looks at the evolution of monsters, that on the following Tuesday will explore the fascination with serial killers and cannibals, the third - on September 16 - will look at monsters created by fears of the development of science and technology including the ideas of creating part-human creatures as related in H.G.Wells' 1896 novel "The Island of Dr Moreau" through to later creations such as "The Incredible Shrinking Man" of the classic 1957 science fiction movie and the comic and movie character The Hulk.
The final programme "Monsters from Outer Space" - on September 2 - will look at myths concerning aliens.
The series on" monsters" that actually existed - "monstrous Science" starts on September 3 with a look at the earth's geological history and how creatures such as dinosaurs functioned.
It is followed a week later with a programme on Giant Squids then on September 17 with a programme on the carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. The final programme on September 24 looks at monsters that may or may not exist at present including the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland and the giant ape-man -- the Big Foot or the Sasquatch - from the forests of North America.
Also in the season will be a radio dramatisation of the Oscar winning 1983 classic An American Werewolf in London starring Jenny Agutter, who starred in the original movie, and Brian Glover; this will be first aired on September 13
Previous BBC:
2003-08-24: Yet again the US Federal Communications Commission was in the middle of continuing fallout relating to its new media regulations but elsewhere things were fairly routine for the regulators last week.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) is making an additional FM frequency available to 3HFM (MIXX FM), Hamilton, to allow it to serve the town of Portland, Victoria, which is currently inadequately served. 3HM has been conducting test transmissions on the allotted frequency from a transmitter at Mt Clay since April this year.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has again been involved in a number of licence renewals and also with conversions from AM to FM.
In order of province, they include:
Alberta:
Renewal of licence of CKMX -AM, Calgary, and its short wave transmitter CFVP until August 31, 2010.
In Alberta, the CRTC has also approved a frequency change for CIAM-FM Fort Vermilion, and a new 50,000 watts transmitter in Bonnyville for CKLM-FM, Lloydminster.
Manitoba:
Renewal of licence of CHWH-FM, West Hawk Lake.
New Brunswick:
In New Brunswick, the CRTC has also approved and also a new transmitter in Edmundston for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to rebroadcast the programming of its national English language network service Radio One.
Nova Scotia:
Renewal of licence of low-power CFNS-FM, Amherst, until August 31, 2010.
Renewal of licence of CHER -AM, Sydney, until August 31, 2010.
Ontario:
Renewal of licence of CFCO-AM, Chatham, and its transmitter CFCO-1-FM until August 31, 2010.
Renewal of licence of CHYR-FM, Leamington, until August 31, 2010.
In Ontario, the CRTC has also approved Tri-Tel Communications Inc.'s acquisition of the assets of CKTT-FM, Timmins.
Prince Edward Island:
In Prince Edward Island, the CRTC has approved an extension until 31 August 2004 of the local management agreement under which Newcap and Maritime Broadcasting operate CHTN-AM, CFCY-AM and CHLQ-FM Charlottetown.
Under the agreement, Maritime, which also owns and operates the only other commercial radio station in Prince Edward Island, CJRW-FM, Summerside, acts as manager of all three stations.
Yukon Territory:
In Yukon Territory, the CRTC has agreed to a request from the Parliamentary Broadcasting Society, Whitehorse, to revoke the licence for CHLA-FM, Whitehorse.
The CRTC has also issued a public notice, with an intervention deadline of September 25, concerning a number of applications for new licences and conversions to FM.
In order of province they include:
Alberta:
An application for an English-language adult contemporary music format commercial FM in Brooks.
An application by the Frog Lake Cowboys Club for a Type B native radio programming 10 watts FM in Frog Lake.
An application to convert CJCM Grand Centre (Cold Lake) from AM to FM and also to simulcast the station's programming on AM for three months from the date of implementation.
An application for the conversion from AM to FM of CIYR -AM, Hinton, along with permission to simulcast the programming of the station on AM for three months from the date of implementation.
Hinton, Alberta
An application for the conversion from AM to FM of CKYR-AM, Jasper, along with permission to simulcast the programming of the station on AM for three months from the date of implementation.
British Columbia:
An application by the B.C.I.T. Radio Society for a 20-watts English-language FM campus instructional radio programming undertaking in Burnaby.
Ontario:
An application for a new English-language Hot Adult Contemporary format 1600 watts commercial FM in Vermillion Bay with additional transmitters located in Dryden (1800 watts) and Kenora (1700 watts).
New Brunswick:
An application for a 50-watts English-language commercial Christian music service FM in Blackville.
An application for a 50,000 watts English-language classic hits musical format FM in Camrose.
For once there was no radio related activity in the UK but in Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has now signed a ten-year licence agreement with South East Broadcasting Limited (WLR-FM) for its County Waterford service. It is the sixth contract to be signed with a local commercial station for a licence in the Commission's re-licensing process that began in April 2001. WLR has held its licence for 14 years.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is still involve with reactions to its new media regulations issued in June and now subject to a number of "stay" petitions.
The Commission has also announced a series of initiatives to enhance localism among radio and television broadcasters, which includes a speeding up of the activation of low power FM stations.
Concerning these FCC chairman Michael K Powell announced that the commission was to open a settlement window shortly, and to waive its processing rules to permit mutually exclusive applicants to use all available frequencies to resolve conflicts and gain new station licenses.
RNW comment: We have considerable scepticism about this initiative; we hope we are wrong but fear that this initiative will merely dissipate some of the energy currently directed against the FCC policies of Powell and end up with the big media lobby effectively emasculating FM again.
Powell's statement contained the usual honeyed words about FM but we have no faith in his commitment. We would have had much more respect for Powell had he also announced that an urgent re-evaluation of third adjacent spectrum rules would also be conducted in the wake of the Mitre report and then, if its conclusions are found to be technically correct, removed the restrictions, thus allowing many more LPFMs. That of course would have upset the commercial lobby and we still await evidence that Powell, to use another US politician's words, has the "cojones" to do that. We'll be delighted to be proven wrong.
On other matters, the FCC also announced an inquiry into the impact (literally - some millions of birds are estimated to be killed by flying into towers in the US each year) of broadcasting towers on the migration of birds (See RNW Aug 22).
Again the release included honeyed words from Powell but, as we reported, a lawsuit had been served months ago on the agency concerning "unreasonably delayed" action by it in complying with mandatory duties imposed by various statutes on this matter.
The FCC also reduced significantly the fine imposed after a Florida church operated an FM at more than 30,000 times the permitted power for an unlicensed transmitter, and cancelled the fine on two other operators (See RNW Aug 19).
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2003-08-24: Unlicensed Vermont 10 watts low-power station radio free brattleboro, which was shut down in June by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agents, is defying the Commission and returning to the airwaves according to the Brattleboro Reformer.
The paper says the station has collected signatures of support - and funds - from some 2000 local residents to support its resurrection.
It points out that the station can only be heard inside Brattleboro and has also changed frequency three times to clear the way for bigger broadcasters and queries the reason behind the FCC's paying attention to the station.
The paper also criticizes the FCC over its media regulation, which it says is skewed towards big media, and notes that provisions in the Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act of 2000 prevent the FCC from considering applications from organizations that had previously been unlicensed broadcasters.
This, it says, leaves radio free brattleboro "has little choice but to either allow itself to be muzzled, or take its mandate from the people who own the airwaves."
"It has made the right choice, " concludes the paper, "and its 10-watt signal today sends the message loud and clear."
The paper also says that the FCC's new regulations will have "a chilling effect on free speech and media access" in a nation dominated by corporate media and notes that a survey of "Iraq war news coverage by the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting showed that just three out of 393 sources for stories broadcast by the major networks surveyed were against the war."
RNW comment: Although we are in favour of more low power stations and agree with many critics of US media, the FCC as a government agency has to follow the rules laid down by the lawmakers and thus has little option should a complaint be made against a station like rfb apart from taking action.
We do not think the FCC is neutral when it comes to action - just consider the relative effects of the penalties it imposes on a small pirate and a big corporation that breaks rules, both those that relate to indecency and those that relate to technical and safety-related offences.
If the decisions were to be related to income and the same percentage applied to the corporations as to amateurs, many of the big corporations would by now have had to take more care about compliance or would have lost tens of millions of dollars at least from their bottom lines.
We also take the point about reporting of news, which the paper links to commercial pressures, but would suggest that this is a matter where intelligent and patriotic Americans have to significantly re-think their attitudes to media and also dispense with some of the country's self-deluding myths.
We think that many Americans were not prepared for what is happening in Iraq now - forecast fairly accurately by media in other countries - but the situation is where it is now not where it could have been.
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radio free brattleboro site:
2003-08-23: An editorial in the Washington Post on Friday called for the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve the USD3 billion Univision takeover of Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (HBC), saying that after more than a year considering the deal, it is time for the FCC to act.
It argues that opponents contentions that Spanish-language media constitute a separate market from those in English and that the merger would "create a conglomerate that would dominate the market" are "unwarranted."
The post argues that there has been a significant expansion in media - TV, radio and newspapers - serving the Hispanic market over the past decade and notes that His0anic's 58 Spanish language stations are less than a tenth of the "673 Spanish-language radio stations, plus eight English or bilingual stations directed at Hispanic listeners."
"Despite the differences in language and format, there is in fact no separate market for Hispanic media," says the Post. "Hispanic-oriented media companies deserve the chance to compete on an equal footing with other conglomerates. What Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting propose is no different from what the giant media have been doing for years."
It notes that the Department of Justice has required Univision to significantly reduce its interests in Entravision and concludes, "Further steps to preserve competition in certain cities may be warranted. But there is no public-interest justification to block this merger."
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2003-08-23: India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has told the country's Parliament (Lok Sabha) that the second phase of India's FM radio expansion project is to go ahead soon after guidelines have been prepared by a task force.
He added in response to a question that as well as commercial channels state-owned All India Radio (AIR) has retained a large number of FM frequencies and other FM channels have gone to Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for its distance education programme.
In the first phase of private FM in India said Prasad, 22 companies had operated channels and the government had earned 235 crore rupees (USD 51.3 million) from them.
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2003-08-23: BBC Radio 1 has denied reports that breakfast host Sara Cox, whose audience was a record low in the latest ratings, has been told she will be axed from the show unless its ratings improve. Cox has a contract until April next year and a BBC spokeswoman referred to this and dismissed the stories as "absolute rubbish".
The host was criticised this week in the BBC's Radio Times magazine by veteran British DJ Noel Edmonds, himself a former host of the show, and currently standing in for Johnnie Walker in the BBC Radio 2 drivetime slot whilst Walker receives treatment for colon cancer.
In an interview for the magazine, he commented, "She talks about 'shagging', I word I wouldn't dream of using in public. She's coarse and unpleasant - very 'yesterday'."
"I do the school run and we joke my kids can listen to Radio 1 until she says something crude. Usually I haven't got into fourth gear before that happens."
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2003-08-23: Viacom-owned Infinity Radio has announced a further phase of management and organizational changesfollowing changes announced last month (see RNW July 17); they include a number of regional management appointments and the elimination of its Central Region.
Seattle Market Manager Lisa Decker is to become VP/Western Mid-Size markets and Don Bouloukos, appointed in last month's changes as Philadelphia Market Manager, is to become VP/Eastern Mid-Size markets.
Decker will remain based in Seattle and will be responsible for operations in Fresno, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Portland, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego and Seattle.
Bouloukos, who retains his Philadelphia Market Manager responsibilities and will be based in the city and New York, will also oversee Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Greensboro, Memphis and Rochester.
With the elimination of the Central Region, EVP Brian Ongaro will be re-assigned to Infinity's Western Region where he will replace Clancy Woods who left Infinity in its July reorganization.
All three plus Scott Herman, who was appointed Eastern Region EVP in July, will report to Infinity President and COO Joel Hollander, who succeeded John Fullam in the post in May (See RNW May 16); Hollander was formerly President and CEO of Infinity-operated syndicator Westwood One.
Hollander continues to oversee Infinity's New York and Los Angeles stations and has also announced changes in each city.
In New York, Lee Davis, Vice President and General Manager of WFAN-AM, will add oversight of WCBS-FM and WCBS-FM Vice President and General Manager Maire Mason will become General Manager of Blink WNEW-FM.
In Los Angeles, Pat Duffy becomes Vice President and Market Manager of News Stations, including KNX-AM and KFWB-AM and Maureen Lesourd, previously Market Manager for Infinity's Detroit stations, becomes Vice President and General Manager, KRTH-FM.
Commenting on the appointments, Hollander said, "Under this structure, we have put in place a management team that complements the strengths of our executives and leverages our presence in the major markets."
"Lisa and Don are industry veterans and proven executives whose experience and creativity will be vital to our future success. I am confident that this reorganization will allow Infinity, one of the premier radio groups in the country, to build on its leadership position in the industry."
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2003-08-23: The latest Arbitron Internet Broadcast Ratings just released show AOL increasing its dominance, retaining both its top network ranking and three of the top five station spots although MUSICMATCH kept top station spot. Listening for the top-ranked stations was generally higher with MusicMatch recording an increase of 7.4%.
For the week to August 10, Arbitron'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 (*Non Commercial) - TTSL 624,275 (581,249); CP - 190,887 (188,099). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
2: AOL Top Country (Internet-only) Country format (Commercial) - TTSL 281,163 (286,137); CP - 118,113 (128,867). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
3: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin AM & FM (Commercial) - TTSL 277,784 (278,508); CP - 52,971 (53,640). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
4: AOL Top Pop (Internet-only) Top 40 (Commercial) - TTSL 262,835 (263,614); CP - 169,856 (174,130), Same rank with lower listening and reach.
5: Smooth Jazz format AOL Smooth Jazz (Commercial) - TTSL - 260,783 (258,874); CP - 60,390 (61,980). Same rank with higher listening but lower reach.
The top five networks for the week to August 10 (Previous week's figures in brackets) were:
1: AOL Radio@ Network (Commercial) - TTSL - 6,111,483 (6,075,423); CP - 1,588,010 (1,628,593). Same rank with higher listening but lower reach.
2: LAUNCH TTSL (Non commercial) - 3,916,999 (3,378,342); CP - 738,186 (699,670). Same rank with higher listening and higher reach.
3: MUSICMATCH Inc. (*Non Commercial) TTSL - 1,813,042 (1,729,660); CP - 412,757 (409,391). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
4: The Adsertion Network (Sales Network) TTSL - 1,243,222 (1,246,529); CP - 139,637 (133,659) - Same rank with lower listening and higher reach.
5: Warp Radio (Sales Network) TTSL - 758,765 (748,748); CP - 125,059 (121,934) - Same rank with higher listening and reach.
Arbitron does not now rank Content Delivery Networks (CDN) alongside other networks but does report on them; for the week the top Content Delivery Networks were Live365 with 2,472,764 TTSL and StreamGuys with 501,630 TTSL.
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2003-08-22: Route 81 Radio LLC., based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, has announced that it has agreed to purchase 13 radio stations serving the Elmira-Corning, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Philadelphia/West Chester and Harrisburg/Carlisle.
The group, which was recently formed to acquire radio properties in the northeast and mid-atlantic US, says it is purchasing four stations from Citadel Broadcasting Company and the others from Eolin Broadcasting, Inc., WCOJ Radio Company, Inc., and Seven-Thirty Broadcasters, Inc. It has not given details of price to be paid.
The stations involved include Pennsylvania stations WHYL-AM, Carlisle-Harrisburg; WKJN-AM and WCWI-FM, Carbondale-Scranton; WNAK-AM, Nanticoke; WAZL-AM, Hazelton; and WCOJ-AM, Coatesville plus New York stations WENY-AM and WENY-FM, Elmira; WCLI-AM, WCBA-AM, and WCBA-FM Corning; and WGMM-FM Big Flats.
Route 81, which is backed by New York City based equity firm Avalon Equity Fund, LP, is headed by President and CEO Lloyd B. Roach who commented, "Roach "Route 81 Radio plans to build on the existing radio station's strengths and grow them through "plain old radio" strategies that I have successfully implemented in the past."
He added. "Radio station should have close ties to the communities they serve and provide local content and information to its listeners."
In other US radio business, Green Group's radio and TV holdings, all in New Jersey, have been acquired by New York-based Access.1 Communications for USD 22 million.
The stations were placed in trust after group founder Howard Green died in September 2002; they include WMGM-TV plus radio stations classic rock WMGM-FM, Atlantic City, News/Talk WOND-AM and Gospel WUSS-AM,Pleasantville, Sports WGYM-AM, Hammonton, and Oldies WTKU-FM,Ocean City.
According to the Atlantic City Press USD 11 million will go to a charitable foundation established by Green and the remainder to the estate of his long-time business partner Donald Simmons, who died in 1999. Access.1, which will own 15 radio stations and programme supplier Superaradio when the deal closes, says it is not intending to make any significant changes at the stations.
In Milwaukee, the parent company of Journal Broadcast Group, says it is planning an initial public offering of 17.25 million shares of Class A common stock to be priced between UD 13.50 and 15.50.
Of these 16.9 million will come from Journal and the Abert Family Journal Stock Trust will sell another 396,000.
Journal owns the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, flagship WTVJ-TV/Milwaukee, plus other broadcast holdings over the US including 36 radio stations.
The underwriters, Morgan Stanley, Robert Baird & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, will have the option to buy some 2.6 million additional shares to cover over allotments.
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2003-08-22: US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael K. Powell has announced that he intends to appoint Bryan Tramont, currently serving as his Senior Legal Advisor, as FCC Chief of Staff to replace Marsha MacBride who earlier this week announced that she was leaving the agency (See RNW Aug 20). Tramont has also served as Senior Legal Advisor to current Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy and former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott- Roth.
The FCC has also announced that former Florida Public Services Commission Chairman Julia Johnson, currently President of public policy consulting firm Netcommunications, is to chair the FCC's new Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age.
The Committee is tasked with providing guidance to the Commission on policies and practices that could increase the diversity of ownership and could create opportunities for minorities and women to advance to managerial positions in the communications sector as well as other related sectors of the economy.
It will make reports about guidelines, incentives, regulations, or other approaches needed to promote diversity in the communications sector and to set best practices for this.
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2003-08-22: The UK gained further digital radio offerings this week, some through digital TV. In Scotland, SCORE Digital, owned by Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) , went on air in Inverness. Its digital multiplex is offering three commercial services in addition to carrying the BBC national regional service, Radio Scotland, and the Gaelic language service, Radio Nan Gaidheal (See Licence News Oct 22, 2001 SRH3).
Also becoming more widely available are BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru, which are now available on Freeview digital terrestrial TV in Wales; they were already on digital satellite TV throughout the UK and on the Internet.
Nearly a fifth of UK adults now listen to radio through their TV sets according to RAJAR (Radio Joint Audio Research).
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2003-08-22: Amid all the politics over media regulation, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has found time for the bids, migratory ones that is.
It has adopted a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) to gather comment and information on the impact that communications towers may have on migratory birds.
The inquiry is part of the Commission's environmental and historic preservation action plan announced by FCC Chairman Michael K Powell in May this year and is part of the agency's effort to balance the interests of the environment whilst "accelerating the deployment of communications infrastructure that is critical to the rapid rollout of advanced communications services, as well as for public safety and homeland security."
The inquiry will collect information to aid assessments of how many migratory birds may have been killed through hitting towers and the factors that may affect fatalities such as tower height, lighting systems, type of antenna support structure, and location.
It will be conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which estimates that anywhere from 4 to 50 million birds die each year through flying into towers; there is speculation that in some cases they are attracted by the tower lights.
In February this year the US Forest Conservation Council, Inc., Friends of the Earth, Inc., and the American Bird Conservancy, Inc. filed a lawsuit against the FCC for what they termed "unreasonably delayed" action in complying with mandatory duties imposed by various statutes concerning the impact of transmission towers on migratory birds (See RNW February 24).
The commission also notes that because "Certain migratory bird species may hold particular cultural or religious significance to Indian Tribes" it is committed to consult with federally recognized tribes as far as its practical before implementing any actions or policy that would "significantly or uniquely affect Tribal governments, their land and resources."
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2003-08-22: The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled that an episode of the Pepper and Crash Show, on CKVX-FM (Xfm), Vancouver, in October last year was so sexually explicit as to breach the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) Code of Ethics.
The Council had received a complaint from a listener who had the show on her car radio whilst driving her 14-years-old son to school and had not been able to change the station in time to avoid the most explicit part of a discussion of "snowballing."
One of the hosts had indicated that he did not know what the term meant and a listener telephoned to explain it (the act of keeping semen in the mouth after oral sex and then kissing the man involved, and transferring the semen to him to swallow it).
The broadcaster had responded to the complaint by saying that its target audience was 18-35 years old males and that the hosts had attempted to deal with the sexual topic in a light-hearted and humorous way and had advised the audience of the adult nature of the conversation.
Its station manager/program director commented in a reply," Although not recognizable by all of our audience, the issue discussed that morning is certainly not unknown to our listeners. A number of them called in that morning to identify the act in question and even to provide further information or opinions on the topic. Overall, the discussion on the issue was light-hear