December 2003 Archive
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November 2003 -
January
2004 
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 December comment - Looks at our wish list for 2004.
RNW November comment - Looks at the relationship between regulatory penalties and the importance attached to things.
RNW October comment - Considers whether talk radio need be the province of bigots and the crude.
2003-12-31: Sirius President and CEO Joe Clayton in a year-end e-mail to stockholders has highlighted the satellite radio company's seven-year agreement with the National Football League (See RNW Dec 17), citing a Wall Street analyst's comment of it as "a major strategic positive."
Clayton notes that Sirius "In addition to being the only satellite radio provider to bring listeners 100% commercial free music" is "now the only provider to bring sports fans an all-access pass to the NHL, the NBA and now the NFL."
He says the agreement and the investment Sirius is making "could not have been accomplished had we not successfully and substantially strengthened our financial base."
He also highlights the increase in subscribers over the year from fewer than 30,000 to more than 200,000.
RNW comment: Noting the degree to which the success of Sky's satellite TV service in the UK has been based on sports deals, Clayton seems to have acted shrewdly in making his moves on sports rights since fans often perceive sports as a "must have" whereas music and news services are perceived as available from a number of sources.
For both Sirius and XM, all will depend on the US economy in general but it is now looking much more likely that both companies could survive in the long term, even if they are not yet in the clear.
Previous Clayton:
Previous Sirius:
2003-12-31: Irish state broadcaster RTÉ' ends its daily half-hour short wave world broadcast tomorrow in what it calls a "first step in the re-alignment of its distribution platforms, both at home and abroad."
It has also announced that following responses from short-wave listeners to its plans it has made two changes in relation to the major themes that emerged.
In North America, where it had a relatively high level of listeners to its broadcasts, which are aimed at "providing content to Irish people abroad and of informing radio listeners throughout the world on our country and culture" it is to restructure its output to increase its WRN (World Radio Network) transmissions to North America that are carried on Telstar from half an hour per day to two hours per day.
In addition RTÉ notes that its Radio 1, 2FM, Raidió na Gaeltachta and Lyric FM services remain available world wide via the Internet and are broadcast on satellite to the UK and Ireland.
RTÉ Radio 1 is also available throughout Europe on satellite and segments of its output available via satellite throughout the world.
The second them concerned difficulties in receiving alternatives to short wave for regular listeners in Africa who were predominantly engaged in missionary or voluntary work.
RTÉ says that for them its "belief is that satellite, and particularly WorldSpace transmissions [that carry RTÉ Radio 1], is the best and most efficient means of reaching those who wish to hear Ireland's Public Service Broadcaster around the world."
It has decided, on a "once off basis" to invite those who emailed from Africa to apply for a WorldSpace Radio that will be provided free of charge to those in particularly isolated circumstances. The receivers currently cost around Euros 150 (USD 190) although they are expected to fall in price as demand rises.
Previous RTÉ:
Previous WorldSpace:
RTÉ worldwide radio availability:
WRN web site:
2003-12-31: Amongst upheavals in radio markets in the past year, Sydney in Australia has perhaps seen the largest upheaval in radio ratings for both talk and music formats.
In talk, former ratings leader 2UE under the ownership of Southern Cross Broadcasting went down the ranks following the defections of breakfast host Alan Jones to rival Macquarie Network's 2GB but then it fought back.
2UE began the year in 9th rank and Jones had a 17% share of the audience compared to 6% for Steve Price at 2UE but by the end of the year the picture had changed dramatically. 2GB and 2UE were almost neck-to-neck again, Jones' share was down to 12.7% and he was behind Angela Catterns at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Mike Carlton in the breakfast slot for 2UE had pulled his share back to almost 10% whilst John Laws, who had stayed with 2UE, was back in the morning lead.
The changes for music stations were nearly as dramatic as long-time leader Austereo's 2-Day battled with newcomer Nova, owned by DMG.
The year began with 2-Day still in the lead and Nova failing to build further on its early successes. At breakfast time, 2-Day's Morning Crew under Wendy Harmer had a share of around 12% compared to around 7% for Merrick and Rosso ( Merrick Watts and Tim Ross) on Nova.
The year saw a period in which Nova briefly went ahead of 2-Day following changes at the morning show that saw Wendy Harmer's co-host Peter Moon dropped in favour of Melbourne stand-up Greg Fleet.
Then Harmer left to be replaced with a new morning team headed by Judith Lucy, 2-Day was still at the top at year end but only just and Nova still held the lead in the under-40 demographic.
Also under pressure was Triple-M, which fell from third to eighth rank as Austereo concentrated on 2-Day and cut resources to its sister station. Now it's also fighting back with a makeover and more resources.
The year-end surprise, however, was the breakfast victory for Angela Catterns of ABC's 702 in the latest ratings as her more measured style outperformed Jones tub-thumping.
Previous ABC, Australia:
Previous Austereo:
Previous Carlton:
Previous Catterns:
Previous DMG:
Previous Harmer:
Previous Jones:
Previous Laws:
Previous Lucy:
Previous Macquarie:
Previous Merrick and Rosso:
Previous Price:
Previous Southern Cross:
2003-12-31: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed a penalty of USD 25,000 against the former licensee of a New Mexico FM but cancelled a USD 8,000 penalty on a New York station owner.
The cancellation relates to a proposed penalty issued to Radio Lake Placid, Inc., licensee of co-located WIRD-AM and WLPW-FM, for failure to install Emergency Alert System equipment.
Lake Placid had responded with documents showing that its EAS equipment had been removed for repair and re-installed within 45 days, well within the permitted 60-day deadline for such repairs.
The New Mexico penalty involved A-O Broadcasting Inc., former licensee of KTMN-FM, Cloudcroft, and related to the first fine imposed by the FCC for violation of RFR (radio frequency radiation) regulations.
It was imposed following a complaint alleging that the station was not operating at its authorized power and was not in compliance with the RFR exposure limits.
An inspection showed that the antenna, which was mounted on an observation tower used by the U.S. Forest Service to watch for wildfires, was mounted substantially lower on the tower than authorized in KTMN's license.
Measurements taken by the agents showed that operation of KTMN's transmitting antenna at only 40% of its authorized power created RFR fields which exceeded the RFR exposure limits for the general public by more than 300% on the observation tower and in areas outside the fence surrounding the tower that were accessible to the public. A-O had also not complied with special RFR operating conditions set forth in its license.
Previous FCC:
2003-12-30: The new British media regulator, Ofcom (The Office of Communications), formally took over its duties on Monday, absorbing the roles of five predecessor regulators: the telecommunications regulator Oftel, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Independent Television Commission, the Radio Authority, and the Radiocommunications Agency.
Its chief executive Stephen Carter says the new organization was needed because of overlaps in duties between the former regulators and the convergence of technology; the organization has already come under criticism because its costs in its first year will be more than a quarter higher than the regulators it replaces, an increase it puts down to extra duties imposed on it (See RNW Dec 18).
Ofcom says it intends to regulate with a lighter touch and has duties that include the overseeing of standards of taste and decency on radio and television as well as the regulation of and issued of licences for commercial radio and TV, the telecommunications industry, newspaper mergers; it also has limited functions relating to the BBC.
Concern about some of its roles has been raised both by industry bodies, worried in part about its public interest test when judging whether to allow takeovers and the penalties it can impose, and consumer groups that fear its desire to rule with a light touch will propel it towards allowing too much leeway to industry bodies. Ofcom, for example, has already agreed to a deal to allow broadcast advertising to be regulated by an industry body, in line with the existing practice for print and outdoor advertising, rather than by a regulator.
Previous Carter:
Previous Ofcom:
2003-12-30: Edmonton, Alberta, jazz DJ Bill Coull has retired from Canada's oldest public broadcaster after 41 years with CKUA, which became first public broadcaster and first educational broadcaster when it was founded in November 1927 on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton.
Over the years CKUA has CKUA has evolved from a government of Alberta operation to a public not-for-profit foundation, with a limited commercial license and a signal is carried province-wide on AM and FM through a network of 17 transmitters as well as broadcasting in western Canada on the Starchoice Satellite channel and around the world through ckua.com.
Coull began with the station as co-host of the Music for Moderns jazz show when he was a 19-years-old University of Alberta student; in January this year, still at the same station, he won the Canada's Jazz Broadcaster of the Year Award.
Coull, who will be 60 in January and has been on extended leave since autumn decided to step aside and asked for a quiet exit with no big retirement party.
A trumpeter as a youth he told the Edmonton Journal he found the station a "stodgy, cultural relic" and resolved to "kick out the jams, get out the spears and do it."
"Sometime in the early '60s, I played the Beatles and it created a storm," he said. "Some listeners were outraged that this upstart would bring pop music to their sacred, beloved CKUA."
He later refined the mix and changed the image of the station, commenting of his pop and jazz programming, "Sure, I played jazz, but I was also in rock bands and was particularly taken with what was happening in San Francisco in the late '60s."
In the mid-80's he read a magazine review extolling the music of Mali's Salif Keta on a holiday-bound airplane and World Music then made its way onto his show.
"I bought the album in Toronto on the way back," he said. " ... It was mind-blowing and opened up this incredible panoply of world music. It was an absolute godsend."
CKUA web site:
Edmonton Journal report:
2003-12-30: A report on US President George Bush's election campaign in the New York Times says the President has taken advantage of Republican-friendly talk radio to take his use of radio "to a new level of sophistication, using it far earlier in the campaign cycle and appearing regularly on shows with even the tiniest of audiences."
It cites the example of a call from the President's campaign press secretary Terry Holt to "The Marc Bernier Show," that airs to an audience of around 50,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida, part of a network of conservative-minded local radio shows in politically important states on which campaign officials are heard daily.
The Times comments that "It is a network that the Democrats do not have - though they are trying to cultivate one - and one that Mr. Bush's campaign strategists believe will give him an edge in an election that could go to whichever side best mobilizes its core voters."
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, said that the policy had marked a change in tactics, noting, "Radio's been traditionally used later in a campaign, and it's been traditionally larger-audience talk radio" then adding that with an evenly-divided nation "you can win a national election 50,000 listeners at a time."
Holt commented that if he and other campaign officials were to appear on national television programs the hosts would try to draw them into a dogfight with the Democratic candidates, something they are not interested in doing.
Hosts like Bernier, on the other hand, let the campaign address the topics it wants to highlight now, what officials call the president's positive agenda on national security, Medicare and the economy.
"We've had discussions with all of the networks and TV shows about doing their shows, and they know there will be a time for politics, and that will signal a change," said Holt. "At the radio stations that happen to want us on, and that we seek to get on regularly, we are talking to a group of people that follows our issues."
RNW comment: From an outside point of view, the tactics may seem effective but they also have a whiff of sulphur about them and a ducking of questioning, especially when viewed from a context of regulatory regimes elsewhere that still require a degree of fairness from broadcasters using public airwaves.
It also seems inherently to vitiate part of the function of the media in querying policies and politicians to the ultimate benefit of the public if a politician is allowed to get away with only appearing on those outlets that give him or her an easy time.
New York Times report:
2003-12-30: Arbitron Internet Broadcast Ratings just released for the week to December 14 show seven Christmas channels in the top 50 stations with AOL Classic Holiday in top rank and its Pop Holiday station in fourth rank although MUSICMATCH and Virgin retained their second and third rankings.
In the network ratings, Yahoo's LAUNCH closed up on AOL at the top.
For the week to December 14, 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: AOL Classic Holiday Miscellaneous (*Commercial) - TTSL 963,431 (815,049); CP - 309,344 (291,846). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
2: Internet only artist-match MUSICMATCH (*Non Commercial) - TTSL 757,608 (731,419); CP - 245,098 (237,307). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
3: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin AM & FM (Commercial) - TTSL 318,015 (317,128); CP - 59,005 (54,006). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
4: Miscellaneous AOL Pop Holiday (Commercial) - TTSL 287,567 (242,693); CP 115,313 (111,969). Up from sixth with higher listening and reach.
5: Contemporary Christian K-LOVE (Non commercial) - TTSL 276,364 (294,047); CP 39,601 (39,915). Down from fourth with lower listening and reach.
* Country format AOL Top Country (Commercial) fell from fifth to sixth with TTSL 218,260 (242,693); CP 102,659 (111,969):
The top five networks for the week to December 14 (Previous week's figures in brackets) were:
1: AOL Radio@ Network (Commercial) - TTSL - 6,898,781 (6,950,319); CP - 1,827,455 (1,831,023). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
2: LAUNCH TTSL (Commercial) - 4,098,752 (3,768,761); CP - 943,267 (934,471). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
3: MUSICMATCH Inc. (*Non Commercial) TTSL - 2,314,880 (2,224,880); CP - 533,967 (527,337). Same rank with higher listening and reach.
4: Virgin Radio (Commercial) TTSL - 586,160 (606,333); CP - 86,626 (84,068) - Up from fifth despite lower listening and reach.
5: The Adsertion Network (Sales Network) TTSL - 455,127 (965,182); CP - 88,849 (125,903) - Down from fourth with much 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 2,769,915, up from 2,714,492 and StreamGuys with TTSL 561,190, up from 522,267.
Previous Arbitron Internet Broadcast Ratings (Month of November):
Previous Arbitron Internet Broadcast Weekly Ratings:
2003-12-29: This week in our last look in 2003 at print comment on radio we start in the USA with some quotations from Chicago radio personalities from Robert Feder's column in the Chicago Sun-Times, readers responses to them - and what almost could have been a further response and possible solution in part from the New York Times.
From an older column (Dec 17) came the following wish list:
Steve Cochran, midday personality, WGN-AM - … "if the companies that owned all of us decided they had enough money for now, and spent more money on making what gets on the air better."
Jay Marvin, midday personality, WLS-AM -… "I wish we could go back to the days of live, unpredictable, fun radio, and stop the voice-tracked, in-the-can programming that is heard on much of Chicago radio and that doesn't mean a thing to anyone except the suits in the front offices."
Mancow Muller, morning personality, WKQX-FM - …" I'd like every station to be owned by an individual owner so that talent would have more chances to fail. I'd like legit radio theater (like Chicago was known for in the '40s) to come back."
Mike North, afternoon personality, WSCR-AM - "There should be more private ownership in radio. There are no more Danny Lee's in the business. That companies such as CBS/Infinity Broadcasting own eight stations in one market limits creativity and encourages bean counting."
And last week, two reader responses:
Dan London: "I cannot agree more with Jay Marvin's comments about radio and that lame voice tracking. Because of voice tracking, there is really no listener involvement anymore. All we get now is cookie-cutter radio. BORING!"
Steve Dudzik: "I was surprised by Mike North's comments on the need for more private ownership in radio. I was expecting a dumb, smart ass, "wise guy" response. Instead we received something thought-provoking."
The ownership concerns voiced above would not be met in any way by satellite radio but in the opinion of Stephen Holden writing in the New York Times it could in part be meeting some of the programming wants.
"Not since I was a teenager enthralled by the cries and moans of the Five Satins and the Moonglows on early rock 'n' roll radio - sounds that Paul Simon once described as "deep forbidden music" - has the mystique of pop radio been so seductive," writes Holden.
"The source of these sounds is not a local radio station or a bland, faceless cable music service but a satellite pay radio channel. Music beamed by satellite has resurrected the thrill of musical discovery that has all but vanished on what is called terrestrial radio."
…." At the very moment when terrestrial pop radio has deteriorated into a wasteland in which the role of D.J. is increasingly relegated to announcing songs selected by market research, satellite radio augurs what may be a new golden era of music radio."
…"With its transparent, static-free reception and digitally perfect CD sound, it is a technological leap beyond anything that has been heard on the airwaves. Satellite radio has yet to reach the point where record-company and independent promoters are beating down its doors to influence programming, and representatives of both services insist they intend to keep it that way. Let's hope so. That purity is one reason that subscribing to a satellite service is the closest you can come nowadays to going to Radio Heaven. But the medium's biggest selling point may be the enthusiasm that informs its programming. The programmers on both services are experts in their genres who return the missing ingredient to radio: real care for what they play, which market-tested music can't begin to match."
After comment on the continuing existence of enthusiasm on US radio, the change in tone this week comes from across the Atlantic and Gillian Reynolds in her radio review of the year in the UK Telegraph.
Its flavour is given by the heading: "Terrific broadcasting on the BBC and independent stations is being threatened by looming changes."
The concerns? Three are noted: The advent of the new overall regulator, Ofcom; the review of the BBC; the Hutton Inquiry into the causes of the death of Dr David Kelly."
Filling in on these a little more, Reynolds writes: "First, Ofcom. It will regulate who owns what, from the smallest radio station to the biggest television conglomerate. It will judge who can say what. Its role is to enable the communications business to grow. Its duty will be to ensure that such growth is in the interests of consumers as well as shareholders."
"It comes into operation at the end of this month. Jonathan Ross on Radio 2, for example, must mind his manners and his language in case Ofcom's attention is drawn to him. Unlike its predecessors, Ofcom can impose fines of up to £250,000, even on the BBC. The BBC would pay such fines from the licence fee."
On the review of the BBC and in particular its license fee funding, she comments, "Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has launched a "national dialogue" on what people think of it. She has already set up an enquiry into public service broadcasting, chaired by Lord Burns. "
"Ofcom is also defining PSB. Cynics may say governments launch national dialogues only when they already know what they're going to do. Will they take a slice of the licence fee away from the BBC to distribute among other providers of public service broadcasting?"
And on the Hutton Inquiry that followed a report on BBC Radio 4 that said the government had "the government had enhanced official intelligence data against the advice of a senior security expert" Reynolds commented, "The harm has already been done."
"In a year when BBC radio has been full of superb programmes, on everything from folk song (Radio 4's The Seeds of Love) to how the brain works (the Reith Lectures), with brilliant comedy (the brave and bright Now Show springs to mind, as does the delicious Time for Mrs Milliner by Lynne Truss) with the Archive Hour regularly providing a weekly mind-feast, it is sobering to think that the best radio service in the world has been put at risk, financially, editorially and politically, by its own director general and chairman."
"The BBC has been in trouble with governments before. Churchill called it "an enemy within the gates" in the early days of the Second World War. Eden fought it over coverage of Suez. The Falklands and the first Gulf War brought it into conflict with Mrs. Thatcher. This is the first time I can remember when it handled its own case so ineptly as to endanger the corporation's survival."
She notes actions taken by the Corporation already but concludes, "Too late, too late. Ofcom, charter renewal and Hutton are already haunting Broadcasting House."
After thoughts of a UK enquiry, a BBC Radio 3 documentary recorded in North Korea by Andy Kershaw (and currently still on the Radio 3 web site) prompted thoughts on government inquiries.
For a general comment on the documentary, we quote Sue Arnold's review from the UK Observer: "Kershaw's dispatch from one of George Bush's evil axis regimes was chaotic, informative, colourful, funny, moving - everything, in short, you could hope for in a documentary and the one against which all future travel programmes should be rated. If Father Christmas came from Lancashire he'd sound like Andy Kershaw - gruff, amiable and permanently stuck last week in ho-ho mode as he scanned Pyongyang's bookshops for CDs and guide books with useful conversational phrases."
Included in the topics covered was a mention of a visit to the USS Pueblo, now a museum - the Pueblo for those who don't have long memories or follow history was a US spy ship that was captured by the North Koreans (almost certainly in International Waters whatever the Korean view re-iterated by Kershaw: He does have the grace however, to poke fun at some of the ridiculous facets of the North Korean state) in January 1968.
The Pueblo probably shouldn't have been at sea (it was built in 1944, retired ten years later and brought back into service in 1966 but had a history of various faults and was totally inadequately prepared to allow it to destroy sensitive equipment); it had no way to outrun the Koreans, and was massively outgunned. As a result the Koreans captured sensitive equipment and codes.
The captain and crew were in captivity for 11 months and were badly tortured and then, after their release, subjected to the indignity of seeing an inquiry recommend that two officers including its commandeer be court- martialled (the case was dropped following strong public indignation).
In marked contrast the reaction a year earlier after the Israelis had attacked another US navy ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters and killed thirty-four men and wounded 172 was the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour to its commander but a marked reluctance to engage in any deep inquiry into the events (The crews' sites for details of the incidents are www.usspueblo.org and www.ussliberty.org for those who care to go further).
The digression leads us to an anecdote from Kershaw about a visiting US State Department representative he met in Pyongyang during a previous visit in 1996, who after an 11-course dinner was given a commemorative badge featuring Korean writing.
Thanking his hosts for their hospitality, he felt he had to ask what the badge said. "It says, go fuck yourselves," came the reply.
The Koreans, it would appear, perhaps need a PR makeover to make their diplomatic approach seem folksy!
Before going on to programmes still available online, we again mention Sue Arnold in relation to her review of the year's radio: Most relates to programmes hear or not heard but her ending paragraph is praise indeed for to BBC channels, " I haven't mentioned any digital stations which, considering one opens almost every week, seems uncaring. It is. When any single digital station produces as much variety and excellence as a single day in the life of Radio 3 or 4 I shall think again."
BBC Radio 3 we have already mentioned above for the North Korea programme (See link on side bar for Radio 3: Web site links to audio).
We'd also mention the News Quiz of the Year (available via the listen again feature on the BBC Radio 4 web site- agan see side bar for link).
From the BBC World Service we'd recommend the continuing Inside Putin's Russia series that we mentioned when it began (Columnists RNW Dec 15; this is now on its third of four episodes - from the mining area of Vorkuta in the far north, which was built by Stalin's victims. The series will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 commencing January 5 for those interested. Side bar for World Service link).
And finally from the US, the Christmas Day (Thursday, Dec 25) edition of National Public Radio's "Day to Day" had a wide range of topics ranging from a feature on the Welsh language, why the Canadians can still buy Size A and D batteries but US consumers cannot, "Santa" related Hearing Voices project items, and even guidance on returning gifts, what it means for retailers and how to do it successfully.
Previous Arnold:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Feder:
Chicago Sun-Times - Feder radio hosts' wish lists:
Chicago Sun-Times - Feder readers on hosts' lists:
New York Times - Holden:
UK Observer - Arnold review of the year:
UK Observer - Arnold weekly radio review:
UK Telegraph - Reynolds:
2003-12-29: In a feature on the UK radio ratings fight between the upstart GfK Media's Radiocontrol meter system sponsored by the UK Wireless Group and the official UK diary-based RAJAR (Radio Joint Audio Research) ratings the UK Telegraph looks at the potential GBP 27 million (USD 48 million) lawsuit that the Wireless Group is threatening against RAJAR.
It quotes RAJAR chairman Lord Gordon of Strathblane as saying, "I'm quite happy if it goes to court. MacKenzie's [Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie] claim is a joke."
The RAJAR diary system defines listening in terms of a minimum five consecutive minutes and RAJAR takes the view that the Radiocontrol system measures not listening but exposure to radio.
It has conducted tests of the Radiocontrol system and Arbitron's Portable People Meter and Lord Gordon commented, "On the evidence of the two meters we tested we would not have been justified in moving to either... The idea that we are some sort of Luddite country that is refusing to move with new technology is just a joke."
Gordon pointed out that there has so far been no widespread adoption of meter systems and suggested they would have caught on by now if they were so successful.
His views were echoed by Douglas McArthur, chief executive of the UK Radio Advertising Bureau who found the tests produced "a massive erratic disparity of results", adding: "This decision wasn't, as some suggest, a 'stitch-up' by the big boys of commercial radio."
MacKenzie, who is reported to have first become dissatisfied with the official when the Wireless Groups talkSPORT flagship had rights to England-Pakistan cricket and he found a taxi driver talking of listening to it on the BBC, would benefit massively from a switch to the GfK system that more than triples the talkSPORT audience.
Mackenzie said, "When we looked at our RAJAR ratings it [the cricket] scarcely got a blip." So he commissioned pollster NOP to do some research. "They asked, did you listen to it. More than 50pc said they listened on Radio 4 or Radio 5, but we had the ball-by-ball. At that moment, we realised human error plays tricks on us."
The Wireless Group has run tests of the Radiocontrol system in Berkshire (See RNW March 22, 2002 ) and, Lancashire in England (See RNW Sept 17, 2002). The diaries of the 215 people involved showed they listened to an average 2.7 stations a week but the meter showed 4.4.
"People tried very hard to get it right and they got it completely wrong," said MacKenzie, citing the case of a 34-year-old man who insisted he spent all day listening to Radio 1. He was listening to Radio 2.
MacKenzie says the resistance to change by other radio companies is dictated by self-interest, noting that he would gain.
"It's because I'm the main beneficiary," he said. "Others would be losers, so they don't want to change.
"They could say, 'Kelv, look old son, we like the way our money comes in at the moment,' but they just say the technology doesn't work. They are stealing off me. I don't give a damn what Lord Gordon says. He has a vested interest in stopping me, so we'll fight it out in the courts. RAJAR are deliberately foot-dragging and it's costing me money."
Lord Gordon remained unimpressed, commenting, "Remember RAJAR doesn't have a monopoly on any system. If advertisers think Kelvin's wristwatch is the best way they would be voting with their feet and the rest of the industry would be stampeding after them."
RNW comment: As the Telegraph notes - and GfK publicizes - a few advertisers have now started looking at the GfK system (See RNW Dec 19).
The question is whether the trickle becomes a flood or most of them hold on for the further tests being conducted by RAJAR.
If RAJAR's pressure results in a better meter system and if. for that matter, pressures from the Wireless Group are an incentive to move as speedily as possible in its introduction, we approve.
We can understand MacKenzie's impatience since he has been pushing a meter system for more than three years and have no problem with his sponsoring the GfK system.
We don't however see anything that makes the differences justify a law suit and in relation to any Wireless Group legal action, we retain our hope that they both lose the case and have to pay costs.
Previous Arbitron:
Previous GfK:
Previous Lord Gordon::
Previous MacKenzie:
Previous RAJAR:
Previous UK Radio Advertising Bureau:
Previous Wireless Group:
UK Telegraph report::
2003-12-28: Unsurprisingly the past week was fairly quiet for the regulators who were on vacation for half the week; in the UK it was the effective end for the Radio Authority, which formally hands over to the new Ofcom regulator tomorrow but has in effect ceased operations. Its web site now redirects to that of Ofcom.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has proposed amendments to services in New South Wales and Queensland.
The former involves a change to the transmission site and radiation pattern for an open narrowcasting radio service to operate on the AM band at the Sydney suburb of Penrith. The change is being requested by the licensee, Penrith Open Narrowcasting Licence Partnership (PONLP), which had problems in securing a suitable transmission site.
In Queensland, the ABA is proposing to allow commercial service 4VL in Charleville and Cunnamulla to change its technical operating conditions and implement day/night switching of its transmission power.
The ABA is also proposing to make FM capacity available for 4VL in Augathella, Morven, Mungallala, Quilpie, Tambo and Wyandra and also to make FM capacity available in Charleville for a new community radio service.
The FM frequency 104.1 MHz, which was licensed to 4TAB for an open narrowcasting service in Charleville but proved unusable in the manner for which it was designed, will be included in the Charleville radio licence area plan. Comments have to be made on the later by January 30 next year and on the former by February 13.
Canada was even quieter for radio activity than Australia; the only radio decision from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was to approve a contour change for CJKX-FM, Ajax, Ontario, following a power increase from 15,560 watts to 19,940 watts.
There was nothing from Ireland or from the UK Radio Authority although its successor, Ofcom, has been issuing a number of guidelines on the manner in which it proposes to operate and responding to queries on various matters.
They included a response to various matters raised (See RNW Dec 24) and subsequent issue of guidelines and Responses and guidelines regarding the penalties it can levy.
The new guidelines come into effect tomorrow and Ofcom says the criteria it will apply in considering the level of a penalty to the seriousness of the contravention, any precedents set by previous cases, and the need to ensure that the threat of penalties will act as a sufficient incentive to comply.
The guidelines were published following a consultation exercise during which the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) expressed concern about the `very heavy fines' that Ofcom was empowered to levy, even on small radio stations. Ofcom noted in its response that the maximum penalties were set and that "the amount of any penalty must be appropriate and proportionate to the contravention in respect of which it is imposed."
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reduced one segment of a USD 21,000 fine imposed on a Virginia AM, taking the total down to USD 19.600 (See RNW Dec 24). It also seems that it may be able to settle the matter of regulating the use of terrestrial transmitters for satellite services without rancour following the submission of wording agreed between the US National Association of Broadcasters and XM Satellite Radio (See RNW Dec 25).
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2003-12-28: In another positive sign for US satellite radio, the Washington Post reports improved sales for them over recent weeks, aided by subscription discounts and expanded product lines although neither have released figures.
Sirius spokesman Ron Rodrigues commented, "We were all very busy fourth quarter. And if that's any indication of sales, then sales were good."
At XM, whose subscription is reduced from USD9.99-a-month to USD8.29 a month when subscribers commit for two years, or USD7.48 a month for a five-year package, spokesman Allen Goldberg referred to the approach as "a very compelling thing."
"We have had such strong sales over Christmas, we'll have many people activating right after Christmas, so we've got all our customer service people on high alert," he added.
The line from the companies was backed up by Bill Cimino, a spokesman for the electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. who said, "The popularity has grown this year. We did see it was one of the strong products that grew in November."
Typically, he said, customers had bought the radio service for themselves rather than as a gift, because the popular version has to be installed into a car, and because the service normally requires a monthly subscription fee. But now that there is a portable receiver, some customers bought it as a gift, and paid subscription fees running for a year or two.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Washington Post report:
2003-12-27: Finnish state broadcaster YLE is to cease streaming music at the end of this year following a dispute with the copyright society Gramex according to the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
Gramex has changed from a policy of a flat fee for simulcasting of broadcast radio programming to a system of billing according to the online audience and YLE, which has been paying an annual fee of Euros 65,000 (USD 80,000), has decided it is not prepared to accept the new system. It will continue news streams.
YLE Director of Corporate Affairs Jussi Tunturi said Gramex was "trying to turn the Net into a new cash automat" and said its new system would not only be much more complex but would increase fees several times over; YLE takes the view that it has already paid the appropriate copyright payments for the music included in broadcasts but has accepted the flat fee.
Gramex Managing Director Hannu Marttila said YLE had enjoyed the old flat-fee system for a year longer than commercial operators in this field and added that Gramex approached the broadcasters with a suggestion that there might be a reduction in the tariff if the online audience increased substantially, but then learnt about the decision to stop the service from the radio news.
The paper reports that some commercial broadcasters in Finland have already ceased streaming and cites the case of Kiss FM that says if it resumed streaming it would have to pay Teosto (The Finnish Composers' Copyright Society) only Euros 84 (USD 105) a month, while Gramex would demand EUR 11,300 (USD 14,100), more than a hundred times as much. Kiss says it would resume streaming were the Gramex fees at the same level as those of Teosto.
Helsingin Sanomat report:
2003-12-27: US National Public Radio (NPR) is to launch a new radio concert series next month in conjunction with Carnegie Hall, New York, and Nonesuch Records.
The 13-part series, Creators at Carnegie, features performances from this year's inaugural season of Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall's new "third stage" underground performance space, as well as its Isaac Stern Auditorium and programmes will be drawn from Carnegie Hall's new Nonesuch at Carnegie series that features a diverse line-up of the label's acclaimed artists in more than twenty concerts during the 2003-04 season.
The radio programmes will be hosted by Fred Child, host of NPR's daily classical music program Performance Today, with contributions from music hosts at New York-area NPR member stations WNYC-FM, which also carries classical music, Fordham University's WFUV-FM that airs Americana, rock, singer-songwriters, blues, and world music, and jazz-format WBGO-FM; music genres to be featured will include classical, jazz, country, and world music.
NPR will syndicate the show to its members on the first Friday of each month, leaving it up to them when within the month they broadcast it.
Previous NPR:
2003-12-26: iBiquity is set to give digital radio in the US a further push at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month with displays of receivers for its HD Radio AM and FM in-band broadcast system that has so far been installed by an estimated hundred or so US stations although some three times that number have licensed the technology.
Even those stations that have the system are playing their commitment low-key until receivers are on commercial sale.
IBiquity says the first HD Radio tuner -- a Kenwood KTC-HR100 -- will be in stores to coincide with the show and other models by manufacturers such as Delphi , Phillips, JVC and Panasonic to follow later in 2004.
Reviewing US digital radio in the New York Times, Ivan Berger says that "In a listening test, the sound of WOR, currently the only AM station in the New York area using HD, stood out from that of comparable stations" and adds that the difference would be even more noticeable with music.
On FM, he said the difference is smaller, partly because FM often very clear to start with and partly because the New York area FMs with HD gear (WNEW,WDHA, and WNYC) are still testing the system.
iBiquity he reports says the main advantage "freedom from multipath fading, the FM equivalent of an unwanted secondary image on a TV set."
One benefit of the HD system that he notes is the capability for the receiver to switch to analogue when the limit of the digital signal is reached, rather than cutting out as with a separate digital system. He also notes the price of the equipment - the Kenwood tuner is currently around USD350.
RNW comment: As in the UK, we would expect take-up of digital radio to be slow until equipment prices are significantly lower and in the US, where the only benefit is an increase in audio quality plus some additional display information and data capabilities whilst the UK system was set up to ensure different programming was also aired, we suspect take-up could be even slower.
Add in the effects of digital competition in the US from the satellite radio services and the attraction seems to us even further reduced; certainly if you already have satellite radio it would seem to use you would be motivated to stick with it anyway and if you could only afford one system we can't see much motivation to spend two year's subscriptions on jumping to HD now when its receivers are going to have to become cheaper.
Previous iBiquity:
New York Times report:
2003-12-26: Chicago WGN-AM is running close to entering the New Year with two of its biggest names having still not signed new contracts.
The Tribune-owned station is talking to morning host Spike O'Dell and afternoon host John Williams and says it expects to renew both contracts but has no plans to take either off the air should there be no agreement when current contracts expire.
"I would assume that hopefully we'll have both of these guys ready to go by the end of next week," Mark Krieschen, vice president and general manager of the news/talk station told the Chicago Sun-Times.
"Even if we don't come to a deal by then, I'm not going to play any games [by taking them off the air]," he added. "I think we all want both of them to be here… I fully expect both to be renewed."
In Boston, Entercom took no such chances over afternoon host Glenn Ordway - the Big O -at its sports-talk station WEEI-AM; it's signed him to a new five-year deal estimated to give him an annual salary in the mid six-figure range, what he termed equivalent to "morning drive".
Ordway's The Big Show now seems likely to be syndicated in New England.
Previous Entercom:
Previous O'Dell:
Previous Williams:
Boston Herald report:
Chicago Sun-Times report:
2003-12-25: Radio drama leading man of the 30s and 40s Les Tremayne has died in California aged 90.
His radio career began in Chicago in the 30s and spanned six decades during which he was known for a string of roles including that in the "First Nighter", which ran from 1936 to 43 and also for roles in the Thin Man and The Falcon.
In the 40s he was named as one of America's three most famous voices, along with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Bing Crosby.
British-born Tremayne moved to Chicago aged four; he was in a number of movies including "North by Northwest" directed by Briton Alfred Hitchcock and also made many guest appearances on TV.
In the 1980s he co-hosted and co-produced "Please Stand By: A History of Radio" for the Southern California Consortium of Community Colleges.
Tremayne was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995; in all he estimated he had made some 30,000 broadcasts.
Los Angeles Times obituary:
2003-12-25: The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and XM Satellite Radio appear to have agreed a rapprochement regarding the rules the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should use relating to ground repeaters for satellite radio services.
In a joint letter to the FCC they propose that repeaters be restricted to use only for simultaneous transmission of programming that is being broadcast from the satellite thus ensuring that NAB fears that the satellite companies would move into local programming.
Previous NAB:
Previous XM:
2003-12-24: Florida judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff has issued a 15-day stay until the ruling has been appealed of his order that prosecutors could examine Conservative US radio host Rush Limbaugh's medical records (See below).
The order instructs the Florida State attorney's Office to keep the files sealed until the Limbaugh's attorneys complete their appeal of his earlier ruling
Commenting on the ruling, Limbaugh's attorney Roy Black said he was pleased and added, "As I stated earlier, while we are confident that an examination of the records will show there was no doctor shopping, but rather a legitimate need for the doctor visits, we are also confident that the facts will show that the State improperly seized these records and, further, there is no basis for them to have these records at all."
Limbaugh, who on Tuesday, said on his show as part of his "Statement on Ongoing Florida Fishing Expedition" that that the attack on him was politically inspired - "The Democrats in this country still cannot defeat me in the arena of political ideas, and so now they are trying to do so in the court of public opinion and the legal system. I guess it's payback time" - reacted to the stay on his Wednesday show by saying that despite an appeal for them to hold off while the judge considered the appeal for a stay, prosecutors had already started to look at his records.
"…this morning, the court granted the stay, but the prosecutors had already begun to read my records," said Limbaugh. "So we got the stay; we got the delay; we have a chance to appeal the judge's decision, but the state went ahead and opened the records and had investigators poring through these things despite our request that they just wait until the judge just rule on our request for a stay."
"They couldn't wait; they had to open them. The elected state attorney himself ordered it."
"The state's attorney, Barry Krischer, personally ordered it from what we're told and his investigators began rifling through my medical records. Yet today the judge granted our stay and now we have a chance to appeal his decision. This means that the records have been ordered sealed again. But the state attorney has already had his investigators poring through them. I'm not surprised. My case is being treated differently than anyone else's is in this matter."
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office declined comment on the ruling and whether prosecutors had begun looking at the records.
RNW comment: Limbaugh, as well as commenting - in a most selective manner in our view - has had the grace to post the entire transcript of the court hearing on his web site.
The best way to assess the case concerning the medical records is, we suggest, to forget the other comments and read it - it's 100KB and between 15 and 20 pages of A4 print in 10 point, depending on the typeface.
At the same time, we think some of Limbaugh's comments revealing, as for example his comment "We still haven't seen Bill Clinton's medical records, have we?".
It may display Limbaugh's habit of dirt throwing as a technique but we can't quite see its relevance in the context of the court hearing.
Limbaugh could perhaps have a case on the surface in alleging political motivation by Krischer, even more one perhaps of accusing attorneys in the US in general of preferring cases that gain them much publicity.
Perhaps Limbaugh is holding back since he could hardly accuse of being liberal a prosecutor who in the name of "zero-tolerance" against school violence pushed the prosecution of a 15-year-old mentally impaired Palm Beach County schoolboy with an IQ of 58 for stealing USD2 from a classmate's pocket for lunch money.
The boy spent seven weeks, including Christmas, in jail and the case was only dropped after a report on CBS's 60 Mins.
Previous Limbaugh:
Limbaugh web site (Currently links to audio and transcript of host's comments on his shows on Tuesday and Wednesday plus transcript of hearing):
2003-12-24: UK Capital Radio increased the pay of its executive directors by some 40% in the 2003 financial year according to the company's annual report just published.
The increase comes despite a year of doldrums in London where flagship station Capital FM has seen its lead whittled away as its breakfast show, hosted by Chris Tarrant, who is to leave and be replaced by Johnny Vaughan early next year, lose nearly a quarter of its audience over the summer.
Highest percentage increase went to commercial director Linda Smith whose total remuneration including bonuses and benefits in kind such as share options was up just over 90% to GBP 267,000 (USD 474,000) from GBP 140,000 (USD 249,000) in 2002; the figure is higher because she only joined Capital in February - on a ten month to full year basis the increase was just under 60%.
Chief executive David Mansfield saw his remuneration up 28.7% to GBP 487,000 (USD 865,000); in terms of total remuneration he was followed by operations director Paul Davies with pay up 27% to GBP 292,000 (USD 518,000) and finance director Peter Harris whose pay was up 34.2% to GBP 259,000 (USD 460,000).
Capital chairman Peter Cawdron received a 26.8% increase to GBP 90,000 (USD 160,000).
The report also shows that the contracts of Mansfield and Davies have now been reduced from 18 months to 12 months, bringing them in line with guidelines on best practice.
Looking at the past year, the report highlight's Capital's retention of its reach and commercial share - for the group as a whole reach remained at 27% for the first three quarters of this year and commercial revenue share as 23.9% in the first two quarters but down to 23.4% in the third quarter; its 2003 group revenues at GBP 115.3 million (USD 205 million) were down 3.9% on 2002 and profits at GBP 13.3 million (USD 23.6 million)were down 9.8% and underlying pre-tax profits were down 18%.
Despite the difficult past year, Capital says there have been signs of improvement with October revenues up 8% and November ones up 4% and positive indications for December.
"We therefore expect to see six consecutive months of growth from July to December 2003," it says.
In London, Capital says it expects only a "limited short-term effect" on revenues from audience loss at Capital FM, noting " Any impact is considerably offset by audience gains at our other London stations and around the Group. Also, we increasingly sell advertising packages across all of our stations, so many key advertisers buy airtime across the Group - not just on 95.8 Capital FM."
Previous Capital:
Previous Davies:
Previous Mansfield:
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Previous Vaughan:
2003-12-24: Big City Radio is effectively no more; it has filed a certificate of dissolution with the Delaware Secretary of State and voluntarily de-listed its stock. Its stock-transfer books are now closed and no further transfers are being recorded; any payments to stockholders will be made according to its records as of the close of business on Tuesday.
In other US radio business, Emmis has re-structured its overseas holdings. In Argentine it has agreed to sell its 75% controlling interest that it bought in 1999 in broadcasting company Votionis, S.A., to its local minority partners, Daniel Hadad and Viviana Zocco, for approximately USD7 million in cash. Votionis operates one AM and one FM station in Buenos Aires
It has also announced that around USD 3 million the funds are to be used to finance building nine new FM stations in Belgium for which it has been awarded licences by the Belgian Government.
Regarding the sale, Emmis notes that the Argentine peso was substantially devaluated relative to the U.S. dollar early in 2002 and says it will report a currency translation loss of approximately $11 million although on an actual transaction basis, it will have realized a slight gain on the sale.
The sale is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of next year.
Regarding the Belgian expansion, Emmis International President Paul Fiddick said the move was "consistent with our strategy to become geographically targeted with our international interests" and added that the company would continue to target desirable properties in a focused geography.
After the sale, Emmis International will consist of Slager Radio, the top-rated national radio station in Hungary, and its interests in Belgium that include five licences acquired by Emmis in August 2003 and that have been renewed plus four new licences. The stations will serve the principal Belgian cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges and Ghent, as well as Aalst, Harelbeke (Kortrijk), Hasselt, Leuven, and Ostend. All licenses are for an initial term of eight years and do not require the payment of any license fees.
Previous Big City:
Previous Emmis:
2003-12-24: Two presenters at UK GWR-owned Beacon FM in Shropshire whose comments during the trial of a British man for the murder of two schoolgirls led to a police investigation and investigation by the UK attorney general have now left the station according to the company.
During the station's breakfast phone-in show last month (See RNW Nov 29) Mark Peters and Lisa Freame asked listeners to call in with their comments after Peters had commented of the account of the accused, Ian Huntley as to how the two girls died in his house, "It's almost like the most unbelievably made-up story in the world ever, really, isn't it? Well, I personally think it is. I can't believe any member of the jury is going to believe that story."
GWR is still waiting to hear if the station is to be prosecuted: British court reporting restrictions prohibit comment on the innocence or guilt of an accused person and the two hosts could face a fine or imprisonment.
GWR issued a statement saying, "Following discussions between Beacon FM and Mark Peters and Lisa Freame, Beacon FM announces that Mark and Lisa will be leaving to pursue opportunities elsewhere."
It added that Nigel Freshman would host the breakfast show for the time being but would not comment further.
Previous GWR:
2003-12-24: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reduced USD 21,000 from to USD19.600 fines imposed on Virginia station owner Hoffman Communications Incorporated, licensee of WGGM-AM, Alexandria, for failing to maintain effective fencing around its antenna structures, for failing to install prescribed lighting, and for exceeding authorized nighttime power limits.
Hoffman had requested cancellation or reduction on the basis that it had made contracted to repairs to the fencing before the inspection, had discovered errors in the official filings for its three towers and had filed notices it believed would remove lighting requirements for two of the towers and because it had acted promptly to cease nighttime operations until it could resume them within allowable parameters.
The FCC held that all the offences deserved penalties but cut the fine relating to the fence from USD 7,000 to USD 5,600 because of the action the company had taken.
Previous FCC:
2003-12-24: Attorneys for conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who have lost the first round of their battle to keep the host's medical records from prosecutors, have formally denied reports that they are considering a plea bargain for the host in connection with his acquisition of large quantities of painkiller; their statement was made following comments to CNN from Premiere Radio Networks spokeswoman Keven Bellows saying that the attorneys had talked to prosecutors about Limbaugh "accepting responsibility for his actions"(See RNW Dec 23).
The motion to keep the records secret was denied by Florida Judge Jeffrey Winikoff who said that the prosecutors had clearly demonstrated the relevance of the records as part of their investigation. However he ordered them not to disclose the contents to anyone else unless ordered to do so by a court.
Reacting to the decision Limbaugh's attorney Roy Black said that an appeal would be filed, adding. "These records will show that there was no doctor shopping."
"But the larger issue is that the seizure of Mr. Limbaugh's private medical records without going through the process outlined by the state Legislature is clearly an invasion of his Constitutional right to privacy. Mr. Limbaugh was not doctor shopping and he should not have to sacrifice his privacy to prove his innocence."
"The burden is on the prosecutor's office, not only to prove otherwise, but also to go through the appropriate legal process that protects an individual's right to privacy. We are confident we will prevail on appeal."
Previous Limbaugh:
2003-12-24: BBC Radio 4's flagship "Today" breakfast programme is to have a series of celebrity editors next week on the invitation of its full-time editor Kevin Marsh who commented, "Judging from the letters and emails I get, everybody thinks they can edit Today. Well ... here's the chance for five of our better known listeners to prove it."
The five chosen are -in day order from Monday - author Monica Ali, former cabinet minister Lord Tebbit, singer Thom Yorke of Radiohead, radio critic Gillian Reynolds and academic Professor Stephen Hawking.
The guest editors will be responsible for between a quarter and a third of each programme's output with help from the programmes normal day and night editors and the support of Today producers and reporters.
Commenting on his acceptance of the challenge, Prof. Hawking said, "Today is the most influential programme on the radio so I welcomed the opportunity to raise issues I consider important."
The Today programme has also said that presenter John Humphrys, who recently threatened to resign after his interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury was cut (See RNW Oct 19), has signed a three-year contract to stay with the show.
Previous BBC:
Previous Humphrys:
Previous Marsh:
2003-12-24: A little counting by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder has cost Infinity Broadcasting around USD 10,000.
The story began on December 19 when Feder in his column brought up the conditions for the winner in a competition, "Score Plan for a Man's Man", run by WSCR-AM (The Score).
The winner had been announced on December 16 as the station's biggest ever on-air giveaway and was worth around USD 10,000 to winner Keith Rollins who was adjudged to have written the best essay saying why he deserved to win.
The contest, however, asked for an essay of 200 words or less and a county showed that Rollins' essay contained more than 280 words.
Following the mention Infinity opted to both award the prize to new winner Tony Nowak - chosen at random from eligible entries in line with contest rules - and still pay the original winner.
"We made a mistake and we're sorry about it," said Score manager Drew Hayes. "Now we have two happy Scoreheads."
Previous Feder:
Previous Hayes:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Chicago Sun-Times - Feder column:
2003-12-24: The questions of licence fee increases, advance consultation, and how far new codes such as Fairness and Standards Codes (and the EPG Code and Listed Events Code for television licences) will replace all of the existing Codes and guidelines or just some of them are amongst the matters brought up by the new British regulator Ofcom in a summary of its responses to its licensing consultation just released. It also opted to retain fair and effective competition clauses in licence conditions.
On the first matter it says that it is obliged when its decisions would involve a major change in activities or have a significant impact on the public or service providers to either carry out an impact assessment or explain why such an assessment is unnecessary of impracticable because of the need for an urgent decision.
It also noted in response to queries by two licensees wanted licenses to be amended to specify that Ofcom should be react reasonably when using its powers to request information, implementing licence fee changes and considering the revocation of licences that it considered such changes unnecessary because of a general requirement that it operate according to principles under which regulatory activities should be transparent, accountable, proportionate, consistent and targeted only at cases in which action is needed.
Regarding new codes, Ofcom says it intends to issue these next year after a wide-ranging consultation process and that in the meantime existing codes will continue in force.
It specifically said that the Radio Authority's Technical Code is to remain in force until a replacement has been issued.
On the question of value added tax, which is not currently charged on licence fees but will be in future, Ofcom accepted a request that VAT should only be payable on presentation of a valid VAT invoice that would enable the licensee to reclaim the tax. It also accepted a change for local radio multiplex licences so that the licensees, who often contract out technical operations, will only be responsible for doing all they can to ensure relevant provisions are observed rather than being held responsible for ensuring compliance.
Concern was also expressed by several radio licensees that Ofcom had chosen to include fair and effective competition regulation in licence conditions rather than rely on its powers under the Competition Act but Ofcom decided that it should retain such conditions in licences.
These require licensees to refrain from practices prejudicial to fair and effective competition and to comply with any code or guidance approved by or direction given by Ofcom for the purpose of ensuring fair and effective competition; it commented that ex ante regulation is better at promoting competition in markets where competition is not effective than ex post competition law, which is better at safeguarding competition in effectively competitive markets.
Previous Ofcom:
Ofcom web site (Includes link to responses - 174kb PDF)
2003-12-23: According to a CNN report attorneys for conservative US radio host Rush Limbaugh have been talking about a possible plea bargain over his purchases of prescription painkillers.
It quotes Keevin Bellows, a spokeswoman for Clear Channel-owned Premiere Radio Networks as saying Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, had been talking with the Palm Beach County state attorney's office about "accepting responsibility for his actions."
She added that Limbaugh recognized he might have purchased drugs illegally under Florida law and said he "certainly had more pills than he could ever use" although he never intended to sell them.
"He wants this thing to go away," she said but added, "He won't admit to anything he didn't do."
Limbaugh has now alleged that he was blackmailed by a former maid who later told the National Enquirer and law enforcement authorities about his addiction to the painkillers.
Black told Judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff on Monday that the maid demanded USD 4 million but Limbaugh could not go to the authorities because they would use the information against him.
Black, who wants the host's medical records kept private, argued that prosecutors are attempting to discredit the host by investigating whether he went "doctor hopping " - obtaining multiple prescriptions from a number of doctors but not telling them of the other prescriptions obtained - and also alleges that prosecutors violated Limbaugh's privacy when they seized his medical records
Assistant State Attorney James Martz said reviewing the records would be the only way to determine if Limbaugh withheld information from his doctors and if he violated the law.
RNW comment: As it must be assumed Limbaugh has approved his attorney's strategy we feel his allegations of blackmail should be thoroughly investigated but not considered as relevant to any decision about whether his medical records should have been seized.
The latter matter relates not to motivation but to the facts of whether Limbaugh engaged in illegal activities. The blackmail allegation is a serious matter, however, and we can only speculate on the relevant levels of intelligence of the host and his maid if he does not have any substantiation of his allegations. Certainly if they are being made without substantiation we would feel that the maid ought to be awarded very significant damages against Limbaugh should she decide to pursue the matter; on the other hand, if he has the evidence, we would have expected it to now have been handed to the authorities but have seen no reports to indicate that this is the case.
Previous Limbaugh:
Previous Premiere:
CNN report:
2003-12-23: Australian DMG radio network has won its legal battle with rival Austereo over use of the catchphrase "'Sounds Different" that was used to launch its Sydney station in April 2001 and its Melbourne station in December that year.
The row began when DMG won the licence for the new commercial FM in Adelaide and Austereo started using the phrase to brand its MMM station in the city.
DMG saw the move as a spoiling tactic and took the issue to court and the Australian Registrar of Trade Marks has now ruled in DMG's favour and ordered Austereo to pay all the costs of the action.
Reacting to the decision DMG Chief Executive Paul Thompson said, "Austereo, in a national newspaper, recently attempted to ridicule DMG's moves to protect its intellectual property. We are very pleased that the Trade Marks Office took the matter more seriously in recognising the merit of our application."
Austereo, which has seen its market lead eaten into by the new network, says it is to appeal the decision.
It has also been revamping its stations and has now announced a new drive show to start on January 12 and air on its 2Day FM station in Sydney and Fox FM in Melbourne. The show is to be hosted by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O. Austereo has already launched a new breakfast show on 2-Day (See RNW Nov 14).
Despite the pressures Austereo insists it will meet its earnings forecasts for the 2003 financial year. In connection with the resubmission of its Preference Share Buyback Scheme by dominant shareholder Village Roadshow Limited Austereo has repeated its EBIT guidance for the full year of AUD 68-72 million although allowing itself a get-out by saying the "estimates are dependent upon advertising, audience share and competitive conditions."
Previous Austereo:
Previous DMG:
Previous Thompson:
2003-12-23: Saga Communications has announced a deal to buy three New England stations for an undisclosed price from Great Northern Radio.
The stations involved are WRSI-FM, Turners Falls, and WPVQ-FM, Greenfield, both in Massachusetts, and WRSY-FM, Marlboro, Vermont.
Commenting on the deal, Saga president and CEO Ed Christian noted that in Massachusetts the deal would give his company three FMs and two AMs in the Springfield/Northampton market and two FMs and an AM in Greenfield whilst in Vermont it would end up with two FMs and an AM in Brattleboro.
Saga has also announced that its Board has increased its authorization for the company's previously announced stock buy-back programme from USD 10 million to USD 15 million. So far Saga has repurchased around USD 7.7 million of stock.
Previous Christian:
Previous Saga:
2003-12-23: Following the declaration of a "code orange" security alert in the US on Sunday because of intelligence suggesting that Al Qaeda is planning further attacks, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has again limited visitor access to its headquarters. It is closing its lobby in Maine Avenue and insisting that all visitors have to use the 12th Street lobby and be escorted by FCC staff. In addition its Reference Information Center has been closed although it points out that filing and docket information is still available online.
Previous FCC:
2003-12-23: The Arbitron Internet Broadcast ratings for November show Virgin moving up the station rankings but otherwise the same mix as before at the top end where AOL retained the Network lead and MUSICMATCH the top station slot.
The top five stations for November were (October figures in brackets):
1: Internet only artist-match MUSICMATCH (non-commercial) - TTSL 2,546,302 (3,094,250); CP 736,608 (744,044). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
2: K-LOVE Contemporary Christian (non-commercial) - TTSL 1,115,624 (1,420,311); CP 113,213 (126,897). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
3: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin Radio (commercial) - TTSL 1,107,150 (1,192,445); CP 160,178 (163,441). Up from fourth despite lower listening and reach.
4: AOL Top Country (commercial) - TTSL 1,100,055 (1,264,164); CP 415,100 (397,655). Down from third with lower listening and reach.
5: AOL Top Pop (commercial) - TTSL 985,327 (1,143,552); CP 543,844 (555,966) Same rank with lower listening and reach.
The top five networks for November were (October figures in brackets):
1: AOL Radio Network (commercial) - TTSL 24,974,530 (27,379,327); CP 4,358,877 (4,333,059). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
2: Yahoo LAUNCH (commercial)- TTSL 15,663,452 (18,311,876); CP 2,498,870 (2,498,962). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
3: MUSICMATCH Inc. (non-commercial) TTSL 7,766,068 (9,378,479); CP 1,550,181 (1,537,326). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
4: Adsertion (sales network) -TTSL 4,420,878 (5,357,224); CP 380,571 (433,295). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
5: Virgin Radio (Commercial) - TTSL 2,133,025 (2,358,331); CP 246,356 (250,333). Same rank with lower listening and reach.
Arbitron is not now ranking content delivery networks but it does list the top two -- Live365.com, which had a TTSL of hours 10,469,202, down from 11,352,734 in October, and StreamGuys with a TTSL of hours 2,161,912, down from 2,390,014.
Previous Arbitron Internet Broadcast Ratings:
Previous Arbitron Internet Broadcast monthly ratings:
2003-12-22: With Christmas so close, unsurprisingly seasonal reports on radio proliferated in print last week with some focussing on a positive anticipation and others on the negative of too much to soon.
Concerning the former, Nick Wyke in the UK Times reported on what he termed a "venerable BBC Christmas tradition." The report was on the BBC radio broadcasts of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge that began in 1928 and is celebrating its 75th anniversary on December 24 although the event itself began ten years earlier, on Christmas Eve 1918.
The original service was devised in 1880 by Edward White Benson, later to become Archbishop of Canterbury, whose congregation met in a wooden shed that served as the "cathedral" in Truro, Cornwall, at the time.
The 1928 broadcast was to the home audience only with a potential of some 10 million listeners. There was no broadcast in 1930 because the then new choir director, replacing a man who'd held the post since 1876, thought the broadcast would be too daunting a task for him but soon after then the BBC began broadcasting on overseas programmes although during the Second World War the name of Kings was not broadcast for security reasons.
The programme- which runs from 1500 GMT - is now carried to millions of listeners worldwide with re-broadcasts from around 250 US stations including all the classical music stations of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) ; the first US broadcast in 1979 was handled by National Public Radio (NPR) and carried by some 78 stations and MPR took over handling the event a year later.
Stephen Cleobury, director of music at King's since 1982, told the times planning for the event begins in September with rehearsals by the choir beginning in December. The broadcast now includes a specially commissioned new carol that this year it is Gleam (words by Stephen Plaice and composed by Sir Harrison Birtwistle) which Cleobury describes as "rather exciting".
In contrast to the generally welcoming comments about specific Christmas-related programmes in the UK, there was a marked chilly tone about some of the reports on Christmas radio, or, more specifically "All Christmas" format radio from North America.
There it is worth noting that Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony said in 1621 that on "the day called Christmas Day," that everybody should keep working, although by the 1880s, Massachusetts had largely abandoned it puritanical approach to the occasion.
According to an article, "I'm dreaming of white-noise Christmas on the radio dial" by William Burrill in the Toronto Star "In New York City, citizen groups have reportedly banded together in a bid to banish the "All Christmas music format" from radio as a form of cruel and unusual punishment."
Burrill continued that he was "talking about the endless, relentless, unceasing stark raving, maddening … drip-drip-dripping akin to water torture."
Burrill noted, "There are exactly 362 stations in the U.S. - with no fewer than eight in the Manhattan area alone! - that have adopted the All-Xmas format this year" and then went on to say things were easier in Toronto where "97.3 EZ Rock - has grabbed the Toronto monopoly on the "All Santa, All The Time" format.."
He then went on to comment on some of the songs - or mangled pronunciations thereof - being aired including "Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching Ass To War" and who could forget "He's Got The Whole World In His Pants."
Other gems were "Release the pounding boy", "Holy Imbecile, tender and mild," "Round John Virgin" and "Barney's the king of Israel" not to forget reindeer Rudolph's "nasty wife named Olive" as in "Olive the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names."
Still, bearing in mind that in modern-day America it wouldn't be that difficult to imagine a Passover at which credit cards were promoted in the temple as opposed to money changers being expelled therefrom perhaps Burrill should just be grateful Toronto has ONLY ONE All-Christmas station to cope with.
A final comment related to Christmas came from Armando Iannucci writing in the UK Daily Telegraph.
After referring to a stint as "a panellist on [BBC] Radio 4's The News Quiz" that meant he had paid more attention to small eccentric stories he recalled one from the US where "A self-proclaimed behavioural expert, with an implausible-sounding name like Dr Frankelhammer, conducted an experiment in American department stores to test people's reaction to Father Christmas. "
"He observed the expressions on people's faces as they left Santa's grottoes and noted that the grown-ups looked a lot more happy than the children."
"It was as if these children knew that they were experiencing something more manufactured than magical, but were prepared to play along with their seniors in order to qualify for the promised Game Boy. The adults, on the other hand, were re-living their childhood. They were wishing on themselves that state of innocence they threw off as teenagers, but now wanted back - if only through their children."
After Christmas, however, there will still be non-seasonal radio so we move on to article from the UK and the other from the US, on newer forms of the medium.
In the UK Guardian Yinka Adegoke reported on the likely benefits to online radio of increased take-up of broadband that has already seen a significant increase in listening and asks, "So could online radio, particularly the genre-led, pre-programmed offers from the likes of AOL, Yahoo!'s LaunchCast service - the top two US networks with 4.3 million and 2.5 million listeners respectively - and RealOne, pose a serious threat to commercial traditional radio?."
The question elicited differing responses reflecting the backgrounds and hopes of those asked. In the UK Capital Radio launched genre stations online in 1999 but then pulled back from the service
Its head of digital development Tom Laidlaw says Capital is now concentrating on using the web to build closer interactive brand relationships with its listeners.
"We see the web as a new distribution platform rather than as a new frontier," he said and voiced doubts that that ISP-based music-only stations can build the kind of relationship with listeners that many traditional stations have, commenting, "A radio brand is something you trust to give you what you want. You know you'll like what it plays."
A more positive view of online audio came from Dave Goldberg, Yahoo!'s VP & general manager of music, who said of the take-up and future of its Launch radio services. "These are pretty loyal listeners. We've seen tremendous growth in numbers and in the time they spend listening."
He then added, "We're more supplemental than competing. We're not cannibalising listeners yet - we might do in the future."
Similar views came from Real Networks whose director of international programming, Patrick Walker, said that genre-led, pre-programmed, ad-free radio gives consumers what they want, commenting, "Listeners can access third-party radio stations via our player anyway, but there is always a large number of people who want to listen to ad-free radio."
Expressing a slightly different perspective James Cridland, managing editor of Virgin Radio New Media, which has a number of its own genre stations, said, "People want more than just non-stop music" adding of services that keep a track of tastes and then create a tailored product for a listener, "After you train it so well the element of surprise goes - this is the thing that well-programmed traditional radio stations will always do for you
Adegoke noted that a recent poll for Virgin showed that up to 10% of its 4.75 million listeners first heard of the station somewhere other than through an FM/AM broadcast and Cridland commented of this, "The only reason we're online is to grow our audience. I don't care if they're online or offline."
Also expressing some scepticism about the unalloyed benefits of new approaches last week was Elisabeth Mahoney in the UK Guardian.
In one of her radio reviews she noted the success of Emap's digital stations Kerrang!, Q radio, and Smash Hits compared to the BBC's 6 Music that manages a weekly audience of not much more than a fifteenth of the total of the three Emap stations.
"This may sound like good news: vast numbers of listeners sampling the brave new world of digital radio," she writes. " And it is, until you listen to them. With the very slight exception of Kerrang!, which does at least have a sliver of personality and - shock, horror - the occasional presenter talking between tracks, these stations are 24-hour back-to-back trackathons, broken only by inane jingles reminding you what you are listening to…"
"Little more than pre-programmed jukeboxes, these stations eschew what most of us recognise as radio: an act of communication, a special connection between listener and station. There are no presenters as such (though there are odd, and I mean odd, bursts of chat: "it's just after 12 and you're listening to Mojo radio," a hitherto silent woman trills, at just gone 11), no news bulletins, no regular time checks or sense of what day it is, and precious little in the way of audience interaction. You soon start to crave a presenter, even a bad one."
"…BBC 6 Music, in contrast to these bland and insulting "stations", is a serious and passionate proposition. How depressing that it is so far being trounced by lame competition."
The same lament not that long ago might have been directed at US satellite radio that was consuming large amounts of investment and bringing in so little income that many pessimists thought that it might fail completely.
Now the view, especially of XM which has a million-plus subscribers compared to the 200,000 or so of Sirius, is more optimistic in financial terms; the comment is certainly more appreciative in other terms as was the case of a column by David Pogue in the New York Times.
Asking why people would bother paying for radio when it is available free, he responded with the answer, "Because satellite radio is fantastic - a cultural source unlike any other… Because the 100 channels are largely free of commercials, their program directors don't have to appeal to all the mainstream, all the time. Satellite radio offers specialized full-time channels for pop, rock, hip-hop, dance and country (dozens), classical (several), comedy recordings, sports, advice and news, old-time radio dramas, audio books, Spanish-language programming, religious talk, children, and on and on."
"…. Thanks to the lack of ads and interruptions, satellite radio resembles a CD or an iPod - yet it has a limitless playlist. Because you can find forgotten gems, experimental music and eclectic programming, it resembles a college radio station - yet you never lose the signal as you drive."
"All of this was true, of course, when satellite radio first appeared two years ago," noted Pogue who went on to add, "Today, satellite radio is even better."
The reasons: Firstly that it then people could be investing heavily in a service that might go belly-up but is now far less likely to do so and secondly that there are now many more choices of receivers and they are much less pricey.
Pogue however offers a note of warning based on the history of US cable TV. That, he notes," also started out as a fee-based reaction to the commercials and unimaginative programming of the networks. Over the years, most cable channels began carrying just as many commercials as network TV did…Neither satellite radio company promises to freeze its current prices or percentage of ads."
And looking ahead to listening choices over the week, we first note that Radiohead is being allowed to programme BBC6 Music this week, which should provide an interesting experience. After that to BBC Radio 4, which on December