May 2004 Archive
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April 2004
-June
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.
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RNW May comment - Looks at how radio as an aural medium is progressing as technological change opens new ways to listen and new competition.
RNW April comment - Considers the basis on which any indecency regulation should be based: We conclude that the FCC is behaving shamefully at the moment in terms of the manner in which it lays down the rules, in which it enforces them, and is effectively changing the goal posts during the game.
RNW March comment - More US moralizing - does the country really want to step back in time? We look back at a previous time of mass moralizing in the US and UK.
2004-05-31: Yet again much of the coverage relating to radio last week in the US stemmed from two running stories - the politics of broadcast indecency rules and the politics of Iraq with Rush Limbaugh again coming under attack for his comments about the treatment of detainees and also facing a call for him to be removed from the American Forces Radio and Television Service.
The former two did not add much to previous cover but the last was a new move; it came from Media Matters for America, the organization run by former right-winger David Brock.
Brock wrote to the US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking him to consider removing radio host Rush Limbaugh from the American Forces Radio and Television Service.
Limbaugh's show us currently aired for an hour a day on the radio service and Brock in his letter says he "has spent the past four weeks condoning and trivializing the abuse, torture, rape and possible murder of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at the Abu Ghraib prison-gross misconduct that you have described as 'fundamentally un-American.'"
…." It is abhorrent that the American taxpayer is paying to broadcast what is in effect pro-torture propaganda to American troops. I ask you to consider removing Mr. Limbaugh from the radio network to protect our troops from these reckless and dangerous messages."
"Both you and President Bush have rightly denounced the acts that took place at Abu Ghraib -- but American service men and women abroad are getting the wrong message when the Department of Defense simultaneously broadcasts Mr. Limbaugh's condoning of what you have called "fundamentally un-American" acts. Mr. Limbaugh's comments directly contradict orders issued by the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq-which, according to the Washington Post, bar 'military interrogators from using the most coercive techniques available to them in the past' -- thus undermining the military's chain of command. The comments may also inflame anti-American sentiment abroad, putting our service men and women at risk."
…" I look forward to your response and hope the Department of Defense will send a clear signal to our troops that it does not sanction Mr. Limbaugh's remarks."
The matter of Limbaugh's broadcast was also taken up by Eric Boehlert in Salon in an article whose general tenor is clear from the title "Rush's forced conscripts."
After noting some of Limbaugh's comments, he says the host's "increasingly bizarre comments" have "forced a long-simmering question into the open: Why does Limbaugh's program, as the only hour-long, partisan political talk show broadcast daily to U.S. troops, enjoy exclusive access to American Forces Radio -- and American troops in Iraq?"
Boehlert quotes Tom Athans, executive director of non-profit Democracy Radio, as saying the US government should try harder to "give a fair and balanced representation of political viewpoints on its airwaves" and notes that according to the Department of Defense's own broadcasting guidelines, 'All political programming shall be characterized by its fairness and balance,' and 'equal opportunities' for 'balance' are especially important 'during presidential election years.'"
He then quotes Melvin Russell, director of American Forces Radio and Television Services as saying the Limbaugh show is on the network only because of ratings.
"We look at the most popular shows broadcast here in the United States and try to mirror that. [Limbaugh] is the No. 1 talk show host in the States; there's no question about that. Because of that we provide him on our service," said Russell, who added that if a syndicated liberal host can draw big enough ratings the service would try and find a spot on the schedule.
"I'm hoping, if Air America takes off and someone on that show reaches the same level of audience Rush does, we could look to add them to the service. But there's nobody on the liberal side that compares to his ratings."
Russell also pointed to the broadcast of National Public Radio programs as an example of balance but others disagreed pointing to NPR output as straight reporting compared to the partisanship of Limbaugh.
Ron Schlundt, chairman of Democrats Abroad in Germany, noted repeated complaints had received the response, "You just don't like him because he's conservative" to which his reply was, "No, my objection is that he's so partisan and that it's not appropriate on a government radio station to have somebody saying 'We Republicans" five hours a week and not have anyone saying 'I'm a Democrat" five hours a week.'"
From the National Review came a more conservative take on the matter that pointed to broadcasts on AFRTS of NPR commentaries and "liberal host" Diane Rehm's talk show as well as other material such as commentaries by Jim Hightower and Dan Rather and continued that "Viewed as a whole, the list of names suggests that military listeners, if they want to hear a variety of views, can do so on American Forces Radio."
"But according to those who design its programming, the point of American Forces Radio is not to provide some sort of perfect ideological balance but rather to give military men and women a representative sample of the programming they could hear at home."
It suggested, "For now, people on military bases with access to the Internet can listen to Air America on the web - just like they would at home" and concluded, "The critics' real argument, it seems, is not so much with American Forces Radio, and the way it makes its programming decisions, as it is with Limbaugh himself. And that is nothing new."
RNW comment: There seem to be two distinct points intermingled here.
One is Limbaugh's popularity and obviously if US-wide ratings are the guide, then Limbaugh will remain alone for a long while but we noted from a John Cook report in the Chicago Tribune that in the latest ratings in New York Al Franken on Air America beat Limbaugh amongst the 18-34 and 25-54 demographics- WLIB-AM, which carries Air America has a 3.4 to 3.1 lead over WABC-AM, which carries Limbaugh, in the 25-54 demographic and a massive 2.9 to 0.4 lead amongst the 18-34 year olds.
On this basis and presuming that most of the active military are in the latter age group there could be a case for a test run and poll amongst soldiers to see which they would want to retain or whether they'd like both alternating.
The second is the nature of Limbaugh's comments and in particular his bias and partisan nature as far as US politics are concerned and, more to the point in the current climate, the nature of his comments about the treatment of prisoners.
If nothing else, it seems to us that the shows should probably carry a notice before each broadcast disassociating the Armed Forces network from Limbaugh's views about maltreatment of prisoners and that if the top brass means what it says probably ought to have carried some public disassociation comment from the highest level albeit maybe more in the form of commentary on what US military rules or policy are with specific mention of how seriously breaches are taken than a straight condemnation of Limbaugh as a moral leper.
Over to Cleveland now for an attack, worthy of Limbaugh, but on a Clear Channel executive: It cane from John Gorman in the Cleveland Free Times in an article whose tone was set by the first couple of sentences.
"Welcome to WTAM, a station that's governed by lies, deception and an alternate reality. The boss hog warlord at WTAM is L. Kevin Metheny, who also oversees all Clear Channel radio station programming throughout Northern Ohio."
Gorman notes that it was Metheny whose name was changed in the 1997 Private Parts movie to Kenny Rushton but who was given by Howard Stern the nickname "Pig Vomit."
The reason for the article it turns out is a practice that the station has, according to Gorman, of taking interviews carried out by other Clear Channel stations and through voice tracking recycling them as the station's own.
And the evidence/ "Take that recent faux interview with Sen. John McCain. The alleged live interview with McCain was revealed as a fake when someone hit the wrong button and, in response to closing comments to Sen. McCain, we heard a woman from another Clear Channel station saying, "It's a beautiful, sunny morning..." followed by an embarrassing silence. Too much fast-forward, Kevin?
Gorman comments that what is being done is not illegal or breaching rules but we think he has a point in his sentence, "It's bad enough that we have to endure the occasional Milwaukee or West Virginia Clear Channel call letters on a WTAM newscast when an engineer runs the wrong feed, but Kevin, the sham has gone too far."
After the depressing, a story from the Washington Post of overcoming a disability without a whinge in sight. Written by Jennifer Frey it was about Diana Hollander, a host at Bonneville International's Washington, D.C., classical station WGMS-FM.
Hollander's epileptic seizures became so frequent that in October 2001 she lost her job as the midday host at the station and became a recluse in her home, afraid to go out and unable to drive.
Because she did not want her condition made public, the station had to take care in explaining to callers why she had left.
She regained part of her confidence when she was hired at a store despite making her condition clear and then a few months later WGMS program director Jim Allison called to suggest she talk to new general manager Joel Oxley about ways to improve the station.
He thought she was recovering and, with Oxley's approval, asked if she felt up to doing some voice work for WGMS.
It began with taping promotional spots and public service announcements and the station installed a makeshift studio in her home so she could tape shows - she became host of a regular recorded evening show - without deadline pressures that could trigger seizures.
Over the past month she has done half the shows "live" for practice and next month she will be back live.
"I don't know what to say about management," she says. "This just goes to show that there are people out there who care about their employees. They made all of this possible. They called and asked me if I wanted to come back. They came and laid in all this equipment so I could feel safe and do the show."
On to programming and a surprisingly engaging BBC Radio 4 offering last week in the third of the Routemasters series that looks at common features of the road system; Last week's offering (Still available on the Listen Again feature of the web site) was about lines on the road.
It included the tale of Dr June McCarroll who, in 1917 in the Cochelo valley in California, got tired of treating accident victims and of other drivers hogging the middle of the road so went and painted a white line down the middle of the road outside her home. In 1924 she, with the help of the Indio Women's Club and the California Federation of Women's Clubs, convinced the California Highway Commission in 1924 to adopt the policy of painting stripes on roadways. The programme this week - 08:30 GMT tomorrow - is about pedestrian crossings.
Moving across to Ireland, tonight sees the start on RTÈ Radio 1 of a six part series, "The State We Are In: A State Beyond Religion? " that looks the consequences for Irish society of the decline in power of the Catholic Church in the country. The first programme -'The Way We Were' - at 1900 GMT tonight looks at and looks back at the extent of the Catholic Church's power and influence in the last century.
Back to the UK and last Saturday saw the first of a two-part Radio 1 Series "Second Summer Of Love" presented by Zoë Ball looking at the "Acid House" revolution. The second half is next Saturday at 20:00 GMT and the first programme is available on the web site.
And to Radio 4 again and this week's Book of the Week is "Countdown to D-Day", a week of readings from some of the major figures of the time -- Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , Field Marshal Montgomery, Général de Gaulle, General Omar Bradley, Churchill and King George VI. It's daily at 08:45 GMT and again available after then via the web site.
And finally for classical lovers, the Composer of the Week this week on BBC Radio 3 is Briton Judith Weir. Daily at 11:00 GMT and then available via the web site.
Previous Columnists:
Chicago Tribune - Cook:
Cleveland Free Times - Gorman:
Media Matters for America - letter to Rumsfeld:
National Review - report re letter to Rumsfeld:
Salon - Boehlert:
RTÈ Radio 1 - A State Beyond Religion?
Washington Post - Frey:
2004-05-31: In another sign of the times - and one that may well benefit some UK radio companies - Chrysalis (See RNW Mar 16) and GWR (See RNW Mar 3) are already involved in download services to mobiles - Britain now has an official "Ring Tone Chart" compiled by KPMG from information from six of the UK's largest ring tone providers.
Ring tone providers have been providing their own lists of top tones for some time and already sales of ring tones have surpassed in value those of singles in the UK - around GBP 70 million (USD 128 million) last year compared to GBP 63 million (USD 115 million) for singles sales - a pattern that is building in Europe as a whole.
The most popular tones are a mix of pop hits -- Beyoncé Knowles has sold more than half a million ring-tones of each of her last two releases in the UK - and theme tunes from film and TV such as Mission Impossible and The Simpsons - and trade has been boosted by the capability of new phones to set different tunes for different callers in a phone's list.
The initiative to set up the chart was announced in January this year at MIDEM in Cannes and The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) UK Ringtones Top Twenty is to be announced fortnightly from today in the music industry's trade magazine Music Week.
Ralph Simon, Chair, Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas, said the chart fulfilled two main goals - "to provide the entertainment and mobile industry with a formal chart, reflecting the growing revenue and copyright importance as music and mobile telecommunications converge."
David Simmons, Head of the MEF Ringtones Initiative and CEO of music rights and publishing company Songseekers added, "Persuading ring tone providers to confidentially share with us their sales data understandably took a long time. However, we now have access to the data of six of the UK's largest ring tone providers and I believe that the reason that we have been successful is that these providers understand that this chart initiative is in their best interests. The chart will further increase industry visibility for the ring tone business, within the music and mobile industries and with music retailers and consumers."
Simon,who also founded Your Mobile, the company that introduced ring-tones to the UK six years ago and whose site lists top ring tones in Australia, the UK, and the USA, said the sound of a person's phone was an indication of their character. "People don't buy the music so that they can listen to it like they do a CD at home. It's something that you would want to play to friends or work-mates as your social identifier," he said.
"What's happening in Europe is that for the first time you are seeing more ring-tones sold than singles. There is a growing awareness that mobile music is becoming an ... imperative for the future of the music business, which is going through tough times."
MEF web site:
Your Mobile web site (US site -flag logos link to UK and Australian sites):
2004-05-31: Yet more US school radio stations could be hit by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that gives commercial broadcasters precedence to a frequency and plans by a broadcaster to move the licence for a station.
The station involved is Mid-Columbia Broadcasting Inc.'s KMCQ-FM whose move from The Dalles to Covington in Oregon has been approved by the FCC; The move would hit both KMIH-FM, operated by the Mercer Island School District, and KGHP-FM, a Peninsula School District station that uses the same 104.5 frequency for a translator.
KMCQ-FM operates at 100,000 watts, but would drop in power if it were to move to Covington whilst KMIH-FM operates at 30 watts but the FCC noted, "In the event that the Covington allotment is adopted and service is initiated by the new Covington station, the translator and the Class D FM station (KMIH) will be required to suspend operations if interference to the new primary station occurs" and adds, "there are alternate channels available" for both operations and that the areas already receive service from more than two dozen existing FM and AM stations."
The KMCQ move was part of a series involved several broadcasting companies proposing to swap or move frequency allocations among multiple cities in Oregon and Washington.
Both the school stations are opposing the move and KMIH general manager Nick De Vogel, a teacher at Mercer Island High, noted that it had already had to move from the original frequency is used then it launched in 1969 and queried the availability of alternatives, saying, "I never would have spent the time if there was somewhere 'down the street' to move to."
The school stations said of Mid-Columbia's move say that its contention in its filing that Covington was a distinct community that warranted having its own radio station was in fact "little more than an effort to migrate KMCQ from a rural community to an extremely well-served urban area" and other critics contend that the move is an attempt to tap the much larger Seattle radio advertising market.
*Approval earlier this year of a frequency and transmitter move by Radio One Inc. is almost certain to spell the end for the oldest high school station in the US, Haverford High School's 14-watts WHHS-FM, which has been on the air for 55 years (See RNW Feb 19).
RNW comment: On the basis that the airwaves are indeed leased from the public, the obvious requirement here is for a change in regulations to force commercial companies in such situations to conduct a referendum - giving the non-commercial stations exactly equal airtime and publicity to put their case - of all residents of the area who would be affected by the move.
Should there be a vote against, the democratic move would be refuse the change and level the playing field regarding any future moves: We would suggest a bar on a similar application for a reasonable period - say five years - and also prohibition - with the penalty of a permanent refusal of any such move unless initiated by the non-commercial stations affected - of any lobbying in favour of such a move by a commercial broadcaster within that period.
Previous FCC:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer report:
2004-05-30: Last week was fairly quiet for all the regulators with a low but steady level of activity in most areas.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has invited applications for two new community licences, one in Tumut, New South Wales, and the other in Coober Pedy, South Australia. Applications have to be submitted by midnight on June 25.
In Canada, the only radio-related announcement by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was approval of an application by Sur Sagar Radio Inc. to amend the broadcasting licence of the transitional digital radio programming undertaking at Toronto to set the latest date for it to be operational as April 17, 2005.
There were no radio-related announcements from the UK but in Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has awarded the West Limerick community licence to WLCR- FM (West Limerick Community Radio) but called South Inishowen Community Radio (SICRFM) to an oral hearing for the South Inishowen Peninsula franchise area. (See RNW May 28)
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has held the second of six planned hearings on localism, this time in Rapid City, South Dakota; it also held meetings in Rapid City concerning satellite technology, rural wireless Internet, and telecommunications on American Indian reservations.
FCC chairman Michael K. Powell, who was scheduled to attend the localism meeting, left before the localism meeting began to attend a meeting in Washington, D.C. but Democrat Commissioners Jonathan S. Adelstein, for whom Rapid City is his hometown, and Michael J. Copps were present.
Adelstein in his opening remarks said that localism in broadcasting should go beyond such activities as promotions or fundraising activities for local charities and include providing opportunities for "local self-expression" such as promoting local talent, artists and musicians.
He spoke of broadcasters as trustees of "the public interest", a theme in which he was backed by Copps who said that the airwaves were owned by the people not firms or corporations and that broadcasters were allowed the privilege of using this public resource in exchange for a commitment to serve the public interest.
The FCC also reduced a fine on a Florida pirate operator from USD 10,000 to USD 1,000 on hardship grounds (See RNW May 25) but confirmed the full USD 10,000 penalty on a Nevada FM for exceeding permitted radiation levels at its tower (See RNW May 29).
Previous ABA:
Previous Adelstein:
Previous BCI:
Previous Copps:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Powell:
ABA web site:
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
2004-05-30: US National Public Radio (NPR) is to use the funds it gets from the USD 225 million bequest by Joan Kroc, the widow of Ray A. Kroc, founder of the McDonald's fast-food chain, towards long-term expansion of its new staffing and also to reduce fees for its news magazine programmes to some stations.
Most of the bequest is being invested and is expected to earn around USD 6.2 million next year of which around USD 2.4 million will be used for discounts on fees for its news magazine shows with most of the rest going to expand its newsroom.
NPR's fees were linked in 1999 to the size of a station's audience and for some stations, which have been particularly successful, fees have increased by more than a half since then and NPR is to reduce fiscal 2005 station fees by a tenth of the percentage increase in the fees to them between fiscal years 2000 and 2004: Those whose fees did not rise will not get any discount. It says it will also consider a discount on feed for fiscal year 2006 but not thereafter.
It hopes the discounts will help stations invest in local programming and executive vice-president Ken Stern told Current Magazine that the staffing front NPR will hire 30 producers, editors and reporters in the next two years and 15 the third year. He noted that the network's news staff of 250 was smaller than that of the Baltimore Sun whose former editor Bill Marimow has already been hired by NPR as a second managing editor (See RNW Mar 23).
Other hirings include former ABC News producer Robin Gradison and former deputy assistant managing editor at U.S. News and World Report Bruce Auster as supervisory senior producer and, supervisory editor respectively.
Previous NPR:
Previous Stern:
Current Magazine report:
2004-05-29: A Mexican judge has over-ruled a decision by an arbitrator, the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce, that Grupo Radio Centro had broken its contract with Infored that had produced its top-rated Monitor news programme (See RNW Mar 4).
The decision also re-opens the issue of a USD 21 million award made to Infored and Monitor host Jose Gutierrez Vivo.
Since the panel's decision, Grupo Rado has filled the Monitor slot with programming, using the same title, from one of its own stations, hosted by leading Mexican broadcasters, Jacobo Zaludovsky and Nino Canun.
Infored, which purchased the Mexico City newspaper El Heraldo and renamed it Diario Monitor (See RNW Mar 14), has subsequently been producing programmes that have been broadcast by cable television station MBS on its radio frequencies.
Previous Grupo Radio Centro:
2004-05-29: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed a USD 10,000 penalty of USD 10,000 on Americom Las Vegas Limited Partnership, licensee of on KWNZ- FM, Carson City, Nevada, for failing to comply with maximum radiation emission levels.
Tests conducted at the site with other broadcasts powered down showed that KWNZ was contributing more than 94% of the total measured radiation and its emissions alone exceeded limits allowed for the general public by 36%.
Americom had argued for the penalty to be cancelled and an admonishment substituted on the grounds that it has subsequently contracted the fencing of the areas involved and that there is "only circumstantial evidence" of recent public use of the area near the KWNZ transmitter site and "no evidence whatsoever of public use of the particularized ten square foot area" where Americom exceeded the limits.
The FCC observed that there was in fact "ample evidence of recent public use of the area near the KWNZ transmitter site" including trash such as beer and wine bottles and ATV tracks; it confirmed the full penalty.
Previous FCC:
2004-05-29: UK Hit 40 show host Neil Fox presents his last show tomorrow after 11 years with the charts show, formerly known as the Pepsi Chart; his place is to be taken by Yorkshire Galaxy 105 breakfast show host Simon Hirst and radio and TV presenter Katy Hill, who will continue to host her Saturday show on Capital FM.
The show, owned by Capital Radio, Chrysalis, GWR and Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH), competes with Emap's commercial chart show Smash Hits and the BBC's Official Charts Show that was relaunched with Wes Butters as host last year (See RNW Feb 8, 2003). Butters took over from Mark Goodier who moved to host Emap's Smash Hits chart show and the GWR Classic FM Chart show.
Fox announced his first number one - Take That with Pray - on July 17, 1993, and commented, "I've been hosting the top 40 for over a decade and it's amazing to think how music has changed in that time. I've seen out Take That, the Spice Girls, Brit Pop, the explosion of Dance music and now the massive success of R n B. That's almost a whole generation of pop music right there."
"Now is definitely the right time for me to move on and I'm handing over to a great team. Katy was my choice, I've been a big supporter of her since we did a show on the Brits together - I said straight afterwards 'this girl would be perfect for Hit 40 UK'. Simon Hirst is a fantastic DJ he's done a brilliant job standing in for me when I've been away - so he really knows the ropes."
Previous BBC:
Previous Butters:
Previous Capital:
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous Emap:
Previous Fox:
Previous Goodier:
Previous GWR:
Previous SRH:
2004-05-29: Allen Lee, the former Hong Kong radio host and member of China's National People's Congress (NPC) who quit "Teacup in a Storm" radio show earlier this month (See RNW May 21), has now openly said he left both posts under pressure from Beijing officials about pro-democracy comments he had made on air.
Lee told members of a special panel of the Hong Kong legislative council that he had been in several meetings at which officials said that the Chinese authorities were unhappy with his public support for direct elections in the former colony.
Lee did not name the officials but said concerns were expressed about his stance at a meeting in Inner Mongolia in August last year and then received another warning in Beijing in March when he was attending the Chinese National People's Congress.
He said he left the posts this month after someone claiming to be a former Chinese official phoned him to request a meeting, then mentioned his wife and daughter, raising fears about intimidation of his family and leading him to quit as a "preventive measure."
"Beijing has an attitude that if you are not my friend, you are my enemy and this policy has made Hong Kong people even angrier," he said. "This is the worst division in society I have seen since I entered politics in 1978."
He also told the enquiry that the resignations of high-profile radio hosts definitely indicated a Beijing crackdown on opposition voices.
The other two hosts who have resigned - Raymond Wong and Albert Cheng - did not testify; they have expressed fears about their safety. Cheng had commented earlier in an interview, "Our lives are threatened, our families are threatened. If I come out and say something, who is going to protect me?"
Toronto Star report:
2004-05-28: Following a 10% rise in March, US radio advertising was up 4% on a year ago in April according to the US Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), which describes the figures as "encouraging."
For April local revenues were up 4% and national ones up 6% to take the combined total to 4% while for the year so far combined revenues were up 4%, local revenues were up 4% and national revenues were up 2%.
RAB's Sales Index, which equated pre-dot com 1998 to a base of 100, the combined April figure was 139.0, the local sales index was 140.3 and the national sales index was 134.4: Year to date indices were 141.1, 140.8 and 141.9 respectively.
RAB President and CEO Gary Fries commented, "The positive results for April are encouraging, as we begin to see a strengthening in Radio revenues compared to last year."
"Indicators point to stability in Radio sales over the next few months with increased acceleration in the second half of the year."
Previous Fries:
Previous RAB - figures for March:
2004-05-28: XM satellite radio is fighting back over proposals from the US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to shut down its weather and traffic channels.
It has sent notices to its 1.7 million subscribers asking them to contact Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to oppose the move.
It has set up a page on its site with the names of representatives who sponsored the bill in the House and is encouraging subscribers to also contact them.
The pages says the "broadcasters feel threatened by the success of satellite radio" and continues, " Instead of competing and improving their services, they want the government to protect their businesses by attacking satellite radio."
"This same group has tried to block every innovative technology that has been warmly welcomed into America's homes and cars. In the 1940's, radio broadcasters tried to squash television. In the 1970's, AM broadcasters tried to put the kibosh on FM stations. They never win and they never learn."
With summer travel on the way this [Memorial Day] weekend in the USA, XM s is extending its traffic reports and adding detail for motorists travelling to popular summer weekend destinations, including major beach and shore areas nationwide.
The expanded reports will continue until the Labor Day weekend and channels will provide information for Cape Cod; Long Island/North Jersey Shore; South Jersey Shore; Delaware Beaches including Rehoboth and Bethany; Eastern Maryland Shores of Maryland -- including Ocean City; and Orange County and Los Angeles County.
XM has also announced an agreement with Antex Electronics for the latter to develop high-end receivers for its signals, the first of which is the XM-3000 multizone satellite receiver that is to be introduced into the Antex TriplePlay line of multizone receivers later this year.
It will allow up to three different XM Radio channels to be received at the same time and distributed them to different areas simultaneously. The signal is received by a single antenna and then split to three tuner modules, each containing the complete XM programming line-up.
Previous NAB:
Previous XM:
XM web site:
2004-05-28: Christian O'Connell, the breakfast host on Capital Radio's London alternative station Xfm and winner of this year's Sony Gold as UK DJ of the Year (See RNW May 14), is to step onto the UK national radio stage in August as the new host of BBC Radio Five Live's Saturday morning Fighting Talk quiz show.
The show assess the "punditry" skills of a sporting personalities on a range of topics and O'Connell follows in the footsteps of current Capital FM breakfast host Johnny Vaughan who hosted the show's first series.
O'Connell commented that his decision to take the role was not an attempt to get out of work at home, saying, "With a new baby on the way I would like to make it very clear to my wife and in-laws that I will be doing vital, important work discussing the big sporting issues of the week, with some sweaty men in a dark room."
"It's the kind of show you listen to agreeing with, shouting at, laughing with and enjoying and that's a show I really want to do."
Previous BBC:
Previous Capital:
Previous O'Connell:
Previous Vaughan:
2004-05-28: According to the Chicago Tribune, WLS-AM afternoon host is to make a final decision today over a new contract with the station.
His former co-host Gary Meier this week rejected a final offer from the Disney-ABC station to take a new contract (See RNW May 27).
Also in Chicago, Tribune-owned WGN-AM is marking 80 years under the name - its call signs were changed to WGN - World's Greatest Newspaper - from WDAP-AM in 1924.
And in suburban Chicago, NextMedia is to change the call sign of WZCH-FM, which it bought from Entravision, to WWYW-FM on June 1 and become "Y103.9, The Beat of the Burbs" playing a mix of AC and oldies.
Until the official change it is to play Motown hits through the Memorial Day weekend.
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2004-05-28: US National Public Radio (NPR) far from being a voice of the left and the people is in fact a voice of the elite and more of the conservative elite than the leftist elite according to a report just released by the leftist media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).
It counted every source cited - 2,334 in all - in 804 stories aired last June on four programs: "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday" and noted, "Republicans not only had a substantial partisan edge, individual Republicans were NPR's most popular sources overall, taking the top seven spots in frequency of appearance. "
The report does note, however, that compared to the results of a similar study in 1993, there had been a "substantial increase in the number of non-elite sources featured" during the decade with workers, students, the general public, and representatives of organized citizen and public interest groups accounting for 31% percent of all sources in the latest study compared to the 17% of the first although most of the increase came from vox pops of unnamed members of the public.
FAIR also looked at which think tanks were featured most frequently on NPR during the four months from May to August last year and found that again conservative sources were used most often - 62 times for right of centre organizations, 56 for centrist ones and 15 for left of centre ones.
Overall nearly two-thirds of all sources were from what the report terms an "elite" - 28% from current and former government officials and 26% from "professional experts" such a academics, professionals and journalists with 7% of all sources being journalists - four fifths of them from commercial media organizations such as the New York Times and Washington Post - and 6% of all sources being corporate representatives.
There had been a significant increase in the use of think tanks and where in 1993 only ten were cited twice or more in the latest report this had grown to 17: The most frequently quoted was the centrist Brookings Institution (31 times) followed by the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies (19) and the centrist Council on Foreign Relations (17) whilst the most frequently quoted left of centre think tank was the Urban Institute (8).
Women were underrepresented in the think tank representatives being quoted only 10% of the time and non-whites fared even worse with 3%; Only white males were quoted more than twice with the leading names being Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (8 appearances), Michael O'Hanlon of Brookings (7) and E.J. Dionne, also of Brookings (6).
In party-political terms, the report says that apart from the appearance of four Libertarian Party representatives in one story almost all appearances came from the mainstream parties with Republican voices - led by President Bush with 36 appearances then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld with 6 - having a substantial edge and the only non-white amongst the top ten sources was Secretary of State Colin Powell.
FAIR says the study contradicts an "article of faith among many conservatives" who think that NPR has a left bias.
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2004-05-28: The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has awarded the West Limerick community licence to WLCR- FM (West Limerick Community Radio) subject to conclusion of successful contract negotiations.
It has also decided to call South Inishowen Community Radio (SICRFM) to an oral hearing for the South Inishowen Peninsula franchise area. The hearing will be held privately with the Executive of the BCI.
In Dublin, Dublin's Country FM says it is hopeful that the BCI will approve a name change. Two proposals - for the names More FM and Choice FM - had been rejected but the station says it is hopeful it will be given the go-ahead to re-brand as Star FM, the name under which the station originally won its licence, or Cara FM. The format is not to be changed.
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2004-05-27: UK GWR Group has reported that its continuing operations for the year to the end of Mar 2004 had underlying turnover up 8.8% on a year earlier to GBP 125.6 million (USD 227.9 million) with underlying operating profit up 24% to GBP 20.7 million (USD 37.6 million) and pre-tax profit up 57.4% to GBP 16.6 million (USD 30.1 million).
Overall it turned a pre-tax loss of GBP 14.83 million (USD 26.9 million) a year ago into a pre-tax profit of GBP 14.77 million (USD 26.8 million) with an overall profit of GBP 267,000 (USD 484,000), turned round from a loss of GBP 22.53 million (USD 40.87 million).
It also reduced its net debt by GBP 35 million (USD 63.5 million) over the year and says it has since then trimmed it by a further GBP 10.6 million (USD 19.2 million) to GBP 54 million (USD 100 million).
Executive Chairman Ralph Bernard described the results as "excellent" and added, "The disciplined concentration on implementing structural changes and on introducing systems improvements during the difficult times of the advertising recession is paying off as the market recovers, and GWR has outperformed the industry."
"We look forward to the future with confidence, as the strength of our brands in analogue radio is matched by our leading position in digital radio. We have continued to focus attention on digital radio with some 20% of our operating profits being invested in exploiting our prime assets in this critical area. We have formed a powerful relationship with BT Wholesale to pioneer and develop the 'Livetime' datacasting operation. With sales of digital radios now well past 500,000 units, the value of the Group's first mover advantage is becoming clear."
Within the results GWR noted that its digital revenues were up 24.1% to GBP 8.1 million (USD 14.7 million).
It also said it had looked at other new media to increase revenue and in April launched "Hear it, Buy it, Burn it", a web-based service for downloading music, which enables listeners to download songs while they are being played live.
It said that in a generally improved advertising market, the Group's analogue radio business has performed strongly, delivering an advertising revenue increase of 8.4%, ahead of the 7.8% achieved by the radio industry as a whole. National revenues were up 8.7% and local ones 7.9%.
GWR also noted that its Local Radio Group, which contributed 69% of group revenues and increased revenues by 10.2% -- 12% national and local, less inventory, up 7.9% - had improved profitability because of the restructuring of LRG management into functional streams, separating programming and content (Creation) from sales (Opus).
It noted that Classic FM was now the third-rated commercial station in London. Classic FM has already announced a GBP 1 million (USD 1.8 million) promotional campaign and Bernard said the priority was to boost its audience outside London where it does less well; He added that they saw the target audience not as that of the BC's main classical output from Radio 3 but listeners from BBC radios 2 and 4.
Bernard said the station was now "couple of hundred thousand listeners behind Heart FM [the second -rated station, which is owned by Chrysalis] - which is not very much in a place as large as London." And added, "We're creeping up on the inside."
Commenting on possible mergers in the radio sector, where GWR has already come up against the regulator and before the Communications Act went into law was forced to sell its share in Bristol station Vibe on local advertising competitive grounds, Bernard said clarification was needed about potential larger deals but he thought deals would be possible.
He ducked comment on whether the daily Mail and General Trust, which owns 29.9% of GWR, might choose to sell to aid a bid for the Telegraph newspaper group, saying he had not been involved in discussions on the matter.
Bernard also said the group was still keeping "under review" the appointment of a chief executive to replace Patrick Taylor who left at the end of June last year.
GWR shares ended the day up 4.29% and 255.5 pence.
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2004-05-27: According to Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times, Garry Meier, who has been off the air since January (See RNW Jan 13), has rejected the final offer made by Disney-ABC's WLS-AM, Chicago.
Meier has been teamed for eight years with Roe Conn, whose contract ends next month. Feder reports that Conn is expected to agree to a new long-term deal.
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2004-05-27: Australian commercial radio representatives and the country's leading creative directors are holding a one-day think-tank in Sydney today to help set out a strategy to improve radio adverts and increase radio's share of the Australian advertising market.
The event is part of a push by commercial radio in the country to promote radio's effectiveness as an advertising medium and Commercial Radio Australia director Joan Warner said the industry body was working hard to persuade advertisers to allocate a larger portion of their marketing budgets to radio.
Commercial Radio Australia is involved in an AUD 20 million (USD 14 million) campaign to promote radio advertising and Warner commented, "Despite a positive response to the brand campaign, the industry recognises that there is more to do and one challenge identified was improving the creative component of radio advertising…Writing well for radio is often challenging but incredibly rewarding and the new course provides a broad range of radio writing skills which should help grow the pool of talented copywriters who specialise in writing for radio."
Steve Yolland of Magnum Opus said of the event, "This is a terrific initiative by Commercial Radio Australia and I applaud their commitment. Radio needs a creative boost in this country but it's no good us Creative Directors and Radio Nuts moaning to ourselves behind closed doors. We have to team up with the radio industry and think of more creative ways of having clients and agencies."
Why do I care about the future of radio advertising? Close your eyes. Listen. I can make anything happen in the space between your ears. Anything. No limits. Budgets don't matter. The impossible is possible. Pure imagination rules here. How exciting is that?"
James McGrath of George Patterson Bates added, "Radio advertising needs to be reinstated to its former position as the medium of choice after Television, not some distant afterthought beyond virtually every other form of media. It has the unique ability (when handled perfectly) to really engage at a really intimate level, right inside the head of the consumer."
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2004-05-27: SMG-owned Virgin radio has dropped the Captain America - Rock & Roll, Americana and alt-Country - Sunday early morning show hosted by Nick Stewart.
Last Sunday's show was the last and Stewart told the UK Guardian he was told of the decision by Virgin's director of programmes, Paul Jackson, made despite increasing listening by a fifth in the last three months of last year and added that he was confident of getting another slot soon.
"I've probably got 100,000 listeners on AM and FM and probably more on digital and the Internet. It shouldn't take me long," he said.
Virgin told the paper the station had given Captain America a "fair crack of the whip", but had decided to drop the show after listening to feedback from listeners.
"We are constantly evolving and asking listeners what they want. Captain America had been on air for over two and a half years and we decided it was time for a change," a spokeswoman said, adding that the change was a "tweak" rather than part of a revamping of the station schedule.
Virgin's web site on Wednesday evening still listed the show in the midnight GMT slot for May 30 but the link with this says the show, which it terms "critically-acclaimed" has now ended.
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2004-05-27: Longtime Bay Area jazz radio announcer George Hughes has died from cancer aged 57.
In his career he had worked the all-night shift for San Francisco's legendary jazz radio station KJAZ -FM, in the late 70s and early 80s.
He was fired and rehired a number of times by station owner Pat Henry, who was known to pull a disc jockey off the air if he heard a record he didn't like or didn't want to hear in that time slot.
Hughes left KJAZ in 1988 - the station itself went off the air in 1994 after a 35-year life and despite listeners raising an unprecedented USD 1.5 million dollars to keep it on air- after which he worked for public station KCSM-FM.
KCSM, which is to broadcast an on-air tribute to Hughes on June 5, describes him on its web site as "a kind, open-hearted Bebopper, the Clark Kent of Jazz Radio, the King of Eloquence, the Master of the Segue."
"His dulcet tones, his encyclopedic knowledge of Jazz, his use of the English language will be sorely missed," it adds.
The station is also to re-broadcast on June 11, which would have been Hughes 58th birthday, his George's Desert Island Jazz at 0400 GMT, 21:00 Pacific Time.
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2004-05-26: The possibility of the current US anti-indecency movement ending up giving satellite radio a boost was given further currency this week with more comments from Howard Stern about leaving Infinity and also suggestions from agent Robert Eatman, who represents Erich "Mancow" Muller and Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia), that Muller could potentially move to satellite radio.
Stern at the start of this week reacted to editing of a song parody "Robin Crapped Her Pants" said on his show, " I am so done with this situation. It's ridiculous. I want out, I want to go work for another medium where I can talk and not worry if Slash says the F-word. I want that, I crave it now. I want out of this."
Stern is under contract to Infinity for another 18 months and Muller is still expected to renew his deal with Emmis when his current contract ends in July but under this contract he has to pay any indecency penalties himself.
Opie and Anthony's contract with Infinity ends next Tuesday and the duo are reported to be in negotiations with both Sirius and XM: Their web site currently has two counters - one measuring the time until the contract ends and the other the days they have been off air (649 today) since Infinity and WNEW-FM took them off the air in the Sex for Sam row.
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2004-05-26: Mike Stude, who has agreed to sell Houston classical station KRTS-FM, the last locally-owned independent station in the market, to Radio One Inc. (See RNW May 25) is to use part of the proceeds from the USD 72.5 million deal to set up a foundation supporting arts and music education for children in Houston according to the Houston Business Journal.
Stude, who bought the station in 1987 for USD 2.3 million, said the reason he had opted to sell was related to changes in the broadcasting business, saying, "In this era of corporate radio, it's tough -- if not impossible -- for a station like ours to compete against the huge radio chains."
He noted that competitors, who include the satellite radio services and the University of Houston's non-commercial KUHF-FM, as well as stations streamed on the Internet, now met his goal of providing a classical music service for the city.
On his plans for the foundation, he said, "It is important that something positive and enduring come out of the sale," Stude says.
"My commitment to supporting the arts in Houston remains as strong as ever. I can't think of a better way to ensure a good future for the arts in our community than by making sure that our children have the education and resources that they need."
Houston Business Journal report:
2004-05-26: UK Emap shares fell 10.64% to 756 pence following the release of preliminary results on Tuesday despite overall turnover in the year to the end of March increasing 9% on a year ago to GBP1.05 billion (USD 1.90 billion), operating profit up 11% to GBP 212 million (USD 384 million) and pre-tax profit up 12% to GBP 196 million (USD 355 million).
In divisional terms, Emap Consumer media grew revenues 3% to GBP 355 million (USD 644 million) with underlying growth 6%, Communications revenue was up 9% to GBP 213 million (USD 386 million) with underlying growth of 6%, Emap Performance revenue - including the company's radio operations - was up 3% to GBP 160 million (USD 290 million) but underlying this was a 2% decline, whilst French revenues were up 18% to GBP 322 million (USD 583 million)
Analysts put the share price decline down to an admission of severe competition in the French TV listings business: Emap's two publications, which together account for around a tenth of its French revenues, have been hit by the launch of a new title by Bertelsmann of Germany and lost around 15-20% of their circulation in a market where there are a total of nine listings magazines.
Group Chief Executive Tom Moloney commented, "This is another strong set of results, delivered against a backdrop where trading conditions have been mixed. Our core business performed well, and this was enhanced by exciting new product launches and solid bolt-on acquisitions."
"The business overall is in good shape. Whilst we will face some major challenges in the year ahead, we're ready for them, and we expect to continue delivering growth."
Emap says its performance division is showing Kiss and Magic strengthening in London, Big City was battling back and digital radio was delivering revenues- but there was increased music TV competition. Current radio sales were described as being maintained.
In other UK radio business, SMG has announced its first cross-platform deal, a GBP 1million (USD 1.8 million) plus arrangement with Unilever that will see the FMCG giant advertising its products across all of SMG's media - Scottish TV, Grampian TV, Virgin Radio, Pearl & Dean and Primesight.
The deal also includes a content element that will allow Unilever to trade certain SMG television content for airtime in overseas territories.
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2004-05-25: Radio One Inc. has announced a UD 72.5 million cash purchase of classical format KRTS-FM in the Houston, Texas, market from KRTS Inc.; it says it expects to change the station call sign and format on completion, which is expected in the third quarter of this year.
Radio One president and CEO Alfred C. Liggins, III said the acquisition was "a huge win for Radio One."
"This station represents one of the last high-powered, independently owned radio stations in the Houston market," he added. "We are very excited to be able to enhance our competitive position in one of our, and the radio industry's, largest and best markets."
Radio One already owns CHR/Rhythmic KBXX-FM and Urban AC KMJQ-FM in Houston.
In Chicago, Denver-based NextMedia has announced completion of its previously announced USD 5 million cash purchase of WZCH-FM from Entravision, which earlier this year said it was selling its three Chicago area stations to concentrate on strengthening its existing clusters.
WZCH, in Dundee, and WRZA-FM in Portage had been used to simulcast Entravision's "Super Estrella" Spanish hits format.
NextMedia has not yet revealed full details of its format change but the station is expected to be similar in part to that of NextMedia's other 11 stations in suburban Chicago with a local focus for news, weather and traffic. It expects eventually to have its own personalities for daytime, housed in the same Crystal Lake premises that house its Star FM station.
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2004-05-25: Reporting on radio advertising in China, the Straits Times says changing lifestyles and the cost of TV advertising could lead to a new lease of life for China's radio industry but it warns that the adverts themselves need to be better produced.
Amongst the changes benefiting the medium is a rapid growth in automobile ownership and the proliferation of mobile phones with built-in radios. The country has more than a thousand radio stations but takes only around 5% of the total advertising spend of about USD14.5 billion compared to at least two-thirds for TV.
According to Nielsen Media Research's director of client service Rita Chan one of radio's problems has been that in the past there was no effective ratings system but firms such as hers and CVSC-Sofres Media (CSM) are expanding or launching new radio ratings services to address this.
"'Advertisers and ad agencies always tell us if that there is no effective way of measurement, we are not going to spend a lot of money in that medium," said Chan. She added that she thought there was "big potential for growth in China's radio industry" and predicted advertising spending to increase by 10 to 20 per cent this year.
The paper reports Matt Brosenne, CSM's international business director, as being more cautious about the speed of growth that is likely:
"You have to give the industry time to digest the data, understand what it means and how to take advantage of it," he said. "'Nothing's happened recently that's made radio a vehicle of more impact, nor is there a significant change of content that says radio is a better answer."
And one of the problems cited is that of the adverts themselves, described by one channel-hopping taxi driver as mostly "just boring or annoying."
Straits Times report:
2004-05-25: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cut on financial hardship grounds the penalty on a Florida pirate operator from USD 10,000 to USD 1,000.
Timothy J. Massett, lessee of the premises where the station was found, said he participated in the operation of the station by resetting the station's CD player when the music stopped just prior to the agents' inspection but had subsequently banned "those responsible for the transmission" from the pre and argued that the penalty should be cancelled because of his "low degree of culpability" and also because he received no warning letter, had no prior offences, and was unable to pay.
The FCC as normal did take into consideration the ability to pay and on the basis of details submitted reduced the penalty; it dismissed his other arguments.
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2004-05-25: Frontier Silicon, a leading UK fabless manufacturer of semiconductors for digital TV/radio and consumer multimedia products, has announced the closing of a multi-million pound investment round that includes investment from Nokia Venture Partners.
It says the investment will re-enforce its position in the digital audio and TV market.
Frontier Silicon last week announced that it has started volume shipments of Logie, the world's first combined DVB-T and DAB system-on-chip device; The low cost circuit allows UK users to receive all available UK digital TV channels on the Freeview terrestrial system and all UK digital radio channels from one unit; the first manufacturer to feature the device is Goodmans.
2004-05-24: We have eschewed indecency - or rather stories related to the Federal Communications Commission's regulations on the matter this week, although it is still getting cover in the US print media, but found it difficult to avoid Rush Limbaugh, who is now coming under significant attack for his comments on the US maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
The criticisms seemed to us fair in their assessment of the morality and likely impact of Limbaugh's reports but maybe a little unfair in that, for example Michael Savage, were he half as well known, would do much more damage to America's reputation with his comments.
First though, a different perspective on another segment of US talk radio, courtesy of Paul B Farrell on CBS MarketWatch.
He had appeared on a money talk shows and commented of his appearance, "The last radio talk show I was on was special, a real eye-opener. Here's what I discovered: Callers really don't expect to learn anything. Talk radio is not about getting advice. It's also not about making decisions and getting into action."
"Investors want somebody to listen to them! It's that simple… Investors don't really want anything, they just want to feel like someone out there in this vast, cold, impersonal world is listening to them. Because nobody is!"
Farrell then comments -very negatively - about Congress and Wall Street's view of investors - "they see investors as a necessary evil to be manipulated with political rhetoric and absurd advertising campaigns" - before concluding, "Your failure to reform your corrupt ways with something more than stonewalling and deceptive ad campaigns isn't working. Your failure to address the core problems will eventually come back to haunt America ... are you listening?"
Which, of course, takes us to Limbaugh whose comments a number of publications think will also haunt his country.
From American Progress we noted a column by former West Point professor, professional infantry officer and author Robert Bateman who commented of Limbaugh's comments, "The guy does not get it, he does not realize that with his careless and thoughtless words that he's making things tougher on us soldiers, not easier. Although, potentially he believes he's making things easier for our political masters, that's above my pay grade. All I know is that he's making it worse for those of us in uniform."
"Limbaugh is out there, making excuses for the prison guards, and in the process making it that much more likely that there will be a 'next time.' How? By making what they did excusable. By minimizing it. By saying that it's not so bad, and that he can see how it's just like a fraternity hazing. What Limbaugh apparently does not even realize is that in the process of saying that he is de facto slamming the officer corps of the U.S. Army and calling us incompetent."
… "How? Well for starters, it was one of our generals that did the investigation that said all of this was despicable and should be investigated under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice."
And then a little history… "When we codified and updated our military laws after World War II we made damned sure that we put in specific laws that protected prisoners, and we added an 'anti-Nuremberg defense' clause in as well. It is every soldier's duty to refuse an unlawful order. Sometimes it's scary, but you have to do it. I've done it three times in my career, and an informal survey of my peers suggests most of them have had similar experiences. None of these were huge, in my experience, but were very small illegal orders. But I was scared at the time, telling my superior that I would not do something because I thought it was wrong. The point of this is that we're trained to do things like that, all of us. I am not anomalous. It's what keeps our Army straight."
And the concluding comment cum question," If he knew any professional officers, certainly, he would never have said what he did. I mean, even Limbaugh wouldn't deliberately endanger soldiers for mere political points…would he?"
RNW comment: May we also note lest Limbaugh supporters try and play down Bateman's credentials that his book on No Gun Ri to the delight of right-wing outlets like NewsMax challenged the Associated Press story of the "massacre" and argued that, although civilians were killed this was unintentional and happened in "the fog of war."
Another article expressing severe criticism of Limbaugh's views came from Philip Smucker on MediaChannel headed, "U.S. Talk Show Rhetoric Sounds a Rwandan Echo" and drawing comparison with the role of Rwandan radio in the atrocities in that country (Limbaugh found the courts guilty of genocide verdict against some of those involved worthy more of comment about infringement of free speech than a matter of recognizing incitement to murder as being illegal under US law as much as that of other countries).
Smucker doesn't limit his comments to Limbaugh though: He also brings in other hosts such as Michael Savage (he called Arabs "non-humans" and "racist, fascist bigots", asserted that Americans should "drop a nuclear weapon" on a random Arab capital, and that "these people" in the Middle East "need to be forcibly converted to Christianity" in order to "turn them into human beings.").
Enough, however, of comments that make friends of America despair as to how they can defend the country to those less well disposed towards it, and to end a more positive story about US radio courtesy of the Washington Post and Associated Press, albeit even then there is a sting when the value of a school station conflicts with the demands of profit for a corporation.
In "High School Radio Stations Alive and Well" David Porter of the AP began, "Even with CD players and iPods, America's teens still listen to the radio. And they tune in even more when the DJs are their own age."
" Their unwavering devotion has meant that high school radio has managed to survive - even thrive at the margins at the low end of the FM dial."
He then detailed some of the history of school radio in the US, success stories and problems when the frequencies allocated to a school or educational broadcaster are in the way of a commercial operation as is the case for Pennsylvania school station WHHS-FM, which has broadcast from Haverford High School since 1949 but is now expected to die because of a Radio 1 deal to purchase a New Jersey station and move the frequency to the Philadelphia market (See RNW Feb 19).
On however to programming still available via the Internet and worth a listen starting with the Tavis Smiley show on US public radio. Last week saw five weekday discussions related to the Brown v Board of Education ruling that ended legal separation of races in US schools.
The whole series is on the NPR web site and worth a listen albeit the comments by Cornel West, Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University, in Friday's programme would almost certainly upset many, particularly when he says America is an "adolescent, innocent , melodramatic civilization that believes in a flight from reality" and maybe "just doesn't have the capacity to deal with reality."
In the UK, the country's first new national radio soap opera for seven years goes on air today on the BBC Asian Service (See RNW May 23): We haven't yet heard "Silver Street" but UK Sunday Times radio columnist Paul Donovan has listened to preview tapes and comments, "I have heard the first five episodes. Initially confused, I now love it. But the music should go, because it is a distraction when the episodes are only 10 minutes long. And there are too many scenes in which more than one person talks at the same time, which you can sometimes get away with on television, but never on radio."
"I am drawn to it because, so far, it is fun, vivid, truthful, non-PC (hope that continues) and has characters I can identify with. About 30% of the characters are non-Asian, just as 15% of the network's audience is. But these racial boundaries are increasingly fuzzy: the editor, James Peries, has a Sri Lankan father and an English mother, and his deputy, Deborah Sathe, has an Indian father and a Scottish mother. I wish that the BBC had laid more emphasis on the serial's wide human appeal, rather than just calling it 'Britain's first Asian radio soap' in the seeming hope of ticking a multicultural box.
Back to the BBC analogue channels and tomorrow sees the third and final instalment of BBC Radio 2's "Maggie's Cultural Revolution" on Radio 2 at 19:30 GMT (The second show is still available until then via the Listen Again facility)
To quote Chris Campling of the London Times about last week's instalment, "It is, not to put too fine a point on it, unmissable radio." And drawing a comparison between Thatcher's years in power and now: "Margaret Thatcher may have been the enemy of the taste-makers of her time, but they came up with some pretty tasty stuff nonetheless. Back then, for example, pop could get angry and still get to No 1: can you imagine the Specials' Ghost Town getting airplay, let alone a gold disc, today? "
"Back then, the arts had the Iron Lady to push against. Now it has a blancmange, a state that tries to be all things to all people, and ends up pleasing no one. Little bit of politics there, as Ben (tickets still available to We Will Rock You) Elton would once have said."
Also from Radio 2, this time from Saturday, is "Lost Boy - The Nick Drake Story" - the story, narrated by Brad Pitt, of the English guitarist and singer-songwriter who died from an overdose of anti-depressants in 1974 at the age of 26.
From BBC Radio 4, 17:30 GMT on Thursday sees the return of "Revolting People", a sitcom set before the American War of Independence that is both amusing and informative as indeed is the News Quiz that airs on Friday at the same time.
For more serious fare from the channel try the second Asian Tigers programme tonight at 1900 GMT (This one is on China but last week's on Indonesia is still available on the web site for a short time.)
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2004-05-24: Getting upset at the content of US radio can be dangerous to health if you over-react according to a report in the Sioux City Journal concerning a 54-years-old woman, Bramble Humphreys, who was upset by broadcasts by news-talk KSCJ-AM, Sioux City, Iowa.
Program director Willie Clark told the paper that Humphreys, known to the station as "Wendy" had in the past e-mailed the station complaining about various personalities and placed flyers on vehicles in the station parking lot claiming that KSCJ had bugged her computer.
He added that the police had been called several times and said that on Saturday she arrived at the station late in the morning and fired four to five shots from a .357-calibre handgun into a company vehicle and also hit the sales office and another personal vehicle.
No station employees were injured but Humphreys shot herself in the hand and was taken to hospital for surgery. Police say they are treating the incident as terrorism but said charges are pending until she is released from the hospital.
Sioux City Journal report:
2004-05-24: The problems "Oldies" stations face in deciding what are "Oldies" are for their target audience and the manner in which they have gradually shifted content are featured in the Washington Post in an article by Marc Fisher who notes that audience surveys show little interest in records from the 50s or early 60s.
"Consultants who advise oldies programmers," says Fisher, "have been pushing them gently into the '70s music library, but it's a dangerous road because that's when Top 40 radio died and all manner of much more specialized formats came along."
"So most Americans from that era grew up listening only to the kind of music they liked -- the soft soul of the Stylistics and the Spinners, disco, hard rock, lite rock and so on."
In a telling comment on research done - "by testing audience appetites for inoffensive songs of the '70s" - Fisher says they've identified some tunes such as Fleetwood Mac hits that reach across musical boundaries and has led Oldies stations over the last three years to push the average year of the songs they play from 1965 to almost 1967.
And for those who are being left out? Fisher reports that ABC Radio this spring launched its True Oldies Channel, focusing on the years 1958 to 1964 and being offered primarily to AM stations since the recordings were originally monaural, thus reducing FM's advantages.
Previous Fisher:
Washington Post report:
2004-05-24: Looking ahead to Wednesday's "Localism" hearing by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Rapid City, South Dakota, Democrat Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein appeals in the Rapid City Journal for local input on "how local television and radio broadcasters are serving communities in the Black Hills."
Referring to a "groundswell of public concern about how the growth of giant media companies has undercut the coverage of issues of concern in local communities" Adelstein notes that he grew up in the city and comments, "I know personally the dedication of many in our local media to provide the best service to our area. A dedicated and responsive media is one of the most important ways to ensure a first-rate economy, education, and quality of life for South Dakotans."
He lists the kind of input needed as posted by the FCC (See Licence News May 23) and adds, ". Since it is the smallest community we are visiting, it will serve as a case study of what is happening in hundreds of communities across the country the FCC will not have the opportunity to visit."
Previous Adelstein:
Previous FCC:
Rapid City Journal - Adelstein article:
2004-05-24: Entercom is considering moving its Kansas City operations out of Westwood in Kansas to space in Kansas City, Missouri, that formerly housed the Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance according to the Kansas City Star.
The paper says that Stan Counts Jr., an official with the Economic Development Corporation, told its board at its monthly meeting that discussions were under way but no tax incentive package had been agreed.
He added that should a move take place, the company would need a relay tower to connect signals for its eight stations in the market to its transmitters in Westwood.
Previous Entercom:
Kansas City Star report:
2004-05-23: Last week saw a steady amount of activity from the regulators except in Australia where there were no radio-related announcements.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was involved in a number of radio licence decisions.
In order of province they were:
Ontario:
*Amendment to licence of CFWC-FM, Brantford, to change its contours and frequency and increase power from 50 watts to 250 watts. This will change the station from a low-power unprotected service to a protected class A1 FM station and Larche Communications Inc., which was awarded CFWC's existing frequency for a new country music format FM, is expected to bear the costs of the changes.
Quebec:
*Renewal of licence of campus radio CFOU-FM Trois-Rivières, to 31 August 2011.
*Approval of frequency change for CJRF-FM Sherbrooke.
The CRTC also released its regular listing of ownership and control changes, this time covering the months of March and April.
They included radio changes involving transfer of the effective control of RBC, licensee of CHOW-FM, Welland, Ontario, through the sale by the Burnett family of all its voting shares to Mr. David Holgate and transfer of the effective control of the GX Radio Partnership, licensee of CFGW-FM Yorkton, Saskatchewan, through the sale of Yorkton Broadcasting Corporation's 75% of the voting shares to Mr. Lyle Walsh.
In Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has signed a ten-year contract with Raidio Ciarrai Teoranta (Radio Kerry) for its service to County Kerry that has already been on air for 14 years (See RNW May 19).
The UK was fairly quiet although Ofcom has released its latest Broadcasting Complaints Bulletin (See RNW May 18) and has also announced that it has contract out its broadcast advertising regulatory functions to a self-regulatory system to be administered by the Ofcom the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in a co-regulatory partnership with Ofcom (See RNW May 19).
It is also involved in discussions concerning food advertising, specifically related to "junk food" issues and says it aims to launch a consultation before the summer break.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released further details of its May 26 Localism Task Force public meeting on broadcast localism to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota, the third such hearing by the commission.
Audio of the meeting will be web cast and the FCC has circulated five questions relating to how broadcasters respond to the community's needs, what programming should be available to the community but is not, how well broadcasters are informed about issues and events in the community, are there any segments of the community not being served and how could they be, and what, if anything, the FCC should do to promote more localism in broadcasting?
The FCC has also been involved in a number of enforcement actions including levying fines on two pirate operators (See RNW May 21) and on a number of stations for various technical offences (See RNW May 20).
Previous BCI:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Ofcom:
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
Ofcom web site:
2004-05-23: Sirius gets a boost from contributors to the financial Motley Fool web site concerning articles on the relative merits of Sirius and XM satellite radios as an investment with 45% thinking the arguments put for Sirius were more compelling, 39% favouring XM, 12% appreciating both articles and 4% reckoning they both missed the mark.
Although an unscientific sampling and with only just more than 200 casting votes cast not a large sample, the responses to the articles relate to both the services themselves and the stock as an investment do seem to indicate that, as the site had previously indicated (See RNW May 14), Sirius may yet survive and prosper.
The Sirius argument put by W.D. Crotty argues that the market valuations of both companies - USD 3.9 billion for XM with 1.6 million plus subscribers and USD 3.6 billion for Sirius with a quarter of that, their relative cash position - Sirius has cash of USD 281 million and XM debt of USD 308 million, its content deals in the form of NFL, NBA, and NHL sports plus National Public Radio (NPR), and possibly its development of video, which was demonstrated at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas ((See RNW Jan 8) are all pluses for Sirius. He also notes that XM has imitated Sirius by dropping commercials on music channels whilst retaining its USD 9.95 a month charge, which means a significant extra revenue per subscriber for Sirius, which charges USD 12.95.
He also argues that XM has benefited greatly so far from General Motors pushing it but that Sirius has exclusive deals with Ford, Daimler-Chrysler and BMW and as these start to enter the race Sirius should see significant benefits.
Putting the figures together and assuming that the potential subscriber market is 20 million, he says that, even if the video development produces no revenue, both companies could survive: Sirius with the extra subscription revenue needs only around 43% of the market to share revenues evenly and if it takes a higher share it prospers accordingly.
Against Sirius, apart from comments about the nature of its subscribers, Seth Jayson argues primarily its market valuation, which he says is far too high, and also that the value of its sport and public radio content is being overvalued in terms of the typical satellite subscriber.
He argues not that XM is a good investment but that it's a better one than Sirius as it is further down the subscription road, is adding subscribers faster and at a much lower cost of USD 67 compared to USD 250 for Sirius: The market, he notes, values each subscriber at USD 2,700 compared to USD 10,000 for Sirius and the says the latter is "overpriced, and it's cruisin' for a bruisin'.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Motley Fool - Crotty on Sirius:
Motley Fool - Jayson on XM:
2004-05-23: The BBC's new daily Asian radio drama - Silver Street - goes on air on the corporation's Asian network from tomorrow.
More than GBP 1 million (USD 1.75 million) has been committed to the series, that follows the lives of young Asians living in a Midlands city and is being created by a team of British Asian writers and producers.
Previous BBC:
2004-05-22: The BBC has announced that Channel 4 TV Chief Executive Mark Thompson has been appointed Director-General to replace Greg Dyke, who resigned in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry into the death of scientist Dr David Kelly, revealed as the source of a BBC report alleging that the British government "sexed up " information on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Thompson, a long-time BBC TV executive who left the Corporation two years ago for the Channel 4 post, joined the BBC as a graduate trainee in 1