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November 2004 Archive

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- October 2004 - December 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 November comment - Looks, as the "buying" season approaches at What we'd like from radio in the future

RNW October comment - Rethinks our previous timetable for competing media to bite into profitability of US terrestrial radio in light of talent moves to satellite radio and faster than anticipated take-up of broadband.

RNW September comment - Considers in the light of CBS's use of dodgy documents and the response of some US talk hosts, the importance of reputation and reliability for a broadcaster and for US democracy.

2004-11-30: Arbitron, which took over Measurecast's internet ratings service in November 2002 but then folded it into its own Internet ratings service that it closed it down earlier this year (See RNW April 15) has now announced a new service for online radio.
It is being introduced in conjunction with comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, Inc. and they say it is designed to "provide traditional broadcast ratings." Ratings will be expressed in AQH and cume and cover the traditional broadcast divisions in times and demographics.
The comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings are to make their debut next week with ratings being released monthly: Its results will be based on a subset of approximately 200,000 U.S. participants within the comScore global consumer panel.
Proprietary technology will be used to continuously capture the online behaviour of these panellists, including online radio listening and the new service has signed up America Online's AOL Radio Network; Yahoo's LAUNCHcast; and Microsoft's MSN Radio and Windowsmedia.com as charter subscribers for the new service.
"Consumers are increasingly tuning to online radio and advertisers need credible audience measurement to justify their increasing investment in this medium," said Bill Rose, vice president, Arbitron New Ventures. "We are combining Barberton's expertise in radio ratings with co Score's online measurement capabilities to provide the numbers that agencies need to evaluate online radio in the same terms as traditional broadcast media."
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Rose:

2004-11-30: Long-time BBC Radio 2 presenter John Dunn has died aged 70 of cancer after a career that included 30 years with the station, which he jointed in 1967. He hosted its Breakfast Special and Late Night Extra programms before moving to the Drivetime programme that he hosted for 23 years.
He was born in Glasgow and started his broadcasting career in the Royal Air Force before joining the BBC in 1957as a studio manager and later reading the news on the World Service.
He broadcast from around the world and many locations, including a hot air balloon, a Nimrod aircraft and from the middle of the English Channel in a Force 9 gale: He made radio history in 1996 when he aired his show live from Antarctica.
Dunn was Radio Personality of the Year on three occasions and was awarded a Sony Gold Award in 1998 for the best Drivetime Music Programme about which he commented, "After a long scratchy day at the office, stuck in a traffic jam and it's raining, I just wanted to remind listeners that 98% of people out there are extremely nice and we tend to forget this."
Paying tribute, Radio 2 breakfast show host Terry Wogan said: "What you saw was what you got. He was a gentle, good-humoured, even-tempered and extremely fine broadcaster and a very, very nice man."
"I know you're supposed to say these things about people when they pass on but in John's case it's entirely true. One feels a great loss that such a fine man has passed on and that we've lost such a fine presenter."
Previous BBC:
Previous Wogan:
BBC Online obituary:

2004-11-30: US National Public Radio (NPR) host Tavis Smiley has decided not to renew his contract with the network and is to broadcast his last show on December 16th according to an e-mail he sent to affiliate stations.
"It is with deep regret," he writes, "that I write to inform you of my decision to not renew my contract with NPR, which expires shortly… I wanted to contact you personally and immediately to express my gratitude to you and your staff for giving me the chance to be heard by your listeners. I know the ridicule many of you had to endure when you decided to take this journey with me by adding my program to your line-up. I will always be appreciative of your confidence and trust."
Smiley, the former Black Entertainment Television (BET) host who launched his NPR show in January 2002 (See RNW Jan 10, 2002), was indirectly critical of NPR in his e-mail but made no specific criticisms.
"With your support, I have come to care even more for public radio and its social, cultural and intellectual potential," he wrote. "Yet, after all that we've accomplished towards our goal of seeking a broader, more diverse and younger audience for public radio, NPR's own research has confirmed that NPR has simply failed to meaningfully reach out to a broad spectrum of Americans who would benefit from public radio, but simply don't know it exists or what it offers...In the most multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial America ever … I believe that NPR can and must do better in the future."
"I sincerely hope you understand my position. I thank you, again, for all of your support. With your help, this has been a remarkable journey, and I hope that in some small way I did my part to help make America better by the simple act of introducing Americans to each other."
Previous NPR:
Previous Smiley:

2004-11-30: UK media regulator Ofcom upheld only one complaint against radio and considered three others resolved in its latest programming complaints bulletin: It also lists three TV standards case upheld, another resolved and a further TV fairness and accuracy case resolved.
In addition it listed three more TV cases that were not upheld and, with no details listed, 208 TV complaints involving 157 items and 11 radio cases involving 11 items that were held to be not in breach or out of remit.
This last compares with 147 complaints concerning 131 items - 13 radio complaints concerning 13 items and 134 TV complaints concerning 118 items - that were held to be not in breach or out of remit in its last bulletin
The radio case upheld related to Restricted Service Licence holder Hilltown FM about which a complaint of swearing had been made: Hilltown said it was unable to extract data from the software used to record its output and so could not provide a recording.
This was in breach of the licence condition related to retention and production of warnings and Hilltown was warned that the matter would be held on record and taken into account in the event of any future licence application.
The resolved cases involved Foxy's Drivetime on Capital FM in which the host referred to "gyppos"; Steve Penk on Key 103 when he poked fun at people who stutter (attracting four complaints); and the BBC Radio 4 satire Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation in which the presenter said that BNP (British National Party) voters should be "shot in the back of the head (Attracting 70 complaints)."
In all cases the stations involved had apologised - Capital's managing director happened to be listening to the first show and spoke to the host who apologised during the same show; Key 1o3's programme director had spoken to Penk about the matter and he had personally apologised to one caller; and the BBC, although saying the comment was in no way meant to be taken seriously had accepted that the comment went too far.
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Ofcom complaints bulletin:

2004-11-29: This week we open our look at comment on radio with part of a trenchant guest commentary in Radio Daily News from Clever Wheeland who, after going through some of his personal history in and reactions to radio including his leaving XM after start-up team of producers, doesn't mince his words.
He describes terrestrial radio in Tampa where he is now living as "mediocre here as it is most places in America right now…There is little passion in the voices I hear... Very few people sound like they are genuinely having fun. It is hard to know whether anyone is live. Spoken content is all so generic that most everything could be voice tracked in advance"
… "Each element is predictable. Too many commercials are just flow-disruptive noise and barking. More than half the morning shows are syndicated."
And his verdict: "Broadcasters are caught up in protecting, homogenizing, justifying, reducing, centralizing, acquiring, and cloning. It is pretty obvious that more of them need to spend time paying attention to what people are willing to pay dearly for in order to get what they want."
…" Radio is losing listeners because it is no longer compelling and because many operators are in denial that audience departure to satisfying technology, superior quality, complete and commercial free continental delivery could render them extinct. If there is any doubt of this and if you are old enough to recall, history documents the AM music giants vanishing into thin air (pun intended) as audiences moved to stereo, no static FM.
After such a start the story from north of the border wasn't that much better: In the Montreal Gazette in a report entitled "Not your grandmother's radio" Kathryn Greenaway notes a fall in listening by the young in Canada- down according to Statistics Canada from 11.3 hours a week in 1999 to only 8.5 hours a week in the 12-17 demographic.
She then quotes John Henderson, a media-studies professor at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, as saying that it was obvious that the introduction of satellite radio to the country - currently in the hands of the Canadian regulator - would affect local radio and add, "Look at the sorry state of (local) radio right now. Massive corporate buyouts have resulted in homogeneous radio - a whole bunch of CHUMs."
He sees the current "homogenous" approach to radio programming as part of the reason the young are switching to other sources of music and continues, "I've heard XM Satellite Radio and I think it's a wonderful idea. People want to hear unsigned, independent artists. It harkens back to the 1960s when radio would take chances and play the flip side of the 45. It's wonderful to see someone trying to shake up radio."
His reaction to current terrestrial radio output was echoed by Joe Andrews, program co-ordinator of radio broadcasting at the School of Media Studies for Humber College in Toronto, who said, "People are not enjoying the homogenized programming out there. The consumer is hungry for variety." Andrews is. "Existing broadcasters have to rethink things."
But lest the satellite companies become complacent there was a note of caution from Boris Anthony who gets the music he wants on the Internet. "I listen to stuff that either my friends or people with similar tastes as mine are listening to," he said. "There is an enormous amount of music out there."
He adds that rather than go for satellite radio he'd prefer to wait for technology to improve enough to give him access to Internet radio via his mobile phone: "I see satellite radio as making a lot of money for a few people and being somewhat successful in our network-access-repressed society for the time being," Anthony said. " But I see no real importance in it. It doesn't really change anything but the delivery method and the business models of the content manufacturers."
We didn't find that much hope either in the Business Evolutionist in a posting by on "The Future of Radio" by Jon Strande that began, "Got an email from a friend, asking me what I thought about commercial radio. What I like, dislike? How they can attract a following? Can they? What's the future? I asked if I could reply in the form of a post... here it is... I don't call it commercial radio, I call it McRadio: ...the Alt Rock station in Albany plays the same songs by the same artists as the Alt Rock station in Wichita. Just like a burger at McDonalds, radio has become packaged and predictable."
"The reason for this is well known, the radio stations are essentially bought and paid for by the record companies through what is known as Payola. So, they aren't in the business of helping you and I enjoy music, they are in the business of making money... at the end of the day, organizations have to make money to stay in business, but if that is all that they care about, they will need to figure out a way to do without relying on people listening to the radio, because I don't think that the scheme will be available in 10 or 20 years."
In the thread that followed, Christopher Grove referred to the late John Peel and suggested that his show indicated "that there is a future for radio… His show was radically different from any other shows on that station, and that was the case for decades. So maybe the answer is just to break the formula. You can go all over the place, like he did, but he genuinely invested in groups and his show. Oh, and by all accounts was a very nice, selfless and not at all arrogant man. I went back to the UK a week or so ago, and I'd really wanted to listen to his show again."
A later response came from K. Todd Storch who proclaimed himself a General Sales Manager for a Susquehanna Radio Corp. radio station, noted the threat from new technology and commented "In fact, I'm an avid iPod freak" before continuing, "I've posted a number of times that the automobile holds the 'keys' to the full mainstream listener."
He suggested that one of the ways to meet the challenge of staying relevant to 12 - 24 year olds was "to do this is with multi-channel Internet streaming and Digital Broadcasting."
"Most stations will be digital within the next 3 to 5 years," he commented, "but the need for this conversion is now. With the digital capabilities, a station could broadcast multiple formats."
And the bottom line? "As long as advertisers are getting results from the medium, they will continue to place $'s."
After all that we were feeling rather gloomy and regret we did not see any really positive articles to redress the balance so that will have to be done via listening recommendations.
We start with BBC Radio 3 and this year's Service for Advent with Carols from the Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge which will air from 18:30-20:00 GMT next Sunday.
Sticking with uplifting - and upbeat music- our next choice comes from BBC Radio 2 and its Masters of Rock series that began last week with a look at Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys and continues this week (Thursday 21:00 GMT) with Ian Gillan and Deep Purple: Last week's programme is on the listen-again part of the web site until then.
Going for a laugh we move to BBC Radio 4 where we'd suggest the 18:30 slot on Wednesday for Getting Nowhere Fast and again on Friday for the Now Show.
For Drama we'd suggest BBC Radio 3 and last Sunday's Drama on 3, a dramatisation by Sony Award-winning playwright Robert Forrest of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire: Next week the production (from 19:30 to 22:15 GMT) is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
For drama of lighter weight the Classic Serial on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell dramatised by Katie Hims.
For history cum documentary we'd suggest the same station and The Archive Hour from last Saturday when in 150 Years of Winning the VC Sir Peter de la Billiere, the commander of British forces in the first Gulf War, tells the story of the Victoria Cross and explores the nature of courage.
And finally for what might even be considered the epitome of drama and documentary from BBC Radio 4 we have RADA: One Hundred Years On, a history of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in which Adrian Lester follows two students as they train in Britain's foremost drama school and compares their lives with those of their illustrious predecessors, including Lord Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Glenda Jackson, Richard Briers and Richard Wilson.
Previous Columnists:
Business Evolution - Jon Strande et al:
Montreal Gazette - Greenaway:
Radio Daily News - Wheeland:

2004-11-29: A Reuters-Billboard report has again taken up the story of the filing by Saul Levine, president of Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters, of a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to amend its pending satellite radio rules to include an indecency provision.
Levine in the petition says the FCC is empowered to enforce indecency rules on satellite radio - he argues that is has already said it has to obey Equal Employment Opportunity and political broadcasting rules and policies.
He argues that the FCC can prohibit indecent broadcasts between 06:00 and 22:00 on satellite as it does for terrestrial broadcasts and says his case is strengthened because the spectrum is licensed rather than having been bought.
Legal experts, reports Reuters, say that the FCC does have the inherent right to regulate satellite radio transmissions but are unlikely to do so unless under political pressure and even then could fall foul of the First Amendment.
John Crigler, a communications attorney with Garvey, Schubert & Barer, said Levine's argument "won't be enough to persuade the FCC that it nevertheless should exercise that authority" and adds that the issue is "not whether or not the commission might have this latent authority but whether or not there is enough political impetus at this point to exercise that authority."
Even if there were, he continued, "It's the First Amendment that is the more severe limitation on what the FCC can do."
The report also quotes an un-named Senate staff member as noting that when the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's power to regulate indecency in the 1978 FCC v Pacifica case it cited the "pervasive" nature of free, over-the-air broadcasting to justify its ruling.
This argument he said fell down for satellite broadcasts, commenting, "Satellite radio is a paid service. You elect to have it, you elect to buy it and you elect to turn it on. It's something that you choose."
Previous FCC:
FCC v Pacifica - Supreme Court ruling:
Reuters report:

2004-11-29: The Indian government is coming under attack for wanting to take unrealistic amounts in licensing fees from the country's struggling FM radio industry.
Because of their current levels the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that unless there are changes the industry cannot survive and recommended that the system be changed from the current one of fixed fees to a 4% share of revenue for existing players and also for the second phase of licences due to be issued for smaller towns and cities.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry however has objected to the proposal on the grounds that it will produce a sharp fall in revenues and also that it would be difficult to monitor the revenues of up to 400 licensees and could lead to litigation over revenues and the definition of what is gross revenue when varying parts of the operation are outsourced to other companies and advertising agencies.
The Indian government issued 108 licences but only 21 stations are currently operational: One broadcaster has already closed down and two others have said they will close.
In the 2003-2004 financial year, the industry lost INR 120 crore (USD 26.7 million - a crore is 10 million) but the government collected INR 100 crore (USD 22.2 million).
Previous Indian Radio:
Previous TRAI:
TRAI web site (Links to 63kb PDF of its recommendations):

2004-11-28: The main regulatory story last week was again that of indecency penalties in the US where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed a USD 3.5 million settlement of all current indecency complaints with Viacom - excluding the case of Janet Jackson's breast - and also slapped a maximum penalty on Beasley Broadcasting: Elsewhere matters were more routine.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has approved a number of radio licence additions. In order of state they include:
New South Wales:
In the Bega area it is proposing extend the licence area of community radio service 2BAR Bega to include the townships of Candelo, Bermagui and Tura Beach. It is to specify the effective radiation power (ERP) of the service at 1 kW, a level it considers will provide an adequate signal to the primary townships in the extended licence area.
The 2BAR service has operated for two years initially on an ERP of 2 kW but this was lowered to 350 W after a field survey conducted by the ABA showed that this reduced power level was adequate to serve the licence area.2BAR has requested the ABA extend its licence area to include those townships which received the service when it operated at the higher ERP of 2 kW.
In the Nowra area it is to make FM capacity available for the commercial radio service 2ST Nowra at St Georges Basin and Kangaroo Valley to rectify reception deficiency within its licence area and also made FM channel capacity available for an additional community radio service in Sanctuary Point. The ABA will call for applications for this radio service soon.
In Port Stephens it is proposing to make FM channel capacity available for commercial service 2HD Newcastle and five national radio services. Submissions on these plans have to be in by December 17.
In Wagga Wagga, it is proposing to increase the power of a proposed open narrowcasting service and also proposes technical specifications for the 2AAA service for operation at an alternate site, which the ABA believes will resolve reception difficulties for the service. Comments on the plan have to be made by December 10.
Queensland:
The ABA is proposing to power increase from 10 watts to 50 watts for the proposed new commercial radio services at Biloela . Comments on this have to be submitted by December 3.
Victoria:
The ABA is proposing to make channel capacity available for the commercial radio service 3SEA Warragul at Traralgon to rectify reception deficiencies in the Traralgon and Morwell area: It would make 97.9MHz on the FM band available for a transmitter at Tyers that would operate at a maximum ERP of 500W towards Morwell and Traralgon with a maximum 50W towards Sale to minimize overspill.
Acting ABA Chair Lyn Maddock commented, "The ABA's proposal will not only rectify the reception deficiencies but also limit signal overspill to acceptable levels into parts of the Sale commercial radio licence area that are not located within the overlap region."
Comments on the proposals have to be in by December 17.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved a number of new licences that included (In order of province):
New Brunswick:
*Approval of new 76,000 watts English-language commercial Classic Rock FM radio station in Fredericton.
*Approval of new 25 watts specialty English-language commercial Christian music FM radio station in Fredericton.
*Approval of new 50 watts low-power English-language tourist information service in Fredericton subject to the finding of a suitable frequency.
*Approval of new 40,300 watts English-language commercial news/talk FM in Moncton.
*Approval of new 30,000 watts French-language Type B community FM radio station in Moncton.
*Approval of new 19.5 watts low-power tourist information English-language service in Moncton subject to the finding of a suitable alternative frequency.
Newfoundland:
*Approval of new 79,000 watts specialty English-language News/Talk commercial FM radio station in Saint John.
*Approval of new 1,850 watts French-language Type A community FM radio programming undertaking in Saint John.
Nova Scotia:
*Approval of new English language news/talk 22,100 watts commercial FM in Halifax.
*Approval of new specialty 78,000 watts English-language Youth Contemporary FM radio station in Halifax.
*Approval in part of new 100,000 watts English-language commercial easy listening FM radio station in Halifax. The frequency proposed for this conflicts with that for a new Youth Contemporary FM approved (above) and approval is subject to a suitable alternative frequency being found.
*Approval of new 5,000 watts specialty English-language commercial Christian music FM radio station in Halifax.
* In a note of dissent concerning the Halifax licence awards Commissioner Jean-Marc Demers said he felt that given the circumstances of the Halifax radio market, broadcasting quality would be more effectively ensured by issuing new licences in stages.
Accordingly he would have issued only one licence - to Astral Radio Atlantic Inc. for its proposed alternative/modern rock format - rather than the four approved. He pointed out that the addition increased the number of commercial stations in the market by 57% and added, "I believe it would be preferable to issue a single licence, and to give the Halifax applicants, and any other interested party, an opportunity to participate in a further licensing process in the near future. In my opinion, to deny local investors the opportunity, for a prolonged period, to hold a licence is not in the public interest."
The CRTC also noted that a total of 13 other applications for licences in the above areas were rejected.
It also published a list of transfers of ownership and control authorized between September 1 and October 31.
Radio-related approvals included:
*Corporate re-organization of CKMW Radio Ltd. and Dufferin Communications Inc. through the transfer of the effective control of CKMW-AM and CKDX-AM , owned directly and indirectly by William Evanov, to Evanov Radio Group Inc.
*Changes to the ownership and effective control of 1311831 Ontario Limited, licensee of CKTR-FM North Bay, which is now equally owned by Mr. Christopher Thompson, Mr. Steven M. Dreany and Mr. Timothy Bertrand. Its board of directors will control the licensee
The CRTC also published a public notice, with a deadline for interventions of December 29 that included:
*Application by Rogers Broadcasting Limited to renew the licence of the English-language radio network, which expires 31 December 2004, that will broadcast the baseball games of the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2005 season, originating from CJCL-AM, Toronto.
*Application by La radio campus communautaire francophone de Shawinigan inc. to change the frequency of CFUT-FM Shawinigan.
There were no radio announcements in Ireland and the UK was fairly quiet although Ofcom has now posted full details of the three applicants for the new Kidderminster licence (a total of 4.64 Mb of PDFs).
Ofcom also published details of its strategic review of spectrum management that aims to securing the optimal use of the civilian radio spectrum. Comments are invited with a deadline of February 15, 2004.
Ofcom is proposing a market-based approach rather than the former centralized system that is says has "resulted in an inefficient system which has limited the innovation and development of higher-value services."
It says it also intends to increase the amount of licence-exempt spectrum but notes that, although its market-led approach should eventually go up to include 70% of radio spectrum - currently it applies to none of it - there will continue to be Ofcom regulation in relation to signals that cross international boundaries, where there are international regulations on harmonization of spectrum use, and where there may be interference.
Ofcom Chief Executive Stephen Carter said, "Broadcasters and telecommunications providers are rapidly moving towards a digital future" and added, "This market-led approach to spectrum management will reward innovation and extract the maximum value for customers from this important resource."
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction 37 of new FM licences, the commission's first-ever open auction of FM broadcast spectrum, ended with 110 bidders winning 258 construction permits with the total bid coming to USD 147.4 million (See RNW Nov 24): Similar auctions are to be held annually over the next few years.
Commenting on the auction FCC Chairman Michael Powell said, "We are in new territory with this groundbreaking auction, introducing new owners into the radio market and bringing increased diversity through new FM radio stations to cities and towns that have not had their own local stations. By placing small businesses on equal footing with other bidders at the auction stage, our policies ensure that more owners have the opportunity to become pioneers in the dynamic media marketplace. I would like to congratulate both the Media and Wireless Bureaus for their hard work in making this auction a success."
The week also saw the US Senate approve a second term on the Commission for Jonathan S. Adelstein and further indecency and technical penalties applied. The main activity was the USD 3.5 million settlement with Viacom and imposition of a USD 55,000 maximum penalty on Beasley Broadcasting (See RNW Nov 24th): The FCC also issued penalties relating to broadcasting phone calls without gaining prior permission and cut by 90% on grounds of inability to pay the penalty on a New Jersey pirate station operator (See RNW Nov 25th).
Previous ABA:
Previous Adelstein:
Previous Carter:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Maddock:
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Powell:
ABA web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
Ofcom web site:

2004-11-28: British radio broadcasters and manufacturers are now getting into full swing in promoting digital radio in the run up to the holiday season.
In the public sector the BBC next week launches a five week campaign with a series of TV spots promoting its digital radio services through a series of trails set in a computer-generated world where people come face-to-face with representations of the radio content they want to hear; from rock music (represented by a storm cloud) and sport (a giant football) to easy listening (a swarm of butterflies), comedy (a jelly man) and hip-hop (giant headphones).
Amongst the commercial radio companies GWR-owned Classic FM is selling a range of branded digital receivers made by Roberts Radio that will have a button to automatically tune into Classic FM.
Also involved in a promotional deal is MXR Digital, the consortium owned by Capital Radio , Chrysalis Radio, Guardian Media Group and the Ford Motor Co, which has teamed up with Pure Digital to give away a receiver a day from the start of December until Christmas Eve. The promotions will run on UBC's Classic Gold and Capital Radio's Capital Gold and will feature presenters describing features of Pure's range of receivers.
In Germany, UBC's Unique Interactive division in partnership with DeutschlandRadio, and network operator Bayern Digital Radio, recently demonstrated broadcasts of its DAB Electronic Programme Guide during the recent WorldDAB Radio Programmers and Munich Media Days Conferences. The trial was the first ever broadcast of a DAB Digital Radio EPG in Germany.
On the technical side of DAB, Atmel Corporation has announced a new processor that it says will provide maximum flexibility and an extremely low current consumption at a low price and provides a wide variety of supported interfaces both for control functions and data including USB and RDI.
Previous BBC
Previous GWR:
Previous MXR:

2004-11-28: The move to Spanish-language formats in the US seems to be gathering pace with smaller players as well as Clear Channel, which announced its Spanish-language initiative in September (See RNW Sep 17), making moves to expand Spanish programming.
Set to switch sometime in December is business news format KNWX-AM in Seattle, whose USD 6 million sale to Bustos Media by Entercom became public in July (See RNW Jul 19) and has now been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The station's web site has already been closed down.
Since then Bustos has bought eight stations in Washington State from Butterfield Broadcasting for USD 6.7 million (See RNW Aug 18) and USD 21.7 million to acquire two California stations owned by Aztec Media Inc. and Maya Media, LLC.(See RNW Sep 1)
In Seattle, KNWX is to become KDDS-AM, call letters based on the contemporary regional Mexican " LaGrand D " that Bustos airs in Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City (Utah).
In Las Vegas, Clear Channel flipped KWID-FM from hip-hop to its "La Preciosa" Spanish format earlier this month and is due to start bringing in DJs from tomorrow after running music-only: It is due to introduce adverts from Monday next week.
In Virginia, 4M Communications, which owns five AMs including Spanish-language WVNZ-AM, has just announced their sale for around USD 4 million to New York-based Davidson Media Group LLC. That specializes in stations targeting Hispanic audiences. Although it is currently saying there are no plans to change the formats of the other stations - gospel and Christian music WREJ-AM, talk WTOX-AM, and simulcast Big Band Music duo WLEE-AM and WHAP-AM.

2004-11-27: Sirius satellite radio, which has already positioned itself as a significant player in US sports broadcasting with rights including those for the National Football League (NFL) is now extending its tentacles wider with a deal with the UK Premier League to broadcast its soccer games.
The Premier League says it considers the broadcasts, due to start immediately, a crucial factor in its strategy to break into the US market whilst for Sirius it should drive subscriptions amongst British expatriates and Hispanics in the US. A number of top English clubs including Manchester United and Chelsea have toured the US in recent leagues in an attempt to raise the profile of soccer in the US where various past attempts to make soccer a major game have come to little.
The deal, reported to be worth around GBP 1 million (USD 1.9 million) was sealed by sports marketing agent TWI.
Previous Sirius:

2004-11-27: Chrysalis-owned talk station LBC has bought the radio rights to the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, formerly held by the BBC for 78 years. The deal runs for five years starting with next year's race on March 27.
The race itself began in 1829 at Henley-on-Thames and moved to its current course from Putney to Mortlake in 1845: It was first broadcast on BBC radio in 1926 and the main commentator on the race - from 1931 to 1980 was the late John Snagge.
The radio deal ends the BBC's run of links with the race: It lost the TV rights to commercial TV this year.
Previous BBC:
Previous Chrysalis:

2004-11-27: Only one significant bid in the latest US auction of FM frequencies that closed last week (See RNW Nov 24) has gone to a public broadcaster: Boston-based WGBH is to pay USD 3.9 million for a licence in Brewster, Massachusetts.
WGBH already broadcasts to parts of Cape Cod through WNAN-FM and WCAI-FM based in Woods Hole but its coverage missed out an area from Hyannis to Provincetown, a hole that will be plugged by the new frequency when it gets to air in the Fall of next year if all goes to plan.
Previous WGBH:

2004-11-27: California State University jazz station KKJZ-FM will go silent for around six hours on December 7 for an upgrade of its transmitter that will increase its power to 30,000 watts from its current 6,500 watts.
KKJZ is also upgrading its studios and has already raised around half the USD 250,000 the combined works will cost.
To tie in with the upgrade it is launching an online promotion- with prizes including an I-Mac and an I-pod for online listeners - that it hopes will aid its fund raising to help pay for the improvements.
KKJZ is also to go international through direct broadcast satellite to Japan: It is one of five US stations whose signal will be on the Mobile Broadcasting Corporation (MBCO) satellite that will offer some 50 audio channels that can be received by suitably equipped digital devices including car and portable receivers, PDAs and mobile phones.
Station General Manager Judy Jankowski, who notes that the station is also to convert to HD transmissions, said of the changes, "At 6,500 watts, KKJZ's signal doesn't have the clarity and robustness that jazz listeners need and deserve."
"It's all about our listeners," Jankowski says. "This station is on everyone's top 10 list because it is jazz at its best. KKJZ helps define the genre because of the quality of the music and the people who play it, and the wonderful support we receive in turn from our audience."

2004-11-26: UK Capital Radio has reported group revenues and underlying profits before tax in its preliminary results for its fiscal year to the end of September each up 4% - to GBP 119.9 million (USD 221.3 million) and GBP 23.7 million (USD 42.5 million): Analogue radio profit was up 11% to GBP 29.1 million (USD 52.2 million).
However, like other UK radio groups reporting recently, it has warned of a downfall in the current quarter because of "slow down in spend among key advertisers, particularly FMCG clients."
October revenues were down 7%, November is expected to be down 5% and December is "likely to be down marginally year on year" says Capital, which adds, "We remain optimistic about the prospects for radio in general and believe that it will continue to outperform the display advertising market for the foreseeable future."
Commenting on the year's results Chief Executive David Mansfield said, "In 2004, we delivered the Group's best year on year growth performance for four years and retained commercial brand leadership in the important London market. We continue to strengthen our brands and we will be stepping up our investment in Xfm and Choice FM during 2005. Despite a tough advertising quarter, we remain confident in the prospects for radio."
Regarding the group's planned merger with GWR, he like GWR chairman Ralph Bernard (See RNW Nov 24) referred to it in terms of competition with the BBC, commenting, "We believe our proposed merger will bring benefits to listeners, advertisers and shareholders and leave us well positioned to compete more effectively against the BBC."
Capital also commented on its lobbying on this matter, saying, "This was a challenging year for commercial radio as a resurgent BBC achieved the highest share of listening that it has ever enjoyed under RAJAR. We believe that the BBC's programming should be complementary to commercial TV and radio and thus create a more level playing field and greater consumer choice."
"Consequently, we are working hard with the government to ensure that the BBC charter renewal benefits the listener and the viewer and we are encouraging the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Ofcom to examine the BBC's public service remit."
Capital, which in April launched its Capital FM Breakfast Show with Johnny Vaughan (See RNW April 18), with, it says "encouraging results among women and younger listeners, is also turning some of its attention to its smaller London stations Xfm and Choice
Capital says it has saved a continuing GBP 2 million a year by dropping sports commentaries and it is to spend GBP 1.5 million (USD 2.3 million) in marketing the Xfm and Choice brands, a doubling of its expenditure in this area.
It says that during the year it continued its "strategy of growing a portfolio of complementary national brands with strong local appeal. This strategy has been most apparent in the key London market where we completed the acquisition of Choice FM… cross London, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, the Group maintained its commercial leadership position, supported by encouraging performances from Xfm and Choice FM."
Choice says Capital has increased its revenues by a fifth since acquiring the station completely in March in a deal announced in November last year (See RNW Nov 20, 2003) and Xfm, which is now sold to advertisers as a national station - around a seventh of its 679,000 listeners come from digital platforms rather than its London analogue signal, also saw its revenues rise by a similar amount.
Concerning Choice it notes is has been allowed " to unify the output of Choice FM's two London licences into one consistent schedule and we believe that this, along with increased investment in the brand, will enable us to realise its potential and build Choice into the major urban music station for London."
"Our ambition," says Capital, "is to attract new listeners by raising awareness and becoming more accessible whilst maintaining our relevance to the community we serve. Longer term, our aim is to grow nationally through new platforms to become the UK's leading urban music brand."
Of its digital only output, Capital says listening to Life is not yet measured by RAJAR but Capital Disney has seen a promising start, "growing its reach among the 4+ age group to 248,000 listeners in the most recent RAJAR figures."
Outside London Capital says it has seen "considerable success" at its Century FM network - revenues were up 35%- and is "seeing early success from the national growth of Xfm and Capital Gold" but it notes that revenues fell at the Capital FM Network.
For the longer term, Capital notes that the radio industry has become more competitive as increasing digital convergence has brought radio into closer competition with a range of different media from iPods to mobile phones to broadband internet.
"A key driver of the evolution of the radio industry" It comments, "is the advent of digital radio, which has led to a sharp increase in the number of services available to the listener and brought new opportunities and challenges for broadcasters and advertisers… We are committed to the development of digital radio and believe that it presents new opportunities for growth by increasing our audiences, by delivering new revenue streams through data services and by allowing us to have direct and interactive dialogue with our listeners."
Regarding its planned merger with GWR, it comments, "With a more focused investment in talent and resources, particularly in the digital future, we believe that this merger will enable us to attract more listeners and compete more effectively against the BBC. The Merger is conditional on regulatory approval and is currently being examined by the OFT and Ofcom. Their views are likely to be published before the end of the calendar year."
Previous Bernard:
Previous Capital:
Previous GWR:
Previous Mansfield:

2004-11-26: The Florida Supreme Court has postponed a decision on whether it will hear conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh's appeal against a court order that would allow his medical records to be used as evidence in a potential doctor-shopping case against him.
In a statement released just before it closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday the court gave Limbaugh's lawyers until December 20 to file written arguments: There will then be a further 20 days for a response from prosecutors.
Limbaugh's medical records were seized in November last year by prosecutors using search warrants after learning that he had received around 2,000 painkillers from a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion using prescriptions from four doctors over a six month period. Doctor shopping - using multiple prescriptions to increase drug supplies but not letting individual doctors know about the other supplies prescribed - is an offence in Florida.
Limbaugh's appeal against the seizure of the records, which have been sealed whilst appeals continue, was rejected by Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal, which referred the case up to the Supreme Court for the latter to decide if to hear an appeal (See RNW Nov 18)
Previous Limbaugh:
Florida Supreme Court brief ( 50 KB PDF):

2004-11-26: Transworld publishers are to publish the autobiography of the late DJ John Peel in the autumn (Fall) next year but already unofficial biographies are being rushed out with the first in shops in the UK this week.
Peel had signed a deal worth up to GBP 1.6 million (USD 3 million) for his autobiography following a bidding war in 2003: It has not yet been announced who will complete the work.
Transworld managing director Larry Finlay told the BBC, "There will be a book, obviously a different boo, from the one we wanted, coming next autumn."
He refused to reveal exactly what the book would include, saying there would be an announcement next week but Transworld said of the unofficial biographies it was "sad" they had been rushed out and not what Peel or his family would have wanted.
A spokesman for Orion Books, publisher of the unauthorized biography "John Peel: A Tribute to the Hugely Popular DJ and Broadcaster" that was written by rock journalist Mick Wall said, "When someone dies, that's when you reflect on their life. "The extraordinary response to John Peel's death and the huge amount of media coverage showed in how much affection and respect he was held, and how much people want to read more about him.
A second book "John Peel: A Life in Music by Michael Heatley" is to be out next week publisher, Michael O'Mara Books, commented on the controversy over rushing out publications, "Should we be ashamed of publishing the book so quickly?"
"No more than the TV companies that have already shown documentaries about Peel or the newspapers and magazines that have printed special features about the legendary DJ."
"Like them, we are producing something which people want - a tribute to a much-loved man."
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2004-11-26: Veteran US journalist and broadcaster Vic Sussman has died aged 65 after a career that spanned a wide range of media and other occupations.
His recent employer, American Public Media whose public radio business programme "Marketplace" he joined in January this year in its obituary quotes Marketplace General Manager Jim Russell as commenting, "Vic was a true Renaissance Man, a broadcaster, author, organic farmer, print reporter and editor, magician, runner, serious weightlifter, voracious reader and Web pioneer."
Sussman was born in New York and moved to Northern Virginia with his family when he was 16, becoming a DJ at Arlington country station WARL-FM.
In the mid 1960s he gained bachelors and masters degrees in communications from the American University and then worked at the university's station WAMU-FM as a reporter and producer.
For a while after that he and his then wife moved to a two-acre farm in Potomac, where he became a homesteading organic farmer and after he tired of that he worked for various media organisations including U.S. News & World Report and The Washington Post, as well as writing books and contributing articles to USA Today, Reader's Digest, Redbook, Glamour, Organic Gardening, Prevention, Runner's World and other newspapers and magazines.
He was an early adopter of the internet and was director of Internet programming for America Online from 1996-1997 and later served as director of interactive Web programming for Cahners Business Information including Variety, Publisher's Weekly and Broadcasting & Cable.
In the Washington Post obituary it notes that his career there ended on a malodorous note: He was forced out after a personality clash with an editor and someone put a rotten fish into an inter-office envelope and left it behind a filing cabinet in the editor's office.
Sussman was listed as the last user but denied responsibility, saying he wasn't "that stupid."
Marketplace obituary:
Washington Post obituary:

2004-11-25: Following its USD 3.5 million settlement of Viacom-Infinity's outstanding indecency complaints apart from the Super Bowl (See RNW Nov 24) the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has again been handing out penalties but on a very much smaller scale.
In Florida, it has reduced from USD 4,000 to USD 3,500 a penalty on Spanish Broadcasting System's WXDJ-FM, North Miami, over a hoax call from personalities Joe Ferrero and Enrique Santos of WXDJ to President Fidel Castro of the Republic of Cuba and four officials of the Cuban government.
The station did not deny making the call and recording it without giving notice of intention to broadcast it but sought a reduction on the grounds that it had told the President of its intention to broadcast after recording the conversation but before transmission. It also asked for the name of the complainant.
The Commission pointed out that the rules require prior consent to a recording and also that its rules specifically prohibited "the release of investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes where production of such records would "constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" and said that this was the situation in this instance. It did however reduce the fine on the basis of a history of compliance.
In Missouri it is proposing a USD 4,000 penalty on Mid-Missouri Broadcasting, Inc., licensee of KOQL-FM, Ashland, for broadcasting a conversation with a gambling hotline counsellor from Life Crisis Services, Inc., which operates a gambling hotline for the State of Missouri, that was a prank call from the "The Cosmo & JC Radio Show."
Mid-Missouri admitted that it recorded and broadcast the telephone conversation as alleged in the complaint, and that it did not inform the hotline counsellor that the conversation was being recorded for broadcast but said the incident was an isolated one.
It also said it had taken the necessary steps to ensure that such incidents do not reoccur; that the radio personality responsible for the prank apologized publicly and on the air to the employee and Life Crisis Services; and that Mid-Missouri has provided a link to the Life Crisis Services hotline on its station website. The FCC said that action taken after the event was not relevant in deciding the penalty and opted for the USD 4,000 base forfeiture for such offences.
In New Jersey it reduced from USD 10,000 to USD 1,000 a penalty issued to Angelo ("Angel") Avena for operating an unlicensed FM transmitter. Avena had not denied the offence but provided financial details that led the commission to accept a plea of inability to pay and reduce the penalty.
Previous FCC:

2004-11-25: BBC Radio 1 is to pay a tribute to late DJ John Peel who died of a heart attack while on holiday in Peru (See RNW Oct 27) with a night of live music to be broadcast from its Maida Vale studios from 19:00 GMT on December 16 until 01:00 the next day.
The evening, to be hosted by Steve Lamacq, will begin with a one hour documentary - Teenage Dreams So Hard To Beat - celebrating his life and featuring tributes from the Undertones, Orbital, The Cure, New Order, Supergrass, Robert Plant, Underworld, Siouxsie Sioux and the Buzzcocks.
This will be followed by three and a half hours of live music from bands championed by Peel including Underworld, The Wedding Present, Melys, Steveless, Trencher, Hefner, Stuart Murdoch, Graham Coxon and Nina Nastasia and others still to confirm.
After this the evening will be wrapped up by the DJs including Dynamite MC, Alex Patterson, Dave Clarke, Hixxy and Coldcut.
Lamacq commented of the evening, "It should be a really special night, for friends and family.
"Many of the bands and DJs who are coming down are part of Peel's extended musical family - and everyone's been terrifically helpful and enthusiastic in organising the show.
"I'll be anchoring the night but there will be guest DJs crashing the decks and people wandering in and out. We want it to be pretty spontaneous in honour of the Great Man."
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Previous Lamacq:
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2004-11-25: Infinity Broadcasting has donated interviews covering much of the late Paul Muni's 31-year career at WNEW-FM to the Museum of Television & Radio.
Muni, who died on September 28 aged 74, began his radio career as a DJ on Radio Guam while with the Marine Corps before replacing Alan Freed in Akron and then moving to New York where he spent four years at WABC and three at WOR-FM before moving to WNEW.
Interviews in the collection feature amongst others all four of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Walsh, Paul Simon and The Who.
Accepting this donation, Monique Fortuné, radio curator of The Museum of Television & Radio, said it was "vitally important to acknowledge and preserve the work of Scott Muni, a broadcast pioneer and a true innovator."
The museum already has some Muni tapes including interviews with John Lennon and the tribute to him broadcast by WNEW on the night he was killed.
Previous Museum of Television and Radio:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:

2004-11-25: Madison, Wisconsin, WTDY-AM host John "Sly" Sylvester has beaten a very limited retreat from an initial refusal to apology for a broadcast in which he called Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice an "Aunt Jemima" and outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell an "Uncle Tom".
After an initial reaction in which he said the only person to whom he had to apologise was Aunt Jemima, Sylvester has published an apology to blacks for the use of the term although he has not pulled back on his criticism of Rice.
In his letter posted on the station web site, Sylvester writes, "I'm concerned that I have offended many African Americans by using a crass term to describe an incompetent, dishonest, political appointee of the Bush administration."
"I apologize. I know the term "Aunt Jemima" is not complimentary to African American women who have worked so hard, and yet, receive so little from our great country."
"I will not, however, apologize for pointing out that while Condoleezza Rice has clearly enjoyed the American dream, she has allowed herself to be used as a black trophy by an administration who is working so hard to deny that dream to other African American women."
Sylvester then goes on to say that most of his programme criticized Rice for her "poor performance in her duties as National Security Advisor" but then at the end he used the Jemima description" because most accounts of her tenure in her current position insinuate that she has been a lackey for Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld."
Sylvester then details more of his criticism - he writes, " Condoleezza Rice has chosen to look the other way and work for an administration that has attempted to overturn affirmative action, appoint judges who refuse to enforce the civil rights laws that so many have died for, and I suspect she's never bothered to ask Dick Cheney about his countless votes against sanctions on apartheid when he was a congressman in the 1980s. I also suspect that she knows he voted against creating a federal holiday for the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr." - and the context in which it was made before commenting on "thousands of e-mails" received from round the country.
"Some compare my remarks to Mark Belling's comments referring to Hispanics as 'wetbacks'[See RNW Nov 9]," he writes. "Nothing could be further from the truth. While I support Mark Belling's right to say what he did, his remarks were meant to spread resentment against an entire group of people who happened to be Hispanics living on the south side of Milwaukee."
"Other e-mails I've received have accused me of attacking Rice because she's a black conservative, that's not true either. My criticism of her is based on her performance in her job and her ridiculous assertion that the Bush Administration has an impeccable record on civil rights."
Sylvester has also posted on his site some of the voice messages he has received. They also range widely and there are not enough to judge how far they are representative but those posted show women in general being less harsh in the tone of their comments on either side of the argument, a significant degree of support from black males, and a conservative male response ranging from one mild spoken caller the says he is most distressed" and casts the host's remarks as worse than those of Belling to a number who quickly descend into abuse with comments describing the host as a "little punk-ass, dipstick", and also calling him a "racist asshole" and adding "Shove it, you moron!"
RNW comment: The person who has come out of this affair best so far is Mid West Broadcasting's general manager, Tom Walker who has said that he doesn't agree with or like the comments made but is resisting calls for heavy handed discipline of the host.
Judging by some of the comments that have been made he is also likely to fall foul of the more vindictive and mean-minded in the Stalinist faction of the US right wing for a defence of free speech that at one time when they were criticizing Soviet repression of freedom of speech they'd have been all for.
One of Sylvester's callers, who felt that Rice was much more intelligent than the host suggested that he would fare badly debating the matter with her: We regard it as rather a pity he won't have the chance - with use of epithets barred since we regard these as serving no function as we commented at the end of our Nov 22 report - but maybe he should open his show up to some of the NAACP leaders who have criticized his comments and have a proper debate on the matter.
We would also disagree with comments that compare this episode with the remarks of Mark Belling: The latter involved disparagement of a racial group with no supporting evidence whilst this one, albeit we think the disparaging generalities used should not have been, was in the nature of criticism of individuals whose performance has been regarded by commentators from various parts of the political spectrum as having serious weaknesses in terms of achievements.
WTDY web site - Sylvester response page:

2004-11-24: Viacom and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have agreed a USD 3.5 million consent decree that settles outstanding indecency complaints against it excluding the USD 550,000 penalty related to the Janet Jackson mammary-cum-covered nipple incident during the Super Bowl half time show.
It includes radio cases such as the USD 375,000 penalty proposed against former WNEW-FM, New York, syndicated hosts Opie & Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia) who were taken off the air in August 2002 -- they are now on XM - for their "Sex for Sam" stunt in St. Patrick's Cathedral (See RNW Aug 24, 2002), the USD 27,500 penalty against WKRK-FM, Detroit, duo Deminski & Doyle for sexually graphic comments broadcast (See RNW Apr 4, 2003), and the USD 7,000 penalty imposed for an episode of "The Last Damn Show" on WLLD-FM, Holmes Beach, Florida.
It also involves a number of cases where letters of inquiry had been sent about alleged indecency violations by Viacom and some affiliates of the CBS Television Network and UPN.
Viacom issued a statement saying, "We have now resolved all outstanding matters before the FCC related to indecency except for the Super Bowl. While we deeply regret the incident involving Janet Jackson, we believe that a government fine for an unintentional broadcast is unfair and unwarranted, and we are challenging that decision."
As part of the agreement, Viacom admits that some of the material that it broadcast was indecent and in addition to the USD 3.5 million payment to the U.S. Treasury, Viacom is required to implement a company-wide Compliance Plan aimed at preventing future violations.
The agreement also says that in cases of future breaches that lead to a notice of apparent violation all employees materially involved in the airing are to be suspended and an investigation undertaken by Viacom and remedial training be given to all these employees; if there is a subsequent forfeiture order, further disciplinary action is to be taken against the staff that may include dismissal.
In addition after any staff involved resume works their broadcasts are to be subjected to delays and their content monitored by editors.
Viacom has also to purchase and install delay equipment for both radio and TV broadcasts so as to allow it to exclude indecency from going out during "potentially problematic live programming."
Separate statements were issued relating to the decision by three of the commissioners- Jonathan S. Adelstein, Michael J, Copps and Kevin J. Martin.
Adelstein commented that through the agreement Viacom had "renewed its commitment to prevent the broadcast of indecent material on its stations" but then added a note of warning, saying, " Given Infinity Broadcasting's history with the Commission, we will expect strict adherence to today's agreement.
Copps in his statement re-iterated his concern about such penalties in relation to licence renewals, saying, "The totality of a broadcasters' record is pertinent and should be considered when licenses are renewed. Today's decision takes an entire part of the record off the table. It is bad enough that our re-licensing process has degenerated to the point where the Commission generally does not even look at a station's public file or inquire further into the station's service to its community unless a citizen of that particular community brings an issue to our attention. Today, the Commission tells those citizens that some information is no longer relevant in evaluating a broadcaster's overall performance in its community."
I would also sound a cautionary note that the Commission has gone down this road before with Infinity Broadcasting, which is now part of Viacom. At that time, the Commission praised the steps Infinity took to ensure compliance with the indecency laws. Yet, today, we are once again settling numerous indecency complaints against Infinity and its parent company, Viacom. Going forward, I urge my colleagues to accord prompt and vigorous attention to any future listener or viewer complaints against this licensee."
Martin expressed concern that less was being required of Viacom than the Commission had demanded in previous settlements with Clear Channel and Emmis, noting that the "identical" agreements with these organisations, "require more concrete actions to protect against and deter the airing of inappropriate material in the future."
"By contrast, this consent decree," he wrote, "does not have all of these protections. I am concerned that this consent decree is significantly different and may be less of a deterrent for future violations. Moreover, by requiring less of Viacom than we have required of others, we may be treating those other companies unfairly."
The FCC has also issued a notice of apparent liability for a forfeiture of a maximum USD 55,000 against Beasley Broadcasting's WQAM-AM, Miami, concerning broadcasts of the "Scott Ferrall Show" on September 9 and 10, 2003.
In the first broadcast the host - who was dropped by the station in November last year - was involved in a heated exchange with an angry male caller that according to the complaint involved the host saying the caller would re raped and sodomized in prison, that while he was in jail Ferrall would "stuff his package into the caller's wife's mouth", would "do her daily" and then get his girlfriend to do her.
In the second broadcast the FCC said there was graphic and explicit description of child molestation that although coached in terms of innuendo were "nonetheless sufficient to render the material actionably indecent because the sexual import of those terms was 'unmistakable.'"
"Given the explicit references and graphic manner in which the broadcasts described the threatened actions that the host made to the caller and the reference to anal sex with a child," concluded the commission, "there is no non-sexual meaning that a listener could possibly have attributed to these terms."
It dismissed all of Beasley's arguments against the penalty and Commissioner Martin in a separate statement said that as he had said before broadcasters should be fined on a "per utterance " basis and that "In this instance, we could have found several violations within the broadcasts at issue and therefore could have assessed a larger fine."
Making things worse for Beasley, according to FMQB the caller - and complainant - involved was in question was Miami attorney and indecency crusader Jack Thompson.
He says that Beasley could face loss of its licence since it was fined for indecent broadcasts in 2000 and is also subject of further complaints over its current morning show, The Howard Stern Show.
FMQB quoted him as saying, "What should now follow is a criminal prosecution by the Justice Department of all individuals at Beasley responsible for this illegal activity, pursuant to 18 USC 1464, which provides for up to two years' imprisonment for the airing of indecent material."
"Whether more fines are levied or not, Beasley has proven today that it is a recidivist broadcaster of indecency which has arguably forfeited the privilege to own and operate under not only at WQAM-AM license frequency but also at other Beasley Broadcasting licensed frequencies."
In a number of other TV cases, involving Fox TV's "Keen Eddie" programme; WBDC Broadcasting, Inc., and other WB TV Network affiliates and the "Off Centre" programme; and NBC Telemundo and the "Coupling" programme, the FCC has dismissed complaints.
Previous Adelstein:
Previous Beasley:
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Previous Opie and Anthony:
Previous Viacom-CBS- Infinity:
FMQB web site:

2004-11-24: Sirius Satellite Radio says it has now exceeded 800,000 subscribers and it on track for a million by the end of the year; this compares with some 2.5 million existing subscribers for rival XM, which says it should reach 3 million by the end of the year.
Newly-appointed CEO Mel Karmazin commented, "SIRIUS is on a roll. We are very excited about this upcoming holiday season, now that we have such a wide array of innovative products on retail shelves. When you combine these new models with our programming initiatives such as the NFL, NBA, college sports, Eminem's 'Shade 45', Maxim Radio and, beginning in 2006, Howard Stern, you can easily see why we believe SIRIUS is the gift of choice for the holidays."
Sirius shares closed the day 12.4% up at USD 6.71, having at one stage touched a high of USD 6.95.
Previous Karmazin:
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Previous XM:

2004-11-24: The US Federal Communications Commission 's FM Licence Auction 37 closed on Tuesday after 14 bidding days with a total of 110 bidders winning 258 permits at a total costs of USD 147,446,075 in addition to which a number of withdrawal payments will have to be added.
There were 456 qualified bidders in the auction, which ended at round 62 and the top five bidders were College Creek Broadcasting - 38 high bids totalling a gross and net USD 35,556,000; Bigglesworth Broadcasting - ten high bids totalling a gross USD 24,268,000, net USD 15,774,200; Kemp Communications - two high bids totalling a gross USD9, 703,000, net 8,880,250; Cumulus Licensing LLC - seven high bids totalling a gross and net 8,565,000; and Radioactive, LLC - 21 high bids totalling USD 13,159,000 gross and USD 8,553,350.
The highest single bid came from College Creek, of USD 7,131,000 for a permit in Mesquite, Nevada and the lowest successful bid we noted was from World Radio Link, Inc. with a bid of USD 5,500 gross, USD 4,125 net for a licence in Kotzebue, Alaska.
Previous FCC and Auction 37:

2004-11-24: UK GWR chairman Ralph Bernard has accused the BBC of "disenfranchising" its traditional listeners in comments made at the release of its interim results.
These showed turnover in the six months to the end of September up 3.4% to GBP 61.3 million (USD 113 million), and underlying profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items up 12% to GBP 6.9 million (USD 12.4 million) but revenues in October down 87%, those in November projected to be down 6.6% and those for December also expected to be down on a year earlier although Bernard said during the company's conference call he thought the period was a "blip" rather than representative of a long-term trend.
Finance director Wendy Pallot added that the third-quarter slowdown is likely to have a 'significant' impact on full-year results, commenting, "October and November are two of the biggest three months of the year, so I imagine they would have a significant impact on the results for the year."
Like-for-like analogue revenues were up 2.2% to USD 56.5 million (USD 101.3 million) with nearly four fifths of this from GWR's local radio group, where advertising revenues were up 1.6%. National station Classic FM saw national advertising revenues up 5.3%, revenue for Classic FM TV up 65% and Enterprises division revenues, which cover the Classic FM Magazine, live concerts and CD releases, up 12.3%.
Digital radio revenues were up 19.1% to GBP 4.7 million (USD 8.43 million).
Bernard's comments accompanying the release of the figures were heavily focussed on the BBC: He commented in his introduction, "The underlying strength of our core Local Radio Group stations, combined with growth at Classic FM, has increased the Group's underlying profitability during the past six months, despite the difficult trading conditions in August and September. During this period the radio advertising market has been increasingly competitive with consumer spending showing signs of slowing down and mounting audience pressure from BBC radio."
He then referred to the Corporation again in his comments about the planned merger with Capital Radio, commenting, "Over the last four years BBC radio has, without recourse to an external or independent regulator, successfully repositioned itself to appeal to commercial audiences. This has had a significant impact on all commercial radio operators and is an ongoing challenge to the industry."
"The GWR and Capital Radio merger will lead to more focused investment in talent and services, particularly in the digital arena, which will help grow the market and finally offer sustained competition to the BBC."
Bernard referred in particular to BBC Radio 2, which he said was no longer serving its traditional over-60 listeners in the daytime.
GWR shares ended the day down 4.13% and its merger partner Capital saw its shares drop 2.65%.
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2004-11-24: Entercom has now joined the ranks of US radio groups prohibiting its stations from working with independent record producers. The move follows a similar decision by Infinity last week (See RNW Nov 18) and Entercom President and CEO David J. Field in a memo to stations says that changes in the recording industry have adversely affected independent promoters over the past few years with the result that the "value of maintaining these relationships has diminished accordingly."
He notes that most Entercom stations already do not work with independent producers and adds that Entercom looks forward to enhancing its relationships with record labels.
Previous Entercom:
Previous Field:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:

2004-11-23: UK UBC Media has reported turnover up 9.8% to GBP 7.15 million (USD 13.2 million) and profits before goodwill amortisation and development expenditure up more than two-and-a-half times from GBP 152,000 (USD 272,000) to GBP 551,000 (USD 988,000) in the half-year to the end of September.
Overall after development expenditure up just under 60% at GBP 798.000 it had a retained loss of GBP 438,000 (USD 785,000) down 44% on a year earlier.
It notes that its recently acquired business, Smooth Operations, has performed strongly in the two months since it took it over, that its production division has benefited from new digital customers and a strong growth in airtime sales with revenues up 22.9% on a year earlier to GBP 4.4 million (USD 7.9 million).
Its traffic and travel bulletins have done even better with revenues up 30.6% and it has just announced a deal to supply entertainment news to Emap stations, which already air its traffic and travel bulletins, in return for selling advertising sponsorship around the slot. The deal takes the number of stations airing UBC's entertainment news, which is also taken by Chrysalis and GWR stations, above 80.
CEO Simon Cole said UBC was "encouraged by the continued success of our production and commercial sales business, and are particularly pleased with the performance of Smooth Operations since we acquired it in July."
He also noted the rapid growth in digital radio purchases in the UK - the UK Digital Radio Development Board says nearly a third of UK households will have digital receivers by 2008 - and commented," our digital radio stations, digital data capacity and digital radio technology will all benefit from such rapid take-up… [We] are in a strong position to deliver for our shareholders as the digital radio revolution progresses."
UBC says advertising revenues in the current quarter are expected to be up 10% on a year ago.
Also in the UK, Capital Radio is expected to report a strong advance in profits on Thursday, boosted by improved ratings for its flagship London station Capital FM and a stronger performance for advertising revenues.
UBC's radio production division is to produce a New Year's Eve Show for BBC Radio 2 that will be hosted by former Capital FM breakfast host Chris Tarrant, returning to radio for the first time since he left the breakfast show.
The show, to air from 19:00 to 21:00 GMT, will feature Tarrant offering his views on 2004 through conversation with some of the people he believes have made it a year to remember and he commented, "This should be great fun. I've had a fantastic year and I know that lots of other people have as well."
The station's seasonal offerings will also include offerings from actor Christopher Lee and singer/songwriter George Michael. Michael will host a songwriting special on December 18th from 18:00 to 19:00 as part of Radio 2's Sold On Song initiative: It will feature Michael performing some of his hits and talking about how they came about.
Lee, in Christopher Lee's Fireside Tales airing from 23:45 to midnight GMT from December 27 to 30 will include work from WW Jacobs, Edgar Allan Poe, E Nesbit, Jerome K Jerome and Ambrose Bierce.
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2004-11-23: Radio One Inc. has taken a 51% controlling interest in host Tom Joyner's Reach Media Inc. for USD 56.1 million, around half of it in Radio One stock, in a deal that its President and CEO Alfred C. Liggins, III says has "catapulted Radio One into an integrated media company targeting the Urban marketplace."
Reach Media was founded by Joyner, its Chairman, and CEO David Kantor to run the Tom Joyner Morning Show and related businesses that were previously run in conjunction with ABC Radio Networks.
Radio One says Reach expects to report fiscal 2005 revenue of approximately $50 million and EBITDA of approximately $12.5 million, thus making Radio One's effective purchase price less than nine times 2005 expected EBITDA and Liggins commented, "In Urban media today there is no other company with a more diverse and focused asset base than Radio One's and there is no bigger personality than Tom Joyner. The combination of our nationwide distribution platform and the content machine of Tom Joyner will create a one stop shop for advertisers looking to reach the African-American marketplace."
Joyner and Kantor are signing new 10-year employment agreements with Reach, whose results will be consolidated with those of Radio One, which will take steps to syndicate Joyner's show on stations it owns in major markets in addition to the 15 stations it owns which currently syndicate the show. Overall Joyner's show is syndicated to around 115 US markets.
Kantor said of the deal, "The partnering of these two companies creates an African-American media powerhouse. Not only does this transaction create an enterprise with immediate significant local and national reach to our core consumers but the combined companies will capitalize on the vision we share for becoming the top platform in African-American targeted radio, television, Internet and events. This combination will make it easier for businesses to customize and extend their connection to the African-American community."
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2004-11-23: 2004 11 23: Bidding in the US Federal Communication Commission's FM licence auction 37 inched forward again on Monday, ending round 60 at the end of the day with a grand total of USD 179,462,500, up 0.8% from the round 54 total on Friday of USD 178,116,500.
Top bidder College Creek Broadcasting now has 38 Standing High Bids totaling USD 35,556,000 compared to 41 high bids totalling USD 42,725,000 at the end of last week: Its bids range from USD 70,000 for a licence in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, to USD 7,131,000 for one in Mesquite, Nevada, both as on Friday and the Mesquite bid remains the highest single bid for a licence.
Second ranked Bigglesworth Broadcasting still has ten high bids totalling USD 24,268,000 that still range from USD 1,092,000 for a licence in Lockwood, Montana, to USD 6,765,000 for one in Pacific Junction, Iowa.
Third placed Radioactive, LLC has also seen no changes and still has 21 high bids totalling USD 13,159,000 also unchanged: Its bids range from USD 134,000 for a licence in Sac City, Iowa, to USD 2,695,000for one in Dannemora, New York.
Cumulus Licensing LLC in fourth place still has eight high bids totalling USD 10,026,000, down from 11 high bids totalling USD 12,399,000: Its bids range from USD 119,000 for a licence in St Paul, Arizona, as before, to USD 2,384,000 for one in Lennox, South Dakota.
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2004-11-23: Sydney station 2UE hosts John Laws and Steve Price and the station are to appeal a decision by the New South Wales Administrative Decisions Tribunal that ruled that they had "vilified homosexuals" during an on-air exchange in June last year.
During the broadcast both described the male couple Gav and Wazza (Warren Sonin and Gavin Atkins) from the reality renovation program The Block as "young poofs" leading gay activist Gary Burns to complain that the comments alleged the comments "incited hatred towards, serious contempt for, and severe ridicule of homosexuals".
In its ruling the Tribunal, which had ordered an apology or retraction, said the comments were "homosexual vilification within the meaning of the Anti-Discrimination Act" and "even if done in good faith and in the public interest (were) not reasonable", adding that given the position of Laws and Price as opinion makers, their comments were capable of "inciting others to more than mere mockery or derision ... [but also] to severe ridicule", which was a breach of the Anti-Discrimination Act.
2UE general manager Bob Miller said that no apology would be issued before the appeal process and told the Australian Associated Press, "The tribunal, in our view, has applied the law incorrectly in this case and made a wrong decision and so we would like to appeal it."
Price said the ruling was "a direct attack on free speech" and suggested talk show hosts "might as well pack up our microphones and all disappear into the night" and told listeners to his drive time show that in the original comments he had said he "did not need to be explaining to my children at 6.30 on a Sunday night what a gay relationship was. "It was occupying the timeslot once reserved for Disneyland and I couldn't believe that it had gay blokes renovating in their undies."
Laws is the subject of another complaint to the tribunal from Burns concerning comments he made about gay TV celebrity Carson Kressley whom he

November 2004 Archive

Prime Radio Stations Streams are Real Audio in most cases: Some have Windows Media as well. Radiofeeds UK -for comprehensive list of UK broadcast radio stations on the Internet

Prime Radio Stations
Streams are
Real Audio in
most cases: Some have Windows Media as well.

Radiofeeds UK -for comprehensive list of UK broadcast radio stations on the Internet