Febuary 2005 Archive
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RNW February comment - Expresses concern about the pressures put on broadcasters by pressure groups, the public and advertisers without any relation to discernibly consistent standards.
RNW January comment - As Michael Powell prepares to leave the FCC, pressures mount for broadcasting regulation, and racially prejudiced and tasteless or offensive comments by hosts arouse outrage, we consider how far we should regulate broadcast inaccuracy,bigotry, indecency and racism.
RNW December comment - We look back at at Highlights, lowlights, high life, low life, and trends of 2004.
2005-02-28: When Wired is running an edition headed "The End of Radio", it's a fairly obvious choice to start our look at print comment on the medium but the headline description is somewhat misleading since the end would seem judging by features within the magazine (its March edition) to be at most an issue of threats to current terrestrial radio in the US since other titles include Howard Stern and the Satellite Wars - more about change than an end; The Resurrection of Indie Radio - on a coming "digital boom"; and Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star - on the current fad for podcasting, something that we rather suspect will prove like blogs to be but a small part of listening habits rather than a major threat to broadcasters.
The problem with the article on Stern by Ana Marie Cox, editor of the DC gossip blog Wonkette, is one of careless attention to fact or loose use of language - take your pick of description: "He's obscene and obscenely popular" and later "some people think Stern crosses the line of decency" - some tautology there…Stern used to be syndicated by the biggest oligopoly in the radio business [RNW note: Tell that to Mel Karmazin!] …" and so on.
When it comes to opinion, however, which is most of the article, Cox is back on firmer ground since like most opinions you can choose to either agree or disagree. On the issue of censorship that underlies Stern's move to Sirius, she writes: "When the FCC goes after Stern, even those of us who like hearing about girl-on-girl sex (and, really, who among us does not?) don't defend him on artistic grounds. Like Larry Flynt or the Ku Klux Klan, Stern has to be defended on the precarious ground of the slippery slope: You may not like what he says, but if the government shuts him up, who will they silence next?… fundamentally, Stern's vulgarity is so completely free of political content that we're forced to defend it on its own terms - it's gross, sure, but a lot of people think it's funny, and you can always change the channel."
She quotes Sirius executive vice president of programming Jay Clark as saying of the Stern move that listeners "will certainly follow him, because he's a friend. They wake up with this man every morning, and they've been doing it for years. That's a big hole in your life if this person goes away. That's the personal touch."
And Stern on the changes the absence of FCC regulation will make: "I'm not saying the whole show's gonna be one big X-rated show. But I am gonna be using the f-word. You know, sparingly. And I'm gonna be using the c-word, for women's privates," he said on the air. "I think that word is funny. I use it all the time. In my psychiatrist's office I used it three times the other day."
Cox then draws some wider ranging conclusions about the nature of Stern's move and the idea of listening in general as technology changes, something she argues that has made for people choosing more personalized media: "You pick one of hundreds of carefully targeted channels. Once you're tuned in, if it feels like you and the DJ are one on one, that's because you are. That's the same game that Stern has always played; his move to satellite makes the rise of more deeply personalized media seem inevitable…It might not be a revolution, but it is the Pilgrims setting sail: Stern is staking his claim on the coming individualized, on-demand media world. There will be more voices and more places to hear them."
Taking the idea further Cox comments, " Our options will grow - and have grown - beyond changing the channel: Now we can start one...
Satellite radio itself may not be the technology upon which our great narrowcasted future is built - it may turn out to be the laserdisc or the Betamax. Either way, Stern's move heralds the future of radio, and maybe of media in general. He has made it possible to look at the chaos of individually produced enterprises (podcasters and print-on-demand publishers and bloggers and yes, even me! Me! Me! Wonkette!) on the fringe of the media world and suddenly see a new center."
…"The future that Stern is defining actually isn't about speech. It's about a less legalistic, more human freedom: expression. The best revolutions, like the best comedy, come from rage - tricksters who nudge and needle the establishment until it can't help but change. "
There are obvious pluses in this change that allows people to listen pretty well to what they want but there can also be downsides and Randy Dotinga in his North County Times column headed "Roses, raspberries & radio awards" takes up one of them.
"KLSD gets a 'thorny rose'," he writes, "for choosing to keep its listeners better informed but setting a disturbing standard in the process."
KLSD dumped its hourly news updates from Air America to take CNN, of which Dotinga comments, "On the face of it, the decision makes sense: CNN is a news network, not a talk-show network. If you want news, you go to the people who specialize in it. "
However he then comes to what he feels to be the disturbing aspect of the change when it is seen in the context of changes at KOGO-AM, also run by Clear Channel. It moved its news to Fox.
Dotinga notes that KLSD program director Cliff Albert said research had shown CNN as having the "best reputation among moderates and liberals and frankly had more of a liberal perception than any other network."
He then comments, "Oh, goodie. The liberals who listen to KLSD will get their news from a network they think is on their side… Thank goodness the conservatives have more sense. They can handle news from a seemingly neutral source, right? Wrong. Right-wing station KOGO ---- run by the same management as KLSD ---- just inked a deal with the radio arm of Fox News, the cable network that cynically declares itself to be 'fair and balanced.'"
… "Maybe someday we can all have our own personal news providers so we'll never have to hear anything we disagree with."
Both the above articles touch upon the relationship listeners have with the radio they listen to, a topic that Helen Fields wrote about in the Washington Post in, "Hey, It's My Radio. So Why Is It Tuning Me Out?"
"There's something special about radio, something uncommonly intimate," she writes. "It's not like television, where you're part of the studio audience, applauding wildly or laughing uproariously. When I'm listening in my house or in the car, it's just me and the voice on the air…Which means that I feel mighty possessive about my radio stations. And when they abandon me, as a couple have recently done, I take it personally."
… "The first to go was WHFS, the alternative music station that saw me through much of my adolescence… Another long-time favourite, public radio station WETA, decided to drop classical music and go all-news and talk… Suddenly, I find myself adrift in the ether, lost without a radio station of my own."
The loss of the two stations was not ranked equally by Fields…" I have to admit that when WHFS changed format last month, it had been getting worse for years… Losing classical WETA, though, has me feeling truly bereft."
After commenting on past listening to WETA, she writes, "I realize nostalgia like this is pretty ridiculous coming from a 29-year-old. But in the irritating way of things that keep changing, and even with my relatively short perspective, it seems like radio used to be so much better. I remember listening to the BBC's sci-fi miniseries "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" as a child in Hampton, Virginia. Where are the bizarre new comedies like that now? I love the programming produced and distributed nationally by NPR -- it has sustained me on stations across the country -- but back when no one but my mom listened to "All Things Considered," Susan Stamberg and Ira Flatow took a microphone into a closet and chomped on wintergreen Life Savers to watch the sparks. Now they would get letters complaining that the time they'd wasted on candy should have been spent on serious news. As if serious news were all there is to life."
Fields is not completely unrealistic however and notes, "Of course, radio has to strike some balance between quirkiness and audience size. While I might enjoy a radio station that played nothing but Italian opera, Japanese pop and NPR news, I realize I'm probably the only person who would. Still, for the companies that own commercial stations like WHFS, the answer has generally been to seek out quirkiness wherever it may hide and kill it in its den."
"One of the delightful surprises on a cross-country drive last summer was passing through the range of an AM station in West Virginia as an old man sang one unintelligible song after another, unaccompanied. Weirdness like that is rare. You can cross the country and hear the same damn music with the same, or close enough to the same, damn voices talking between the songs, wherever you go."
Back now to Wired and The Resurrection of Indie Radio by Charles C. Mann - again a case where closer attention to fact would have been welcomed: He starts by noting, "Steve Jones, the Sex Pistols guitarist, is now deriving his paycheck from Clear Channel… Weirder still, it's all cool. Jones' five-day-a-week gig as a DJ at Indie 103, a Clear Channel-backed station in Los Angeles, is not a sign that he has pathetically sold out his youthful beliefs… [RNW note: As per concerns expressed earlier this month (See RNW Feb 26 ) Indie 103 is an Entravision station and the Clear Channel tie-up, now being dropped is for a local sales agreement, not the programming and in fairness this is made clear way down the article)]."
Of the programme itself, Mann writes, "Jonesy's Jukebox is just possibly a peek at the future of radio itself. Which may be the weirdest news of all - not so much that a Sex Pistol is, once again, helping to shake the dust off rock and roll, but that music radio could even have a future."
He quotes Jones as saying about running music to a corporate beat, "FCC no!" I'm out of here if they tell me what to FCCing play - that's it, mate."
And the music on his two-hour show bears out his claim. A head-snappingly diverse jumble of vintage punk, unsigned local bands, ancient pop novelties, and a whole lot of vividly alive rock and roll, Jonesy's Jukebox is, according to Blender magazine, nothing less than "the best show on the radio."
Mann then adds, "More than that, Jonesy's Jukebox is just possibly a peek at the future of radio itself. Which may be the weirdest news of all - not so much that a Sex Pistol is, once again, helping to shake the dust off rock and roll, but that music radio could even have a future… in the past decade, radio changed from a village of small, independent stations to a bastion of the US media oligopoly, content to deliver sterile, cookie-cutter broadcasts. The transition made sense economically, because Big Radio was able to cut costs by consolidating advertising departments and using the same programming across the country. But alienated listeners fled in droves."
Later, after quoting Indie 103 music director Mark Sovel as saying, "The popularity of the iPod is directly related to the crappiness of radio" Mann comments that some of the industry players noted the success of NPR and says a "scatter of stations around the country "have tried to create a kind of rock radio that models NPR's conversational tenor, lengthy attention span, and relative lack of hype."
Using the term Neo-Radio coined by music-radio consultant Fred Jacobs Mann says the DJs at these stations, "DJs have a measured, sometimes wry tone. They aren't afraid of long pauses - 'dead air,' in the jargon - and they mix in sentimental favorites with unpredictable material. Listeners are encouraged to call in, to pick tracks, to feel a sense of ownership" and comments, "In some ways, NeoRadio is a throwback to the past, when radio stations were the centers of the kind of virtual communities now more common online."
And the reason that Mann sees a future in this development is digital, which will offer the chance of broadcasting multiple digital signals on a station's frequency …" as many as six streams per station, depending on the fidelity requirements of the programming"…and also when combined with a storage buffer the ability additional facilities such as displays and to record programming for time shifting [RNW note: Something already available on a number of digital radio receivers that use the Eureka system that has been adopted in most of the world.]
He quotes Jim Griffin, founder of media consulting firm Cherry Lane Digital, as saying of US radio after the change to digital, "At the other side of the transition digital radio isn't necessarily radio in the way we think of radio, other than the fact that it uses transmitters. It's all about pushing and pulling bits into the buffer."
After that on to what in the end we still feel is the crucial element in all this, the audio that comes out of the equipment… and the reason we think that podcasting and the rest are unlikely to take over the mainstream unless they system allows talent to be squeezed out of it.
First nostalgia and politics and comedy and comment all combined on BBC Radio 4 in "Yes Minister - the View from Whitehall" from Saturday, a programme in which former UK Conservative Party leader William Hague looks at the influence of this British TV satirical comedy that many considered one of the best ever means of learning about the ways of the bureaucrat.
Then going a little further back in time, Radio 4 in The Archive Hour on Saturday repeated the Sony-award winning "Lance Corporal Baronowski's Vietnam", a programme compiled from the recordings made by Lance Corporal Mike Baronowski who was killed in action in Vietnam on 29 November 1966. It tells the story of the war from the perspectives of two Marine comrades and Baronowski's own brother and sister and on Sunday the station followed up with Life after Vietnam in which producer Alan Hall brought the stories of the Marine's family and comrades up to date.
It included Baronowski's sister telling of her fears on learning of her son's determination to join the army, his brother Alexander revealing how even now he finds it impossible to listen to the tapes, Ray Borowski talking of the battle that led to his medical discharge from the Marine Corps and Tim Duffie explaining why and how he managed to track down his old comrades and the family of his dead friend.
After documentary, drama and comedy, music and first BBC Radio 2, which on Friday at 21:30 GMT airs the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist 2005 with four finalists - Brenden Wheeler and Sophie Rhodes on euphonium, Vicki Reynolds on tenor horn and Nick Walkley on the cornet - accompanied by the Black Dyke Band.
And for those who missed it, until tonight BBC Radio 3 still has the finals of its Choir of the Year competition in the Performance on Three slot from last Monday - in all six choirs competed in four categories with the overall winners being the Oriel Singers from Cheltenham who also took the Adult Choir category. Other winners were the St Catherine Singers - Elstree, who took the Youth Choir title, and the Methodist College Junior Choir - Belfast, who took the Children's Choir award.
Back to Radio 2 and mixing music and religion, the second and last Hungry for Heaven programme at 20:30 GMT tomorrow looks at rock musicians who turn to religion: The first programme will still be on the web site until then.
Then mixing drama and religion, the Drama on 3 slot on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday featured Tom Kelly's The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene, based on the documentary evidence of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, published in 1955.
Following that yesterday the third in the Sunday Feature Europe of the Mind series looked at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's modern Turkey, and the potential admission of Turkey to the European Union.
Then the media and two suggested programmes featuring Brooke Gladstone of US National Public Radio (NPR), the first from NPR's "On the Media" earlier this month (Feb 11 and on the web site) when in "The Ballistics of Radio" she considered issue of Low-Power FM and whether moves by Sen. John McCain to ease current interference restrictions will lead to a boost for the sector. Surprise, surprise, a significant factor in the opposition it would seem is likely to be money - the threat through losing listeners to the income of commercial companies and the threat through losing funding to community stations to the income of NPR itself.
The second outing was in Australia where on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Media Report she was interviewed on the issue of the threat to jail two American journalists because they have refused to reveal their sources in relation to enquiries they made stories that were not published about who leaked the name of a CIA official, Valerie Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who reported after a fact-finding trip to Africa to see if Iraq had tried to buy enriched yellowcake uranium that it hadn't, thus weakening the US administrations case: The one person who leaked the name, pro-administration columnist, Bob Novak, has not been arrested leading to speculation that he may already be co-operating with investigators, ore may be protecting himself via a convoluted route - if he committed a crime by publishing the name he can plead the Fifth Amendment - on self-incrimination - to protect himself whereas the others because they opted not to break the law and did not publish have no such defence.
And finally from an issue that would be comic were it not serious in its implications to one that is comic largely because it doesn't take seriously news that is sometimes very serious, BBC Radio 4's News Quiz: It airs on Friday at 18:30 GMT and last week's show is on the web site until then.
Previous Columnists:
Previous Dotinga:
ABC Australia - Media Report:
North County Times - Dotinga:
Washington Post - Fields:
Wired - Ana Marie Cox
Wired- Mann:
2005-02-28: According to the UK Sunday Times, Clear Channel International is poised to make a bid for the outdoor advertising arm of SMG ahead of a potential break-up of the company, which is already facing a GBP 100 million (USD 190 million) bid for its Virgin radio arm from a venture capital group led by Lord Waheed Alli.
SMG chief executive Andrew Flanagan has insisted that Virgin Radio but the Alli consortium is now approaching shareholders directly.
The paper also reports that UK Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie is reported to have held talks with other private-equity firms, including HG Capital, about re-instating his nil-premium bid to buy out the company following the collapse of negotiations with US firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous MacKenzie:
Previous SMG:
Previous Wireless Group:
UK Sunday Times report:
2005-02-28: Mexican broadcaster Grupo Radio Centro has reported final quarter 2004 broadcasting revenues down 15% on a year earlier to MXN 185 million (USD 16.67 million) and for the full year down 36.4% on 2003 to MXN 552 million (USD 49.70 million).
It put the final quarter decline down to the loss of income from the Infored news programming that it ended after a dispute which had resulted in a USD 21 million ruling - now again in the courts - against it (See RNW Mar 4, 2004).
Grupo Radio said that for the full year it had additionally been affected because of the boost in 2003 from political advertising for Mexico's congressional elections in July.
Grupo Radio also cut its broadcasting expenses because of the loss of the news programming - down 30.7% to MXN 90.8 million (USD 8.18 million) in the quarter and down 25.6% to MXN 387 million (USD 34.8 million for the year.
Overall it reported net income for the quarter of MXN 30.7 million (USD 2.76 million) compared to a loss for the final quarter of 2003 of MXN 309 million (USD 27.85 million): The 2003 figures included a provision of MXN 358 million (USD 32.3 million) for the cost of arbitration in the Infored dispute.
For the full year Grupo Radio cut its loss to MXN 38.3 million (USD 3.45 million) compared to a loss of MXN259 million (USD 23.3 million) in 2003.
The company also noted that during 2004 it cut its bank debt from MXN 238 million (USD 21.5 million) to MXN 170 million (USD 15.3 million) through scheduled payments and that in November a Mexican Federal Court set aside the award noted above that was made last year against it by an arbitration panel established under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce. This decision is now potentially subject to review in the Mexican courts.
Previous Grupo Radio:
2005-02-28: Sea Launch has now recommenced its preparations for the launch of XM Satellite Radio's XM3 from its equatorial platform on a Russian a Zenit-3SL vehicle.
It says the launch, originally due on February 17, is now scheduled within a window that opens at 03:51 GMT tomorrow.
Previous XM:
2005-02-27: Last week was fairly quiet for the regulators with no major decisions anywhere: There was nothing from Australia and in Canada it was a matter of routine licence decisions although two appointments were made to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC): Richard DeLand French from Montreal was designated Vice-Chairperson and Rita A. P. Cugini, of Toronto was appointed a full-time member and representative of the Ontario region of the CRTC.
Radio licence related decisions included (in order of province):
British Columbia:
*Approval of conversion to a 400-watts FM of adult contemporary CKXR-AM, Salmon Arm, and simulcast of the programming of both stations for three months once the FM commences operations. The licence for the new station will include the transmitter CKXR-FM-1 Sorrento, presently authorized as a transmitter of CKXR-AM.
*Approval of addition of 10-watts FM transmitter at Enderby for CKIZ-FM Vernon: Licensee Rogers Broadcasting Limited noted that since the conversion of its Vernon AM station to FM, Enderby residents have been unable to receive CKIZ-FM's signal.
Ontario:
*Approval of extension until 17 June 2005 of deadline to commence operation of new French-language FM community radio station in Toronto authorized for La Coopérative radiophonique de Toronto inc.
Quebec:
Revocation of licence of CFVM-AM, Amqui, following successful commencement of operations of new replacement FM.
Saskatchewan:
*Approval of new contemporary country music format low-power 50-watts English-language commercial FM radio Kindersley.
*Approval of CJNE FM Radio Inc. (CJNE) for authority to acquire from Nor-Com Electronics Ltd. (Nor-Com), as part of a corporate reorganization, the assets of the radio programming undertaking CJNE-FM Nipawin, Saskatchewan and of the low-power radio programming undertaking VF2212 Carrot River, Saskatchewan.
In Ireland the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has decided to go ahead with plans to issue new licences that would provide at least one additional service for all in the country although it may opt to drop requirements that a fifth of programming be news and current affairs (See below).
The BCI also announced that in line with its existing policy it would not enforce a 24-hour moratorium on coverage of the by-elections on 11th March 2005 in Meath and Kildare North since these are not part of a national election poll.
In the UK there were no radio station decisions from Ofcom although it has published a consultation document on spectrum pricing and also proposed to ease the rules for maritime radio (See RNW Feb 23).
In the US the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed a USD 4,000 fine on Infinity's WBLK-FM, Buffalo, New York, for broadcasting a telephone conversation without first informing the party to the conversation of its intention to do so (See RNW Feb 25): It also decided to terminate an investigation by its Enforcement Bureau into the possible violation by Brevard Youth Education Broadcasting Corporation, licensee of non-commercial educational FM Station WCEE-LP, Melbourne, Florida, of rules relating to the broadcast of underwriting acknowledgments.
Brevard had acknowledged that its broadcasts violated the Underwriting Laws and committed itself to complete remedial measures and other undertakings negotiated under a consent decree.
Previous BCI:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Ofcom
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
Ofcom web site:
2005-02-27: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is to reconsider a staff decision that allowed Oklahoma Democrat Gene Stipe who had been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice to sell four radio stations he controlled according to the New York Times.
The FCC has normally considered forfeit the licences of individuals who fail to deal truthfully with the government but the paper says officials have never before considered a case involving a conviction of perjury before a federal agency although it has revoked licences in cases where the crimes varied from sexual abuse of a minor to drug dealing.
Stipe, now 78, stepped down in 2003 after 53 years in the state legislature at which time investigators were looking at his role in a scheme to launder money given to the congressional campaign of a friend: He subsequently pleaded guilty to three criminal counts, acknowledging his role in an illegal scheme to funnel more than USD 245,000 into the failed campaign of Walter Roberts for a seat in the House of Representatives and was sentenced to five years' probation and six months' house arrest.
When Stipe was sentenced court records showed him to be worth nearly USD 27 million: Federal prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence but U.S. District Judge James Robertson opted to instead increase the fine he had to pay from the USD 490,378 in his plea agreement to USD 735, 567 -- the maximum allowable for a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act and triple the amount he admitted funneling illegally into the Roberts' campaign. He was also ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service.
The Times reports that the sale of the stations for USD 2.2 million by a company controlled by Stipe -- Stipe controls four of the five stations licensed in his hometown of McAlester and the only station in the nearby town of Wilburton - was given the go-ahead by the FCC in a in a Jan. 18 letter - issued before Stipe was sentenced - and that when Media Access Project lawyer Andrew Jay Schwartzman queried the decision with FCC chairman Michael Powell's office he was told by an aide that the FCC chairman would not seek a review of the decision by the full commission and was told when he tried to get the decision reviewed that there would not be the required three votes from the five commissioners for this.
"This involves somebody who has pleaded guilty to tampering with an election in the service area of these stations and is a clear demonstration of how the democratic process has been corrupted by this man," Schwartzman commented. "I cannot imagine a more powerful case for loss of license and a weaker case for enriching him."
The New York Times queried again last week with the FCC and says that on Friday it was told the full commission had agreed to order a review of the case.
The paper says that Republican Commissioner Kevin J. Martin, a leading contender to take over from Powell when he steps down next month, changed his mind about a review after Powell had said he had changed his and there had been prior sharp questions about the decision from Democrat Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein, supported by his fellow Democrat Michael J. Copps.
"This deal demands a lot more scrutiny than it's gotten, and I now expect that it will get the review that it deserves," Adelstein said. "Lying to the government raises serious questions about a broadcaster's character under our longstanding policy. I've raised concerns with my colleagues that letting a convicted perjurer profit from the sale of these stations may be a dangerous departure from our past precedent."
Richard R. Zaragoza, a partner at the law firm of Shaw Pittman who represented Stipe and the buyers of the stations, said he was surprised by the reversal and argued in favour of the original staff decision that noted the "recent and very serious misconduct" but allowed an exception to standard policy because the misconduct did not involve other executives at the company which had "an unblemished record of compliance with the commission rules."
"The staff decision represents a well-articulated, well-reasoned decision that is fully compatible," with early cases," Zaragoza said.
He noted that the deal had already closed weeks ago, and that the new owners have already filed a request for the renewal of their licenses for the next eight years, adding that it would be "unprecedented" for the commission to order that the transaction be undone.
Previous Adelstein:
Previous Copps:
Previous FCC:
Previous Martin:
Previous Media Access Project:
Previous Powell:
Previous Schwartzman:
New York Times report:
2005-02-27: The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has agreed in principle to go ahead with licensing new radio stations that it says should allow everyone in the Republic to receive at least one extra service within three years.
It is to produce a revised Licensing Policy Statement will be produced by late April and is expecting those who want new stations, which can include existing licence holders, to approach it with their suggestions.
The Ox report on Irish broadcasting aid there was potential for additional services, particularly in areas served by one local station and the BCI says work undertaken by its Engineering Division, in conjunction with ComReg (Commission for Communications Regulations) will allow the it to offer additional radio services throughout the country on AM and FM.
The revised policy says the BCI will continue to reflect the principles of diversity (including quality), availability of spectrum and viability but in the context of a changed broadcasting environment, adding that the sector is now more robust and the issue of viability might now be more balanced with the need to ensure diversity.
It adds that it will develop guidelines for an enhanced Expressions of Interest phase during March and will formally seek expressions of interest nationally in early April.
It will ask for a greater level of detail will be required than previously and will consider new licensing models that could include quasi-national, regional, dual county, and second county coverage with transmission from single transmitters or a combination of transmitters and also networking and syndication arrangements.
A report on expressions of interest received will then be put to the BCI Board in June or July and the BCI expects to publish its licensing plan and timeframe for its rollout in October.
The BCI also considered a new Ownership and control policy review follows the October 2001 introduction of a new policy relating to private broadcasters in the country and will undertake a consultation on this from March to September of this year that will evaluate the current situation in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe in conjunction with a study of future developments in broadcasting, challenges facing the regulator and policy options for consideration.
Amongst the issues with will consider will be the plurality of ownership in diversity in broadcasting in the country and specifically whether it should retain its requirement news and current affairs have to comprise a minimum fifth of the service of all licensed stations.
Previous BCI:
Previous Comreg:
2005-02-27: Ten days after it was due to have launched XM satellite radio's XM3 satellite (See RNW Feb 18) Sea Launch has still not posted a rescheduled launch date.
After the original delay, Sea Launch blamed sea currents at the equatorial launch site and then started the countdown but aborted the launch seven minutes before it was due because of what it termed an "out-of-specification condition on the launch vehicle (See RNW Feb 24).
It now says it is continuing a review of the launch vehicle readiness before initiating a countdown to another launch attempt. It adds that XM Satellite Radio's XM-3 spacecraft remains in excellent condition.
Previous XM:
2005-02-27: The US lost two more rock stations last week, one in Albuquerque where Clear Channel flipped its "World Class Rock " KLSK-FM 104.1 to a Spanish Mega 104.1 format and the other in Philadelphia where Radio One Inc. dropped its modern rock format on WPLY-FM Y100 and moved its rhythmic charts WPHI -FM (The Beat) from 103.9 to the Y100 frequency.
The New Mexico Business Weekly quoted Clear Channel's Albuquerque and Santa Fe vice president and general manager Chuck Hammond as saying the station is targeting "The 18 to 34 Latino market " and adding that the DJ's at the station will broadcast predominantly in English, but the music will be primarily Spanish and advertising will be a mixture of both
"104.1 is the strongest FM signal in the state. But with World Class Rock, we weren't developing the ratings and the revenues we wanted," said Hammond ... "The station was profitable, but we expect a tremendous increase [in revenues]."
The station will the third in the US that Clear Channel has switched to "Reggtone", a blend of Spanish hip hop and contemporary pop: It has already hired a new Program Director, Omar Romero, who will join the station from the start of next month and will hire up to a dozen more.
In Philadelphia there is some confusion about the reason behind the switch since Y100 was not only profitable but ahead of WPHI in the ratings although suggestions are that the move is linked to the urban focus of Radio One.
Radio One is to use the weaker WPHI signal for a black-gospel format. Currently the Y-100 web site just has an "under construction" notice and WPHI has left its site unaltered.
A site Y100rocks.com set up by supporters of the former rock station has now garnered more than 15,000 signatures for an online petition to reverse the decision.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Radio One Inc.:
New Mexico Business Weekly report:
Yy100rocks web site:
2005-02-26: Although overall Clear Channel reported 2004 increases in revenues on a year earlier - up 1% to USD 2.31 billion for the final quarter and up 5% to USD 9.42 billion for the year - like Viacom, whose figures reflected a charge of USD 18 billion (See RNW Feb 25) it has also had to take in a charge because of a change in accounting principles that took it into a loss of USD 4.7 billion for the year.
For the final quarter Clear Channel's net income was up 14.5% to USD 213.3 million (up 23.2% from 30 cents to 27 cents per diluted share) but for the year it was down 26.2% to USD 845.8 million (down 23.8% from USD 1.85 to USD 1.41 per share).
In 2003 Clear Channel had a net gain of around USD 727 million from the sale of its interest in Univision, the sale of an investment in American Tower Corporation and the early extinguishment of debt offset by around USD 15 million of impairments in various assets but for 2004 the net income only included USD 67 million of gains - from the sale of remaining Univision holdings and the sale of radio and outdoor assets- and thee were offset by a USD31.4 million pre-tax loss on the early extinguishment of debt.
Like Viacom's Infinity radio division, Clear Channel's radio revenues slipped back a little in the final quarter, from USD 561.6 million to USD 559.2 million, but for the year, where Infinity slipped back, they were up 2% to USD 2.162 billion.
In comparison outdoor was the best performing division with fourth quarter revenues up 13% to USD 479.9 million and up 10% to the year to USD 1.757 billion; Live entertainment revenues were up 9% in the quarter to USD 522.6 million and for the year were up 6% to USD 2.592 billion.
Clear Channel introduced a "Less is More" advertising initiative that emphasises fewer adverts and shorter advertising breaks in 2004 and it says this is "progressing positively and exceeding expectations"
Clear Channel said it believed that "reducing commercial clutter and providing higher quality and more effective commercials, the value of Clear Channel's radio advertising inventory will increase over the long-term."
It also noted the formation of its Creative Services Group to make commercials more compelling and entertaining
In market terms, the company said its growth was led by small to mid-size markets that relied more heavily on local advertising than stations in the top 25 markets.
President and CEO Mark Mays said of the results, "We delivered record financial results in 2004 by focusing on improving our existing operations and driving profitability in our businesses… For the year, we repurchased nearly $2 billion in shares of common stock and declared $265.2 million in dividends to shareholders. Operationally, 2004 marked a year where we focused on leading change within the industries in which we compete. This proactive and forward-thinking approach is key to our long-term growth strategy and will drive our financial results for years to come."
Chief Financial Officer Randall Mays said the company, which earlier this month announced that it was to spend a further USD 1 billion on stock repurchases, will continue its focus on using free cash flow to buy back stock.
Clear Channel did not issue any 2005 guidance.
At Viacom-operated syndication company Westwood One, final quarter revenues were up 3.8% to USD 151.6 million and for the full year were up 4.3% to USD 562.2 million, primarily attributed to general higher demand plus income related to the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Westwood One said for the year local and regional advertising revenues were up 5.5% and national ones up 2.9% but in the final quarter national revenue declined, offsetting the gain in local and regional ones.
Amortization and depreciation expenses, up 86% in the quarter to 5.4 million and 60% for the year to USD 18.4 million, hit the bottom line and Westwood's net income in the final quarter was down 4.8% to USD 29.6 million (the same 31 cents per basic and diluted share) and for the year it was down 4.5% to USD 95.5 million (the same 97 cents per diluted share).
During 2004 the Company repurchased approximately 8.5 million shares for approximately USD 217 million.
President and CEO Shane Coppola commented, "We delivered solid financial results in a difficult operating environment in 2004. Moreover, we continued to make investments in our products and services that well position the Company for growth in 2005 and beyond. The initial return on these investments was evidenced by the strong fourth quarter growth delivered by our local/regional businesses, which account for approximately 55% of the Company's revenues. Furthermore, we continue to create compelling content for existing and emerging distribution channels expanding our audience reach for advertisers."
Chief Financial Officer Andrew Zaref added, "Our capital structure is well positioned for us to accomplish our business objectives. We continue to generate significant cash flow and have used our resources to repurchase common stock."
Looking ahead Westwood One says that for 2005 it expects to deliver revenue growth of low-to-mid single digits, resulting in mid single digit growth in operating income before depreciation and amortization and before considering the impact of the non cash compensation charges which will result from the required adoption of the new accounting standards surrounding equity based compensation.
Salem meanwhile has updated its 2005 guidance following the conclusion of its 2005 national block programming rate negotiations; it says it expects same station national block programming revenues to increase approximately 5% over 2004 and noted that, as in the past, more than 90-% of this business was successfully renewed.
CEO Edward G. Atsinger, III, commented, "The combination of our national platform of Christian Teaching and Talk stations and our focused programming strategy provide our block programming partners with national reach and a desirable audience. We believe our ability to renew over 90% of our contracts underscores the value we provide our block programming partners. Overall, our block programming business represents a reliable stream of revenues and cash flow, which grow steadily and consistently."
Previous Atsinger:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Coppola:
Previous Mark Mays:
Previous Randall Mays:
Previous Salem:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Previous Westwood One:
Previous Zaref:
2005-02-26: Following hard on the heels of the apparent collapse of UK Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie's bid to buy out his company when the venture group backing it pulled out (See RNW Feb 24), the GBP 100 million bid for SMG-owned Virgin Radio by a venture-capital consortium led by Lord Alli also appears to have run into problems.
According to the UK Guardian, ITV, which holds a 17% stake in SMG, has ruled out taking part in a break-up of the company, a move the peer had hoped to set up as a fall back after the SMG board rejected his offer.
The bid would have involved ITV in taking control of the remainder of SMG - which holds the Scottish TV and Grampian TV franchises - after Alli's group had taken the radio arm but the paper says that sources close to the senior ITV executive team yesterday said the company was not interested in buying Scottish TV and Grampian TV as the management had extracted as much value as it could from its 17% stake.
ITV already sells Scottish and Grampian's national advertising slots, equivalent to 85% of SMG's TV advertising revenue and the paper says ITV believes it could spend the GBP 310 million estimated cost of buying SMG more effectively on developing its own business.
Lord Alli is due to meet various SMG shareholders including ITV chief executive Charles Allen and former DJ and Virgin owner Chris Evans, who still has a 3% stake in the SMG, which took over his Ginger Media Group including Virgin Radio for GBP 225 million in 2000:
Previous MacKenzie:
Previous SMG:
UK Guardian report:
2005-02-26: In Toronto, the producer and host of controversial Ryerson University campus radio station CKLN-FM's "Bad Cop, No Donut!" programme has backed off a little after complaints from the city's police chief Julian Fantino.
The show airs on the Toronto station in 15- to 30-minute segments during Thursday morning shows - The Bitter End from 2 to 6 a.m. and Rude Awakening from 6 to 7 a.m. -
Volunteer Ron Anicich says he doesn't intend to change the content but has changed the e-mail address to which listeners can invite comments from ihatepigs@hotmail.com to ron@ckln.fm after agreeing that the address might well be offensive.
"While I'm not offended by it personally, I can see why people would be," Anicich told the Toronto Star after the police chief had called for the University authorities to ban the show, which he accuses of hate mongering.
Anicich, who isn't a Ryerson student said he's been a programmer at the station for 15 years and gets his material, which is "a list of different stories about police abuse that happens through North America each week ... from mostly local newspapers", much of it from Internet searches using keywords such as "police misconduct, police corruption or Taser"
The university had distanced itself from the programme but a spokesman told the paper that it received no funding from the university itself and, although its students support CKLN financially through their levies, the 250-watts station is a separate organization with its own licence. CKLN, like most Canadian college stations is not affiliated to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) and if it were the CBSC would not be able to intervene because the police are not a protected group under its rules and the Star said no complaints had been made to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which sets licence conditions.
CKLN news director Kristin Schwartz defended the show, commenting, "I think what should really be disturbing to people is not an email address but the real impact on people's lives of police abuse. "I think it's important to tell those stories."
Anicich added that he wasn't sure "why Toronto police would have a problem" and commented, "If his (the chief's) problem is the content of the show then he should know I'm not telling anybody anything that hasn't been in the newspaper already. My intention is strictly to relate the facts, period."
Toronto Star report:
2005-02-26: The Los Angeles Times says Clear Channel is to end its joint sales agreement with Entravision over Modern Rocker KDLD/KDLE Indie 103.1 because of a change in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations that would count stations operated as part of a Joint Sales Agreement in a company's total for a market.
Clear Channel already owns the maximum eight stations in the Los Angeles market and the paper says it was told by Clear Channel's regional vice president in Los Angeles Roy Laughlin that his company would end the partnership on April 1.
"Our lawyers have told us that we have to do this," Laughlin said. "The audience and advertisers will see no disruption, that is my hope."
Such a move it says could put the future of the station, once "hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as 'America's coolest commercial station'," in jeopardy because without the benefit of Clear Channel's advertising sales clout Entravision could find other formats more profitable.
Clear Channel had sold advertising on Indie 103.1 in bundled deals with its own station and also solo at rates lower than those on Infinity's rock powerhouse KROQ-FM but, although it had not done well in the ratings.
The Times quoted radio consultant Jeff Pollack as saying industry rumours were that the station would probably be converted to a new format to appeal to an ethnic community but Indie 103 Program Director Michael Steele e-mailed record labels and clients to say that Entravision was "is moving forward to continue operating the station AS IT IS. That means no format change."
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Entravision:
Los Angeles Times report:
2005-02-26: India is not planning to allow private FM radio to air news according to the Indian Financial Express, which reports that a senior government official told it that the move was "not under consideration" for the second round of private FM licensing.
News was ruled out for private stations in the first round of private FM licences but the Amit Mitra Committee had recommended that the private companies be allowed to air news and had received backing from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which also suggested that news could be allowed.
All India Radio (AIR) currently has a monopoly of radio news but the private companies had argued that news, which is permitted on private TV, should also be allowed on radio.
The paper says there are also indications that the government will also reject a TRAI recommendation that future licence fees should be based on a share of revenue rather than the current fixed fee, which is taking major bites out of companies' revenues -and in some cases pushing them into loss.
The paper notes that the first year's licence fee - there is provision for a subsequent 15% annual increase - was INR 9.75 crore (USD 2.2 million- a crore is 10 million) for a Mumbai station, INR 7.12 crore (USD 1.6 million) for a Delhi station, INR 3.3 crore (USD 755,000) for one in Chennai and INR 1 crore (USD 229,000) for a Kolkata licence.
Previous AIR:
Previous Indian Radio:
Previous TRAI:
Indian Financial Express report:
2005-02-26: Veteran BBC broadcaster and executive Leonard Miall has died aged 90. He joined the corporation in 1939 after reading German at Freiburg University and then at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Union.
He had applied for a post as a press officer, which he failed to get, but was recruited the to head the corporation's expanding European service.
He was seconded to the Political Warfare Executive between 1942 and 1945, serving in London, San Francisco, and New York, and then with SHAEF in Luxembourg and then was briefly a special correspondent in Czechoslovakia becoming the BBC's Washington Correspondent.
After a return to London he joined BBC-TV as head of television talks (documentaries and current affairs) from 1954 to 1961, ending his career in 1974 as the BBC New York representative.
Previous BBC:
UK Telegraph obituary:
2005-02-25: In latest US results, Citadel has reported record revenues and profits but Viacom went deep into loss because of a USD 18 billion write-down of the value of its radio and outdoor divisions, USD 10.9 million of it relating to Infinity radio.
Saga was in between with revenues up but profits dipping a little in the final quarter.
Citadel reported record revenues and net income for the quarter and year with third quarter net revenues up 7.4% to USD 109.8 million and full year ones up 10.8% to USD 411.5 million, producing net income of USD 13.76 million for the quarter - turning round a loss the year earlier of USD 13.62 million (from a loss of 11 cents per diluted share to a profit of ten cents) and USD 74.57 million for the full year, turning round a loss of USD 89.57 million (from a loss of 83 cents per diluted share to a profit of 54 cents).
Citadel noted that the rise in net income over the previous quarter was primarily due to the reduction in depreciation and amortization expense and interest expense with the same benefit for the full year boosted by income tax benefit for 2004 of USD 63.8 million compared to income tax expense of USD 28.0 million for 2003.
Station operating income in the quarter was up 5.9% to USD 48.2 million and up 10.5% for the full year to USD 176.3 million and operating income for the quarter increased from USD 4.9 million a year earlier to USD 27.1 million while for the year a 2003 loss of USD 4 million was turned into income of USD 41.7 million. The major factor in this turnaround was higher revenues and a decrease in depreciation and amortization expense of approximately USD 18.0 million in the final quarter plus a similar situation for the whole year although this was offset by higher station operating costs: In addition Citadel notes that the full year result was also affected by a USD 16.4 million charge mainly due to its settlement with Interep when it moved to Katz and without this operating income would have been around USD 58.1 million.
Same station revenues in the quarter were up 3.3% to USD 104,321 and for the full year up 4.4% to USD 364.8 million whilst same station was up 4.5% for the quarter to USD 46.5 million and for the full year was up 6.4% to USD 160.6 million.
Commenting on the results chairman and CEO Farid Suleman said the company had achieved record results "despite a difficult industry environment" and continued, "For the full year of 2004, the Company had same station revenue growth of 4% and same station operating income growth of 6%. These gains were achieved in spite of the programming investment in the second half of 2004 at two of our recent acquisitions, New Orleans and Memphis as well as certain of our existing markets including Harrisburg and Salt Lake City."
"We expect these changes to positively impact growth in 2005. We also continue to invest in our Company through our stock buy back program and have repurchased over 9.5 million shares since the inception of the program in July of 2004."
Looking ahead, Citadel says it expects revenue growth in 2005 of 3-5%.
Saga Communications reported net operating revenues up 9.6% in the final quarter to USD 36.2 million and for the full year up 11% to USD 134.6 million but its profits dipped 8.9% in the quarter to USD 4.1 million (From 21 cents to 20 cents per diluted share). For the full year net income was up 14.1% to USD 15.8 million (from 65 cents to 75 cents per diluted share).
Radio division net operating revenues in the quarter were up 9.2% to USD 32.2 million and for the year to with same station radio revenues up 3.8% to USD 30.6 million in the quarter and 10.2% in the year to USD 120.2 million.
Overall same station net operating revenues were up 5.5% for the year to USD 127.1 million and for the quarter up 4.5% to USD 34.5 million.
Viacom reported final quarter revenues up 5% to USD 6.3 billion led by double-digit increases in the Cable Networks segment but had a final quarter loss of USD from continuing operations of 16.7 billion (USD 10.21 per diluted share) compared to a profit of USD 586 million (33 cents per diluted share) a year earlier whilst full year revenues were up 8% at USD 22.5 billion with advertising revenues up 11% with a full year loss from continuing operations of USD 15.1 billion (USD 8.78 per diluted share) compared to net earnings in 2003 of USD 2.2 billion (USD 1.27 per diluted share).
The figures reflects a USD 18 billion write-down in accordance with accounting standard SFAS No. 142 of the value of its radio and outdoor businesses, leaving the company with a combined goodwill and intangible asset balance after the impairment charge of approximately USD49 billion.
Co-President Leslie Moonves told the company's conference call, "This year is a stepping stone to our ultimate growth path, and we are willing to make a sacrifice over a few quarters the long-term benefit of our core assets.''
Viacom noted that excluding the impairment charge for radio and outdoor plus a second quarter severance charge of USD 56 million because of management changes and a tax benefit of USD 205 million principally from the resolution of income tax audits, it would have increased 2004 operating income 14% to USD 5.1 billion and net earnings from continuing operations increased 19% to USD 2.7 billion for 2004 with diluted earnings per share up 21% to USD 1.54.
In divisional terms, radio revenues in the final quarter were down slightly, from USD 551.1 million to USD 550.4 million: The situation was similar for the full year with revenues dropping from USD 2.0976 billion to USD 2.0961 billion.
For the final quarter, radio had an operating loss of USD 10.7 billion compared to net revenues of USD 252 million a year earlier but this included USD 10.9 billion of non-cash impairment charge to reduce goodwill and intangibles: Excluding this charge radio operating income in the quarter was down 9%, reflection according to Viacom, "weakness in the local advertising market coupled with higher contractual talent and higher advertising and promotion expenditures."
For the full year radio had an operating loss of USD 10 billion, again affected by the impairment charge without which its operating income was down 6% on 2003 to USD 918 million.
Chairman and CEO Sumner M. Redstone commented, "Having adjusted the valuations of our radio and outdoor businesses to reflect emerging business trends and the competitive environment, we are now positioned to fully focus our efforts on the Company's fast growing assets. We are poised to move rapidly to increase our investment and re-evaluate our portfolio in Radio and to focus on the higher return areas within Outdoor. These businesses have terrific potential and continue to generate some of the highest margins and free cash flow in the industry."
"Overall, Viacom's underlying operational performance, including 11% advertising growth, reflects our ability to run our businesses to generate significant returns. Excluding the charges and the tax benefit, Viacom delivered 21% earnings per share growth and a 17% increase in free cash flow to $3.0 billion. In addition to reinvesting in our businesses for future growth, we were able to take advantage of this free cash flow growth to return capital to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. In fact, as a result of the Blockbuster split-off and the use of $2 billion of our $8 billion share buyback authorization, we acquired 96.4 million outstanding shares in 2004."
Looking ahead, Viacom says it expects mid single-digit growth in revenues and operating income and high single-digit growth in earnings per share for 2005.
Previous Citadel:
Previous Moonves:
Previous Redstone:
Previous Saga:
Previous Suleman:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
2005-02-25: Piquant's Air America Radio has named former record industry executive Danny Goldberg as CEO to replace Mark Walsh who left in April last year (See RNW Apr 28, 2004).
Goldberg takes over immediately from acting CEO Doug Kreeger.
Air America Radio Chairman Rob Glaser said of the appointment that Goldberg was the "best of three worlds - a successful media entrepreneur who has repeatedly made his mark on American culture, one of the smartest and most creative media executives of his generation, and a man who deeply believes in the mission of Air America."
Goldberg said he had admired Air America since it was formed and was impressed by its achievements over the past year.
Previous Piquant (Air America Owner):
Previous Glaser:
Previous Kreeger:
Previous Walsh:
2005-02-25: Australian radio and TV company Southern Cross Broadcasting has reported interim profits in the six months to the end of 2004, up 84.6% to AUD 48.25 million (USD 39.45 million) on revenues up 37% to AUD 272.6 million (USD 222.9 million) and is upbeat about its prospects for the second half of its 2004-5 financial year.
The figures included a net gain of AUD 14.99 million (USD 12.26 million) from an AUD 15.6 million (USD 12.76 million) on the sale of the company's 30.5% holding in the associated company, Digital Distribution Australia Pty. Limited (formerly ntl Telecommunications Pty. Limited) - effectively a reversal of a provision previously raised against this holding - and a loss of AUD 610,000 (USD 500,000) associated with the closure of its Tricom audiotext business.
Without this gain, Austereo's interim profits would have been up 27.3% to AUD 33.26 million (USD 27.2 million).
Reporting the results chairman John Dahlsen said that trading conditions had remained strong with revenues for metropolitan radio stations up 13.7% and that for metropolitan television up 10.5% whilst regional television was up 8.6%
He added that there had been substantial earnings increases in Southern Cross's radio division with solid performances from its Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane stations allied with an impressive performance from its regional TV operations assisted by improved ratings.
Managing director Tony Bell said conditions remained strong and the company anticipated revenue growth of around 6% in the second half of the financial year. He also noted that any change in Australia's cross media and foreign ownership laws this year might provide opportunities for the company.
Commenting on specific markets Bell said the "more competitive radio market in Sydney still presents challenges for radio" but noted "2UE's trading performance has improved since October 2004 and we expect this trend to continue".
In Melbourne he noted the strong ratings performance by 3AW (See RNW Feb 23) and said it and Magic 693 had benefited from strong market growth.
In Brisbane, he said the 4BC/4BH combination "achieved a strong earnings contribution" whilst in Perth the 96FM/6PR combination achieved revenue growth of 20%.
Previous Bell:
Previous Dahlsen:
Previous Southern Cross:
2005-02-25: Clear Channel and Howard Stern have agreed to withdraw lawsuits made by each relating to the former's axing of Stern shows from its stations a year ago following "repeated federal indecency violations."
Announcing the agreement Clear Channel Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Andrew Levin commented, "We are pleased to resolve this contractual dispute with Howard Stern without further legal expense and delay. Today, Clear Channel stations are entertaining listeners without being indecent, and we intend to keep it that way."
He also noted continuing concern about disparities in the treatment of US media depending upon how it was delivered, commenting, "Congress and the FCC should be troubled that the current law unwittingly creates a safe haven for indecent programming on other media platforms, including satellite radio."
"Unfortunately these outlets are fast becoming the wild west for sexually explicit programming. The law needs to catch up to technology or our children will be the ultimate victims."
RNW comment: Considering some of the things Clear Channel continued to air until it ended up either being fined or meeting protests that led advertisers to drop their support we can only consider the latter half of Levin's statement as pompous special interest pleading since the evidence is that the company's ethical standards, and probably most of Levin's, are dictated mainly by its business interests.
Instead of defending the First Amendment Clear Channel seems to want to try and change the law so as to restrict individual choice to purchase services that people are legally entitled to take.
Of course Clear Channel's business may well be hard hit if the rules remain as they are.
We can only hope that if push comes to shove, the Supreme Court tells Levin and Clear Channel to shove off and defends freedom of speech and of the individual.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Levin:
Previous Stern:
2005-02-25: Radio in India is likely to double its share of the country's advertising revenue over the next three years according to two Austereo executives currently in the country to conduct radio advertising workshops.
Kevin Best and John Dickson, joint executive creative directors of Austereo's "Heard" specialist creative shop have won more awards writing for radio than any other writers in Australasia.
They are in India to conduct radio advertising workshops in various cities at the invitation of Kolkata-based radio broadcaster Amsi and told the Business Standard the current 2.5% share of the country's INR 9,900 crore (USD 2.27 billion) advertising market currently taken by radio is likely to reach 5% by 2008
Previous Austereo:
Previous Indian Radio:
Business Standard report:
2005-02-25: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed a USD 4,000 fine on Infinity's WBLK-FM, Buffalo, New York, for broadcasting a telephone conversation without first informing the party to the conversation of its intention to do so.
Infinity had not denied that in June 2002 the station broadcast a telephone conversation a telephone customer service representative employed by Adelphia Communications, Inc. without informing her it intended to broadcast the conversation but had argued for reconsideration on the basis that the Commission had noted underlying facts from an unpaid, unadjudicated forfeiture order, issued in a previous proceeding, to rebut its claim in the present proceeding that it had no prior offences.
Infinity also argued that the penalty should have been reduced or cancelled based on its good faith efforts to comply as had been done for licensees in other proceedings that involve allegedly comparable circumstances.
The FCC dismissed the first argument on various grounds and also said that even if this had been an isolated incident, a forfeiture for the base amount of USD 4,000 was appropriate. Regarding the second argument it did no accept the comparison, noting that the other decisions cited "involved situations in which the licensee had undertaken substantial steps to comply with various technical broadcasting requirements before actually being notified of a possible violation."
In the Buffalo case it said, " The only thing Infinity had done prior to our investigation was to maintain a written policy, which evidently had not been adequately brought to the attention of all its employees."
It confirmed the full penalty:
Previous FCC:
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
2005-02-24: Two more US radio companies have reported a strong end to 2004 although both also had lower profits in the quarter.
Cox Radio reported revenues in the final quarter of 2004 up 4.2% to USD 111.3 million and for the year up 2.9% to USD 438.2 million but net income for the quarter was down 11.9% to USD 18.3 million (down 14.3% from 21 cents to 18 cents per diluted share) although for the year it was up 2% to USD 68 million (up 1.5% from 66cents to 67 cents a share).
President and CEO Robert F. Neil stressed the more recent figures, commenting, "We ended 2004 on a high note and began 2005 in a strong strategic position. Our fourth quarter revenue growth of 4.2% exceeded our guidance, the industry and the markets in which we operate. In addition, we grew fourth quarter station operating income by 5.1%."
"Our 2004 ratings were among the best in our history, which bodes well for continued growth in 2005. We remain focused on being the best radio broadcaster in our markets by serving our listeners with programming that is compelling and entertaining, while providing advertisers with the most effective platform to reach them."
He remained upbeat about the future, commenting, "As we look forward to the first quarter of 2005, I'm optimistic that we will deliver low-single digit revenue growth. We experienced a strong January, and while it is still early, February and March are looking good despite difficult revenue comparisons."
Entercom reported net revenues up 5% to a record USD 110.2 million for the final quarter of 2004 and up 6% to USD423.5 million for the full year but net income for the quarter was down 10.9% from USD 21.76 million to USD 19.38 million (from 42 cents to 40 cents per diluted share) although for the full year it was up 5.4% from USD 71.78 million to USD 75.63 million (USD 1.39 to USD 1.50 per diluted share).
Same station revenues in the final quarter were up 3% to USD110.1 million and for the year up 4% to USD415.1 million with same station operating income up 2% to USD 46 million and same station operating expenses up 3% to USD 64 million in the quarter and up 5% to USD177.2 million and 3% to USD238.0 million respectively for the full year.
Pro forma net income per share in the third quarter, excluding a net gain on the sale of assets in the prior year of USD0.03 per share, was up from 39 cents a year earlier to 40 cents in 2004.
Entercom was amongst the US radio companies buying back its shares during the year, reducing the total outstanding by 3 million.
Looking ahead Entercom says it expects net revenues to be up by around 5% for the first quarter of 2005.
Commenting on the results President and CEO David J. Field said he saluted "the Entercom team for their impressive performance during a period of sluggish industry growth," adding, " For the fourth quarter, Entercom achieved same-station revenue growth of 3%, significantly outpacing our markets by two hundred basis points. Similarly, for the year, Entercom's 4% same-station revenue growth doubled our markets' growth rate."
…"Turning to 2005, we are encouraged by the improvement in business conditions that we are experiencing both nationally and locally. The industry initiatives launched in 2004 are gaining traction and beginning to impact performance. "
"Advertisers are responding positively to the compelling research generated by the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab and we are experiencing acceleration in demand for: 30 and: 15 commercials which are a natural and inevitable evolution of our business model."
As well as increasing revenues but reporting lower profits, Cox has now joined Entercom in a potentially even more unwelcome situation: it has confirmed that it has also received, like Entercom, Clear Channel and Infinity, a subpoena by the New York State Attorney General's office inquiring into "promotional practices" - read payola - in the radio industry.
In other US radio business, Radio 1 Inc has announced that it has now completed the redemption of all its outstanding 6-1/2% Convertible Preferred Securities, Remarketable Term Income Deferred Equity Securities ("High Tides"), valued at a total of USD 310 million: It announced earlier this month that it had completed a USD 200 million bond sale that together with bank finance was used for the redemption (See RNW Feb 11).
Previous Cox:
Previous Entercom:
Previous Field:
Previous Neil:
Previous Radio 1 Inc.:
2005-02-24: Plans by UK Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie to take it private in a GBP 100 million nil-premium bid appear to have collapsed following a withdrawal by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, the US-based private equity backers of the plan.
No formal statements have been issued by either party and suggestions of the reason varied: The UK Guardian, which frequently carries stories emanating from MacKenzie said it was "understood that Mr MacKenzie, who for 13 years edited the Sun, felt that the American investors 'did not know how to work with creative executives'" whilst the Times, owned by News International, one of the largest shareholders in the Wireless Group, put the reason as "a disagreement over financial incentives."
The group has confirmed that other potential bidders have now expressed interest in a bid and also that it was happy for MacKenzie to try and find other backers. In a statement it said, "The company today announces that discussions regarding this proposal have now ceased, solely as a result of the cessation of discussions between Kelvin MacKenzie and his potential private equity backer. The independent directors (Keith Sadler, Stephen Davidson, and Patrick Cox) have authorised Mr MacKenzie to continue discussions with other potential investors."
It continued, "In addition, since the announcement made on February 14 [about Mr MacKenzie's plans], the company has received expressions of interest from other parties who are considering a possible offer for the company, and the company is in ongoing discussions with such parties."
"No proposal has been submitted by any such parties and there is no certainty that any of the current discussions (including those involving Mr MacKenzie) will lead to an offer being made for the whole of the share capital of the Wireless Group."
Tipped as a possible opposition bidder to MacKenzie is the UK Chrysalis Group, which needs to grow to stave off a potential bid itself.
Wireless Group's shares, which had risen in expectation of a possible fight for the company, fell 3.74% on Wednesday to end at 90 pence - the price offered in the MacKenzie bid - and those of Chrysalis rose 0.71% to 176.50 pence.
The Guardian also reported that the consortium led by Labour peer Lord Alli that is bidding for SMG-owned Virgin Radio has been talking with The Wireless Group about merging their advertising sales operation if its takeover bid succeeds according to the UK Guardian.
The bid is currently being resisted by the SMG board, which considers its GBP 100 million (USD 190 million) offer too low, but Alli's consortium is now making direct approaches to shareholders in an attempt to by-pass them (See RNW Feb 17).
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Previous MacKenzie:
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UK Guardian re collapse of bid:
UK Guardian re advertising deal:
UK Times re collapse of bid:
2005-02-24: Chicago now has six program director vacancies with the resignation of news-talk WLS-AM operations director Michael Packer.
Packer said he wanted to "take some time off with my family and explore future options" when he announced the decision but according to Robert Feder of the Chicago Sun-Times, insiders say he jumped before he could be pushed following the appointment of John Gallagher as president and general manager of the Disney-ABC-owned station.
Feder says WLS ratings were fine during Packer's tenure but he was not popular with most of the station's hosts and was blamed for morale problems. Packer had moved the station to the right, losing most of its liberal voices, and Feder says Gallagher had a different vision for WLS's future direction.
Previous Disney:
Previous Feder:
Chicago Sun-Times - Feder column:
2005-02-24: The already-delayed launch of XM satellite radio's XM3 satellite was halted around seven minutes before lift-off on Wednesday after Sea Launch identified what it termed an "out-of-specification condition on the launch vehicle.
It is now to be re-scheduled for some time from Friday onwards.
Previous XM:
2005-02-24: The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has now given a formal go-ahead to the Quebec station swap between Astral Media and Corus Entertainment that it approved last month subject to the acceptance by the two of conditions relating to local programming (See RNW Jan 22).
It says both companies have now filed their formal assent thus allowing the deal to be completed.
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2005-02-24: Howard Stern's fans may be legion - well, an estimated 15 million a week - but when it comes to paying the Sirius satellite subscription rate to receive it, 44% said no and only 7% yes according to a survey just issued by Bridge Ratings that covered 1857 listeners in the Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego markets between the start of November last year and the end of January this year.
Bridge had been conducting a service in the markets to find the depth of interest in taking Sirius as a result of the jock's planned move and called back listeners who had voted him their favourite morning show personality during its normal weekly listener surveys.
Nearly three quarters of those called (74%) said they knew of the host's move to Sirius in January next year compared to 21% who did not know and 5% of don't knows.
When asked if they would be interested in subscribing to keep on listening after Stern moves, 22% initially said yes with 37% saying no and a further 41% undecided.
Once costs were explained to them, only 39% had said they were aware of the costs with 49% unaware and the remaining 12% unsure, the number expressing a firm interest plummeted as noted to 7%.
RNW comment: Doing some quick sums and assuming that the 7% of an actual Stern audience of 15 million did move, this would add 1.05 million subscribers for Sirius. That would add a potential USD 163 million in revenues if they all paid the full current subscription rate of USD 12.95 a month and total USD 815 million over five years if they all remained. Stern would of course, collect around USD 500 million of this, leaving USD 315 million to cover all other costs.
It thus seems that the figure Stern is getting is pretty good but not necessarily out of kilter with reality if Sirius can successfully market the service as Stern plus Sports plus…
It still doesn't convince us that satellite radio is a good investment at current stock prices but it certainly makes a case that both companies could both survive and prosper.
We rather think that it would be a sensible move for each of them to co-operate in developing receivers that can receive both services and possible even offer a discount, as they already do in various family and other plans, for a subscriber with one service who wishes to add the other.
That way they develop the market overall, something that we think would probably be better in the long term for both the companies and potential listeners.
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Previous Stern:
Bridge Ratings web site:
2005-02-23: In a further move to make itself a natural home for sports fans, Sirius Satellite Radio is to take over the satellite radio rights to NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc.) races from XM starting in 2007 under a five-year USD 107.5 million deal that will see it create a special NASCAR channel.
The deal marks the first major switch of content from one US satellite radio company to another.
The channel will broadcast all NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races live and Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin commented, "We're thrilled that NASCAR has chosen to move to Sirius… This decision places Sirius on track to become the content leader in all of radio, and we believe it will be an important driver of subscriber growth and advertising revenue. Our 24/7 NASCAR channel will super-serve NASCAR's 75 million fans nationwide in a way that's never been done before. In addition to the races, Sirius will take fans behind the scenes for inside news and bring them exclusive shows featuring their favourite drivers. It will be the ultimate NASCAR lifestyle experience."
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France responded, "Sirius is the sports leader on satellite radio, and sports programming is a leading reason subscribers choose Sirius. When you combine NASCAR's growing popularity with Sirius' commitment to bringing the best in sports to its subscribers, it's easy to understand why we made this move. We believe that our partnership with Sirius will offer the best possible experience to NASCAR fans nationwide."
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2005-02-23: US broadcasters are likely to test Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadcast indecency regulations in the courts through a test case to be brought as early as next month according to the Los Angeles Times.
The paper notes complaints of inconsistency in enforcement of the rules and quoted Washington communications lawyer Kurt A. Wimmer as saying, "I think the government is more vulnerable to an indecency challenge than they've ever been before."
The case would be the first to be brought by a broadcaster since the 1978 case over Pacifica's broadcast in 1973 of comedian George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television."
The broadcasters argue that indecency laws are vague, and thus unconstitutionally restrict free speech and also claim the restrictions are unfair because similar rules do not apply to areas such as cable, satellite and the Internet.
The Times reports that industry lawyers who are spearheading the possible legal action say they are focusing on two promising cases, both TV ones - the reprimand to NBC over singer Bono's use of the description "fucking brilliant" of his 2003 Golden Globes Award win and a USD 1.8 million of fines levied against Fox TV and affiliates in relation to a "Married by America" episode that showed digitally obscured nudity, men in underwear being spanked by two strippers and whipped cream being licked off the chest of a woman.
In relation to the reprimand, which was issued by the Commissioners after its own staff had said there was no violation [RNW comment: As we have noted a number of times before, going by the published FCC guidance this broadcast certainly did not contravene the regulations] and the paper says the lawyers, who requested anonymity, said they were considering making an argument that the FCC was driven more by public outcry than by an application of federal rules.
The paper says the lawyers may try to appeal directly to federal courts to by pass the FCC's lengthy administrative procedures and would hope that this would lead to the speeding up of future hearings.
Andrew Schwartzman, president of Washington watchdog group the Media Access Project, told the paper, "Ordinarily it is very hard to get a court to agree to hear something if you haven't exhausted your administrative remedies. But here I think the argument can be made that [broadcasters] are being deprived of a fundamental constitutional right."
FCC officials said they expected an eventual legal challenge and John Cody, an aide to outgoing FCC chairman Michael K Powell said, "There's no question that the courts are going to bring clarity one way or the other."
RNW comment: As time as gone by, although we ourselves would have not have been greatly upset by many of the shows about which complaints have been raised or not have tuned to them in the first place, we have come to the conclusion that the puritans of the US Christian right will never be satisfied without major censorship of US broadcasting.
We thus rather hope that a test case will be brought, go the Supreme Court and end up with the FCC being forced to define any rules much more clearly so as to bring out their true nature. We still believe societies have a right to restrict material on public airwaves but would prefer any such restriction to be kept to an absolute minimum and spelled out so clearly that those making over-restrictive rulings can be duly mocked and hopefully over-ruled in due course by a public reaction against them.
Along with President Bush we think the use of the remote control or off switch is the answer in most cases.
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Los Angeles Times report:
2005-02-23: Aided by acquisitions, Cumulus has reported final quarter 2004 revenues up 12.7% on a year earlier to USD 84.4 million and those for the full year up 13.5% to USD 320.1 million.
Net earnings were more than doubled in the final quarter, up from USD 4.90 million to USD 9.85 million (from 7 to 14 cents a share) and for the year was up more than six-fold from USD 5.04 million to USD 30.37 million (5 cents to 43 cents a share).
Adjusted EDITDA was up 18% to USD 28.18 million for the quarter and up 14.6% to USD 102.06 million for the year with station operating income up 19% in the quarter to 32.45 million and 14.9% for the year to USD 102.44 million: Same station revenues were up 4.1% in the quarter to USD 71.87 million and 4.9% for the year to USD 275.33 million whilst pro-forma revenues were up 3.6% to USD 83.92 million for the quarter and up 4.2% to USD 322.83 million for the full year.
Chairman, President and CEO Lew Dickey commented, "Q4 was a solid quarter that capped a strong year marked by substantial EBITDA and free cash flow growth."
Looking ahead, Cumulus said it expected pro-forma net revenues for the first quarter of this year to by up 3-4% on a year ago.
Previous Cumulus:
Previous Dickey:
2005-02-23: Latest Australian radio ratings, the first for the year, show Macquarie's Sydney talk station 2GB remaining top in Sydney and pulling ahead whilst its Southern Cross Broadcasting-owned rival 2UE remained fourth but lost a little ground.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ABC 702 pulled up from third to second despite losing share, swapping places with DMG's Nova, whose share fell even more. Austereo's 2-DAY FM pulled back some listeners and overtook its Triple M station.
In the Sydney breakfast race Alan Jones for 2GB took his top-rank share up from 14 to 16.2 whilst second-ranked Angela Catterns of ABC 702 fell back from 12.2 to 11.5: Mike Carlton for 2UE took his share up from 9.4 to 9.8.
In the following morning slot, where Jones is now competing against his former 2UE colleague John Laws for an hour before Ray Hadley takes over, 2GB took its share up from 12.2 to 13.3 and 2UE retained second rank but fell back from 11.0 to 10.8.
Below them Mix FM knocked Nova out of third rank, moving up from seventh as it share went up from 7.8 to 9.4 whilst that of Nova dropped from 10.5 to 9.3, putting it into fourth rank.
Afternoon drive saw Triple M move into top rank from a third-rank tie with its share up 10.2 to 10.6 whilst Richard Glover for ABC dropped from top rank to second although his share was up from 10.4 to 10.5: In third place was MIX, up from sixth as its share jumped from 8.7 to 9.8 taking it above Nova, which dropped from a third-rank tie with 10.2 to fourth with 8.9.
In Melbourne 3AW not only kept the lead but gained an additional 2.4% share helped along by major news stories such as the Asian tsunami with particular success for Ross Stevenson in the breakfast slot: Stevenson took his share up from 17.9% in the previous ratings to 21.4%, streets ahead of second ranked ABC 774 with 13.6%.
The Melbourne Age quotes an unnamed manager from a rival as saying, "It's quite an extraordinary result, it's phenomenal, it just doesn't happen. That's worth a lot of money to AW... the bu