January 2006 Archive
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February
2006 - 
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 previous relevant story. Regarding external links see note at end of page.
RNW January comment - - Looks at where digital radio is, where we'd like it to go and is very disappointed by HD if the samples on iBiqity's site - much worse than good quality FM on a UK site - are anything to go by.
RNW December comment - - Our look back at 2005.
RNW November comment - -Concludes that radio should get the core audio right rather than worry too much about adding video.
2006-01-31: The Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) has demanded that CBS Radio apologize and also reprimand host Adam Carolla, who took over Howard Stern's slot on KLSX-FM (Free FM) in Los Angeles and whose show airs in ten West Coast cities, for mocking Asians and says that unless action is taken it will "be forced to ask advertisers to withdraw their support of his show."
The call follows comments made on his show last week in which, says the AAJC, Carolla referred to the Asian Excellence Awards - which honour Asian Americans in media who have made a difference in the United States - as a joke and repeatedly used the sounds "ching-chong" in recreating a segment of the awards, which were actually done in English.
AAJC president and executive director Karen K. Narasaki said in a statement on the organization's web site, "Adam Carolla demeaned the work of Asian American actors, directors, and producers and perpetuated the stereotype of Asian Americans as foreigners."
Previous Carolla:
Previous CBS:
AAJC statement:
2006-01-31: Withdrawn bids on Monday outweighed new bids in monetary terms and led to the total for provisionally winning bids in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auction 62 of 171 FM construction permits falling for the first time over a day - it ended at USD 54,457,500 at the end of Round 57, down from Friday's Round 49 total of USD 56,353,825 million.
The total rose initially to USD 56,663,750 at the end of Round 50 but then the Round 51 withdrawal by Visionary Related Entertainment, LLC of a USD 799,000 bid for a permit in Kihei, Hawaii, started the process of falls with the total at the end of the round down to USD 55,778,950.
After that the total moved marginally up again to end round 52 at USD 55,855,300 before the pattern continued - the low point for the day was at the end of Round 55 when the total was USD 54,211,400 after Kemp Communications, Inc. pulled out of a USD 773,000 bid for a permit in Parowan, Utah.
In terms of the range of bids, the lowest provisionally winning bid listed is now of USD 15,000 - from Horizon Christian Fellowship for a permit for Yakutat, Alaska - on Friday the bid for the licence, then the lowest provisional winning bid was USD 8,900 from Horizon, which has been competing for the licence with Radio Layne LLC.
At the top end there were no changes - the highest bid is still that from A & J Media LLC for a permit for Indian Wells, California, followed by an unchanged bid of USD 5,251,000 from Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. for a permit for Satellite Beach, Florida. These are followed by the same four bids between USD 2 million and USD 3 million and the same ten bids between USD 1 million and USD 2 million.
Previous FCC:
Previous FCC Auction 62:
2006-01-31: In the first such deal in UK commercial radio in a decade, the National Union of Journalists has been awarded union recognition at UTV-owned Signal Radio, Stoke-on-Trent.
The award came through the Government's Statutory Recognition procedures and is to be followed by negotiations of the details of how union recognition will work in practice.
Paul McLaughlin, the NUJ's National Broadcasting Organiser, said in a statement, "This is tremendous news. We look forward to a positive working relationship with UTV Radio. This right of recognition paves the way for similar formal arrangements with the players within the industry as we continue to address the issues faced by our members."
Simon Humphreys, the Union Father of the Chapel for Signal Radio, added, "We are absolutely delighted with the outcome. We feel it is a step in the right direction especially for journalists in Independent Radio News rooms across the country. UTV have recently taken over and we are already seeing the benefits of new owners. We are hoping this can strengthen our relationship as our Company moves forward."
Previous UTV:
2006-01-31: Chris Chapman, currently the Chief Operating Officer of specialist funds management activities at Babcock & Brown Limited, is to become the inaugural chairman of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Announcing the appointment for a five-year period Australia's Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan said Chapman had "relevant and diverse skills in broadcasting and telecommunications, as well as extensive legal, financial and management expertise " and added, "His significant experience will assist ACMA as it faces many challenges in the next few years from the rapid technological changes taking place in television, radio and other forms of the media."
Coonan also paid tribute the ACMA's current Acting Chairman Lyn Maddock, who will return to her role as Deputy Chairman when Chapman takes up his post.
Chapman himself commented that he was "delighted to be joining an organization that has already established an impressive platform in a very short period of time. I'm also obviously pleased that the Minister saw the depth and variety of my broadcasting, on-line and telecommunication experiences as a key attraction."
His "media related" experience includes a spell as CEO of Excite@Home Australia Pty Limited, chairman of Film Australia Limited and Director of the Australian National Film and Sound Archive and various post at Australia's Seven Network including the position of COO and Acting CEO.
Previous ACMA:
Previous Maddock:
2006-01-31: Radio One Inc and REACH Media, the parent company of the "Tom Joyner Morning Show", has announced that a joint venture, "Syndication One" has launched nationally syndicated news/talk shows which include the Rev. Al Sharpton, author Michael Eric Dyson and Atlanta's Doug & Ryan Stewart's "The '2 Live Stews".
Premiere Radio Networks will be the authorized sales representative firm for each of the radio shows, which form part of the new venture's aim of developing African-American targeted programming.
Radio One president and CEO Alfred C. Liggins, III said in a release, This type of programming is long overdue. We are filling a huge gap and are offering radio affiliates an opportunity to broaden their audience appeal and providing advertisers another way to reach the African-American consumer. This new slate of programs exemplifies our continued effort to expand our content and product offerings."
The were launched on Cox Radio's black-oriented, news-talk station WPSB-AM, Birmingham, Alabama, and Radio One's WILD-AM, Boston; WERE-AM, Cleveland; WCHB-AM, Detroit; WROU-AM, Richmond, Virginia, and WOL-AM, Washington, DC.
Previous Joyner:
Previous Liggins:
Previous Premiere Networks:
Previous Radio One Inc:
2006-01-31: The BBC has announced that after ten years in the role Simon Hoggart is to step down as chairman of the Radio 4 News Quiz programme after the next series, which will begin airing a week on Friday (Feb 10).
The show started in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman after which Barry Took and Hoggart each chaired the series in the 80s.
Hoggart, who became resident chairman in 1996, said in a statement issued by the BBC, "It's been a marvellous ten years - 12 if you count a previous incarnation in the 1980's - but I'm getting a bit clapped out and jaded, and I think that's beginning to show.
"Better to quit while still ahead rather than have kindly broadcasting executives accompanied by soothing nurses drag me out by the heels in a few years' time."
Previous BBC:
2006-01-31: International satellite radio operator WorldSpace has announced that it has entered into new lock-up deals covering all shares held by chairman and CEO Noah Samara and other members of its senior management and also some shares held by directors and some of its significant shareholders.
The new deal runs to the end of this year and covers in all 34.1 million shares including 4.1 million shares of Class A Common Stock, 17.4 million shares of Class B Common Stock controlled by Samara, and 12.6 million shares of Class A Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options.
WorldSpace says that the arrangement effectively extends until the end of the year the lock-ups that were entered into in connection with its Initial public offering and that ran to the end of January this year.
It adds that Samara is expected to exchange his Class B stock for an equal number of shares of Class A stock that will be listed on The NASDAQ National Stock Market but will remain fully subject to the new lock-up.
In addition it says a total of 2.5 million shares that were subject to the IPO lock-ups but which will not be subject to the new lock-ups will become tradable on January 31, 2006; an additional 1.0 million option shares held by employees which would otherwise become tradable on January 31, 2006 are tradable solely, in accordance with Company policies, at periodic windows of which the next is in March 2006; and 3.9 million further shares or option shares which will not be subject to the December 31, 2006 lock-ups, but which are subject to other contractual or securities law restrictions extending past January 31, 2006, will become tradable at various times between August 2006 and January 2007.
Previous Samara:
Previous WorldSpace:
2006-01-30: It seems to us more an example of British, primarily English eccentricity, innumeracy and exaggeration in the "papers", and the composition and nature of the BBC Radio 4 audience than a matter of radio as such but there was one dominant radio-related story last week as far as the UK media was concerned: That was the announcement at the start of the week that the station is to drop the UK Theme medley of folk tunes with which it has started its programming for 33 years (See RNW Jan 24).
As we reported (See RNW Jan 25) most of the initial comment on the station message board was against the change albeit not overwhelmingly so: Since then three motions have been introduced into the House of Commons about the matter, two sponsored by MPs from the ruling Labour Party and one by an MP from the opposition Conservative Party and comments opposing the idea have come from various prominent politicians including the Chancellor (Finance Minister) Gordon Brown.
Despite reports in virtually all of the "broadsheets" - in fact now down to just two since other papers have adopted smaller or tabloid formats - and some of the "red tops" (more populist tabloids for want of a better shorthand) and much publicity on radio and TV, the number of petitions on the main web site opposing the change was only 13,300 when we last checked, around 0.14% of the station's weekly audience of some 9.6 million, hence the comments on the innumeracy or exaggeration implicit in the cover under such headlines as "Radio 4 listeners furious over axing of theme tune."
That report, from Tom Leonard in the Daily Telegraph, spoke of a "revolt" by listeners, the BBC being "inundated" with complaints and the setting up of a web site to Save the Theme.
The story was still getting run in the Sunday papers with headlines that in some cases plain contradicted each other for reasons we can only suggest might be to do with the prejudices of editorial policy or to a vacillating controller - time will of course reveal which.
In the Sunday Telegraph the headline on a report by Chris Hastings and Catherine Humble was, "Radio 4 head refuses to restore UK Theme tune" and the report said that despite the petition Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer had told it the station had an obligation to "evolve" and had ruled out a reprieve.
In the Independent on Sunday, however, the headline over a report by David Randall was "Early-bird medley may still rule the airwaves" and it suggested a "faint glimmer of hope" for the Theme in comments from Damazer who, it said, had told it, "At the moment we have not done it. It is therefore a kind of hypothetical in the sense that it has not even happened yet and therefore I won't speculate in any particular direction about it."
Apart from filling newspaper space directly the issue prompted various side-bar items including one of interviews by Genevieve Roberts and Sarah Harris in the Independent whose headline particularly attracted our attention.
Under the heading, "Wanted crimes against broadcasting", the paper ran a double-page feature giving various BBC Radio 4 listeners the opportunity to comment on their "Turn offs" and "Turn ons" from the station.
Amongst those commenting some of the most trenchant comments came from BBC Radio 3 presenter Andy Kershaw who said he welcomed many of the changes including the new "Profile" programme, thought "Feedback" should be on all year, valued and admired "File on 4", "Analysis" and "The Moral Maze" but added that the "consumer dross must die" and presented a hit list including "Money Box" and "Money Box Live", "The Now Show", "Quote Unquote", "Excess Baggage", "the endless consumer twitterings of 'You and Yours', the smug and inconsequential 'Midweek', and 'Woman's Hour', which has two basic assumptions running through it: firstly, all men are bastards; and secondly, all women are mesmerized by their own reproductive organs."
Others quoted included the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown who was fairly politic ("I have always seen the "UK Theme" as one of the symbols of Britishness and the celebration of British culture. It is for the listeners to decide and I know they are making their voices heard."), and BBC "Today" presenter John Humphrys who would defend You and Yours and had no strong feeling about the Theme but added he would "rather suspect lots of the people banging on about it now (certainly some of the politicians) have probably heard it half-a-dozen times in the past 50 years and they're jumping on to bandwagons."
For those interested in more detail of the UK Theme, the Independent also ran a feature by Ciar Byrne on the "Tales behind the UK tunes" that are included in it.
Probably the best comment on the matter came from a Malcolm Slade on the BBC Radio 4 message board: "Sir - Tony Blair chips away relentlessly at our most fundamental liberties and we respond with a bored shrug. Mr. Damazer suggests dropping a few minutes of music from Radio 4's early-morning schedule and all hell breaks loose. Have we got our priorities right?"
After a UK "issue" that gained massive publicity about the nature of a British radio channel, over to Canada for comment on former shock-jock André Arthur who's managed to get elected to the Canadian parliament.
In a commentary in the Toronto Star, Nathalie Petrowski, a columnist with La Presse, shows that some Canadians can be pretty direct in their attacks.
Terming him a "loudmouth and cantankerous cowboy" she notes that Arthur had stood twice before in federal elections - "He did it for fun, knowing he didn't have a chance."
"He expected the same thing this time around," she continues, "and was quite surprised to defeat the Bloc Québécois candidate who kept calling him a clown. He did so without a campaign office, a political program and campaign signs. To be honest, Arthur didn't even campaign, proving in the end that a clown and a bad joke can sometimes go a long way."
And commenting on his style and capabilities, she continues, "He has a great radio voice and speaks an impeccable French spiced with a rich vivid vocabulary. He can be funny (if you're not his victim). He's not obsessed with sex like Howard Stern. But like Stern, he's faced loads of lawsuits, including one from ex-Quebec prime minister Daniel Johnson and his wife Suzanne Marcil, on account of his mean tongue and habit of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story, if not a good insult…He has called one female minister of the PQ (Parti Québécois) the lunch of another minister. His nickname for Andrée Boucher, the newly elected, colourful mayor of Quebec City, is Alice Cooper. His favourite adjectives when talking about the political class include stupid, idiot, nitwit, jerk and mental midget. That's when he's in a good mood. When he's not, words like bitch, bastard, pig, scum of the earth and rotten swine pour out of his nasty microphone."
And of him as an MP: "One good thing about the election of the King as an independent MP is that he will no longer have a radio show and very few chances to get up and speak his mind in the House. But he doesn't care. The national media will be waiting outside, ready to lend him a mike."
On now to suggested listening and first BBC Radio 3 and yesterday's "Drama on 3", a dramatization of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire" by Sony Award-winning playwright Robert Forrest.
Also from the weekend we'd suggest "The Invisible Man" on BBC Radio 2, a documentary about Rod Temperton, a name little known to the general public as opposed to his work - he wrote and arranged among other songs, Thriller, Give Me the Night, Boogie Nights, Always and Forever, and Off the Wall.
Then Radio 4 and in the 15:45 slot starting on Monday the BBC resumes transmission's of Christopher Lee's series, "This Sceptred Isle: Empire", picking up from the first series in 1783 with the loss of the American Colonies - and what happened to those Americans who had remained loyal to the Crown. In all there are 60 episodes to come - one tranche from today until March 10 and then the final series from May 8 - taking things up to 1947 and Indian Independence. Fortunately the Listen Again feature means they can be picked up for a week after the transmission, allowing listening to a group in a block.
From Australia, we suggest another series, the time Radio National's eight-part "The Wire" in the "Night Air" slot that looks at the effect of electricity on music and began a week ago (The first and second programmes are now available as MP3s on the site).
And also from Radio National a week ago, the "Ockham's Razor" programme in which Dr Max Kamien, Emeritus Professor of General Practice at the University of Western Australia, talked about the history of the blood thinning drug Warfarin - discovered after it was found that cattle were dying of internal bleeding after taking in mouldy silage made from sweet clover and named after the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) with the ending because the anti-coagulant was found to be the coumarin derivative 4-hydroxycoumarin - and discusses whether dentists should stop a patient's Warfarin therapy prior to dental extractions.
Then back to the UK and BBC Radio 4 for this week's "Great Lives" at 16:00 GMT on Friday: Nominated by DJ Annie Nightingale this week the subject is the late comedian Marty Feldman, who was a scriptwriter until John Cleese convinced him to go in front of the camera.
And finally back to ABC Radio National and last week's Religion Report that, in the light of the current furore about Iran possible developing nuclear weapons, asked whether the Muslim, Christian and Jewish Apocalyptic traditions are all feeding off one another?
The introduction seems to us a reasonable start to the programme:" The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed el Baradei, recently said that he looked forward to a time when having nuclear weapons will be like owning slaves. It's a brilliant analogy, because it reminds us of all those 18th century founding fathers, like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who were opposed to slavery as long as they didn't have to give up their own slaves. How many nations with nuclear arms as a deterrent are in exactly the same position?"
Previous Columnists:
Toronto Star - Petrowski:
UK Independent - Byrne:
UK Independent - Roberts and Harris:
UK Independent on Sunday - Randall:
UK Daily Telegraph - Tom Leonard:
UK Sunday Telegraph - Hastings and Humble:
2006-01-30: DMG Australia's Adelaide station 5AA has told host Bob Francis he is not to drink alcohol on air following an outburst in October last year that the Adelaide Sunday Mail quotes sources as saying cost it "around AUD 60,000 ( USD )" to settle a defamation lawsuit launched by a magistrate who was the butt of the comments.
The Mail says that Francis may still be charged with contempt of court after the comments in which he described a decision by magistrate Gary Gumpl to hear a bail application for a man charged with possessing child pornography and lists of primary school children as "irresponsible" and went on, "Am I here as a normal bloody human being or do judges live in another world?" he said on air on October 26. Oh, smash the judge's face in."
Francis, says the paper, was apparently unaware that a magistrate is required under Australian law to give due consideration to all bail applications. It adds that a criminal charge of inciting violence against a judicial officer was also being considered, but is unlikely to be proceeded with.
Gumpl, who would not give details of the settlement, had refused bail in the case after first saying he wouldn't consider it until he received a full psychiatric report and commenting, "The allegations are bizarre and very strange, and I think the question of child protection has to be paramount to this case."
He said the incident had caused him considerable "stress and hardship" and he was pleased it had been finalized and added, "For all its faults, our judicial system is one of the best in the world. It should not be devalued just for the sake of ratings."
Francis, who said 5AA general manager Paul Bartlett approached him about drinking on air after the Gumpl incident, commented, "They thought it would be a better idea if I didn't drink while on air. There is no hassle with that, I'm not an alcoholic. Over the years I've occasionally taken a bottle into the studio and had a drink and talked about wine on air. Now I don't talk about wine and I drink water and enjoy it. It's no big deal."
Bartlett told the paper, "It has been settled and, as far as we are concerned, we have put it behind us. Bob Francis is on air, he has a new contract with the station and we hope he will be an outstanding success this year, as he always has been".
Francis was also in hot water in September last year after an exchange in which said to an elderly woman who had phoned his show, "…bloody, you're a dick brain. See you later you bloody stupid old lady …" and when she responded that he was "so rude" replied, "You're a stupid old … You are a stupid old lady. Goodbye!" Shortly after that he was inducted into the Australian Radio Hall of Fame.
Earlier 5AA had been found to have breached Australian codes by broadcasting an edition of the Bob Francis Show which was likely to have incited or perpetuated hatred against or vilified Aboriginal people on the basis of their race and also by failing to respond to the complainant's written complaint about the broadcast (See RNW June 16, 2005).
RNW comment: For once we regard the action taken against a station in a positive light albeit our preferred solution as always would be proper corrections on air rather than damages: In our view it would have been far better had the courts been able to order Francis, under pain of a contempt citation each time he refused, to start every hour of his show every day for a month with an apology, explanation of the law and brief summary of the facts of the case. In his case making him add that he had officially been found to be a "dickbrain" might have been a worthy ending - the audience would presumably be keen to see what emphasis he put on reading this and his comments that would have to follow a factual statement showing up his prior ignorance or wilful rabble-rousing in the comments he made.
Previous DMG:
Adelaide Sunday Mail report:
2006-01-30: London-headquartered RadioScape has announced that is expecting further major contracts in China where it is leading the adoption of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and has already installed systems at Beijing Jolon Digital Media Broadcasting, Shanghai Oriental Pearl (Group), and Guangdong Yue Guang Digital Multimedia Broadcasting.
The DMB services for both audio and mobile TV will be on air by the second quarter of this year and RadioScape CEO John Hall commented, "We have worked closely with the major Chinese broadcasters over the past 2 years in the development of their plans for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. Our unique expertise in both broadcast and receiver technology for DAB and DMB has been critical. It is very rewarding now to see these efforts come to fruition as China finally switches on live services across several major cities."
RadioScape's Product Manager for Digital Radio Infrastructure Nick Banks added, "Now these influential broadcasters have selected Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) over competing technologies such as Satellite DMB (S-DMB), DVB-H and Media FLO, we expect there to be a general adoption of T-DMB technology in China."
Banks said a key ingredient for RadioScape was its ability to provide both broadcast and network monitoring systems and its portable Field Monitoring Receiver, which was used in major trials by broadcasters in the three provinces, allowed them to determine the actual performance of their DMB network and compare with the predicted performance to make their network planning significantly easier.
The decision to adopt T-DMB is a significant boost for the DAB system and WorldDAB's Asia Pacific Officer Murphy Wu commented, "The Asia Pacific region is a major growth area for Mobile TV. We are very excited to see that China has chosen to use DMB, a technology based on the proven DAB standard, for its first commercial services. This is a huge potential market for both broadcast systems and handsets which could dramatically accelerate the global take off of DMB."
Previous Hall:
Previous RadioScape:
Previous WorldDAB Forum:
2006-01-29: Last week was again fairly quiet for the regulators with the main news from the US FM auction 62 but nothing from Australia and only a fairly small number of routine announcements from Canada, Ireland, and the UK.
From Canada, as noted there were some radio related decisions and actions from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was involved in a number of routine radio including (in order of province):
Manitoba:
*Administrative renewal until August 31 of licence of community-based campus radio station CKUW-FM, Winnipeg.
Quebec:
*Administrative renewal until August 31 of licence of French-language commercial station CJMS-AM, Saint-Constant.
*Denial of application by CIEU-FM, Carleton, to relocate transmitter CIEU-FM-1, Paspébiac and increase its power from 33.8 watts to 86.5 watts, which would change its status from low power unprotected to a protected service. The licensee indicated that the demolition of its transmitter site in Paspébiac because of safety concerns made this application necessary but the commission noted a 1993 denial of an application to operate a transmitter in Gascons, on the grounds that this would have extended CIEU-FM's coverage eastward into the area served by commercial radio station CHNC-AM, New Carlisle, and that this application would result in the Paspébiac market not being served adequately and could have a significant financial impact on CHNC.
Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories:
*Approval of addition of 10 watts transmitter in Tsiigehtchic, Northern Territories, for CHON-FM, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
The CRTC also added one item to the agenda for its meeting on March 20 in Quebec, an application to relocate the transmitter, decrease its antenna height and increase the power of CFEL-FM, Montmagny, Quebec.
The commission notes that the change would significantly shift the station's coverage area to include part of Quebec City and the surrounding areas and that as a result it could be considered as serving the Quebec City market, including Lévis and Montmagny.
In Ireland the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) announced the award in principle of three more community radio licences plus two TV community licences and also advertised the Limerick broad-format FM licence, currently held by Limerick 's Live 95FM whose contract expires in October next year. (See RNW Jan 27).
The UK was even quieter with Ofcom's only radio related announcements being to extend the licence area of Burgess Hill, Sussex, station Bright FM and publishing its latest Broadcast Bulletin in which it upheld two complaints against radio (See RNW Jan 24).
In the US, the net total bid in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction 62 reached some USD 56 million after Round 49 with provisional winning bids ranging from USD 8,900 to USD 6,657,000 (See RNW Jan 28). It also confirmed a USD 10.500 penalty on a Florida FM and reduced from USD 10,000 to USD 7,000 on financial hardship grounds another penalty on a Niagara Falls, New York, AM (See RNW Jan 25)
Previous BCI:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Ofcom:
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
Ofcom web site:
2006-01-29: BBC Radio Five Live has announced that Brian Alexander, best known as a sports editor on various national newspapers, is a host a new monthly feature in its weekday evening "Sport on Five" programme in the spring.
In it Alexander, who was the original presenter of the station's "Sportsweek", has more recently fronted flagship interviews for the station including one with British Prime Minister Tony Blair before the announcement from Singapore that London was to host the 2012 Olympics and also with FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) president Sepp Blatter and former Football Association Chief Executive Mark Palios after his resignation.
Alexander said of his role, "I spent my newspaper and early broadcasting days covering sport. This is a wonderful opportunity to immerse myself in the big issues of the day."
Previous BBC:
2006-01-29: In the fourth round of its current five-round FM licence auction, the Indian government received 116 bids for 68 licences for stations in western India, giving it around INR 99 crore (INR 990 million - a crore is 10 million - USD 22.4 million) in one-time entry fees.
The biggest bidders were Adlabs, which is controlled by Anil Ambani, and the Sun group's South Asia FM: In the first three rounds the government received around INR 640 crore (USD 145 million) for 164 licences sold from the 206 on offer.
In all the government is offering 338 FM licences in 91 cities.
Previous Indian Radio:
2006-01-28: Bidding in the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auction 62 of 171 FM construction permits on Friday moved up 3.7 % on Thursday's total of USD 54,365,100 to end the week at USD 56,353,825 million compared to USD 37,909,600 at the end of last week.
Provisionally winning bids now range upwards from USD 8,900 from Horizon Christian Fellowship for a permit for Yakutat, Arizona - an increase on its Thursday bid of USD 5,000 as it played leapfrog with Radio Layne, LLC - to an unchanged top bid of USD 6,657,000 from A & J Media LLC for a permit for Indian Wells, California., followed by an unchanged bid of USD 5,251,000 from Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. for a permit for Satellite Beach, Florida.
After that there are now four more bids above two million with an increase since Thursday only in the bid for a permit for Calhan, Colorado - up to USD 2,760,000 from Halfway Creek Broadcasting, Inc. which led on Thursday with a bid of USD 1,714,000.
There are now nine bidders between USD 1 million and USD 2 million with no changes amongst them.
Previous FCC & FCC Auction 62:
2006-01-28: Montreal station CKOI-FM says its drive time host Marc-Antoine Audette fooled French President Jacques Chirac into thinking he was Canadian Prime Minister designate Stephen Harper in the latest of a number of pranks the station has carried out.
According to a news release Chirac called back after the fake Harper had called an aide for a phone conversation and then discussed with Audette-cum-Harper several issues relating to Franco-Canadian relations. It adds that Audette offered the services of one of his colleagues as ambassador to France and that Chirac invited Audette-cum-Harper to visit France, to which Audette replied he intended to attend concerts by Quebecois singer Garou the next time he's in the country.
The interview said the release was to be aired in Montreal at 16:30 local time on Friday (too late for our deadline today).
*Update Jan 29 - When the broadcast was aired, it turned out that Audette revealed his identity at the end of the call and that President Chirac responded by laughing, saying he understood, and adding, "In any case, please know that my friendship for Canada and the new Conservative government is a real and unequivocal friendship."
Audette, who noted that it was the first call he and co-host Sebastien Trudel had made to a head of state - although they have hoaxed others in the past including real-estate mogul Donald Trump and Irish rock star Bono -said that as they thought Harper and Chirac had not spoken to each other they might as well give it a try.
During the conversation Chirac began by offering Harper congratulations on his victory and in response to a comment from Audette (Harper) about French newspaper portraying him in a bad light said, "You can't prevent newspapers from saying any old stuff. That's true in France and it's true in Canada."
2006-01-28: According to the Financial Times GCap Media is said to be close to finalizing the shortlist of bidders for the stations it is putting up for sale as part of a decision to concentrate on five areas (See RNW Nov 25, 2005).
The paper says that Ulster Television, which took over the Wireless Group, and The Local Radio Group, are understood to have made the short list but Absolute Radio and Austereo are waiting to find out if they have made it through to the second round: In December last year the UK Guardian reported that GCap wanted to sell the stations in one deal and said Absolute Radio had confirmed its interest in buying the stations, UTV and The Local Radio Company had said that they would consider any stations on sale, and also tipped another Australian company, Macquarie Bank as a likely bidder (See RNW Dec 2, 2005).
Previous GCap Media:
2006-01-28: Emmis has announced completion of the sale of four more of its TV stations - of KOIN-TV, Portland, Ore.; KHON-TV, Honolulu; KSNW-TV, Wichita, Kansas; and KSNT-TV, Topeka, Kansas - for USD 259 million to Montecito Broadcast Group, LLC.
The sale means that Emmis has now sold 13 stations and still owns and operates three- KGMB-TV, Honolulu; WVUE-TV, New Orleans; WKCF-TV, Orlando, Florida.
In another completion, Salem has announced that it has now closed on the USD 10 million acquisition WTLN- AM- and WHIM- AM, serving the greater Orlando, market, from Alton Rainbow Corporation and TM2, Inc.
The deal was originally announced in October last year (See RNW Oct 22, 2005) and both stations remain in their Christian Teaching and Talk format
Another acquisition in the market, of WORL-AM through a station swap with James Crystal Broadcasting (See RNW Sep 8, 2005) is still to be completed.
Previous Emmis:
Previous Salem:
2006-01-28: The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) has called on Clear Channel's KFI-AM to reprimand morning host Bill Handel for mocking the deaths of several hundred Moslems during the Haj pilgrimage earlier this month.
CAIR has posted on its site an MP3 of the comments made on January 12 in which he calls the stampede "an annual event" and gives details of some deaths in recent years and then says, after being told there had been 345 deaths, "What they need is sort of 'Mahmoud Nolan in the Sky' to control all this." (A reference to Mike Nolan who does the traffic report for KFI from his helicopter.)
The following comment, with a heavy accent, goes: "This is Mahmoud Nolan. Hajj in the Sky. There is an accident...Ali lost his sandal on the on-ramp to the Martin Luther King, Jr. freeway..." after which Handel comments, " . . .that's our annual stampede report from the Hajj, which we do every single year right here on KFI, and thank you to Mahmoud in the Sky."
CAIR adds that Handel has a record of making Islamophobic remarks and carries a link to an incident in March 2004 that led to an on-air apology by Program Director Robin Bertolucci - not Handel himself (See RNW Mar 18, 2004) - after complaints were filed with Clear Channel and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about a skit in which Handel claimed that Muslims have sex with animals, avoid bathing and are obsessed with killing Jews, referring among other things to "hairy Iraqi women, the "infidel custom of bathing on a regular basis," and "civil unions" between Iraqis and "loving camels and goats." (See RNW Mar 17, 2004).
RNW comment: We can but assume that Handel's ratings mean that Clear Channel think it's good business to air him and that there must be a fairly large number of the thoughtless or bigoted amongst its audience. We wonder what would have happened had Handel claimed that many members of other religions - never mind all of them - had sex with animals or regarded it as against their religion to bathe regularly. He might have got away with such references to Hindus, Sikhs, or Buddhists but we suspect he wouldn't get away with making the comments about Christians or Jews. Perhaps he should try it - professional suicide maybe but at least it would be equality in bigotry and clearly then a matter of free speech!
Previous Clear Channel:
CAIR - 6.1 MB MP3 of audio:
2006-01-28: In what it is claiming to be the first such deal in North America, Corus Entertainment's AM 640 Toronto Radio - CFMJ-AM, the former MOJO station, is to air traffic reports from Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) traffic expert and safety spokesperson Sgt. Cam Woolley who will move from being ground-based to using the station's helicopter.
640 AM already uses the helicopter for its traffic reports and Woolley had been the OPP's public face and voice for traffic reports.
Woolley will do rush-hour reports, interspersed with safety tips every ten-minutes in the morning and afternoon, that will air on 640 plus Corus's FM stations Q107 and Q102.1 and Woolley commented, "Instead of selling goods or services on the radio, we're now going to be selling safety", adding that he would also alert officers on the ground if he spots aggressive drivers such as high speeders and shoulder runners although enforcement is the "primary objective."
Under the deal, for which no charge is being made by Corus, the helicopter may be diverted away from traffic duties for other police operations such as a hostage taking or search and rescue and information from Woolley will be sent to the OPP's communication centre in Aurora where all other radio stations will be able to obtain the same information and alert their listeners.
Previous Corus:
Toronto Star report:
2006-01-27: Bidding in the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auction 62 of 171 FM construction permits moved up 5.8 % on Thursday to USD 54 million with a little more change in the high ranks than yesterday and the lowest bid increasing from USD 3,700 to USD 5,000.
At the end of the day (Round 43) the Provisional Winning Bid net total was USD 54,365,100, up from Wednesday's Round 37 total of USD 51,389,325.
Provisionally winning bids ranged upwards from an the USD 5,000 noted - from Horizon Christian Fellowship for a permit for Yakutat, Arizona - an increase on the Wednesday bid of USD 3,700 from Radio Layne, LLC to an unchanged top bid of USD 6,657,000 from A & J Media LLC for a permit for Indian Wells, California.
There then no changes in the further three bids above USD 2 million that we listed on Tuesday (See RNW Jan 25) and only one change after that list in the bidders between USD 1 million and USD 2 million; ; there are now 11 such bids with the addition of a bid of USD 1,714,000 from Halfway Creek Broadcasting, Inc. for a permit for Calhan, Colorado - up from its Wednesday's bid for the permit of USD 967,000.
The other ten bids between USD 1 million and USD 2 million are unchanged from Tuesday.
*This is a corrected version as we originally posted in error a story based on Round 42, the penultimate round on Thursday, when the total was up 4.2% to USD 54,002,875; the lowest bid - still for Yakutat, Arizona - was of USD 4,500 from Radio Layne, LLC and the new bid above USD 1 million listed in Round 42 was of USD 1,558,000 from Shamrock Communications, Inc. for a permit for Calhan, Colorado.
Previous FCC & FCC Auction 62:
2006-01-27: A study by Bridge Ratings of Los Angeles' morning radio indicates that Howard Stern's departure has been a significant blow for CBS Radio's Free FM (KLSX-FM) whose share as their "favourite" station amongst the 25-54 demographic is down from 4.1 in December under Howard Stern to 1.9 under his replacement Adam Carolla.
Among stations that seem to have gained from the change are CBS's Alternative KROQ-FM's Kevin and Bean - up from 5.3 to 5.8 and Adult Hits KCBS-FM - share up from 3.3 to 3.8; Clear Channel's CHR/Pop KIIS -FM where Ryan Seacrest's morning show is up from 3.1 to 3.6; and ABC Radio's \Classic Rock KLOS-FM whose share is up from 4.5 to 4.9. Bridge also notes increases in the 06:00 to 10:00 period for Clear Channel's talk station KFI-AM that features Bill Handell followed by Rush Limbaugh.
The results were compiled by Bridge from its own research with a sample of 3300 listeners.
RNW comment: Bearing in mind that Carolla generally got favourable reviews for his show whilst David Lee Roth in New York and Rover (Shane French) in Chicago generally negative ones, it would seem a reasonable deduction that CBS's woes range wider than the West Coast unless the reviewers are totally out of touch with the listening public.
Previous CBS:
Previous Bridge Ratings:
2006-01-27: GCap Media's Classic FM has signed former Hear'Say singer Myleene Klass to host its two-hour Sunday morning 07:00 show. She takes over on February 12 from former boy soprano Aled Jones, who is moving to the BBC where he is to present a variety of programmes this year including the Radio 2 weekly "Good Morning Sunday" show that he took over on January 15, the weekly BBC Radio 3 Sunday evening show "The Choir" that he began on January 8 and also editions of BBC Radio 2's "Friday Night is Music Night" and Radio 3's "Performance on 3".
Klass, a classically-trained pianist, signed a five-album deal with Universal Classics and Jazz after Hear'Say broke up but following her change of agents. It was announced in 2004 that she would not be releasing further albums through Universal. In September last year she made her debut on the Saturday morning CD:UK TV show.
In another UK radio weekend move, Colin Murray, who co-hosts the BBC Radio 1 afternoon show with Edith Bowman, is to host the BBC Radio 5 Live Saturday morning Quiz show "Fighting Talk", taking over from Christian O'Connell who began as the new Virgin breakfast host at the start of the week. Murray, a Liverpool FC supporter, will host his first show on February 4.
Previous BBC:
Previous GCap Media:
Previous SMG (Virgin owner):
2006-01-27: The US-financed Alhurra TV service and Radio Sawa, operated by "The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc." (MEBN), are reaching 71% of Iraqi's 15 and older each week according to figures the organization has just released: Alhurra, which ranks fifth amongst TV stations that can be viewed in Iraq - the leading stations are Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Al-Iraqiya (each with 71 percent weekly reach) and Al-Sharqiya (67 percent weekly reach) - was said to reach 43% of Iraqis each week.
It says that 73% of Alhurra's viewers and 63% of Sawa's listeners considered their news broadcasts to be reliable.
MEBN says the results based on over 2,000 face-to-face interviews.
Previous Radio Sawa:
2006-01-27: The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has announced the award in principle of three more community radio licences plus two TV community licences.
The radio licences awarded went to Community Radio Castlebar (CRC FM) for a service covering Castlebar Town and Environs; to Connemara Community Radio for a service covering North West Connemara; and to Dublin South FM for a service covering South Dublin.
The licences are the first awarded in a three phased plan for the re-licensing of community and community of interest services in Ireland.
The BCI has also advertised the Limerick broad-format FM licence, currently held by Limerick 's Live 95FM whose contract expires in October next year.
Expressions of interest will be assessed in terms of the quality, range and type of programmes proposed and, in particular, the extent to which the service will be of relevance to listeners in Limerick City and County and in the context of the diversity of services available in the area.
Previous BCI:
2006-01-26: Bidding in the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auction 62 of 171 FM construction permits moved up 5.1% on Wednesday to top USD 50 million but there was again no movement at the top and bottom end.
At the end of the day (Round 37) the Provisional Winning Bid net total was USD 51,389,325, up from Tuesday's round 31 total of USD 49,642,925. Provisionally winning bids ranged upwards from an unchanged USD 3,700 from Radio Layne, LLC for a permit for Yakutat, Arizona to an unchanged bid of USD 6,657,000 from A & J Media LLC for a permit for Indian Wells, California.
After this the second-ranked bid was also unchanged - of USD of 5,251,000 from Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. for a permit for Satellite Beach, Florida as were all three following bids above USD 2 million and all the
ten further bids above USD 1 million.
Previous FCC & FCC Auction 62:
2006-01-26: UK Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) chairman David Elstein has told its annual meeting that former Wireless Group chairman and chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie would have "inflicted disaster" had he succeeded in his campaign to have the UK diary RAJAR ratings system replaced by an electronic ratings system (from GfK) that he was pushing.
Elstein added that as it is "the damage done to our trading currency by one rogue station group will take much time and effort to repair".
MacKenzie, who's group was subsequently bought by UTV (See RNW May 10, 2005) is no longer involved in radio but when with the Wireless Group he ran a campaign against RAJAR's system that eventually went to court where at the end of 2004 (See RNW Dec 17, 2004) the group lost a claim for damages to the business -the diary system showed much lower ratings for its talkSPORT station than the GFK ratings.
The Wireless Group was ordered to pay RAJAR's costs and MacKenzie threatened further legal action should RAJAR fail to introduce electronic measurement system by thee target date it set of 2007 for the introduction of a new measurement system.
RAJAR subsequently continued tests of various systems and in July last year, following its earlier tests, issued an invitation to tender for a revised specification system (See RNW July 12, 2005).
Elstein commented, "We want to incorporate electronic measuring into our research process, but if we had tried to do so at the time advocated by Kelvin, we would have inflicted disaster on our industry. The new devices currently being tested are far more advanced than those he sought to impose on us. Yet even when we and the BBC have chosen the best of them and persuaded the advertising industry of their robustness and accuracy, we will still be the first radio industry in the world to deploy widespread electronic measurement."
Previous CRCA:
Previous Elstein:
Previous RAJAR:
UK Guardian report:
2006-01-26: International satellite radio company WorldSpace has reported adding 40,000 bet subscribers in its final quarter to take its total above 115,000, an increase said by chairman and CEO Noah Samara to demonstrate "that we are delivering on our plan to drive subscriber growth in India."
"The value proposition of our offering is being validated by growing the demand for our service," he added. "We look forward to continue building on our success in 2005 and we are extremely excited about our plans to expand our service throughout India and other focus markets."
In India, where it making its biggest push, the company has announced the appointment of Shishir Lall as managing director of operations to replace Deepak Varma, who will now manage business development activities.
The company has also appointed Stephen Horn, who will be based at WorldSpace's Silver Spring. Maryland, headquarters, as chief marketing officer.
Previous Samara:
Previous WorldSpace:
2006-01-26: According to the New York Daily News, CBS Radio's New York replacement for Howard Stern, former rock star David Lee Roth, is annoying staff at Free FM, formerly K-Rock.
It quotes unnamed sources as saying Roth and his manager Matt Sencio, "are totally out of control and out of their league when it comes to producing a radio show," and that Roth is "impossible to work with."
One source says the paper commented, "All the execs know they made the two biggest errors in radio history - letting Stern go to Sirius and hiring this moron Roth. He never preps for a show. He is out the door five minutes after the show, unless he is 'forced' to record a commercial or re-record ones he made errors on."
The paper says the station declined to comment and messages went unreturned.
RNW comment: In the end it'll boil down to ratings, unless Roth is actually looking to quit anyway. If the ratings are terrific, others will have to put with him and if they're louse he won't last. Certainly reviews so far tend towards indicating the latter as the most likely.
Previous CBS:
New York Daily News report:
2006-01-26: India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi has told the BBC Hindi Service that news and current affairs programmes will be barred from private FM stations in the country for at least two or three years after which the issue would be re-examined in light of the stations' conduct in the interim.
"Let us first wait and see what content would be offered by these stations for the next two to three years and then we would think about the next step," he said, adding, "We are presently not allowing news and current affairs programmes on private FM radio stations, as it is better to delay it so that no wrong information goes on air rather than trying to control the damage afterwards, which won't be easy", he told listeners from across the globe."
Contrasting radio with TV, where people in rural communities were more interested in entertainment than news, Dasmunsi commented, "…the fact with radio is that the news broadcast on it is considered the last word and has unmatched credibility. Therefore it is our duty to see that the news being broadcast on radio is correct and does not provoke any section of the society. Our challenge is greater than any other country. We cannot compare ourselves with any other country in the world, as first of all we have to keep our country united. Nowhere in the world so many language and dialect channels are there. The US, Britain, France none of them have so many languages and channels…"
Dasmunsi noted in defence of the policy recent riots in Gujarat, commenting that it was "only after the AIR (State run All India Radio) said peace was returning to the state, people were really relieved. So, it is an issue of content. It is not possible to liberalize news and current affairs immediately after having allowed private FM stations."
Dasmunsi said that monitoring of private FM stations would be carried out by the stations themselves under a mechanism to be developed and the government would only step in after breaches, adding that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government did not believe in regulation and control of media.
Previous BBC:
Previous Indian Radio:
2006-01-25: Bidding in the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auction 62 of 171 FM construction permits moved up 5.7% on Tuesday to just below USD 50 million but there was no movement at the top and bottom end.
At the end of the day (Round 31) the Provisional Winning Bid net total was USD 49,642,925, up from Monday's round 25 total of USD 46,818,975. Provisionally winning bids again ranged upwards from an unchanged USD 3,700 from Radio Layne, LLC for a permit for Yakutat, Arizona.
At the top end there was no change in the five bids above USD 2 million - A & J Media LLC's bid of USD 6,657,000 for a permit for Indian Wells, California; Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. bids of 5,251,000 from for a permit for Satellite Beach, Florida and of USD 2,739,000 for a permit for Lynn Haven, Florida; ABC Media, Inc.'s bid of USD 2,602,000 for a permit for Columbia City, Florida and Ace Radio Corporation's bid of USD 2,234,000 for a permit for Yarnell, Arizona.
There was little movement in the next ten bids that each topped USD 1 million with only one increased - the bids were United Booking Associates, Inc.'s unchanged bid of 1,970,000 for a permit in Vale, Oregon; JAB Broadcasting, LLC's bid of USD 1,904,000 for a permit for McFarland, California - up from Shamrock Communications, Inc.'s bid of USD 1,075,000; George S Flinn III's unchanged bid of USD 1,690,000 for a permit for Saltillo, Mississippi; Big D Consulting, Inc.'s unchanged (since last Thursday) bid of USD 1,684,000 for a permit for Nanakuli, Hawaii; Tower Investment Trust, Inc.'s unchanged bid (since last Friday) of USD 1,634,000 for a permit for Flagstaff, Arizona; Cumulus Licensing LLC's unchanged bid of USD 1,606,000 for a permit for Brandon, South Dakota; Fine Arts Broadcasting' s unchanged bid (from Tuesday last week) of USD 1,255,000 for a permit in Bristol, Vermont; Randall C Wright's Unchanged bid of USD 1,200,000 for a permit for Eldon, Missouri; Paskvan Media, Inc's unchanged bid of USD 1,075,000 from for a permit for Blackduck, Minnesota and Porter Hogan Company's unchanged (from Friday) bid of USD 1,020,000 for a permit for Hailey, Idaho.
The FCC also rejected a request for the postponement of the auction from Fireside Media, which is asking for relief from withdrawal payments incurred as a result of its withdrawal of high bids during the Commission's previous FM auction (Auction No. 37).
Fireside had claimed that the has "no rational basis" for assessing withdrawal payments upon Fireside in the absence of "wrongdoing or misconduct" by it during Auction No. 37 and claims that holding the auction as scheduled will cause it irreparable harm because it would be denied its right to seek reconsideration of its bid withdrawal payment obligation.
The FCC firmly rejected the request, noting that the start of Auction 2 had been delayed from November 1 to January 12 because of the impact of Hurricane Katrina, that Fireside had not filed an application to participate in Auction 62 and had only made its request on January 10 and that should the permits - Fireside had placed high bids that it withdrew on four permits, three of which were then unsold in Auction 37 - that remained unsold attract bids equal to or higher than Fireside's in Auction 62 no penalties would apply.
In other actions the FCC has been collecting payments via the enforcement bureau with one penalty of USD 10,500 and another of USD 7,000: The first was levied on GB Enterprises Communications Corp., licensee of WHNR-FM, Winter Haven, Florida, for failure to enclose its antenna structures within effective locked fences and failure to maintain a complete public inspection file.
The second penalty was levied on M.J. Phillips Communications, Inc., licensee of WJJL-AM, Niagara Falls, New York, for use of excessive power; its failure to have fully operational Emergency Alert System ("EAS") equipment; its failure to monitor, test and log the tests of its EAS equipment on a regular basis; and its failure to register its antenna structure.
It was reduced from USD 10,000 to USD 7,000 on the basis of financial hardship - Phillips had already been refused a reduction on these grounds once but had subsequently provided federal income tax returns from 2000 to 2003 inclusive to support the claim.
The FCC is also reported to be about to take enforcement action over indecency complaints after no such penalties in 2005 following settlements that had already been made with companies including Clear Channel, Viacom and Emmis: Broadcasting and Cable says it has received confirmation that it has initiated action relating to a number of TV complaints and action on radio complaints is to follow soon.
Previous FCC & FCC Auction 62:
2006-01-25: Former Quebec radio host André Arthur, whose comments in conjunction with those of host Jean-Francois Fillion , led to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) refusing to renew the licence of Genex Communications' Quebec City station CHOI-FM (See RNW Jul 14, 2004), has won a seat in the Canadian Parliament as an Independent.
Arthur, whose contract was not renewed and whose last show was before Christmas, beat Bloc Quebecois incumbent Guy Cote in the Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier riding, north of Quebec City, in the Canadian elections that also saw Heritage Minister Liz Frulla - a former TV host, radio executive and member of the Quebec National Assembly who had ruled that CHOI could not appeal the decision to the country's federal government (See RNW Aug 1, 2004) - lose her seat.
Conservative Bev Oda, a former schoolteacher who was worked with various Canadian TV companies and was a CRTC commissioner from 1987 to 1993, is tipped to succeed her.
When it refused renewal of the licence, CRTC had said the station's morning show had featured "offensive comments, personal attacks and harassment" and that the station had failed to comply with Canadian regulations as well as the station's Code of Ethics, adherence to which is required by one of its conditions of licence.
CHOI was allowed to continue on air while Genex pursued appeals (See RNW Sep 2, 2005) and later sought leave to appeal to Canada's Supreme Court against a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal that upheld the CRTC decision (See RNW Nov 2, 2005).
The station was critical of the Parti Québécois and Quebec's left-of-centre political consensus but it is not expected that the defeat of the Liberals by Canada's Conservatives will affect the legal proceedings.
The station has said that should it lose in the courts it will re-apply for the licence and it could potentially benefit from the change in government.
After his election Arthur, who will be the only Independent MP when Parliament resumes in spring, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) he was ready to be a "common sense" voice in the Parliament, adding, "I think it's quite a challenge, and I think that all things considered, this is quite fun" and saying that during the campaign people told him told him "how fed up they are with rotten politics, and the disrespect they get from the political parties."
He also said he plans to keep his job as a part-time bus driver and may even look for another radio post.
Previous Arthur:
Previous CRTC:
Previous Genex:
CBC report:
2006-01-25: Arbitron has reported final quarter net income up 16.2% on a year ago at USD 11.2 million (from 31 cents to 36 cents per diluted share) on revenues up 3.3% to USD 75.3 million with full year revenues to December 31, 2005, up 4.5% to USD 310.0 million producing net income up 11.1% to USD 67.31 million (from USD 1.92 to USD 2.14 per diluted share).
President and CEO Stephen Morris commented that despite continuing challenges for the industries it served the company was "able to increase our revenue and our earnings in 2005, all while investing in our Portable People Meter-based growth initiatives" and added, "These initiatives - deploying the PPM as a local market ratings system and developing the Project Apollo market research service - both made significant progress in terms of marketplace acceptance in 2005."
He noted that a number of national and regional advertising agencies - accounting for nearly 70 percent of the national ad dollars spent on radio - had signed PPM contracts and said, "It's a significant start in our effort to gain a critical mass of industry support for deploying the Portable People Meter as a local market radio ratings system. At the same time, we continue to work with Nielsen Media Research as they consider a potential joint venture with the Portable People Meter."
He also noted success in Arbitron's Project Apollo, saying it had reached the goal of installing 5,000 households for the pilot panel in mid-January and adding that six advertisers, who spend more than USD6.2 billion for advertising on measured media, have signed or are in the process of signing agreements for the Project Apollo pilot panel data.
Looking ahead Arbitron is projecting 2006 revenues up between 6% and 8% with earnings per share between USD 1.65 and USD 1.75 compared to USD 2.14 in 2005 - the 2005 figure would have been USD 1.99 but for a USD 4.7 million tax benefit recognized in 2005.
The 2006 figures it says include the anticipated impact of the required expensing of stock options that commenced on January 1, 2006 of approximately USD 8.5 million - some 17 cents per diluted share - and takes into account the expected substantial expenditures in 2006 for the commercialization of the Portable People Meter and for Project Apollo.
In the first quarter it expects revenues to rise between 6% and 8%, earnings per diluted share between 50 cents and 52 cents compared to 63 cents for the first quarter of 2005 including an impact from stock option expenses of some USD 3.5 million (7 cents per diluted share).
The PPM also got a boost this week from an analysis of its trial in Philadelphia by Harmelin Media that concluded that its deployment will dramatically increase the audience reach of advertisers as it showed an increase in actual listenership for every demographic ranging from 13% to 118%.
Harmelin Director of Research Bernie Shimkus said that the analysis "conclusively demonstrated" that radio's reach far exceeded previous perceptions meaning that radio could be used in more types of advertising campaigns.
Pierre Bouvard, president of Arbitron's PPM division who last month was appointed to the post of Arbitron's president, Sales and Marketing (See RNW Dec 23 2005) said the study showed that "better measurement means better radio - for advertisers, for stations and for listeners."
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Bouvard:
Previous Morris:
2006-01-25: Following its decision to axe the UK Theme on BBC Radio 4 in April (See RNW Jan 24) most comment - albeit not massively so - on the station's message board has been against the decision and at least two petitions have been launched for a reversal but the numbers so far are insignificant compared to the station's weekly audience of some 9.6 million in the most recent ratings.
The BBC said it had received around a hundred complaints, one of the petitions had attracted more than 200 and another had attracted only a dozen.
BBC Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer defended the decision on the station's breakfast "Today" show as "on balance it's best way of serving the audience at half-past-five in the morning."
Ingrid Frances Spiegl, widow of Fritz Spiegel who composed the theme spoke of the brief for the tune and said she would obviously miss it …" It's one of my connections with Fritz"… and defended the composition.
Some of the comments on the site were strong saying Damazer should be ashamed of himself and didn't care about the audience, many defended the music, and others expressed dislike of it, one commenting, "It is an appalling piece of music to wake up to. The sooner it is ditched, the better. Bah Humbug!! "
Previous BBC:
Previous Damazer:
BBC Radio 4 audio of Today show item (Real Player available until Sunday).
BBC Radio 4 message board:
Save the Radio 4 Theme Tune Petition site:
Save the Radio 4 Theme Tune co.uk site:
2006-01-24: Reuters, which last week was tipping Entercom and private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as the final two bidders for Disney's ABC Radio, has now reported that unnamed sources tell it that Citadel Communications is in exclusive negotiations over a purchase that could be priced at nearly USD 3 billion.
It adds that the two companies will negotiate details of a deal over the next few weeks adding that Disney wants to structure any sale as a "reverse Morris Trust to make it tax efficient, which means that the ABC Radio assets would be split off and then merged into Citadel, giving Disney shareholders ownership of at least half of the new company."
Wall Street marked Citadel shares down 5.04% on Monday to USD 12.25 following news of the deal whilst Disney was down 0.78% to USD 25.52 and Entercom ended down 0.17% at USD 30.9 on a day in which US stocks in general rebounded after a fall on Friday.
In other North American radio business, Toronto-headquartered Corus Entertainment has announced the completion of its tender offer and consent solicitation for its outstanding USD375.0 million aggregate principal amount of 8.75% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2012.
In all by the deadline of midnight last Friday it says a total of USD 373,646,000 - some 99.64% of notes outstanding - had been validly tendered.
Previous Citadel:
Previous Corus:
Previous Disney-ABC:
Reuters report:
2006-01-24: UK media regulator Ofcom in its latest Broadcast Bulletin upholds two radio standards complaints and also standards complaints against three TV programmes but no Fairness and Privacy complaints although it did consider one TV fairness and privacy complaint and standards complaints against six TV programmes resolved and listed a further seven TV complaints that were not upheld.
This compares with no radio complaints upheld, one TV standards complaint upheld and a TV fairness privacy case partly upheld in the previous bulletin that also listed details of three TV fairness and privacy complaints not upheld.
The radio complaints upheld were against Capital Gold and talkSPORT, the former relating to the use of the word "cunt" during a phone-in discussion on the Alex Belfield programme on the topic of teenage pregnancies.
Belfield was vociferous in his condemnation of an individual and young, single mothers in general and used expressions such as "dirty little tart" and "dirty little slapper" and two callers who considered his views to be obnoxious, were heard referring to him as a "cunt".
Parent GCap Media had apologized for any offence to listeners and fully acknowledged that the presenter's comments had been inappropriate and unacceptable: It assured Ofcom that this matter had been taken very seriously and said the phone-in element was suspended for the rest of the programme that evening and internal measures had since been put in place to address the issues raised by the broadcast.
Ofcom acknowledged the action taken but said the presenter's handling of the discussion was seriously ill-judged and the broadcaster should have taken appropriate steps to prevent callers from using such language live on air
In the talkSPORT case Charlie Wolf referred to a young American woman, who was killed by a military bulldozer while protesting in the Gaza strip, as "scum" leading to complaints.
The broadcaster, now owned by UTV, accepted that the comments were inappropriate but said that he had also expressed sympathy - saying, "I have a lot of compassion that the poor girl died. What I don't have compassion for is that she died of her own stupidity" - and had allowed a caller to challenge his comments and put the view that she was a peaceful demonstrator.
Ofcom said that within the context a presenter was entitled to put the view that actions like the young woman's were misguided but "to use such an extreme term as 'scum' to describe the woman was not justified in a discussion focusing on a peaceful demonstration in a war zone and was seriously ill-judged."
Ofcom also listed with no details a further 109 complaints against 100 items that were rejected or held to be out of remit compared to corresponding totals of 152 complaints against 127 items in the previous bulletin.
These included 11 radio complaints relating to 11 items and 98 TV complaints relating to 89 items compared to 18 radio complaints relating to 18 items and 134 TV complaints relating to 109 items in the previous bulletin.
RNW comment: Although we rather wish the callers to Belfield had chosen a better epithet - it would be nice to nail regulators down into publishing a list of abusive terms that are permissible in appropriate contexts rather than just the ones they consider unacceptable, the offence in the callers' attacks seems to us paltry compared to the offensiveness of the remarks made by both hosts. That, of course, raises the dilemmas of formal censorship of ideas, however arguably offensive, as opposed to words whose main offence seems to be to one of embarrassing people with sexual terms, a much easier target.
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Ofcom broadcast bulletin:
2006-01-24: Bidding in the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auction 62 of 171 FM construction permits topped USD 46 million on Monday, up 23.5% from the total at the end of Friday's bidding, although the top bid was unchanged.
At the end of the day (Round 25) the Provisional Winning Bid net total was USD 46,818,975, up from Friday's round 18 total of USD 37,909,600. Provisionally winning bids ranged upwards from USD 3,700 from Radio Layne, LLC for a permit for Yakutat, Arizona.
At the top end, A & J Media LLC's bid of USD 6,657,000 for a permit for Indian Wells, California was still unchanged as was the next highest bid of 5,251,000 from Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. for a permit for Satellite Beach Florida.
Below them the third highest bid was of USD 2,739,000 from Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. for a permit for Lynn Haven, Florida, up from the same company's USD 2,264,000 bid at the end of Friday followed by two more bids above USD 2 million - of USD 2,602,000 from ABC Media, Inc. for a permit for Columbia City, Florida - up from the Friday closing bid for the permit of USD 1,481,000 from Horton Broadcasting Company, Inc. and of USD 2,234,000 from Ace Radio Corporation for a permit for Yarnell, Arizona.
Another ten bids were above USD 1 million - of USD 1,970,000 from United Booking Associates, Inc. for a permit for Vale, Oregon, up from the same company's bid of USD 1,112,000 on Friday; of USD 1,690,000 from George S Flinn III for a permit for Saltillo, Mississippi - up from his bid of USD 1,154,000 on Friday; of USD 1,684,000 from Big D Consulting, Inc. for a permit in Nanakuli, Hawaii (unchanged from last Thursday); of USD 1,634,000 from Tower Investment Trust, Inc. for a permit for Flagstaff, Arizona (Unchanged from Friday); of USD 1,606,000 from Cumulus Licensing LLC for a permit for Brandon, South Dakota; of USD 1,255,000 from Fine Arts Broadcasting for a permit in Bristol, Vermont (still unchanged from Tuesday last week); of USD 1,200,000 from Randall C Wright for a permit for Eldon, Missouri - up from a Cumulus bid of USD 1,091,000 on Friday; of USD 1,075,000 from Shamrock Communications, Inc. for a permit for McFarland, California; of USD 1,075,000 from Paskvan Media, Inc. for a permit for Blackduck, Minnesota; and of USD 1,020,000 from Porter Hogan Company for a permit for Hailey, Idaho - unchanged from its bid on Friday.
Previous FCC:
Previous FCC Auction 62:
2006-01-24: The UK Guardian reports that the BBC World Service Trust has had to abandon an anti-AIDS campaign in Tanzania, where more than 2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS and 810,000 children have been orphaned by the epidemic, following a US government demand that it sign a formal pledge denouncing prostitution: The Trust had announced its participation in the campaign in June last year after signing a USD 4 million contract with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a three-year Aids campaign in Tanzania under which in partnership with Tanzanian broadcasters, the BBC was to produce radio dramas, phone-ins and public service advertisements to help prevent the spread of Aids.
The paper says that six months into the contract the US government terminated the project after tightening up on a requirement that organizations receiving US funds had to sign a pledge "explicitly opposing prostitution" and also to join the US campaign to promote sexual abstinence by stressing the failure rates of condoms. It adds that signing anti-prostitution pledge would have entitled US government officials to vet all the trust's projects worldwide for compliance with Washington's "morality" doctrine.
Caroline Howie, director of health at the trust and a former head of news at BBC World, who conducted talks with USAID, told the paper, "The more we discussed this, despite efforts on both sides, the clearer it became that there was no common ground. We reached the irrevocable position that we could not sign."
The Guardian says USAID officials are under pressure from Republicans in Congress to carry out the letter of the law that established the Bush administration's Aids programme and that although most development organizations funded by the US to carry out Aids work have reluctantly signed the anti-prostitution pledge Brazil's National Aids Commission last year halted a USD 48m US-funded project rather than sign, and the multi-billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros also told his Open Society Institute to refuse to sign and is challenging the pledge in the US courts on the grounds that it is "dangerous and unconstitutional".
The BBC is now to seek other sources of funding for its Tanzanian project.
RNW comment: We rather hope that European governments will step in with funding in this case as the US position on this matter is in our view an obscene combination in varying degrees of religious bigotry, domestic political pandering, arrogance, cultural insensitivity and ignorance, the kind of thing that more than "sort of irritated" us last weekend when First Lady Laura Bush' said in an interview with Sir David Frost on BBC World TV, "It is very important to talk about abstinence, especially in countries where girls feel they have to comply with the wishes of men. It sort of irritates me when I hear people act like abstinence is not a real choice because it is, and it is 100% effective."
Perhaps Mrs. Bush should be given a dose of being traded - an apt description of what often happens to poor African girls - to a man to whom she would be unable to deny sex or being married to a man to whom it is impracticable to deny sex , who is infected, and who refuses to use a condom.
For many women in many countries what she said is simply untrue and deserving of utter contempt as are all those supporting the US policy who refuse to examine the practicalities of efficacious action against AIDS, whether it be in terms of infection through sex or needles and instead prefer to inflict suffering on others to bolster their prejudices.
Previous BBC:
BBC report on Laura Bush interview:
BBC World Service release on AIDS agreement:
UK Guardian report:
2006-01-24: Three more advertising agencies have backed Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) system for radio planning and buying: Following earlier announcements by the company of support (See RNW Jan 17) the company says Houston agencies FogartyKleinMonroe, Love Advertising, and Mediagraphix Media Services, have signed a commitment to use the PM when it is deployed.
Arbitron notes that it has not yet made decisions regarding when and where the PPM is to be used and that it is evaluation use of the system in conjunction with Nielsen Media Research should the latter exercise an option it has to form a joint company for PPM deployment in radio and TV or to go it alone for use in radio if Nielsen opts out.
Previous Arbitron:
2006-01-24: BBC Radio 4 is to drop the "UK Theme" music with which it starts the day and one of the two pieces of music with which is precedes the shipping forecasts - the other is "Sailing By" - under changes to its early morning schedule announced by its controller, Mark Damazer.
In place of the current 05:30 start to Radio 4, which broadcasts BBC World Service programmes overnight, the station will go on air with its own programming at 05:20 with an extended Shipping and In-shore Waters forecast followed at 05:30 with News Briefing - to include headlines, a newspaper review, business and sports news - and a look ahead to the stories likely to develop during the day.
The five-minute UK Theme, composed by the late flautist Fritz Spiegl, has opened Radio 4 broadcasts since 1973: It interweaves folk music from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, starting with "Early One Morning", switching to "Rule Britannia", changing to "Danny Boy" - combined with "Annie Laurie" then "What will we do with the drunken sailor?" - combined with "Greensleeves", "Men of Harlech" - combined with "Scotland the Brave", and finally back to "Early One Morning" and "Rule Britannia".
The music preceding the shipping forecasts has been regarded by many sailors and fishermen as advance notice of the forecasts although with the advent of more sophisticated services is of less importance nowadays and Damazer commented in a BBC news release, "I know there are some people who will regret the passing of the UK Theme but I believe the bulk of the audience will be better served by a pacy news briefing, read by one of Radio 4's fine team of news readers."
He said of the new bulletin, "We should be able to build on the information service we now provide at 5.30 and the 'look ahead' is a new ingredient."
After the News Briefing the station will continue to broadcast its current 5.43 "Prayer for the Day" and 5.45am "Farming Today" programmes followed at 06:00 with the breakfast "Today" programme to 09:00 on weekdays; and with its 5.45 Feature repeat, 6.00 News and Weather and 6.10 Open Country on Saturdays before Today picks up at 07:00.
On Sundays Bells on Sunday replaces Prayer for the Day at 05:43 as now to be followed by the current schedule of World Report at 05:45 then News at 06:00 and Something Understood at 06:05 to 07:00 -- the Today show is not broadcast on Sundays.
BBC Asian Network Controller Bob Shennan has also announced a revamp of the service on weekdays under which Sonia Deol takes over the Breakfast programme, Anita Rani takes over the 09:00 to Noon phone-in programme, and Nikki Bedi moves from drive to a 12.30 to 16:00 afternoon show. Further changes are to be announced and the network plans to start the new schedule in the spring.
Previous BBC:
Previous Damazer:
Previous Shennan:
Sterling Times - Audio of UK Theme:
2006-01-23: After a week in which the major US radio players started pushing their HD secondary channels, we felt we had to concentrate on this as a topic in looking at comment on radio, and to start off with Gary Krakow's column on MSNBC.com in which he published various responses to a column he had written about HD.
Most of the responses seemed to have come from those who had already bought satellite radio and he says that many of them missed his point because they concentrated on content - his column had commented on the technical quality of a particular receiver and also said he thought "the possibility of new, varied programming channels might give satellite radio services a run for their money."
Krakow says he agrees that terrestrial radio cannot compete with satellite offerings when it comes to choice and notes that in some places fans of particular genres have nowhere to go but satellite, and quotes Jeff Gruenhut who wrote, You miss the whole point about satellite radio. It's less about the "sound quality" and much more about the CONTENT."
In similar vein Bevin Hooper wrote, "The lure of satellite radio (I am an XM subscriber) is not the quality of the broadcast. IT'S THE CONTENT! I get scores of music channels that play the exact genre when I feel like listening to it ... WITHOUT COMMERCIALS!!"
Krakow added, "That said, I think HD radio is in the exact same place where satellite radio was five years ago... One of the promises of HD radio is multicasting, which means more channels and hopefully, eventually, more content choices. Also, note that for now, most of the current HD feeds are coming from non-commercial stations, so much of this content is also commercial-free…
Whether the giant corporations who ruined and currently run most of our radio stations will get it right going forward is another story. But for now, I'm excited about HD's promise of new and diverse programming over our current AM and FM bands - and all without having to pay a monthly fee."
Others took up the issue of regulation of terrestrial content with Charles P. M