October 2006 Archive
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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 October comment - asks "Who is responsible for the state of radio?" today and comes up with no simple answers.
RNW September comment - following the announcement that Arbitron is to rate non-commercial stations wonders about its effect on US talk radio, indicates we'd like intelligent talk but asks if it would it "rate" with advertisers?
RNW August comment - looks back at what we thought in 2000 was ahead for the industry and how far we got it right.
2006-10-31: US radio giant Clear Channel has reported third quarter revenues up 7% on a year ago to just under USD 1.8 billion with net income of USD 185.9 million, up 8% before discontinued operations and down 9.5 % overall reflecting the spin off of its entertainment unit: Per share income was unchanged at 38 cents per share a result of its buy-back programme.
In divisional terms, outdoor revenues were up 8% to USD 720 million; radio revenues were up 5% to USD 962 million and other revenues were up 10% to US 143.5 million: Clear Channel also noted that its revenues were boosted by around USD 14.4 million by foreign exchange movements during the quarter.
Clear Channel, as it had said it would, made no comment on the possibility of going private, but CEO Mark Mays said of the results, "We are one of the best performing companies in the media industry. Our healthy fundamentals and solid growth highlight the superior positioning of our assets and the emerging benefits of our concerted investment strategy."
In terms of various activities Mays added, "We are capitalizing on our diverse portfolio of out-of-home media properties to meet the shifting demands of the global media marketplace. Our radio division once again outperformed the industry, demonstrating the strength of our brands in connecting with our audiences. Our outdoor division continues its track record of robust growth, posting considerable revenue gains year-over-year… Looking ahead, we continue to maintain strong operating momentum and we are hopeful that we can continue to convert our revenue gains into profitable returns for our shareholders."
President and CFO Randall Mays, President and Chief Financial Officer, added, "We generated strong results in the third quarter, demonstrating the scale and operating leverage in our business model. Even as we continue to invest in our content and distribution assets to position our company to excel over the long-term, we are converting our revenue growth into profitable and tangible cash flows."
The results were roughly in line with expectations and Clear Channel stock, which had risen 10% last week amid speculation about it going private, ended Monday down 0.66% at USD 34.47 although they fell a little more in after-hours trading.
Clear Channel noted that it has now repurchased some 130.9 million shares of its common stock for USD 3.4 billion since announcing its repurchase programme in March 2004: It still has USD 18 million left of USD 600 million authorized for repurchases in March and last month authorized repurchases up to a further USD 1 billion in value.
Also reporting was Beasley Broadcast Group which said its net revenues for the quarter were down 3.1% to USD 31.1 million - for the year to date they are down 3.6% to USD 90.3 million - with operating income for the quarter down 18.5% to USD 6.4 million and net income down 37.1% to USD 2.4 million (from 15 cents to ten cents per diluted share).
Beasley said the income fall in the quarter primarily reflected lower revenues in Philadelphia and Miami and lower national advert sales, partially offset by improvements in Las Vegas and Augusta.
Same station revenues for the quarter - excluding KDWN-AM in Las Vegas which was acquired in August - were down 3.7% to USD 30.9 million.
Chairman and CEO George G. Beasley highlighted the gains in Las Vegas - "driven by our country station, which was re-programmed just a year ago" and in Augusta, "where we're also benefiting from a re-format" and also noted that the company had continued its share repurchases, buying approximately 317,000 shares in the third quarter.
For the fourth quarter Beasley is forecasting a net revenue increase on a year ago of 5% with same station net revenues to fall 2%. Its stock ended the day up 1.44% at USD 7.05.
Previous Beasley Broadcast Group:
Previous George Beasley:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Mark Mays:
Previous Randall Mays:
2006-10-31: BBC World Service and the British Council formally launched their tenth annual International Radio Playwriting Competition on Monday with entries having to be submitted by April 30 next year.
The competition - for which entrants who are new to radio are to submit an original 60-minute radio play on a subject of their choice - has no age limit and is open to people living outside the UK.
There are two first prizes, one for the best play by a writer with English as their first language, and the second for the best play by a writer with English as their second language. Each winner will receive GBP 2,500 (USD 4,750) and a trip to London to see their play being recorded for broadcast on World Service in the World Drama slot.
In addition there will be regional prizes of a digital or shortwave radio for the best plays submitted from Africa and the Middle East; Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, South Asia and Russia and the Caucasus.
Entry forms can be requested by post from the World Service Drama Department or through an e-mail to intradioplaycomp@bbc.co.uk
Previous BBC:
2006-10-31: UK media regulator Ofcom in its latest Broadcast Bulletin has upheld three radio fairness and privacy complaints against radio but no standards complaints and also upheld three TV standards complaints and one TV fairness and privacy complaint in part: It also gave details of its reasons for rejecting complaints against a BBC1 TV interview of Conservative Party leader David Cameron by Jonathan Ross that resulted in 251 complaints from viewers who objected to suggestive sexual references to Margaret Thatcher, and also the inclusion of strong language.
The radio complaints upheld all related to the Sikh religion and involved a programme on Akesh Radio, and complaints against Panjab Radio from two individuals, one of them from the presenter on Akesh Radio which was the subject of the complaint against that station- and vice versa in the complaint against Akash Radio.
In the Akash Radio complaint Dr Gurdeep Singh had complained of unfair treatment in an edition of a religious programme in which Akash Radio presenter Kulvinder Singh was interviewed and commented on allegations made against him by Dr Gurdeep Singh, who is a presenter on Panjab Radio.
Dr Gurdeep Singh had alleged, during his radio programme, that Kulvinder Singh breached a Sikh religious edict by taking a copy of the Holy Granth Sahib (Sikh Holy scripture) from a Gurdwara (Sikh temple) to a wedding hall where alcohol, meat and cigarettes were served and in the interview Kulvinder Singh challenged him to prove his allegations, made reference to Dr Gurdeep Singh's alleged involvement with the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat ("the RSS") organization and also referred to the punishment that should be given to Dr Gurdeep Singh if he failed to prove his allegations and that he (Kulvinder Singh) should receive if Dr Gurdeep Singh did provide proof of his allegations.
Ofcom said in this case that Dr Gurdeep Singh should have been given appropriate and timely opportunity to respond to criticisms of him.
In the first of the complaints against Panjab Radio, Akash Radio presenter Kulvinder Singh complained that he was portrayed unfairly in a two programmes that included comments that he should not be called "Giani" or priest; accused him of making money through the conduct of religious services; accused him of supporting an anti-Sikh organization. He further complained that the programmes unfairly accused Akash Radio, of advertising programmes concerned with magic and encouraged listeners not to listen to, or otherwise support, Akash Radio.
Ofcom found no proof of the complaint that Kulvinder Singh was accused of supporting an organization, anti-Sikh or otherwise but upheld the other complaints.
In the case of the second complaint, by Akash Radio managing director Sukhwinder Singh, the complainant said the Gurbani Vichaar programme portrayed both him and Akash Radio unfairly and did not allow him to present his side of the story in a radio phone-in discussion; that the Chardikala programme accused him of consuming alcohol, stealing money and of throwing parties for an anti-Sikh organization and that the Chardikala programme referred to Akash radio as an "unholy place".
Ofcom held that Sukhwinder Sing was unfairly treated and that Panjab Radio failed to take the special care required when broadcasting allegations that were capable of adversely affecting the reputation of the complainant.
In each case Ofcom ordered the stations to broadcast a summary of the adjudications [RNW comment: More fitting in our view would have been to have required them to broadcast the full adjudication that as posted on the Ofcom web site makes us wonder if the combined ages of the three involved reaches the age of majority.]
In addition to the above, Ofcom listed with no details a further 173 TV complaints involving 118 items and 24 radio complaints involving 23 items that it were out of its remit or not upheld. The totals compare with 110 TV complaints involving 95 items and 24 radio complaints involving 24 items that it said were out of its remit or not upheld in its previous bulletin.
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Ofcom Complaints Bulletin:
2006-10-31: "Jonestown", the controversial book on Sydney 2GB host Alan Jones written by Chris Masters and which was dropped by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is reported to have become Australia's biggest seller since Harry Potter.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that several Sydney bookshops ran out of supplies and quoted a spokesman for publishers Allen & Unwin as saying sales had been "fast and furious" and adding, "It is the biggest Monday sale and when you consider it is a AUD 49.95 (USD 38) non-fiction hardback it is extraordinary. There is considerable interest outside Sydney and NSW which is good as Jones is such a Sydney character."
Masters told the paper that some people in the ABC hoped "the book dies and I fall flat on my face" and also said he did not think the book would harm Jones, who is back on air this week after a trip to London last week, saying the host has "a very loyal following."
He did express some concern that he could become a target for Jones whose power he said came "not because he is respected, but because he is feared."
Previous Jones:
Sydney Morning Herald report:
2006-10-31: A "progressive" UK think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has called for a change in copyright laws to include a "private right to copy" that would allow users of iPod and other MP3 players to legally copy their CDs onto their players, a practice currently illegal.
It says the right would not cause significant harm to copyright holders but would reflect changes in the way people want to consume media.
IPPR deputy director Dr Ian Kearns said of the proposal, "When it comes to protecting the interests of copyright holders, the emphasis the music industry has put on tackling illegal distribution and not prosecuting for personal copying, is right. But it is not the music industry's job to decide what rights consumers have. That is the job of Government."
The report, "Public Innovation: Intellectual property in a digital age", also recommends that the government should also act to ensure that Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology does not continue to affect the preservation of electronic content by libraries, that the British Library should be given a DRM-free copy of any new digital work and libraries should be able to take more than one copy of digital work. It also recommends that circumvention of DRM technology should stop being illegal once copyright has expired and that the government should reject calls from the UK music industry to extend copyright term for sound recordings beyond the current 50 years that applies in the EU (The period is 95 years in the US and 70 in Japan).
Allied with the report the Institute gave details of a survey it conducted that showed that 59% of Britons thought it legal to make copies of CDs for personal use as opposed to 19% who thought it illegal and that 55% said they did copy CDs onto other equipment.
2006-10-30: Almost all the main comment on radio in print in the US last week seemed to concern Conservative hosts, whether it be those invited to the White House to provide a boost to the Republicans in the mid-term elections or Rush Limbaugh attacking Michael J. Fox because he had recorded adverts for candidates supporting stem cell research.
Limbaugh, who if he knew a hundredth of what he seems to think he knows, would probably be the most knowledgeable host in the US rather than a fairly ignorant and partisan Republican hack, came under considerable attack for his comments.
In particular he suggested that Fox was faking tremors as he delivered the adverts, commenting, "He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting."
The comments aroused so much ire that he issued a rare apology - or rather non-apology - saying according to a transcript on his Web site, "Now people are telling me they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial," Limbaugh said,. "All right then, I stand corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behaviour on this commercial as an act."
Enough however of the qualified apologies - we offer a similar one to Limbaugh if he can prove that he is not fairly ignorant and partisan Republican - and on to an attack on and defence of the host in a Baltimore Sun report by Nick Madigan.
On that attack side - not on Limbaugh personally we note but about his comments - his report included comment from Baltimore neuroscientist Elaine A. Richman who co-wrote "Parkinson's Disease and the Family" and who said of Fox's condition, "When people get that sick, they don't go out in public… He's faking his symptoms like I'm faking being short. (She is 5 feet, 1 inch tall.). "
Defending him, Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, said Fox should have expected criticism and commented - we note with reference to Fox's advert not Limbaugh's accusation of faking - "Michael J. Fox has stepped into a new political world when he starts appearing in ads that make very personal charges that Republicans oppose life-saving cures and thus favour people dying of debilitating diseases. To make a charge that personal and then not expect a backlash is either incredibly naive or remarkably cynical. He is now both a very sympathetic and a very polarizing figure."
He added if the advert that it was a "shameless, uncivil, unproven and a very personal attack" but went on to say Limbaugh "needed to apologize for not realizing that Fox's symptoms have become quite severe."
And the bottom line from two in the business: First Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio who commented, "I doubt that his core audience thinks he's gone over the line. Rush Limbaugh has a canny sense of what his listeners think and how they're going to react to things. Limbaugh is brilliant at what he does. He and the other guys like him know how to use the medium. You may not agree with them, but they're interesting to listen to."
RNW comment: To which our reaction would be that the attack above on the advert by Graham is as strong as anything Limbaugh said but not personal in terms of something Limbaugh could not know (albeit he could fairly raise the issue that by controlling use of his medication Fox can "time" himself for when attacks will be worse or minimized). If his base audience accept that the insinuations of faking are OK the correct term for them is "Base!"
Next Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, said the comments were just "show biz" and went on, "It's classic Rush, being politically incorrect. He's in a business whose only mission is to generate ratings and revenue. It's not a matter of getting anyone elected. It's a matter of getting ears to tune in."
RNW: A comment we feel could be said in essence to justify almost anything if the result is financial success.
With a wider perspective Tim Rutten in his "Regarding Media" column in the Los Angeles Times asked of talk radio in the US: "Is this medium's relentless transformation of every imaginable question into a political one simply the reflection of a nation bitterly divided along partisan lines? Or has talk radio's calculated reductionism helped to harden the lines between the red and the blue? ...Does the mean-spirited vulgarity of the people doing the talking reflect a society that has grown just generally meaner over these past years? Or has their harsh intolerance and habitual incivility actually helped to make so much of our civic conversation coarse and vituperative?"
Rutten comments on Limbaugh's attack on Fox - noting, by the way, that Fox did adverts for candidates supporting federal funding of stem cell research including Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter - and went on, "Serious-minded people can have serious differences over stem cell research, which is one of those products of human ingenuity that seem to promise great benefits while posing profound ethical questions. But one of the things made clear by Limbaugh's churlish behaviour this week is how ill-suited the commercial talk show ethos is to discussing such issues."
Enough however of the amoral/immoral - our view is that Limbaugh is just too small to just simply apologize about the faking attack - and on to a wider view of talk hosts from Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post writing in reference to the invitation to "42 mostly conservative radio hosts" [Our curiosity was piqued as to which ones invited were not conservative but Kurtz named only one Juan Williams of National Public Radio and Fox News, whom he described as a "liberal"; he also, noted that Air America host Rachel Maddow said the White House did not return her calls when she sought an invitation.].
Interestingly, conservative as some quoted undoubtedly are, not all it would appear to be wholly behind the Republicans this time.
They included Neil Boortz who said maybe he'd like "to see the Republicans take it in the teeth in this election, lose the House and lick their wounds. They just haven't done enough to be rewarded with continued control in Washington" and Des Moines, Iowa, host Jan Mickelson who commented, "I don't really give a rip. The conservatives would say, 'What's the worst that can happen? We're not getting anything we want now. We're getting nothing but frustration and ulcers.' "
And elsewhere with no election looming, we chose comment from Chris Campling in the Times of London, asking a very relevant question: "… So why do radio programmers find it a jolly wheeze to allow thespians to dabble outside their chosen sphere?"
The question has been relevant this year in an American context but Campling develops it in a British one: "More to the point, having heard Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp attempt - and fail utterly - to master the comparatively simple art of reading off a piece of paper when narrating tributes to Nick Drake and James Dean over the past couple of years, who was it that gave the green light to Martin Freeman's The Great Unknown (Radio 2, Tuesdays, 9.30pm)?"
Campling then continued by noting Freeman's "love" for the six bands whose music he has been playing and the power current celebrity gives in the context of making it to air.
"And, let's face it, when you're hot you're hot - right now his name opens doors, even when he says: 'I want to go on the radio and play a lot of songs by people I really like, because it's about time the great unwashed bathed in the glow of my superior musical taste.'"
And hear! Hear! to: "But someone should have gone that extra yard and inquired of the star just how he intended to go about his evangelizing. If his intention was to play songs by bands the listeners had not heard of, how was he hoping to open their eyes and make them take up their beds and walk? Actually, maybe someone did ask, and maybe he didn't tell them that he was just going to go in with a bunch of records and play them."
On to suggested listening, all from people who do seem to have a pretty good idea of what they are doing and our first suggestions for listening this week come from BBC Radio 4 and the "Book of the Week" at 09:45 GMT - "Dear Charlie: Letters to a Lost Daughter" - which is comprised of letters Reg Thompson began writing to his late daughter Charlie who had died aged 13 in a train accident.
His motive was to bring himself closer to her and make sense of what had happened, a quest that in a different form is the substance of our next suggestion, also from Radio 4: This is "Humphrys in Search of God" tomorrow at 09:00 GMT in which BBC Today show host John Humphrys, who finds himself unable to believe after reporting on too many tragedies, talks to religious leaders about unfulfilled desire to believe in God.
On a totally different plane we also suggest a dip into the BBC "Electric Proms" web site for a selection of performances posted in connection with the event. As of writing they start with Billy Bragg and James Brown and end with The Zutons and the list still to come includes Basement Jaxx and The Who - who perform next Saturday from 2100-22:00 GMT on BBC Radio 2.
Also from Radio 2 we'd suggest the two-part "The Birth of British Rock'n'Roll" which begins tomorrow at 20:30 GMT. The first "rock" hit from a British performer was "Rock with the Caveman" which entered the UK charts fifty years ago - October 26, 1956 to be precise - not exactly up to American artists like Elvis. Nor did the BBC particularly help rock's development through the practice - by Radio 2's predecessor "The Light Programme" -of playing watered down cover versions of American hits. For those who wish to wax nostalgic contributors include John Barry, Joe Brown, Jack Good, Cliff Richard and Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch of The Shadows, Tommy Steele, Bert Weedon and Marty Wilde with archive from others such as Adam Faith, Lonnie Donegan, and Billy Fury.
Those watered down versions can in our view be considered as a form of what has now come to be termed "political correctness" - and our next suggestion is one a much more worrying version since in our view it is linked with what we think can correctly be termed terrorism.
The suggestion is last Saturday's "Vox Humana" from Radio Netherlands in which Canadian producer Karin Wells in a documentary "Double Dutch" investigates the story (in the light of the November 2nd 2004 murder by young Dutch-Moroccan Muslim of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh after the release of his short movie "Submission" dealing with the topic of violence against women in Islamic societies) of the row that erupted when Dutch theatre director Gerrit Timmers, who had staged successful plays with Dutch and Moroccan actors went a step too far for some Moslems.
Three years before the murder he decided to adapt for the stage an Algerian novel about Aisha, the third wife of the Prophet Muhammad, a classic story told from the women's perspective but the row that erupted led him to cancel the production - and also be unsurprised by the later murder
Those oversensitive will have to note that when Dutch-Moroccan Muslim Fatima Elatik, a Deputy Mayor for the Zeeburg district of Amsterdam, refers to the term popularized by van Gogh about Muslims (goat-fuckers (geitenneukers)) the bleeping is incomplete: Elatic, by the way, notes that van Gogh called her "an S.S. officer, an al-Qaeda whore" but says, "No matter how awful he was to me, he didn't deserve this. He wasn't just killed, he was slaughtered. I would love for him to be alive so we could continue this debate. Tolerance is not something to be taken for granted."
Then from "All in the Mind" last week on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National we suggest "Therapy in the Shadow of Terror" in which Jewish psychotherapist and anthropologist Dr Henry Abramovitch, president of the Israel Institute for Jungian Psychology talks about just that in a country where suicide bombers kill both Jew and Moslem.
After therapy drama - or should it have been the other way round - with BBC World Service whose World Drama last week, timed to mark the start of this year's BBC World Service-British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition 2007 repeated "FOUR FOUR - STRAIGHT TOWN", a winner from last year telling the story of a taxi driver in a poor area of Johannesburg and also from BBC Radio 3 Sunday's "Drama on Three" , "Death and the Penguin" by Andrei Kurkov, a satire set in post-Soviet Ukraine about an obituarist and his relationship with a penguin.
And finally, since there are many hours of listening in The Electric Proms we suggested to start off with, a look at some TV drama differences courtesy of "Corridors of Power" that aired on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday and featured the former British Ambassador to the US Sir Christopher Mayer comparing TV drama treatment of national leaders - "The West Wing" portraying politicians as intelligent and responsible v "Yes Minister" portraying them as venal liars.
Previous Campling:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Kurtz:
Baltimore Sun - Madigan:
Los Angeles Times - Rutten:
UK Times -Campling:
Washington Post - Kurtz:
2006-10-30: The board of SMG threatened to resign en masse after fund manager Fidelity, which owns 15% of the company, attempted to force the resignation of its chairman Dr Chris Masters according to the UK Independent on Sunday.
The paper says the threat to resign is without recent precedent and forced the fund to back down: it quotes an unnamed banker "close to SMG" as saying, "I have never seen a whole board threaten to resign before. It was a last-ditch attempt to win back the right to control its own destiny. Fidelity has been dealt a bloody nose."
Fidelity was said to have wanted to replace Masters with former Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) chief executive Richard Findlay, who teamed up with Rob Woodward, the former commercial director of Channel 4, to make a takeover bid for SMG - rebuffed by SMG's board - with the backing of SVG, which holds 4.8% of SMG.
SMG, which is now valued at around GBP 175 million (USD 332 million) was originally founded as Scottish Television in 1957 and its former chief executive Andrew Flanagan made a series of acquisitions including the purchase of Chris Evans' Ginger Media Group that owned Virgin Radio in 2000 (See RNW Jan 13, 2000) for GBP 225 million (then USD 370 million), and a 29% stake in rival SRH.
SMG had borrowed heavily to make the acquisitions and was left with GBP 400 million of debt, which forced it to sell of the SRH holding - bought by Emap (See RNW Jan 17, 2004), which subsequently took over SRH last year (See RNW Aug 9, 2005). It has now put up for sale its Primesight outdoor and Pearl & Dean cinema advertising divisions up for sale.
Flanagan left the company in July (See RNW Jul 17) and SMG is currently looking for a chief executive. It has rejected a merger proposal from UTV (See RNW Sep 21), whose chief executive John McCann had been expected to take the role of chief executive at a combined company had the merger gone through, and is now looking for a chief executive.
The Independent says that it is believed shareholders have demanded an external candidate and that Virgin Radio chief executive Fru Hazlitt, who was amongst those tipped to take over, is now out of the running as would be current acting chief executive Donald Emslie but other speculation is that SMG will have problems finding a suitable qualified external candidate.
The paper also reports that GCap Media, which sold its two Century stations to Guardian Media Group for GBP 60 million (USD 112 million) earlier this month (See RNW Oct 19) rejected an offer of more than GBP 70 million (USD 131 million) because it did not want them to fall into the hands of rival Chrysalis, which owns Heart FM, the main rival to its London flagship Capital Radio.
The paper, which says Chrysalis had hoped to re-brand the stations as Heart outlets, in this case quotes an unnamed banker "close to GCap" as saying of the offer from Chrysalis, "It is true that Chrysalis made a higher offer than GMG, but it was a last-minute approach and one made without the benefit of detailed information about the two stations."
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous Findlay:
Previous GCap:
Previous Guardian Media Group:
Previous Masters:
Previous SMG:
UK Independent on Sunday report re GCap:
UK Independent on Sunday report re SMG:
2006-10-30: Australian commercial radio has welcomed the announcement by the country's Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane of an AUD 2.2 million (USD 1.7 million) grant to Digital Radio Broadcasting Australia - a consortium of commercial and public broadcasters - to help develop Australia's digital radio technologies.
Joan Warner, chief executive officer of industry body Commercial Radio Australia, said the funding - an Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP) grant - would partly be used to conduct a ground-breaking trial of digital radio using a new AAC+ coding which is more spectrum efficient than the current Mpeg 1 Layer II used with Eureka 147 DAB in the UK.
Commercial radio industry leaders met last week to conduct a strategic think tank into radio's future discussing amongst other things including how radio could benefit from the Internet and vice versa, electronic measurement and the future direction of the country's commercial radio brand campaign.
Previous Commercial Radio Australia:
Previous Warner:
2006-10-29: In what was a fairly quiet week for the regulators the most significant announcement last week came from the UK where Ofcom has decided to allow sponsorship of radio and TV channels as opposed to just of individual programmes.
In Australia, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is to open an investigation into compliance with the commercial radio standards by Radio 2UE Sydney (See RNW Oct 28).
It has also announced that the licence for community broadcasting service 3CCC Bendigo will expire on 12 November 2006 after the licensee, Goldfields Community Radio Cooperative Ltd, failed to lodge its renewal application by the required date.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said that in this case it received the application five months late "despite almost 12 months of frequent reminders."
He described the action as "most regrettable" and added that the "ACMA has no power to renew a community broadcasting licence where the application is lodged a considerable time after the required date."
No decision has yet been made about the long-term future of the frequency used by 3CCC but the ACMA notes that it may be made available for a temporary community service whilst its future use is considered and that 3CCC can apply for a temporary licence to use the frequency.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had a fairly quiet week in which radio decisions on its agenda included (In order of province):
British Columbia:
*Renewal of licence of low-power, commercial specialty (Christian music) CIAJ-FM, Prince Rupert, to 31 August 2013.
*Approval of transmitter relocation and power increase from 4.9 watts to 420 watts for The Kamloops Campus/Community Radio Society's CFBX-FM, Kamloops.
Ontario:
*Approval of application to add a 40,000 watts FM transmitter at Kenora, Ontario, to the licence of Native Communication Inc.'s CINC-FM, Thompson, Manitoba. The applicant said its network service, which has been in operation since 1971, is targeted primarily to Aboriginal peoples, and broadcasts Aboriginal and country music, Ojibway- and Cree-language programs and news and information about Aboriginal peoples and northerners and noted that there is currently no radio service directly targeted to the Aboriginal market in the Kenora area.
The application was opposed by Norwesto Communications Ltd., the licensee of CKQV-FM, Kenora, but the CRTC in approving the application noted that the new station would not be allowed to sell local advertising in that radio market.
*Renewal of licence of CFXJ-FM, Toronto, to 31 August 2013.
Quebec:
*Renewal of licence of CHOM-FM, Montréal, to 31 August 2013.
*Approval of 60 watts FM transmitter at Saguenay (zone La Baie) for CKAJ-FM, Saguenay (zone Jonquière).
The CRTC also posted public notices relating to the following radio applications:
*With a deadline for submission of interventions or comments of November 27:
Application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to add an 800 watts FM transmitter at Iqaluit to broadcast the programming of its Radio Two service, originating from CBM-FM, Montréal.
*With a deadline for submission of interventions or comments of November 30:
Application by My Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to change the frequency of new English-language FM approved for Strathroy, Ontario, from 91.1 MHz to 105.7 MHz: The new frequency would reduce the likelihood of interference with the signal of CJRT-FM, Toronto.
In Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has signed a ten-year contract for the Dublin alternative rock station Phantom FM, which is to go on air on October 31and also announced the receipt of five applications for a new quasi-national Christian and religious AM licence (See RNW Oct 28).
In the UK as noted Ofcom has approved a change to allow sponsorship, subject to some safeguards, of entire channels as opposed to just individual programmes (See RNW Oct 26).
It has also announced that it is to advertise a new national digital licence next month - to be followed by more adverts of local digital multiplexes over the next year (See RNW Oct 25) and gave it reasons for the award of the new Oxford and South Oxfordshire commercial FM licence to Absolute Radio's bid with a Jack-FM format (Also Oct 25).
Regarding community licences it has opened its second round for grant applications for the financial year 2006/07 for which applications have to be submitted by November 21.
It has also published an update of the principles it follows in calculating Qualifying Revenue and Multiplex Revenues to determine related payments by licensees of Independent National Radio (INR) and Additional Service (AS) licensees and the National Radio Multiplex licensee.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it is now ready to grant construction permits for two more licences won in its FM Auction 37 that closed in November 2004 (See RNW Nov 24, 2004). They are for stations in La Veta, Colorado and Walhalla, Michigan.
In another decision relating to Auction 37, the Commission has denied a petition for it to reconsider its decision to refuse to deny an application by Janet Jensen for a new FM broadcast construction permit at La Center, Kentucky.
Benjamin L. Stratemeyer had objected to the grant of the licence, suggesting that the real party behind the application was a third party, possibly one of Jensen's then-employers, Withers Broadcasting or Dana Communications but FCC staff found that not enough evidence had been provided to raise substantial questions about Jensen's qualifications or her entitlement to a 35% new entrant bidding credit.
In relation to two Michigan CPs - for new stations in Escanaba and Houghton - and also for CPs in station in Howard and Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the FCC has allowed an application to substitute the court-appointed representative of the Estate of Lyle Robert Evans for Evans as the applicant.
In Alabama, the Commission has renewed the licence of Alabama A & M University's WJAB-FM, Huntsville, and denied an application to refuse the renewal from a former employee who claimed he was improperly dismissed because of his efforts to convert the station to commercial operations and said he would better serve the local community as the station licensee. .
Also in Alabama, it has renewed the licence of the Board of Trustees/ University of Alabama at Birmingham's non-commercial educational Station WBHM-FM, denying an objection on the basis that the station has not changed its programming to reflect changes in the demographics of Birmingham and should diversify its offering instead of "rigidly adhering to its narrow perspective, programmed around symphony music."
In Massachusetts the FCC renewed the licence of Charles River Broadcasting WCRB License Corp.'s WCRB-FM, Waltham, rejecting objections on the grounds that the station was gong to be sold and the purchasers proposed to change the format from classical to country and western.
In Mississippi, the FCC renewed the licence of Hancock Broadcasting, Inc.'s WBSL-AM, Bay St. Louis, denying an objection on the basis of a forfeiture assessed in 2001 for breach of Emergency Alert System rules and for failure to secure the WBSL-AM tower within locked fencing or another appropriate enclosure.
In Oregon, it has effectively ruled an applicant guilty of sharp practice concerning an application for a new non-commercial educational FM broadcast station at Merrill, has dismissed an application from Fatima Response, Inc. (FRI) d/b/a St. Michael's Catholic Radio for the licence and given the go-ahead for Cove Road Publishing, LLC to apply for a licence for a new commercial FM in Merrill.
In making the ruling it says that the FRI currently incorporated is not the same FRI that originally filed the application for the NCE licence, that the FRI that made the application was involuntarily dissolved on October 22, 1995, approximately two weeks before filing the application, and was not reinstated. An amendment to the application was then filed in 1999 and further amendments then followed leading the Commission to conclude that whatever scenario was considered the current FRI application should be dismissed.
In Washington State, it has approved an application by Thin Air Community Radio to change operations of KYRS-LP, Spokane from Channel 237 to Channel 210 at its licensed site: Thin Air is short-spaced to second-adjacent channel Station KEWU-FM, Cheney, licensed to Eastern Washington University, requested so KYRS can modify its facilities prior to commencement of program test operations by co-channel Station KPND-FM, Sandpoint, Idaho.
The FCC notes that Thin Air and EWU have entered into an agreement under which KEWU has agreed not to object to the grant of the Application provided that Thin Air adheres to certain conditions. These include the requirement that Thin Air resolve actual interference complaints within 24 hours and that if interference is not resolved, Thin Air is required to suspend operations until the interference problem is resolved.
Thin Air is also short spaced to KHQ-TV, Channel 6, Spokane, and has entered into a similar agreement with KHQ.
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2006-10-29: The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has announced the appointment of Danforth W. Austin as the Director of the Voice of America (VOA) and also the appointment of Russell Hodge as Director of VOA Television: Austin takes over from David Jackson who became VOA director in September 2002 and will be returning to the private sector.
The BBG said it looks forward to the leadership and vision that Austin and Hodge will provide in developing a strategic plan to implement VOA's increased use of 21st century technologies to reach its worldwide audience, including satellite television, the Internet as well as FM and AM radio.
Austin's background is in business and print journalism including various senior positions with the Wall Street Journal and as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., the community media subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co.
Previous VOA:
2006-10-28: CBS Radio has named industry veteran John Mainelli, who was dropped as a columnist for the New York Post last month (See RNW Sep 23) as Program Director of its New York WFNY -FM (Free FM).
WFNY Vice President and General Manager Tom Chiusano making the announcement said Mainelli was "the obvious choice" for the post an described him as " an innovative programmer", adding that the station's "diverse line-up of personalities ( it carries Opie and Anthony, Leslie Gold - "The Radio Chick" and Penn Jillette) will all benefit from John's experience and guidance."
Mainelli, who as well as his column had been working as a radio consultant, has three decades in radio including spells with WABC-AM in New York from 1988-1995 and before that at KCBS-AM, San Francisco, KSDO-AM in San Diego, and KCMO-AM in Kansas City.
Previous CBS:
Previous Mainelli:
2006-10-28: The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has decided to open an investigation into compliance by Southern Cross Broadcasting's Sydney station 2UE with the country's commercial radio standards relating to disclosure of commercial agreements
The decision followed notification by 2UE of a breach of the Commercial Radio Disclosure Standard because morning host John Laws failed to disclose a commercial agreement with communications company Telstra during an interview with Australian Prime Minister John Howard on August 28 in which the topic of privatizing Telstra was discussed.
In a statement ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said the Authority acknowledged 2UE's action in bring the breach to its attention but said it had nevertheless opted to start an investigation.
2UE and its then hosts Laws and Alan Jones, who subsequently move to 2GB, were at the heart of the cash-for-comment scandal in Australia that broke in 1999 and led to the introduction of new regulations on disclosure and impose specific conditions in 2UE's licence (See RNW Mar 28, 2000).
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2006-10-28: Sea Launch, which on Thursday (GMT) halted the launch of the XM-4 satellite because of "off-nominal data from its automated launch support equipment" is still as we publish not giving any details as to when the launch will now take place.
The high-powered satellite, which was planned to have 18 kilowatts of total power at the beginning of its time in orbit and a 15-year lifespan was due to have been launched in a 58-minute launch window starting at 23:49 GMT on Wednesday to carry XM's satellite radio broadcasts to North America.
Sea Launch says both the spacecraft and launch vehicle are in excellent condition and it will post additional information on its web site when available.
Previous XM:
2006-10-28: The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has now signed a ten-year contract with Dublin Rock Radio Ltd., licensee of the Dublin alternative rock station Phantom FM, which is to go on air on October 31...
The station will broadcast a minimum of 18 hours of live programme daily with an emphasis on the promotion of Irish artists: it also provides news, current affairs and sports coverage.
The BCI has also announced that it received five applications for its new quasi-national Christian and religious AM licence. They are from CCN Ireland; Radio Maria Ireland Limited; Spirit Radio Ltd.; United Christian Broadcasters; and Yes Radio Limited. All but Spirit Radio, which hails from County Wicklow, are Dublin -based.
Previous BCI:
2006-10-27: Shares in GCap Media fell by 5.6% to GBP 2.18 on Thursday following the release of latest UK ratings figures by RAJAR (Radio Joint Audio Research) that showed its London flagship station Capital Radio for the first time losing the kudos of having the "most listened" to London station breakfast show.
It was overtaken by Chrysalis's Heart FM whose breakfast show, co-hosted by Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott, took a 5.7% share - compared to 5.6% for Johnny Vaughan's breakfast show at Capital and overall Capital Radio was third in reach amongst London stations with a weekly audience of 1.46 million listeners (down from 1.64 million in the second quarter) compared to 1.64 million for Emap's Magic FM (down from 1.87 million) and 1.71 million for Heart (up from 1.66 million).
The breakfast show figures showed Vaughan retaining the lead as regards reach with a weekly audience of 782,000 (down from 852,000) followed by Heart with 768,000 ( Down from 820,000) and Magic with 725,000 (down from 803,000).
Guardian Media Group's "Smooth FM", which it is trying to change to an easy listening format (See RNW Oct 21) was well down - with a weekly reach of 445,000 ( 537,000 in the second quarter) and listening share of 1.0%, down from 2.1%, but Chrysalis's LBC stations were up - from 476,000 to 594,000 for its FM and from 185,000 to 262,000 for its AM with share up from 2.9% to 3.4% for the FM and from 0.5% to 0.9% for the AM.
Despite the figures GCap accentuated the positive it could find, saying in a news release that "Johnny Vaughan is the no.1 commercial breakfast show in London": Its Operations Director Steve Orchard further accentuated the positive commenting, "This has been an excellent set of results for GCap, and they give us much confidence for the future. Our portfolio of local heritage stations is in good growth and our national brands have turned in another impressive performance, with Classic FM and Planet Rock playing starring roles. GCap's digital hours have also reached a record high."
Even regarding London he was upbeat, saying, "In London we have increased our reach and share and remain the number one commercial radio group. The plan for Capital's recovery is well under way. We are number one at breakfast and are building a loyal audience base, with listeners listening longer. Since the survey period, our new Programme Director Scott Muller has arrived and we have launched our first marketing campaign in 18 months. We expect to see the effects of these initiatives over the course of 2007."
Chrysalis, with rather more positives, noted the success of Heart network as "the UK No 1 commercial ILR brand, with 24.8m listening hours, a 2.8% increase year on year" as well as the increases for LBC and its Chief Executive Richard Huntingford commented, "This is a fantastic result for Chrysalis Radio and its hugely talented management, staff and presenters. It underpins our strategy of focusing on strong, major market, branded stations."
"In particular," he added, "I'm delighted that we have achieved our target of becoming London's most listened to breakfast show with Jamie and Harriet - and also performed so well across the rest of the schedule at Heart 106.2."
Emap headlined its "best ever set of RAJAR results delivering its highest ever levels of listening" and Emap Radio group managing director Dee Ford commented, "Emap is leading the way in the continually evolving world of radio with a strategy of engaging communities both locally and nationally with compelling content available whenever, wherever and however a listener wants it."
Nationally commercial radio gained listening share - up from 42.9% to 43.6% for all adults and from 53.8% to 56.4% for the 15-44 demographic - whilst the BBC fell back a little- from 54.7% to 54.3% overall and from 43.4 % to 40.9% for the 15-44 demographic.
The UK commercial radio body the RadioCentre noted the "record 10.9% share of all UK listening" that commercial radio had recorded in the quarter and its chief executive Andrew Harrison commented that the figures showed "a thriving Commercial Radio industry which, hot on the heels of last quarter's results, has once more increased both audience and hours."
"Digital ," he said, "continues to be a significant driver and, among the all-digital hours revealed today, Commercial Radio already takes a 65% share of listening…Digital services are changing the landscape of radio as a whole and Commercial Radio in particular. Driving the continued growth of Commercial Radio, as listeners increasingly consume their radio digitally, is the central role for RadioCentre and my colleagues and I look forward to helping our members build on this success over the long-term."
The UK Digital Radio Development Board (DRDB) highlighted the record figures for digital-only stations whose weekly reach is up 4% on the second quarter an 17% year-on-year and noted that four of the BBC's five national digital stations grew their reach as did the majority of commercial stations with Emap's "The Hits" in pole position - it has 1.18 million listeners a week followed by Emap's "The Hits" with 926,000. In third place is BBC7 with 697,000.
DRDB chief executive Ian Dickens said the results were "great news" that "proves that digital radio continues to grow in popularity with listeners."
"RAJAR'S research," he said, "bears out our own findings which show that people who buy a DAB digital radio enjoy the new stations it offers and value the added choice that comes with digital listening."
For the BBC, Director of Radio & Music Jenny Abramsky referred to the success of Radio 1 - which increased its reach from 10.42 million to 10.58 million listeners a week, although its listening share was down from 10.3% to 9.8%, commenting, "I'm pleased to see the continued, steady growth of Radio 1, and our digital-only networks contributing to the rise in digital listening."
Overall the ratings show 44.6 million people - 90% of the UK population - listened to radio each week, down just 15,000 from the previous quarter, and that an unchanged 15.3% of UK adults live in households with a digital radio (DAB) receiver.
RAJAR says that 54% of the UK population can now listen to digital radio, possible through DAB transmissions, digital TV, the Internet, and mobile devices. Digital-only stations increased their listening by 3.5% on the previous quarter and 15% year-on-year with reach up 4% and 17% respectively.
Within this listening by mobile phone is stable at 9.7% of their owners, listening via digital TV dropped slightly compared to the previous quarter but is up 10% year-on-year, and listening via the internet is up 13% year-on-year whilst two million people - 15.2% of MP3 player owners - listen to podcasts, up from 1.9 million (14.8%) in the previous quarter.
Within the figures, compared to the previous quarter (and year):
*BBC Radio 1 gained 154,000 listeners to reach a weekly audience of 10.577 million but listening share was down from 10.3, to 9.8% (9.4% a year ago when it had 10.329 million listeners).
*BBC Radio 2 lost 549,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 12.739 million and listening share was down from 15.7% to 15.5% (15.6% a year ago, when it had 12.859 million listeners)
*BBC Radio 3 gained 192,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 2.026 million and a listening share up from 1.1% to 1.3% (1.2% a year ago, when it had 2.067 million listeners).
*BBC Radio 4 gained 279,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 9.468 million and listening share was up from 10.7% from 11.8% (11.5% a year ago when it had 9.621 million listeners).
*BBC Radio 5 Live, excluding Sports Extra, lost 286,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 5,747 million, and a listening share of 4.2%, down from 4.5% (4.6% a year ago when it had 6,052 million listeners).
(Including Sports Extra it lost 266,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 5.874 million and a listening share of 4.4%, down from 4.7% (4.7% a year ago when it had 6.170 million listeners).
*BBC World Service gained 95,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 1.352 million and a listening share of 0.8%, up from 0.7% (0.7% a year ago when it had 1.121 million listeners).
*BBC Asian Network gained 37,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 481,000 but listening share fell from 0.4% to 0.3% (0.3% a year ago when it had 524,000 million listeners).
On the commercial side for national networks:
*G-Cap's Classic FM gained 66,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 5.898 million and an unchanged listening share of 4.2% (4.1% a year ago when it had 5.842 million listeners).
*UTV's (formerly The Wireless Group's) talkSPORT gained 47,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 2.266 million and a listening share up from 1.7% to 1.8% (1.8% a year ago when it had 2.090 million listeners.)
*SMG-owned Virgin (total including all AM and FM) gained 38,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 2.376 million and an unchanged listening share of 1.5% (1.5% a year ago when it had 2.511 million listeners).
Among digital stations, excluding Emap's Kerrang! which has a substantial digital listenership and a total weekly reach of 1.349 million including its analogue stations but including BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra and Asian Network, the top ten stations in the survey had a weekly audience as below:
1 The Hits (Emap) - 1.182 million
2 Smash Hits Radio (Emap) - 926,000
3 BBC7 - 697,000
4 BBC FIVE LIVE SPORTS EXTRA - 649,000
5 BBC Asian Network - 481,000
6 Planet Rock (GCap) - 422,000
7 BBC 6 Music - 400,000
8 BBC 1Xtra - 394,000
9 Q (Emap) - 392,000
10 Heat (Emap) - 296,000
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2006-10-27: The Baltimore Sun, which was one of the first papers, if not the first paper, to report problems of interference with FM stations' signals from satellite radio and in particular that Howard Stern's broadcasts had interfered with the National Public Radio (NPR) signal and that of Christian broadcaster Word FM in the Baltimore area (See RNW Apr 30) is now reporting that US National Public Radio (NPR) has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to order recalls of millions of FM modulators that drivers use to play satellite radios and iPods through their car stereos.
The paper says a field study by NPR Labs found that nearly 40 percent of those devices have signal strengths that exceed FCC limits, enabling them to break into FM broadcasts in nearby cars with unwanted programming: This compared to a 75% exceeding power limits in a separate investigation commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB - See RNW Jun 24).
The Sun quotes a letter sent by newly-appointed NPR CEO Ken Stern - he took over the role this month - to FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin this month as saying the FM modulators have contributed to "unacceptable degradation of the audio quality of public radio stations": Stern continued, "Left unaddressed these modulators pose a significant threat to the provision of public radio's free, over-the-air public and community service."
Stern urged the FCC to conduct a "thorough technical review" not just of satellite radio equipment but at all the most popular FM modulators on sale in the US and pursue a recall of all those found to be violating FCC rules and said the violations are so widespread they "raise "fundamental issues of misrepresentation" in the paperwork that manufacturers submit to the FCC" to gain certification for their products.
The Sun notes that newer modulators can be tuned to use any FM frequency from 87.9 MHz to 107.9 MHz but most of the problems are with older models that only offer frequencies below 89 MHz, a range reserved for non-commercial radio and many of which are supplied tuned to 88.1MHZ, a frequency used by around 80 public radio stations and a similar number of religious broadcasters.
Mike Starling, executive director of NPR Labs, said manufacturers could be temped to increase the power of their device beyond the prescribed limits to avoid static or "reverse" interference from licensed broadcasters and told the paper that millions of devices already in use need to be recalled and replaced with legal devices, adding, "…we don't think it's just the satellite radio units. In NPR's tests, "we can clearly hear flash players, and people listening to podcasts. We thought there should be a much broader inquiry."
The NPR tests says the Sun, checking for just two frequencies commonly used by FM modulators, found around 99 vehicles an hour passed their location with active modulators with around 40 operating at illegally high signal levels.
RNW comment: We believe the NPR figures are likely to be fairly accurate (and NAB's - following its usual practice of throwing everything into the mix - likely to be a gross exaggeration of real problems) and they do indicate a potentially serious problem. We also think it is likely to be much more of a problem in terms of modulators used with portable music players - if only because there are so many more of them - than those used for moving a satellite radio signal to an automobile FM.
The logical conclusion for the FCC would be to urgently conduct the review requested by NPR, for owners of devices to look fairly urgently into an alternative (wired as opposed to wireless links from players of satellite radio do not seem to have that much of a problem); for the manufacturers to be pro-active in offering replacements even before the enquiry (in our view they should not, if found to be in breach, merely have to offer a replacement but the customer should have the right to a full refund); for their shareholders to write down the value of their investment, and maybe in the worst cases for the companies involved to start looking at the implications of Chapter 11 bankruptcy moves now.
Ironically, if NAB were an organization to be believed, rather than treated with scepticism because of its history of exaggeration, we would have been making this argument months ago.
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Baltimore Sun report:
2006-10-27: Clear Channel has now formally confirmed reports on Wednesday that it is considering going private although it has given no details and says that nothing may result. In a statement it said its board is "evaluating various strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value" and said it had retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its "financial advisor with its evaluations. "
It added that the process might not result in any specific transaction and said it did not intend to comment publicly on the matter unless a specific transaction was approved by its board.
The New York Times reported that people "involved in the talks" had said the Mays Family was negotiating to be taken private for more than USD 18.5 billion and that those concerned has said "investors, who have been in discussions with Clear Channel for months, include Providence Equity Partners, the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company."
The paper adds that other potential suitors have emerged including Cerberus Capital Management, Oak Hill Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners
Previous Clear Channel:
New York Times report:
2006-10-27: "The Who" guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend has ducked out of a scheduled interview on the Howard Stern Show - which was being offered free on the Internet by Sirius on Wednesday and Thursday this week - after Stern sidekick Robin Quivers brought up the subject of child pornography and Townshend's claims to have been abused as a child.
Townshend, who was arrested in 2003 in London on suspicion of possessing child pornography but cleared of the charges, was listening to the broadcast as he waited in a London studio with his girlfriend Rachel Fuller and fellow Who member Roger Daltrey : He left on hearing the comments, leaving the others to talk to Stern.
In the interview Daltrey defended Townshend, accused Stern of "sniffing dirty underpants" and added, "Can you imagine you're accused of this stuff and then you're found not guilty? If you had to defend yourself through this stuff? The wounds are so deep on the man, and it's just tragic because he's got so much to offer."
Stern ended up apologizing to Townshend, saying on the show, "Tell Pete I am very sorry. We would have had a great interview with him. I really wish he'd reconsider this. We adore him."
Previous Sirius:
Previous Stern:
San Francisco Chronicle/AP report:
2006-10-27: Corus Entertainment has followed Astral Media (See RNW Oct 26) in reporting a strong 2006 fiscal year: Its combined radio and TV revenues for the year were up 9% with consolidated revenues up 6% to CAD 726.2 million (USD 646.9 million) and their profits were up 11% although overall net income was halved - from CAD 71.1 million (USD 63.3 million - CAD 1.66 per basic and 1.65 per diluted share) a year ago to CAD 35.5 million (USD 31.6 million - CAD 0.84 per basic and 0.82 per diluted share) a year ago as Corus recorded a CAD 132.0 million (USD 117.6 million) pre-tax debt refinancing charge countered in part by a gain of around CAD 37 million (USD 33 million) in income tax rate changes and other income tax items..
For the final quarter of the year, Combined Radio and Television revenues were up 8% and Combined Radio and Television segment profit was up 7% whilst Consolidated revenues were up 6% to CAD 185 million (USD 165 million) and net income jumped up from CAD 917 million (USD 817 million - CAD 0.23 per basic and CAD 0.22 per diluted share) to CAD 46.6 million (USD 41.5 million - CAD 1.11 per basic and CAD 1.09 per diluted share), thanks largely to the CAD 37 million noted above.
In divisional terms, Corus TV revenues for the year were up 11% to CAD 393.3 million (USD 350.3 million) and for the quarter were up 13% to CAD 94.7 million (USD 84.4 million) with its profit up 17% for the year to CAD 164.2 million (USD 146.3 million) and for the quarter up 11% to CAD 34.1 million (USD 30.4 million).
Radio fared less well with revenues for the year up 6% to CAD 268.4 million (USD 239.1 million) and profits for the year down 1% to CAD 68.4 million (USD 60.9 million) whilst for the quarter revenues were up 2% to CAD 66.2 million (USD 59.0 million) and profit was flat at CAD 15.8 million (USD 14.1 million).
Corus noted that the figures were affected by the sale of its Red Deer assets and a multi-station swap in Quebec province and that same station revenues were up 7% for the year with profits 4% for the quarter with profits up 4% whilst for the year revenues were up 6% and profit was up 7%.
Content revenues fared worst - down 12% for the year to CAD 72.1 million (USD 64.2 million) although profit was up from CAD 3.6 million (USD 3.2 million) to CAD 5.6 million (USD 5.0 million) and down 4% for the quarter to CAD 26.8 million (USD 23.9 million) with profits for the quarter up from CAD 1.8 million (USD 1.6 million) to CAD 2.6 million (USD 2.3 million).
President and CEO John Cassaday said of the results, "It was a strong year for Corus and the fourth quarter was no exception. We had another excellent quarter for our Television division, driven by strong ratings and subscriber growth for our brands… Our Content business continued to post positive results and Radio remained strong outside Quebec, where we are integrating newly acquired stations."
Corus has continued to buy back stock - by the end of the year it had spent some CAD 36.8 million (USD 32.8 million) on cancelling just over a million Class B Non-Voting Shares - and Executive Chair Heather Shaw added, "We are particularly pleased with the excellent progress that we are making in generating cash. This supports our desire to enhance shareholder value through such means as increased dividends and share buybacks."
Corus also announced a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.2125 and CAD 0.215 for holders of its Class A and Class B shares, respectively: Its shares ended Thursday up 0/7%
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2006-10-27: Arbitron and VNU, the owner amongst other companies of Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, have announced that Wal-Mart , whose stores spend around USD 600 million a year on advertising, has signed a subscription agreement for the pilot panel of 'Project Apollo,' the single-source, national research service based on Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) system and ACNielsen's Homescan technology.
Wal-Mart will also join the Project Apollo Steering Committee, a select group of seven advertisers who, along with their advertising agencies, are advising Arbitron and VNU on the design of the Project Apollo service that is aimed at giving advertisers better understanding of the link between consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and their shopping/purchase behaviour..
Arbitron and VNU have deployed a pilot panel of more than 5,000 households as a demonstration of the 'Project Apollo' national marketing research service and Ramon Portilla, Director of Communication Insights, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., said they were "looking to Project Apollo as an innovative research service that will help us understand how multiple touchpoints of our media strategies work, including traditional vehicles and obviously our own store communication touchpoints."
RNW question: Do any of these people ever speak clear jargon-free English?
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Nielsen (VNU):
2006-10-26: According to the Financial Times, Clear Channel Communications has been involved in "serious talks" about taking the company private. The paper quoted "people familiar with the situation" as saying that members of the founding Mays family is now more open to the idea of a buy-out after previously rejecting approaches. It says talks were held with a "number of buy-out groups, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts."
The FT report says its sources said no deal appeared imminent and the negotiations could lead nowhere. It noted that over the past three years Clear Channel shares, which topped USD 50 in 2002 and were above USD 45 at the start of 2004 are now trading around USD 33, valuing the company at a little above USD 16 billion.
Previous Clear Channel:
Financial Times report (Needs subscription):
MSNBC - FT report:
2006-10-26: UK media regulator Ofcom has announced that it is to allow sponsorship of commercial radio and TV stations subject to what it terms "specific safeguards intended to preserve editorial independence, protect the under 18s and ensure the audience is made fully aware of the sponsorship relationship."
Its decision to lift the ban - companies have been allowed to sponsor individual programmes but not a station for the past 15 years in the UK - follows a consultation that attracted 21 responses, the majority supporting removal of the ban: Later research also suggested that audiences were likely to accept such sponsorship.
Under the new rules Ofcom maintains its ban on sponsorship of news and also TV current affairs programming and also prohibits, as now with individual programmes, sponsorship of some programming by specific products: As an example it says an alcohol brand would not be allowed to sponsor a children's programme or channel and gambling companies may not sponsor material targeted at those under 18.
Under the new rules audiences have to be made aware of the sponsorship arrangement and separate sponsors' credits from other advertising and editorial and Ofcom says a sponsor's presence on a TV channel cannot be unduly prominent. It will not allow a broadcaster to name a station after the sponsor but, as at present, a brand known in another field - such as Saga - can hold a broadcasting licence.
The change comes at a time when UK advertising is weak, particularly for commercial TV, and also likely to be adversely affected next month when Ofcom announced details of planned restrictions on advertising junk food.
Previous Ofcom:
2006-10-26: Montréal-headquartered Astral Media has reported 2006 revenues up 8% to CAD and fourth quarter revenues up 4% to CAD with consolidated net earnings from continuing operations for the year up 10% to CAD 115 million (USD 102 million - up from CAD 1.87 to CAD 2.14 per share) and for the quarter up 3% to CAD 29.2 million (USD 26 million - up from CAD 0.51 to CAD 0.55 per share): The figures include a one-off impairment charge of CAD 4.2 million (USD 3.7 million - CAD 2.9 million (USD 2.6 million) net of income tax recovery following a review of the business model supporting the Company's radiolibre.ca musical website: Without this its net earnings for the quarter and year would have been up 13%.
Astral has around CAD 69 million in cash and is thought to be a strong candidate for conversion into an income trust but its CFO Claude Gagnon told analysts it was likely to make a major acquisition before any such conversion. Astral says it will instead buy back shares and increase its dividend.
"We might consider conversion, but that's not for today," said Gagnon. "It might be in the wake of a major acquisition, but we believe that by converting to an income trust we would lose a lot of the financial flexibility that we have."
President and CEO Ian Greenberg said 2006 had been a "solid year" for the company and noted that it marked the tenth year of consecutive growth in net earnings.
"This continued success," he said, "is driven by our strong commitment to the subscriber and advertising audiences that we serve. With highly valuable brands, targeted content and increasingly more high-definition, on-demand and broadband services, our Television, Radio and Outdoor Advertising groups are committed to providing consistent quality with a continued emphasis on innovation in all areas of our business."
Commenting on divisional performances Greenberg said he was "delighted" with the contribution of each of Astral's groups, noting, "Both subscriber and advertising revenues for the Television group were up 8% year-over-year with overall pay-television subscribers reaching 1.6 million. In Radio, revenues increased by 7% over last year and, as a result, its EBITDA margin reached 34.7% for the year. In Outdoor, the group's renewed focus on customer service has delivered an 11% increase in revenues for Fiscal 2006 with a 19% increase in EBITDA."
Astral's comments and the announcement by CanWest Global Communications Corp. that it has retained Citigroup Global Markets Inc. to explore opportunities arising out of the new Australian media ownership law passed this month by the Australian Parliament have spurred renewed expectations of media consolidation in Canada.
Astral had been a bidder for CHUM Ltd, which was bought by Bell Globemedia in a CAD 1.4-billion (US 1.25 billion) deal last month (See RNW Sep 14) and Greenberg said it had "made it clear" that it would be a buyer if an opportunity arose in any of its core business areas - TV, radio or outdoor. Amongst potential targets are said to be Corus Entertainment and Standard Broadcasting although Standard's CEO Gary Slaight has said his company is not interested in a sale although it could revive plans for a public offering (See RNW Oct 3).
Previous Astral:
Previous CanWest:
Previous Greenberg:
2006-10-26: Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (INM) is reported by The Australian to have made an AUD 3.8 billion (USD 2.9 billion) bid to buy out minority interests in APN News & Media, Australia's third-biggest media player in which it already has a 41% stake.
The paper says INM is believed to have teamed up with private equity firms and presented directors with a bid about AUD 6.00 a share, a sharp premium to Wednesday's AUD 5.49 a share closing price.
APN owns regional newspapers and outdoor interest as well as having radio and online interests: It is one of New Zealand's largest radio operators and in a joint venture with Clear Channel owns half of the Australian Radio Network
Previous APN:
The Australian report:
2006-10-26: Although the major recording companies have agreed settlement concerning "pay-for-play" practices with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office, according to the New York Times Universal may already have breached its agreement only five months after agreeing to institute new policies to prevent payola-like practices and paying USD 12 million to charity in a settlement.
The paper reports that songs from two labels distributed by Universal were boosted "on the charts after a radio chain was paid to play the tunes as part of commercials late at night in an advertising program that New York state officials say is used to trick radio programmers."
The paper says the settlement with Universal prohibited its executives from buying adverts to mislead the services that compile airplay and say that should Universal purchase a commercial with more than a minute of a song - potentially enough for a tracking service to count it as regular airplay - it has to provide written notice of the advertisement to the services.
Last week, it says, Blackground Records purchased ads that enabled the song, "Too Little, Too Late" by the teenage singer JoJo to climb to the No. 2 position on the nation's mainstream pop radio chart and earlier a representative for Nickelback, a rock band on Roadrunner Records, a Universal-distributed label, paid for ads that inflated the performance of the song "Far Away", which went to No. 1.
It quotes Universal as saying in a statement that it had no ownership interest in Blackground and no management control in Roadrunner and adding, "We're investigating these allegations but the decisions for these two acts were made by these two companies, outside of our control. We made them aware of our new promotion policies and have encouraged them to follow the new procedures."
A spokesman for Spitzer said his office was "aware of the possible violation of the terms of our agreement with Universal" and was investigating the matter.
New York Times report:
2006-10-25: The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has again attacked the satellite radio companies, this time in two letters from its president and CEO David K Rehr to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin J. Martin about their use of terrestrial translators and the offering of free trial subscriptions. NAB has also posted its filing to the FCC on concerning potential future media ownership rules.
In connection with the offer of free subscriptions Rehr writes, "NAB continues to be troubled by the privileged regulatory position that satellite radio enjoys under the Commission's rules, as compared to free over-the-air radio service. This disparate treatment seems increasingly unwarranted given the expanding delivery of complimentary satellite radio services to non subscribers, including persons who object to receiving sexually explicit and profane satellite radio content" and goes on to detail provision of satellite radios in rental cars and also notes the two days of "free" Howard Stern being offered online by Sirius today and tomorrow.
Rehr comments that "an ever-growing portion of the American public now receives satellite radio content free-of-charge, exposing them to content in the same manner as free over-the-air broadcast programming" and calls for an FCC investigation into the "questions raised by free access to satellite radio programming, and to consider whether the unequal regulatory treatment of satellite and broadcast radio should persist."
RNW comment: In regard to this matter our view is that Rehr is either an ignoramus, intellectually challenged, or dishonestly exaggerating facets of the services. To take one example, it is ludicrous to suggest that people logging onto Sirius to listen to Stern free for a couple of days are exposed to content in the same manner as free over-the-air broadcast programming."
His comments are certainly not fair or balanced and the appropriate response in our view would be to thank him kindly and put on the agenda for any investigation the issue of allowing the satellite companies to accept local advertising. Any squawks should be met with a response that having hoisted the petard, Rehr should go into a period of seclusion for at least a year or accept the consequences. Alternatively NAB could fire him and try and be a bit more balanced.
In regard to the issue of translators, Rehr has more of a point. In that, assuming he is accurate in his statements, the satellite companies have made requests for "special temporary authorizations ("STAs") to knowingly continue or resume operating satellite digital audio radio service ("SDARS") terrestrial repeaters that were constructed and deployed inconsistently with the terms and conditions of the STAs under which the FCC initially authorized (and repeatedly re-authorized) Sirius and XM's terrestrial repeater networks."
The question here is the appropriate response and Rehr could it seems to us have made a strong case for sanctions against both of the satellite companies in terms of translators being sited other than at their authorized locations, operated at excessive power levels, or with antennas at heights greater than were authorized without adding unctuous offers of assistance to the FCC in conducting a "full investigation into both the actual and reported operations of Sirius and XM's terrestrial repeater networks, including both companies' conduct and candour before the FCC." As always he seems incapable of resisting the temptation to over egg.
In relation to media ownership, where NAB has made a 139 page submission, the organization supports further deregulation - saying "it is now increasingly difficult to justify broadcast ownership regulation as necessary to ensure that consumers have access to diverse content and viewpoints" and argues for "continuing relaxation of the radio ownership rules."
The links below are to the PDF files of the NAB comments (130 pages) and Exhibits (207 pages) for those interested. Our view is that NAB is driving itself mad in trying at one and the same time to argue that broadcasters are currently doing a terrific job in providing diversity of services, including news and information, yet can't hack competition. The objective, of course, is almost exclusively to protect its existing patch and exclude others from competing whilst proclaiming devotion to competition and the marketplace.
Previous NAB:
Previous Rehr:
NAB ownership comments (468KB 139 pages PDF):
NAB exhibits re ownership (1.73 MB 207 pages PDF):
2006-10-25: Clear Channel has again fired from WKLS-FM (96Rock) The Regular Guys duo of Larry Wachs and Eric Von Haessler, whom it had already suspended from following a lawsuit against them and the company by hosts Juan Tapia and José Carias of sister station Hispanic Top 40 WWVA-FM (See RNW Oct 22): The previous firing followed airing of graphic interview with pornographic movie actress Devin Lane over a Honda commercial (See RNW April 11, 2004).
In a posting on his web site Wachs wrote on Monday, "As you may have heard, The Regular Guys Show has been terminated once again by Clear Channel Radio. In the past week, my partner, Eric Von Haessler, and I have been silent during a paid suspension while we awaited the results of a company investigation into a minor incident that has since snowballed into something that now demands a public response due to the fact that the principals on the other side are attempting to distort the facts and smear my reputation as a citizen and broadcaster and, in the short term, withhold my income without review or discussion with us."
He then went on to give his version of the background, relating he said, to "March, when the first national Hispanic illegal alien protests were taking place."
Of the incident that led to the suspension and firing he said that Tapia and Carias, who had subsequently complained about his broadcast of comments made in a restroom, had to have seen him and that the recording contained "them yelling insults at me from behind the stall doors which proves they knew I was there, knew I was recording, blowing up their claims of expectation of privacy… They refused to talk to me like men. They chose to go into the bathroom stall and shout epithets in Spanish, not knowing I understand enough to know they were insulting me."
Wachs then concluded the blog by writing, "I have been more than willing, at the company's request, to agree in writing not to even so much as speak of Yogi and Panda on the air going forward, for the sake of company harmony, and clear up any misconceptions they have about my opinion of them personally, which was on the favorable side, since they serve their audience well and deliver good ratings numbers and revenue… A case of a humorous prank has turned into a culture clash, a suppression of 1st Amendment rights, and a ridiculous smear campaign against me as well as termination of my income without due process."
Wachs took up the issue again on Tuesday, this time thanking those who had e-mailed support but attacking terrestrial radio in the US, writing, "the way radio is going, everything you love will be available on the internet anyway, including TRG. I give it less than 5 years before everyone's car radio is hooked up to the net, and the subpar people who did this to us will be glancing wistfully at their now worthless FCC licenses and rusty satellite hulks like so many boxes of Brien Taylor rookie cards whilst noshing on another delicious Van de Kamp offering"
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Regular Guys:
Regular Guys web site:
2006-10-25: UK media regulator Ofcom has announced that it is to advertise a new national digital licence in November - to be followed by more adverts of local digital multiplexes over the next year.
The latter will be for Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in December; Derbyshire in January next year; Wrexham & Chester in February; Herefordshire & Worcestershire in March; Northamptonshire in April; Oxfordshire in May; York & Scarborough in June; Gloucestershire in July; Pembrokeshire & Carmarthenshire in August; Guildford, Surrey, in September; Reigate & Crawley in October; and Lincolnshire in November;
The national multiplex is expected to be awarded in June or July next year with the service to be launched in 2008 following freeing up of the spectrum to be used by the end of next year. When plans for it were initially announced there was strong opposition - and threats of legal action - by GCap Media, which owns 63% of the existing commercial national multiplex Digital One (See RNW Jul 26, 2005) but GCap's opposition was eased when Ofcom said the new multiplex would have to offer services that were distinct from those on Digital One (See RNW Oct 20, 2005).
Ofcom has also posted the reasons behind its decision to award the new Oxford and South Oxfordshire commercial FM licence to Absolute Radio's bid with a Jack-FM format, the first station with this format in the UK. It notes that it had stressed the ability to maintain the proposed service and that in connection with this Absolute planned to co-locate the new station with Oxford's FM 107.9, which it co-owns, thus offering "resource-sharing and cross-selling opportunities which would help to enhance the likely financial stability of the service."
The Radio Licensing Committee (RLC), it said, "recognised the realism of the group's financial projections when compared with the performance of existing stations of a similar size and the forecasts of other applicants; this was considered of particular importance given the strength of competition that the new service is likely to face. It also considered that the applicant had demonstrated demand for the format within the target audience group as well as the results of an advertiser survey that "helped to demonstrate the potential commercial viability of the proposed service."
Previous GCap Media:
Previous Ofcom:
2006-10-25: Macquarie Media has responded with a qualified denial to a report in "The Australian