January 2008 Archive
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February 2008
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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 January comment- Digital - What's the point? We consider digital and conclude that the best approach would be for the US to provide DAB/DRM spectrum and let the market decide whether HD dies or -preferably in our view - ends up a licence-free system thus providing incentives for development of a true worldwide analogue/digital receiver and expanding consumer choice everywhere..
RNW December comment - Ends the year with a the main issues for radio in 2007 - ownership, technological change, and regulation.
RNW November comment - As Don Imus prepares to return to air, we look at issues of getting booted, coming back, and staying on air!
2008-01-31: The BBC increased its reach and share in the latest UK radio ratings covering the final quarter of last year and that show a large increase in digital listening with nearly 17% of UK listening now via a digital platform - 9.9% of listening being to DAB radio, 3.1% through digital TV and 1.9% through the Internet - and a 40% year-on-year increase in ownership of DAB radio receivers to some 22% of UK adults.
Overall listening is stable - some 89% of the UK population listen weekly - and within the total BBC radio had a reach of 33.14 million listeners a week, up from 32.81 million a year earlier with listening share up 1% year-on-year and compared to the previous quarter at 55.4%.
Within the commercial sector GCap Media's London flagship Capital FM, once the regular leader, remained stuck in third rank behind Emap/Bauer's Magic FM - Bauer is in the process of taking over Emap's radio interests - and Global Radio's Heart FM.
Magic had the largest reach with 1.97 million listeners a week but Heart had the largest share with 6.2% compared to 6.1% for Magic and 4.7% for Capital.
In the breakfast battles, Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott took back top honours in the London commercial race with 915, 000 listeners, up 105,000 quarter-on-quarter although down 33,000 year on year whilst Johnny Vaughan at Capital was second with 864,000 listeners ( for the 06:00 to 09:00 slot), down 16,000 from the third quarter when he held the lead. Vaughan is now on air until 10:00 and GCap Media say that adding in the extra hour puts him top with 937,000 listeners. Neil Fox at Magic, who had top rank in the third quarter, slipped to third with 811,000, down 74,000 quarter-on-quarter.
Nationally the big success story was that of Keith Moyles at BBC Radio 1: He took his audience up to a record 7.31 million, narrowing the gap with Terry Wogan who retained the lead for BBC Radio 2 with 7.73 million: Over the previous year Moyles has added 490,000 listeners a week whilst Wogan has lost 250,000 and Radio One has an average weekly audience of 10.69 million, up 430,000 year-on-year whilst Radio 2's audience fell by 450,000 to 12.87 million.
The BBC in its reaction to the figures highlighted success for BBC Radio 1; Radio 5 Live, which with digital sister station BBC 5 Live Sports Extra recorded a combined reach of 6.17 million - up more than half a million on last quarter's combined total of 5.65 million; and digital services.
BBC Director of Music and Audio Jenny Abramsky singled out digital for comment, saying in a release, "It is really heartening to see digital listening continuing to grow and DAB digital radio playing a key part in that success."
Of the commercial players, Global Radio singled out its London breakfast success with both Heart FM - the London leader as already noted - and LBC 97.3 where breakfast host Nick Ferrari had record figures with reach of 642,000 listeners a week, up from 586,000 in the third quarter and 624,000 a year earlier.
It commented that Heart is "the most listened to commercial station overall in the capital and eclipses Radio 1's audience" with Executive Director Richard Parks commenting, "London is driving success for Global Radio with this outstanding set of RAJARs. The results are testament to Heart 106.2's ongoing commitment to innovative programming and feel good music which resonates with our listeners' lifestyles."
GCap highlighted the results for Classic FM, which retains the largest audience for a commercial national station with 5.591 million listeners - it did not note that this was down from 5.5844 million in the third quarter although it was up on the 5.757 million a year earlier - and also played down the success of Capital's rivals, simply noting that the station had retained its 4.7% share of listening from a year earlier and in the previous quarter and had increased its reach year-on year - up by 3.7% to 1.517 million although it was also down - not noted by GCap - 11.1% on the previous quarter when its reach was 1.707 million.
Note: Regarding comparisons to the previous quarter (and year) we note that RAJAR changed its survey specifications for the figures for the second quarter of last year so year-on-year comparisons are in some cases not exact:
*BBC Radio 1 gained 115,000.00 listeners and had a weekly audience of 10.693 million but listening share was down from 10.6% to 10.3 % (9.7% a year ago when it had 10.262 million listeners).
*BBC Radio 2 lost 189,000 listeners to drop below 13 million and end with a weekly audience of 12.824 million with listening share down from 15.8% to 15.7% (15.8% a year ago, when it had 13.269 million listeners)
*BBC Radio 3 gained 12,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 1.950 million and an unchanged 1.2% listening share (1.4% a year ago, when it had 2.028 million listeners).
*BBC Radio 4 gained 27,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 9.289 million and listening share up from 11.2% to 11.8% (11.1% a year ago when it had 9.342 million listeners).
*BBC Radio 5 Live, excluding Sports Extra, gained 591,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 6.080 million, and a listening share up from 4.2% to 4.6% (4.4% a year ago when it had 5.846 million listeners).
(Including Sports Extra it gained 522,000 listeners to end with a weekly audience of 6.174 million and a listening share up from 4.4% to 4.7% (4.5% a year ago when it had 5.919 million listeners).
*BBC World Service lost 120,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 1.183 million and a listening share down from 0.7% to 0.6% (0.6% a year ago when it had 1.264 million listeners).
*BBC Asian Network lost 35,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 441,000 and an unchanged listening share of 0.3% (0.3% a year ago when it had 493,000 listeners).
On the commercial side for national networks:
*G-Cap's Classic FM lost 253,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 5.591 million and listening share down from 4.3% to 4.2% (4.2% a year ago when it had 5.757 million listeners).
*UTV's talkSPORT gained 140,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 2.452 million and a listening share up from 1.8% to 2.0% (1.8% a year ago when it had 2.239 million listeners.).
*SMG-owned Virgin (total including all AM and FM) lost 1,000 listeners to end up with a weekly audience of 2.471 million and unchanged listening share of 1.5% (1.5% a year ago when it had an audience of 2.470 million listeners).
*RNW Note:The Virgin current reach figure has been amended following a RAJAR correction.
Among digital stations - excluding Emap's Kerrang! which has a substantial analogue and digital listenership and a total weekly reach of 1.321 million including its analogue stations (down from 1.387 million quarter on quarter - (*There was a conflict here in the RAJAR figures which we noted at the time. We have amended the Kerrang! figures to the re-ossued and correected version) but including BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra and Asian Network - the top stations in the survey had weekly audience as below (previous quarter in brackets):
1 The Hits (Emap) -1.364 million (down from 1.494 million and up from 1.135 million a year ago).
2 Smash Hits Radio (Emap) -966,000 (down from 990,000 and up from 708,000 a year ago).
3 BBC 7 -853,000 (up from 795,000 and from 672,000 a year ago).
4 BBC Five Live Sports Extra -630,000 (down from 730,000 and from 650,000 a year ago).
5 Planet Rock (GCap) -563,000 (up from 548,000 and 424,000 a year ago).
6 BBC 6 Music -493,000 (up from 485,000 and 383,000 a year ago.).
7 BBC Asian Network - 476,000 (up from 455,000 and down from 481,000 a year ago). Up from eighth.
8 BBC 1Xtra -453,000 (up from 421,000 and up from 368,000 a year ago).
9 Heat (Emap) -386,000 (down from 413,000 and up from 246,000 a year ago).
10 The Jazz (GCap) 364,000, down from 388,000 (Only rated since third quarter).
*The Jazz pushed Q (Emap) with 298,000 (down from 400,000 and from 289,000 a year ago) into 11th rank.
Previous Abramsky:
Previous Bauer:
Previous BBC:
Previous Emap (Currently being taken over by Bauer):
Previous GCap Media:
Previous Global Radio:
Previous RAJAR:
Previous RAJAR ratings (Q3 2007):
Previous SMG:
Previous UTV:
2008-01-31: Reacting to the report in The Register that Germany is to effectively end DAB transmissions (See RNW Jan 30) the country's public and commercial broadcasters have issued statements confirming their commitment to the roll out of Digital Radio based on the DAB family of standards.
The report was based on recommendations for the funding of public broadcasters' digital radio transmissions by the KEF (Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfes), which includes some prominent supporters of the DVB Mobile TV standard and as well as recommending funding for public broadcasters of 97 million Euros ( USD 143 million) for the roll out of digital radio and mobile broadcasting in the period from 2009 to 2012 suggested consideration of digital radio systems other than DAB.
This led Stephan Ory, General Manager of APR (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Privater Rundfunk), the association of private radio broadcasters, to comment, "The KEF is not a group that is authorized to make industrial political decisions, decisions which affect not only the public broadcasters but also the commercial sector". The KEF's recommendation refers to optimized radio via DVB Mobile TV despite the fact that there are no consumer styled DVB radio receivers."
WorldDMB President Quentin Howard added, "It is no surprise to me that Germany's public and private broadcasters have rejected the suggestion that alternative technology choices for terrestrial digital radio are either practical or desirable. Germany already has transmission infrastructure in place for DAB, DAB+ and DMB, and because these all share a common technical standard there are enormous practical benefits for consumers including around four hundred digital radio models which are already being sold in other European countries, with prices from under Euros 40 (USD 60)".
The broadcasters note that the main barriers that previously hindered the success of DAB in Germany were mostly regulatory but these had largely been overcome following the Geneva 2006 spectrum planning conference with considerably more frequencies allocated for digital radio; the development of new and more efficient codecs, and the lifting of transmitting power, which previously impaired in door reception in Germany.
They also say they now have the support of the regional media
authorities, the receiver and automotive manufacturers as well as the retailers for the roll out of DAB based technology and Helmut Egenbauer, CEO Media Broadcast said the signs from the industry which we are currently receiving "are encouraging and therefore nobody has stepped on the brake for the planned re-launch of digital radio in the year 2009".
Previous Howard:
Previous WorldDMB:
2008-01-31: Clear Channel's share price stabilized on Wednesday following two days pf falls in which it has dropped by nearly 15%. After a day in which the price fluctuated from USD 28.32 to USD 30.52, the stock ended down just 0.03% at USD 29.16, a little more than USD 10 below the USD 39.20 a deal agreed for the by-out by a private equity group led by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
There has been much speculation that the deal will now fall through - the current price indicates a view that there is now only about a one in three chance of it proceeding as agreed: Clear Channel said on Tuesday that it expects the deal to be completed in the first quarter of this year but nothing has been said publicly by the putative purchasers but the Wall Street Journal has reported that they have sent representatives to Clear Channel with a view to cutting expenses.
A recent memorandum from Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan ordered across the board cuts including an end to research and advertising and promotion spending from the start of February and a hiring freeze without "specific approval from your EVPO."
In his note Hogan wrote, "As you are undoubtedly aware, we are generating less revenue for Q1 than we budgeted and less than what actually ran last year. At the same time, our budgeted expenses for Q1 are up 4 percent...As responsible managers, we need to address the shortfall not only by continuing to find ways to increase our revenue, but also by implementing cuts on the expense side until revenue production improves."
In other Clear Channel news, the company has named Cadillac Jack as program director for WWPR-FM (Power 105.1), New York from today.
An 18-year Clear Channel veteran he retains his roles as OM of Clear Channel/Boston and PD of WJMN -FM (Jam'n 94.5) and CHR/top 40 WXKS-FM (Kiss 108) but will move to New York to takes over the Power FM duties from Helen Little who will move to middays on sister AC station WLTW-FM (Lite FM) on Tuesday next week.
Little, who joined WWPR in July 2006 will replace 24-year veteran host Valerie Smaldone, who left earlier this month.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Hogan:
2008-01-31: BBC Radio 3 is to offer three more podcasts that will contain brief musical excerpts of up to minute in shortened versions of the programmes involved - "Building A Library"; "Composer Of The Week"; and "World Routes".
It already offers podcasts of "Arts & Ideas", "Music Matters" and "Jazz Library" and controller Roger Wright said the "new podcasts, alongside the others, will offer existing listeners a new way to enjoy much-loved programmes. We hope they will also help bring classical jazz and world music to new audiences, making music and conversation about it more accessible."
The new podcasts will launch on February 9, with "Mozart's last String Quartet" in the "Building a Library" podcast; Herbert Howells as "Composer of the Week" and a "World Routes" special from Azerbaijan in which Lucy Duran travels the entire length of Azerbaijan to record some of the country's best musicians. She meets some of the biggest Mugham performers including Alim Gasimov, who records a session with his daughter, and the so-called "guardian" of the genre Aghakhan Abdullayev.
Previous BBC:
Previous Wright:
2008-01-30: Clear Channel shares, which had fallen 7% on Monday, were down by as much again on Tuesday -they ended 7.16% down on the day at USD 29.17 and at one point were down to USD 27.77 -as investors fretted whether the changed economic climate would lead private equity buyers led by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners might pull out of their USD 20 billion deal to buy the company and pay a withdrawal penalty of USD 600 million.
At the close of business on Tuesday Clear Channel shares were USD 29.45 compared to USD 39.20 a deal agreed for the buy-out, valuing Clear Channel at USD 14.66 billion.
Reuters reported that speculation that the buyout might fall through intensified after Anthony DiNovi, co-president of Thomas H. Lee Partners on Tuesday sidestepped a question about the Clear Channel in a Dow Jones panel discussion and commented about his general predictions concerning buyout predictions - he said 2008 would be a challenging year, with the backlog of deal financing weighing on the market.
Reuters quoted one trader, who it said declined to be named, as saying that by not speaking in support of the bid DiNovi had added to investors' concerns.
Previous Clear Channel:
Reuters report:
2008-01-30: Reporting on an Enders Analysis report on digital radio that concludes there is overcapacity of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) spectrum that will be exacerbated by the planned launch of a further DAB national multiplex by Channel 4, the UK Guardian quotes its author Grant Goddard as saying the issue of DAB overcapacity needs to be "urgently resolved" by Ofcom, Digital One, Channel 4 and transmission business Arqiva and adding, "Put bluntly, can the UK commercial radio sector really support two DAB multiplexes?"
The Guardian notes that the report ends with a comment from The Local Radio Company chief executive Richard Wheatly who said to analysts, "DAB is the Betamax of Radio": it also notes earlier comments that "The exodus of stations from the DAB platform [RNW note: two national digital-only stations - Core and Oneword closed this month - See RNW Jan 12 - and various operators including SMG and GCap have also scaled down other digital operations] is starting to look like a stampede. With three of the largest radio groups having reduced their commitment to the DAB platform in recent months, their stations having been replaced by a mix of ethnic, religious and non-commercial broadcasters, the future health of the DAB platform must be under question."
The Enders report says the paper compares the current state of DAB with the decline of AM at the end of the last century with Goodard writing, "The DAB platform of 2008, particularly in London, is already starting to resemble the AM platform of 1998, suggesting that DAB might have already been written off by the sector as a means to reach the 'mass market' audiences that national advertisers desire from the medium."
Goddard termed the launch of the second national commercial digital multiplex unhelpful when the existing Digital One multiplex was struggling to fill its capacity and says that "By the end of 2007, it was evident that the 'master plan' for DAB which the radio industry had clung to since the mid-1990s was simply not going to work."
The report was at variance with comments made by UK RadioCentre chief executive. Andrew Harrison at a London Conference in which he said the commercial industry had started to "fight back" last year and said of radio, "Our industry is in rude good health - 90 per cent of the population enjoy radio for an average of nearly 24 hours a week each and commercial stations dominate listening all the way up to the over 50s."
Regarding digital radio he said that more than 17% of listening was no via digital with DAB receiver sales past six million and Ofcom estimating that within five years more than half of radio listening will be digital.
Elsewhere in Europe DAB has failed to make the same inroads and Germany is effectively ending DAB transmissions according to The Register, which on Monday reported that the KEF (Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfes), the independent commission responsible for the allocation of licence fees, is unwilling to pay the Euros 180 million (USD 266 million) that public radio stations wanted to keep transmissions going.
Germany was the first country in Europe to start DAB transmissions but the technology never really caught on with only a few broadcasters broadcasting in DAB and only around 200,000 receivers sold.
German broadcaster ARD has insisted that it and public station Deutschlandradio as well as private broadcasters remain committed to arranging a new launch of digital radio in 2009 and they are drafting a proposal to the KEF for submission in the middle of this year.
At the moment they are still proposing terrestrial broadcasts as the main form of radio distribution and also favour DAB as offering a good compromise of multiplex size and local coverage, particularly as more advanced audio codecs will allow more efficient use of spectrum.
RNW comment: We rather suspect the Enders Analysis report will be taken by the commercial radio industry as a springboard to try and push the government to close down analogue, thereby reducing the commercial industry's costs and giving it a larger share of the spectrum than it has with analogue.
Our view is that this should be resisted and that the government should concentrate on the interests of listeners rather than shifting massive costs of purchasing new receivers onto them.
Until commercial radio companies stop bidding for their licences and nobody else - including community and specialist broadcasters- wants to take up the spectrum, we cannot see that the overall public interest will be well served by changing the system. To us having specialist stations taking up DAB - the report comments of the launch of stations such as Polish Radio London, Rainbow Radio and BFBS Radio as if it is a sign of a problem - may indeed be a plus rather than having a multiplicity of commercial pap (pap not pop, albeit it may be the two are synonymous in some cases) music stations.
In addition if Ofcom is correct those stations that opt out of digital will be throwing away much of their audience. That is their prerogative but they should not expect to be bailed out in the future because of the results of short-term decisions made now.
Previous Harrison:
Previous RadioCentre:
The Register report:
UK Guardian report:
2008-01-30: The US HD Digital Radio Alliance has now formally moved off the fence and filed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposing the merger of Sirius and XM Satellite Radio and also backing the call by HD developer iBiquity that the commission require that satellite radio receivers be equipped with the ability to also tune into HD radio should there be a merger.
The Alliance in its filing says a merger would reduce consumer choice and adds that at the moment HD Radio "cannot be considered a competitive alternative to satellite radio."
It also says that a merger would make things more difficult for HD and queries the satellite radio companies' deals with automakers, commenting that they have become entrenched whilst HD is at the early stages of adoption.
RNW comment: Why, we wonder, might the satellite companies be ahead both with listeners and automakers? Could it be because they offer content that people consider worth listening to and have worked hard on the automaker link because they perceived it as important whilst effectively sat on fat bottoms.
In a market economy iBiquity and the Alliance should be given short shrift although as we would favour increasing competition we would not object too much were the regulators to require that all sides make their technology available to the competitors without any licensing fees ever being payable, thus putting the companies in competition to attract consumers rather than relying on patents. Of course this might bankrupt iBiquity but it would keep the technology available via satellite receivers and probably rather cheaper than at present.
Previous HD Radio Alliance:
Previous iBiquity:
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
2008-01-30: UK media regulator Ofcom has upheld no radio complaints in its latest Broadcast Bulletin in which it upheld TV standards complaints against two broadcasters; considered two other TV standards case resolved through action already taken by the broadcaster; and gave details of a TV standards complaint and a TV fairness and privacy complaint that were not upheld.
It also listed without details 276 TV complaints against 183 items and 21 radio complaints against 20 items that it did not uphold or were considered out of its remit: This compares with 237 complaints against 181 TV items and 38 radio complaints against 30 items that were out of its remit or not upheld in the previous bulletin.
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Ofcom Complaints Bulletin:
2008-01-29: More than 8 million people a week listen to radio through the Internet with almost half as many again saying they have used the Internet to listen according to a survey conducted for UK radio ratings service RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) by Ipsos-Mori during September and October last year using a sample of RAJAR respondents from the previous 9 months who had claimed to listen to the radio via the Internet, or downloaded Podcasts.
RAJAR says that since the third quarter of 2002, when it found 2.7% of respondents claimed the have listened to radio on the internet during the previous week the figures had risen to 13.5% in the third quarter of last year.
RAJAR says that of the 12 million who claimed to listen to radio via the Internet, 9.1 million said they had listened live, 7.6 million said that they used Listen Again services, and 4.3 million had downloaded a podcast of whom 1.87 million said they listened to a podcast at least once a week.
There was good news for broadcasters in that three quarters of those who said they used Listen Again services said that it had no impact on live radio listening and 13% that they now listen to more live radio whilst only 8% said they now listen less to live radio. Almost half of those who used Listen Again facilities said that this had led them to listen to programmes that they previously didn't listen to.
Of those who said they listened to podcasts the survey found that the typical podcast user subscribes to 3.16 Podcasts and spends 53.6 minutes per week listening to them with comedy and music being the two favourite genres. Some two-thirds of them used iTunes as the software of choice and almost a quarter preferred to download directly. As regards listening 80% listened on their home computer and 61% using a portable player.
The survey also found a reluctance to pay for podcasts with 58% saying they would be interested in free podcasts containing adverts but only 28% that they were interested in idea of Podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for.
As regards listening software, Windows Media Player was the most popular both for listening at home and work - some 7.83 million and 2.1 million respectively followed by iTunes for home listening - 5.19 million compared to 4.99 million for RealPlayer - and RealPlayer at work - 1.13 million compared to 750,000 for iTunes.
RAJAR research director Paul Kennedy described the survey as "very much a toe in the water" adding, "Although we already knew that Listen Again, Personalised Online Radio and Podcasting had many advocates, we knew nothing of their standing in the mainstream. This survey tells us and our subscribers, who are actively involved in these areas, more about them."
Previous RAJAR:
2008-01-29: Arbitron, having signed deals with all the major US radio companies to use its Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings, has now added a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, the first Major League Baseball Team to sign for PPM Ratings.
Under the agreement, Arbitron will use is existing Philadelphia PPM panel to generate custom reports of pre-, post-, in-game and total broadcast listening estimates for the Phillies 2007, 2008 and 2009 baseball seasons.
The Philadelphia Phillies will broadcast all 162 regular season games during the 2008 baseball season on the Big Talker 1210 WPHT-AM and their Director of Corporate Partnerships Rob MacPherson commented, "Baseball has always had a magical relationship with radio, and teams use radio each season as a way to stay connected to their fan base and generate revenue." said "We at the Phillies," he added, "embrace the opportunity to bring our game to our fans on the radio each year. As a trusted and reliable source of radio audience measurement, Arbitron has always understood the unique and special relationship between the game of baseball and the radio medium. With the advent of the Portable People Meter, teams are now able to quantify their loyal audiences like never before, enabling us to better understand our fans and better serve our advertisers."
RNW heretical thought. How about serving the fans better? Never mind, they're milch cows to the teams anyway,
Previous Arbitron:
2008-01-29: The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has awarded in principle the licence for a new Classic Gold/Easy Listening/Smooth multi-city FM service to Choice Broadcasting Limited FM (trading as 4 FM).
Choice had been one of five applicants of whom it and TV3 Television Network Limited with a "More FM" bid were invited to an oral hearing in Dublin last month (See RNW Licence News Dec 16, 2007).
The franchise area covers Dublin City and County and commuter belt, Cork City and County, Galway City and County, Limerick City and County and County Clare and the final award is subject to successful contract negotiations.
Previous BCI:
2008-01-29: Eastlan Ratings is to add the Newburgh-Middletown, New York, market, to its ratings from Spring 2008, the third New York market that will use its ratings - the others are Syracuse and Utica-Rome.
Sunrise Broadcasting President Joerg Klebe commented of the move, "Eastlan Ratings provides the product that is just right for condensed markets such as the Newburgh-Middletown market that have consistently been under sampled and overcharged" and Eastlan Ratings President and CEO Mike Gould said he had heard the same from many operators.
"In today's financial environment," he added, "broadcasters must give careful consideration to the negative impact the leading audience measurement provider has on their bottom line. In many situations, they represent one of the three largest expense line items. As a former jock and PD, I don't think it makes sense to cut airshifts to pay for ratings data."
Previous Eastlan:
Previous Gould:
2008-01-28: Yet again this week, positives about radio in the UK and not so positive from the US where again we noted comparatively little about the medium and even less about programming that takes it seriously.
Indeed it was more a matter of the normal criticism of talk hosts than encomiums for radio that caught our eye, in particular a call in the Los Angeles Times for action against Fox News host John Gibson who, according to Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times "opened his radio show with hate-filled, and prepared, mockery of actor Heath Ledger's death."
She notes that he played clips of "Brokeback Mountain," played with a "background of funeral music, ending with his character's lover, Jack Twist, saying, 'I wish I knew how to quit you.'"
As reported by McNamara, Gibson chortled, "Well, he found out how to quit you" and then launched "into a show that repeatedly referenced the 28-year-old actor's death as if it were some sort of joke. Among other things, Gibson suggested, laughing the whole time, that the actor had killed himself because of the stock market downturn, the stalled John Edwards campaign or because he was just a 'weirdo' with 'a serious drug problem.'"
McNamara notes that after the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation(GLAAD) and other groups denounced Gibson's behaviour, he at first defended it as a joke, explaining that he had long made fun of the 'quit you' line and wasn't about to stop now but later, "clearly responding to increased pressure, he issued a statement during Fox News' 'The Big Story With John Gibson and Heather Nauert,' saying he was sorry if some people were offended by his remarks and also that he was sorry Ledger had died."
McNamara notes that Don Imus lost his show as a result of his "joke" about the Rutgers women's basketball team [RNW note: Albeit he got a large payoff from CBS and then ended up back on air with Citadel] but that in Gibson's case the "opening had been scripted"; that his defence - "'I have been making fun of gays for years, why should I stop just because someone died? -- is truly chilling"; and that his "' "I'm sorry if some of you found my remarks offensive' is a classic non-apology."
She concludes that her first reaction when asked to write about Gibson was to ask why he should get more attention but then took the view that this would be a cop-out and concluded, "That Gibson would choose the event of a young man's death -- a young heterosexual man, it must be said -- to exercise his "right" to homophobia is not just a matter of taste, it's an issue of policy. What is Fox News' policy about the language of hate? And more important, what is our policy?"
RNW comment: To which our response is that unfortunately there are too many rather vile Americans as otherwise there would be a complete boycott of Fox advertisers for a while until it made it clear that it regarded such comments as just as serious as showing a female body, an offence for which the FCC is proposing to fine ABC USD 1.4 million - and at least until the boycott had cost Fox around twice that since we would regard the effect on public discourse of the Gibson remarks as worse than the NYPD episode for which the fine has been proposed. To ban Gibson would be unacceptable but to decide that advertisers who back a network that allowed the initial reaction and subsequent half-apology without itself getting off the fence deserve no financial backing would seem quite reasonable. Fox, in our view, should have given Gibson the opportunity of responding to its utter condemnation - and put a real rottweiler from its staff against him to harry him properly for any lame responses.
Enough, however of the vile Americans and on to more upbeat comments about British radio starting with a UK Guardian article by music journalist and former jazz musician and record producer John L. Walters in which he praises GCap Media's national digital station theJazz.
Walters starts by commenting on the BBC's jazz output - Lyttelton and, occasionally, Courtney Pine on Radio 2, a little that "Gilles Peterson would sneak it into his Radio 1 and World Service shows" and the best shows that "were tucked away on Radio 3."
"Though jazz has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance over the past decade," he comments, "its BBC coverage has remained small. But at least those programmes exist. When you tune into regional and/or commercial radio, coverage is patchy or nonexistent. Of course, we had the false dawn of Jazz FM, broadcasting in the London and Manchester regions. In 2005, the station re-branded itself out of existence, and was profitably reinvented as Smooth FM [Jazz FM remains on the Internet]".
He then goes on to comment on the transformation of the radio landscape for jazz by the launch of theJazz without much fanfare but nevertheless gaining quick acceptance and attracting a weekly audience of some 441,000 of whom 53,000 were children under 15.
Its most successful show is, he notes, the drivetime Easy Jazz with an audience of 147,000, a figure that compares to 59,000 for Jazz On 3 late on Friday evenings, 184,000 for Jazz Record Requests and 163,00 for Jazz Line-up, both on Saturday afternoons, whilst on Monday nights "Big Band" on Radio 2 attracts some 370,000.
The BBC, he says does not appear to have reacted to the launch of theJazz and Radio 3 controller Roger Wright, he says, doesn't see it as a rival because like sister GCap station Classic FM it does something different to Radio 3.
That view appears to be shared by Radio 3 jazz staff and amongst those he quotes are Keith Loxam, producer of Radio 3's Jazz Line-Up who says he puts theJazz on for "an hour or so, and I enjoy that" but says his show is different, commenting, "When I come on for my 90 minutes a week, I try and make that action-packed. So I have the presenter playing classic albums, we have new albums and exclusive concert sets. That's where the BBC's difference comes in. As a public service broadcaster, we are providing exclusive live music for the listener. Programmes like Jazz Line-Up and Jazz on 3 are throwing down the gauntlet and saying, 'This is what we're into.' We might play the same track, but it won't be played in the same way."
Wright also contrasts his station's output with the computer-generated playlists that the Jazz airs, saying of Radio 3, "You don't get heavy rotation of standard repertoire. Way more than 50% of our output is live music ... there's no way you can operate that as a computer-generated playlist. You've got to do it with humans."
After that, sticking with the Guardian we move onto comment on BBC Radio 1 from Caroline Sullivan who says the station is moving away from "rock" to "pop" but "new pop" not the manufactured bands of a short time ago.
Sullivan quotes Radio 1 head of music George Ergatoudis as saying, "Pop has become a dirty word, and it's time for rehabilitation" and then expanding on the comment, by adding, "There's something of an increase in pop acts that I think are making really strong, quality new music. Ones doing really well for us at the moment are the Hoosiers, Scouting for Girls, the Wombats ... it depends how far you want to stretch the definition of pop, but you could argue that acts like the Kaiser Chiefs and Pigeon Detectives are making such melodic music you could call them pop."
She then quotes Paul Williams, editor of Music Week as saying of this, "If George is treating bands like the Hoosiers as pop, I can see where he's coming from." The definition narrowed in the 90s and became, in a lot of people's minds, out-and-out boy bands that appealed to teen audiences only. I think it might be swinging back to the old-fashioned, wider definition - a genre that appeals across the ages."
After jazz and pop on to drama and Gillian Reynolds' regular radio column in The Daily Telegraph. Last week she highlighted the previous Sunday's "Drama on 3" - Baghdad Wedding by Hassan Abdulrazzak and said of the playwright that he is "on the evidence of this play, someone who can translate the essence of reality into the kind of fiction that makes you grasp the truth."
"That, after all," continues Reynolds, "is what writers are for. If you want to understand the great shifts of 20th-century history, read the novels of Boris Pasternak and Philip Roth. Feel what it was like to live behind the Iron Curtain through the plays of Mrozek and Havel. Read any, or preferably lots, of the poets, playwrights and novelists of Northern Ireland to grasp the passage of the past century across the Six Counties.
"British radio continues to reflect this. Beyond the vast mainstream of music and chat, there is still a substantial hinterland where a listener can find work that continues to connect fact, as in the news, with comprehension, as through fiction."
And finally on to fact in the shape of "From our Own Correspondent" -"FOOC, pronounced "FOOK" and an article in The Independent by Alan Johnston who is to present the World Service version of the programme.
Johnston notes the pressures to serve multiple outlets when a story is breaking and "under the pressure of time, it is sometimes difficult to do more than just put across the hard facts - the bare bones of the events that are changing the world around you."
He then goes on to contrast this with FOOC -"one corner of the BBC where there is the space and time for much more."
"The programme," he writes, "asks for a straight dispatch over four clear minutes, which in our business feels like a lifetime. This is where you really get a chance to reflect and observe a little more, and try to bring alive the extraordinary place in which you find yourself. You get a chance to show the people who you meet there as more than the news stories that they inhabit - more than just refugees, or fighters, or politicians, or demonstrators. By exploring the backgrounds of their lives, their hopes and fears, their ways of seeing, and perhaps even the things they laugh at, you can make their world more vivid, more real."
After giving examples of quirky detail that can illuminate a report, he goes on to praise the programme as a "a bastion of good writing and strong storytelling that can conjure a sense of place", citing an example from Allan Little written in Kinshasa as he awaited the fall of President Mobutu of Zaire.
It's worth a read and fully illustrates a point that Johnston later cites from an admirer that week after week the programme "proves that pictures painted in words on the radio can be more vivid than pictures on television."
After that we move on to listening suggestions and suggest a dip into the BBC downloads for "From our Own Correspondent" and "Listen-Again" facility for "Drama on 3" and the Friday night and Saturday Jazz programmes from BBC Radio 3 with particular reference to last Friday's "Jazz Library" (on Lester Young) and "Jazz on 3" (with performances from Charlie Haden's Quartet West") and Saturday's "Jazz Line-Up"; "Jazz Record Requests."
For a less-scheduled listen to Jazz, "theJazz" is there day and night as is jazzfm although the latter requires registration before it lets you listen (and does seem to run some checks on the validity of the information entered as we found out with one spoof registration.).
Then for some more BBC suggestions and from BBC Radio 2 we suggest tomorrow's "Chasing Celebrity" (22:30 GMT), the second of Paul Morley's two-part series in which he looks at issues of promotion and becoming a celebrity; Wednesday's "Blagger's Guide to the Classics" (23:00 GMT); Thursday's "Alexis Korner... Rhythm and Blues Champion" in which Chris Jagger showcases the work of broadcaster and bandleader Alexis Korner, the catalyst for the British Blues explosion of the 60s; and Saturday's "John McGeoch", the story of one of the most innovative and influential guitarists of the past 30 years.
Then from BBC Radio 3 we suggest this week's "Composer of the Week" (Noon GMT with an evening repeat) - this week it's Beethoven and "Performance on 3 (19:00 GMT)" that this week features a week of Mahler symphonies by the LSO conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Also from Radio 3 we suggest Friday's "Jazz Library" (22:30 GMT) on Ella Fitzgerald and Saturday's "Jazz Line-Up" (16:00 GMT) in which Julian Joseph introduces more tracks from a recording by Empirical, winners of the first European Broadcast Union Jazz Competition held recently at the BBC Maida Vale studios.
And from BBC Radio 4 we suggest last Saturday's "Archive Hour" - "50 Years of Ban the Bomb" in which Matthew Parris assesses the impact of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament"; last Sunday's "Something Understood" - "Living Smart, Living Simple" in which Mark Tully is joined by environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt to explore how we can live better but more simply and "The Astronauts' Wives Club" on the lives of the wives of U.S. astronauts;
The "Book of the Week" (09:45 GMT weekdays) - Joyce Tyldesley's biography "Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt"; Tuesday's "Inside Stories" (09:00 GMT) that this week looks at the reporting of the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Station after he had been misidentified as a terrorist and potential bomber and "Soul Music" that this week is on Thomas Tallis's "Spem in Alium" (13:30 GMT - last week's edition "Tainted Love" is on the site until then).
After that we suggest a few podcasts cum MP3s starting with BBC Radio 4 and "The News Quiz" from last Friday, the most recent "Dollar a Day" programme from the BBC documentary archive (the third of four: the second is also still on the site) and the "Desperate Dreams" series, also from the documentary archive ( Parts one through three are on the site as we write albeit the first may disappear shortly) and last Saturday's FOOC plus last week's "Thinking Allowed" from BBC Radio 4.
From the US we suggest last week's "On the Media" for its first report "The War at Home" , an interesting dissection of reactions to a New York Times report on Iraq war veterans who have killed on their return home… one military critic compares the rates of crime amongst the military with those of the US population at large whilst a co-author of the report compared rates amongst the military in the six years before the Iraq invasion and the six years after, finding an 89% increase in the later period.
The programme also looked at how the pressures of instant and continual news demands affects the coverage of the deaths of celebrities from the angle of preparations of obituaries just in case.
Then from Radio Netherlands we suggest this week's" Earthbeat" (Thursday) , which looks at the effects of China's growth on ordinary people and Saturday's "The State We're in" which amongst other items looked at the anticipated reactions to plans by a populist Dutch politician to release a film that is expected to be provocatively anti-Islam.
And finally to theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation for the grim in the form of last Saturday's "All in the Mind" on "The Neurobiology of Suicide"; the mixed in Sunday "Background Briefing" that looked at the growth in the numbers of people living alone and the benefits this has brought for the pets business - more is now spent on pets than childcare in Australia; the hopeful from Tuesday's "Law Report" that tells the story of a convicted drugs trafficker who spent six years in prison but has now been admitted as a lawyer; and the Pythons in the form of Michael Palin and Eric Idle talking about their lives, experiences and latest projects on Monday's "Late Night Live."
Previous Columnists:
Previous Reynolds:
Los Angeles Times - McNamara:
UK Guardian - Sullivan:
UK Guardian - Walters:
UK Telegraph - Reynolds:
2008-01-28: Macquarie Bank-owned Arqiva, which already owns more than half the UK broadcasting transmission system, is offering to slash prices to gain regulatory approval for its acquisition of rival National Grid Wireless according to the UK Sunday Telegraph, which adds that the move could "provide a major fillip to Britain's troubled commercial radio industry."
The paper says the company us pledging to cut the cost of radio station transmissions by an average 15% if the merger is approved according to commercial radio sources although it adds that Arqiva refused comment.
The cuts, says the paper would apply to both BBC and commercial radio, and in addition broadcasters would be able to cancel contracts with one year's notice once capital costs had been recouped: A clause to permit this would be introduced as part of new 10 or 12 year agreements.
This break clause adds the Telegraph would make it easier to close down loss-making digital stations or AM transmissions, which have a falling audience: It says negotiations were led by industry trade body the RadioCentre and Ralph Bernard, former chief executive of GCap Media and notes that radio companies are keep to cut transmission costs - GCap spends some GBP 16 million a year on digital broadcasting - having spent heavily on local, regional and national digital licences and committing to 12-year transmission contracts with Arqiva in the hope that listeners would throw away their old analogue radio sets.
Arqiva agreed the GBP 2.5 billion (USD 4.94 billion then USD 4.95 billion - see RNW April 4, 2007) but the Competition Commission has warned it might order a sell off.
RNW comment: the commercial radio companies have also been lobbying for a switch-off of analogue radio, which would be to their benefit, but we see neither this nor granting Arqiva a monopoly as being necessarily in the wider public interest. In the absence of any other major benefits from analogue switch off, we would take the view that it should only be considered if the radio companies are prepared to put up a bond guaranteeing to swap old analogue sets for new digital ones of equivalent quality (they won't, which makes it clear that what is being asked for is effectively a tax on consumers for their benefit). Equally we are concerned that these companies that say they are all for competition change their stance when it affects their profits as in allowing cost-cutting consolidation after paying high prices for broadcasters that can only be paid for by the cuts, particularly job cuts, that they can introduce after a takeover.
If significant broadcasters are going into loss then there may be a case for reconsideration but if it is merely a matter of not making so great a profit, we see little reason to accede to such demands unless the companies can make a compelling public interest case.
Previous Arqiva:
Previous Bernard:
Previous GCap Media:
Previous Macquarie Bank:
Previous RadioCentre:
UK Sunday Telegraph report:
2008-01-28: Illinois public radio veteran Don Johnson has retired after nearly two decades on air with Tri States Public Radio.
The Peoria Journal-Star reports that Johnson, who moved into radio from newspapers, started with the broadcaster as anchor for "Afternoon Edition" in 1989 but for the last 13 has been its morning news man.
It quotes Johnson as saying, "Everyone kept telling me I should do radio because I just had the right voice for radio," then adding, "Then there were some others that told me I had the face for radio as well."
Peoria Journal-Star report:
2008-01-27: Last week the main regulatory news again came from the US where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has posted proposals in relation to requiring local content from broadcasters (See RNW Jan 25) and also given the go-ahead to the sale of Clear Channel to a private equity group (See RNW Jan 25). The latter got the most publicity because it also involved the largest US radio company but the former may yet have the most effect. Elsewhere it was again a matter of routine announcements rather than large decisions.
In Australia, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) made only one radio-related posting - a decision not to renew the licence of Cobar Community Radio's 2HOT, Cobar, New South Wales that expired on January 21, although it has issued a six-month temporary community licence.
The ACMA say that if there are other interested community organisations in the Cobar licence area who also wish to apply for a temporary community broadcasting licence the frequency would be shared.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman commented of the issue, "While the decision not to renew is never taken lightly and is no doubt understandably disappointing for the licensee and its listeners, it was arrived at after considerable deliberation and taking into account both those objectives."
ACMA, he said, found that the licensee has not adequately identified the needs of the community and that the service provided by 2HOT does not adequately meet the needs of the Cobar licence area. The ACMA said it was also concerned about the licensee's management capacity and ability to comply with licence conditions and added that the "licensee's inability to meet legislative requirements has contributed to ACMA deciding to not renew the licence."
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a number of radio postings including (in order of province):
Alberta:
*Approval of application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to increase the power of its transmitter CBR-1-FM, Calgary, from 1,100 watts to 2,800 watts and decrease the antenna height. The CBC says this will improve reception in downtown Calgary where it had received a number of complaints, mainly about reception in apartment buildings.
British Columbia:
*Approval of application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to add a 240 watts FM transmitter at Whistler to rebroadcast the programming of its national French-language network service La Première Chaîne originating from CBUF-FM, Vancouver.
Ontario:
*Approval of application by CJRT-FM Inc to use a subsidiary communications multiplex operations (SCMO) channel to broadcast a predominantly Hindi- and Tamil-language radio service offering music and spoken word programming, including religious programming. The new SCMO service will replace CJRT-FM's predominantly Korean-language SCMO service.
*Denial of application to add a 37 watts transmitter at Cochrane to broadcast the programming of CHIM-FM, Timmins. The CRTC noted that in a recent evaluation of CHIM-FM's licence renewal application it had found non-compliance of regulations relating to the filing of annual reports and conditions of licence requiring contributions to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB's) former Canadian talent development (CTD) plan, as a result of which it had issued a short-term renewal. It adds that its longstanding practice is to deny licence amendments requested by licensees that are in non-compliance with their regulatory obligations or conditions of licence.
The CRTC also posted a public notice with a deadline for submission of interventions/comments of February 28 that included an application by Manitoulin Radio Communication Inc. to add a 50 watts low power FM transmitter at Sudbury, Ontario, to broadcast the programming of CFRM-FM, Little Current.
There were no radio announcements from Ireland but in the UK Ofcom made a number of postings related to digital multiplexes and community radio licences.
Regarding multiplexes it has advertised a new digital multiplex licence for Somerset that it says could cover an area with an adult population of around 480,000. Applications together with a non-refundable fee of GBP 5,000 (USD 10,000) have to be submitted by April 23.
Ofcom also announced that it had awarded the Gloucestershire digital multiplex to the MuxCo Gloucestershire consortium, made up of MuxCo and three local radio groups - UKRD, Murfin Media and Town & Country Broadcasting. It had been bidding with a service of bouquet of podcasts plus 11 services including BBC Radio Gloucestershire against a rival offer from GCap Media subsidiary Now Digital of 11 services plus BBC Radio Gloucestershire (See RNW Licence News Oct 28, 2007). The licence is the fourth won by Muxco-led consortia.
In addition Muxco is involved in a sole bid for the new Lincolnshire local digital radio multiplex licence. It's from MuxCo Lincolnshire Limited in which Lincs FM Group Ltd holds 51% and MuxCo Ltd 49% and seven services are proposed in addition to BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
These are:
Lincs FM - Full Service offer from Lincs FM Group Ltd.
Compass FM - Full Service offer from Lincs FM Group Ltd.
Country Lincs - country format offer from Lincs FM Group Ltd
Easy Radio- Easy Listening offer from Easy Radio Limited.
Shuffle -Youth format offer from MuxCo Lincolnshire Ltd.
UCB UK -Religious format offer from United Christian Broadcasters Ltd,
Traffic Radio - Traffic and travel offer from the Highways Agency.
Ofcom also announced the award of three new community licences which went to:
Tudno FM, Llandudno - a service with a particular focus on the Tudno and Mostyn wards of the town.
Radio Elwy/Point FM, Rhyl - a service for Rhyl, Prestatyn, Rhuddlan and the surrounding area.
Preston FM - a service to Preston in Lancashire.
Ofcom also posted details of its revised procedures for handling statutory sanctions in cases relating to broadcast content that came into effect on January 18. The procedures were issued following a consultation that led the regulator to change some of its draft proposals.
The new procedures reduce the number of stages at which representations can be made from three to two - one when the broadcaster is sent a preliminary draft of the sanctions paper and a second when this is revised to add a recommendation on the nature or level of sanction.
Some broadcasters had argued that a demarcation should be made between the finding of a breach and the first draft sanctions paper being sent out on the grounds that unless the breach is finalised before the sanctions paper is sent to broadcasters there may be an impression given that the issue of the sanction is being prejudged by Ofcom.
Ofcom is now to send out a sanctions paper outlining the case for a statutory sanction finding of a breach before the draft sanctions paper is sent out.
In addition following comments that it was to use fast-track procedures too broadly, Ofcom has also amended the circumstances in which it would invoke a such procedures and is also to increase the period allowed for broadcasters to respond - to ten working days for both first and second draft papers rather than five and seven working days respectively and to ten working days instead of five for fast-track cases.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as well as posting a report on localism together with rules to encourage provision of local content and approving the sale of Clear Channel as already noted has also been involved with a number of contested licence renewals. They included the following:
California:
*Denied objection to nighttime power decrease for Entercom's KCTC-AM, Sacramento. Entercom had day and night transmission facilities at separate sites but had filed for a permit to relocate the nighttime transmitter to the daytime transmission site and reduce power at night from 5Kw to 500 watts to bring it into compliance with FCC technical requirements but retain the 5Kw unchanged during daytime. The objector claimed the change would greatly reduce the nighttime service, rendering worthless and to the detriment of Sacramento listeners.
The FCC, whilst recognising the service reduction pointed out that the "entire loss area is extremely well served by existing stations", denied the objection and allowed the modification.
Delaware:
*Granted application from Eagle's Nest Fellowship Church for a new non-commercial educational FM to serve Harrington, Delaware. A petition to deny the application had been filed by Positive Alternative Radio, Inc., which had - along with two other applicants - filed mutually exclusive applications, and in addition the FCC received a letter opposing the application from WXXY Broadcasting, Inc.
Positive Alternative Radio called for dismissal of the Eagle's Nest application on the basis that it has undergone a major change in ownership since the application was filed in 1998 and that its proposed transmitter site is unavailable whilst WXXY said the station would cause "catastrophic interference" to its co-channel NCE Station WXXY-FM, Port Republic, New Jersey.
The FCC found that the arguments of the objectors were without merit, denied the objections, and granted the licence.
New York City:
Renewal of the licence of Polnet Communications, Ltd.'s WRKL-AM, to which there had been an objection on the basis that the station does not serve its community of license in that it airs no programming on current issues or events nor does it announce emergency weather conditions. There were also objections on the ground of broadcasts being solely in Polish and that there should be some in English "devoted to the concerns of citizens in its primary coverage area."
In essence the FCC said it left it up to licensees to be responsive to the needs and interests of the communities they are licensed to serve. It denies the objection and renewed the licence.
Indiana, Michigan and Ohio:
Denied 17 petitions for reconsideration from Great Lakes Community Broadcasting, Inc. of dismissals of its applications for new non-commercial educational FM's in Newbury Township, Indiana; Pellston; Big Rapids; Hillsdale; Mackinac Island; Muskegon; Manistique; Fremont; Emmett Township, Hamlin Township; Manistique; Ensign Township; Bucks; Eckford Township; Attica Township; and Huron Township in Michigan; and Center Township in Ohio.
The FCC noted that the applications had originally been filed on paper under prior licensing procedures but then became subject to an NCE filing freeze and had not been filed electronically as required when the freeze ended. It dismissed Great Lake's attempt to rely on an alleged lack of clarity in the NCE Window Public Notice to excuse its failure to amend and refused to reconsider.
New Jersey:
Renewal of the licence of Mercer County Community College's WWFM-FM to which there had been an objection on the grounds that the station is a "wholly amateur organization"; that everything it does "is done better by other local stations"; and that it "is guilty of gross racial insensitivity" as evidenced by the broadcast of a show about Al Jolson during Martin Luther King weekend.
The FCC said that the licensee has broad discretion "to choose, in good faith, the programming that it believes serves the needs and interests of the members of its audience" and no rules prohibited operation by "an amateur organization". It renewed the licence.
Previous ACMA:
Previous Chapman:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Muxco:
Previous Ofcom:
ACMA web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
Ofcom web site:
2008-01-27: Bridgeport, Connecticut, host John LaBarca, who was fired by Cumulus's WICC-AM last month, is due back on the air at 10:00 ET today on WDJZ-AM, a mainly gospel 5000 watts daytime AM but according to the Connecticut Post it is still not clear what his show will be called. LaBarca has leased time on the station to broadcast his show.
At WICC, LaBarca was the long-time host of the morning show and Italian House Party but Cumulus is threatening to sue him if he uses the Italian House Party name or uses it in connection with any other broadcast or Internet activities - LaBarca has an Italianhouseparty web site using the name that currently offers an MP3 (158 MB) of the January 20 "IHP" programme and uses the full Italian House Party term at the top of its home page.
The Post says that LaBarca commented of the Cumulus threat, "It's David versus Goliath. It's the big corporate guy trying to squish the little guy. I am Italian House Party and Italian House Party is me and nothing they can do can take that away from me."
He added that his father coined the term in the early 197o's and had filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to protect his use of the "Italian House Party" name.
Cumulus, says the Post, has written to LaBarca pointing out that it holds the state registration for the name and its General Counsel Richard Denning says Cumulus had devoted "significant resources to build brand and name recognition in 'Italian House Party' " as a mark associated with the station, adding, "We therefore request that you immediately cease using the term. It is creating confusion in the marketplace and is diluting the association of the term with WICC."
The paper notes that Cumulus submitted its application for a service mark on "Italian House Party," on Dec. 27, 2007, and 15 days later received a certificate of registration that expires on Dec. 27, 2012.
RNW comment: The crux of this issue seems to us whether LaBarca can show use pre-dating the Cumulus application that should in our view entitle him to continue to use the name and we note that a check on the domain shows that it was created in November 2000. On the basis that the domain was registered then by LaBarca our view is that Cumulus are probably trying things on and that the host should be entitled to continue to use it. Ideally if this is the case, we would like to see a law that requires a company losing such a case barred from use of the term and- in the case of three losses, forces to re-apply for each and every trademark it owns or lose the lot.
Previous Cumulus:
Connecticut Post report:
2008-01-26: Emap shareholders have approved by a 97.95% vote to approve the GBP 1.14 billion (then USD 2.31 billion, now USD 2.26 billion) sale of the company's consumer media and radio businesses to German media company Bauer (See RNW Dec 8, 2007), a sale that will leave only a rump business-to-business and events Emap whose GBP 1.2 billion (USD 2.38 billion) sale to Guardian Media Group (GMG) and private equity group Apax has still to be approved.
Emap on January 11 completed the GBP 124 million (USD 246 million) sale of its Irish radio business that was required to complete the Bauer sale, which in turn was required for the GMG/Apax deal to go ahead.
Emap says that if the Bauer sale is completed by early next month as intended it will pay a special dividend of GBP 4.61 to shareholders who are on its register on the record date, expected to be March 7 with the ex-dividend date expected to be March 5 and payment date Mar 19.
In an interim statement is said trading for the continuing group in the third quarter "was robust and we remain on track to deliver against our expectations for the full year."
B2B revenues in the quarter were it said up 14% year on year - up 11% underlying with magazine revenues up 5% underlying.
Consumer magazine revenues, however, were down 9% - down 10% underlying whilst radio revenues, excluding the Irish radio business, were up 6% - up 5% underlying - and Emap said it remained "encouraged" by radio trading prospects for the rest of the 2008 financial year.
Previous Bauer:
Previous Emap:
Previous Guardian Media Group:
2008-01-26: Radio One Inc.'s move back from Lanham, Maryland to D.C., where it was founded, now seems certain with the signing off by Washington's Mayor Adrian Fenty on a real estate deal that provides USD 22 million to a USD 144 million deal near Howard University.
The broadcaster is not involved in the development but has agreed said it will lease space in the development for its headquarters: Fenty said that bringing the broadcaster back as a "huge priority" and termed the development a "catalytic project."
Previous Radio One Inc.:
2008-01-25: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared the sale of Clear Channel to an equity group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital by a unanimous vote although both Democrat Commissioners issued statements related to concerns they have about US media consolidation. The deal still requires Department of Justice (DOJ) approval.
In its approval the FCC notes that it received two petitions to deny and two informal objections, all of which were rejected: It also notes that the transfer of control will mean an end to various grandfathered ownership interests that do not comply with the Commission's current broadcast multiple ownership rules and that applications have been filed to transfer relevant broadcast licences to a divestiture trust that is insulated from their control.
It also notes that the transfer would mean that Lee and Bain would acquire interests that in combination with their current holdings would conflict with current multiple ownership regulations and that it will require divestiture or conversion to non-attributable interest of the interests before or simultaneously with the transfer of control of Clear Channel.
The petitions to deny the transaction were in one from Mount Wilson Broadcasters and another from a Geoffrey M. Young who said he was a listener to WLAP-AM, Lexington, Kentucky but did not provide required proof, leading to this being treated as an informal objection along with two other objections.
The Mt. Wilson objection centred on claims that Clear Channel stations in the Los Angeles markets where it operates had engaged in anti-competitive practices including requiring advertisers to spend all their radio advertising budged with Clear Channel stations. Clear Channel had responded by denying that it had any such policy and that Mt. Wilson had failed to supply required specific facts to substantiate its arguments. The FCC found that the allegations failed to "establish a prima facie case that grant of the Merger Applications would be inconsistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity."
In regard to the objections, the FCC found that Young had not raised any "substantial and material question of fact" that would justify rejection of the deal; that an objection by a Leonard R. Kahn on he basis that Clear Channel was violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by "boycotting" a digital radio transmission system he developed to compete with the iBiquity system approved by the Commission did not contain factual support for the allegations; and that an objection by Goodrich Radio, LLC, related to transfer of control of WMHG-AM, Muskegon, Michigan, also did not raise a substantial and material question of fact concerning the applicants' qualifications or the public interest merits of the Merger Applications, also noting that this transfer was contingent on the grant of an application to assign the licence from Cumulus to Clear Channel.
In his statement Democrat Commissioner Michael J. Copps termed the case a "close call" that on the one hand "could lead to a measure of de-consolidation in the radio industry" but also raised issues of the "potential impact of private equity on our ability to ensure that broadcast licensees protect, serve and sustain the public interest."
Copps said he had called repeatedly for the commission to examine this issue but nothing had happened and he commented, "Instead, we once again close our eyes and pretend that nothing has changed-as if these new entities are no different than our traditional broadcast licensees. And there are those who accuse me of living in the past!"
Copps also noted that Standard & Poor's had said that it was likely it would downgrade the company to junk status when the deal closed and added, "The American public has a vital interest in ensuring the financial stability of its broadcast licensees. The FCC, apparently, does not… I hope that the market's concerns about Clear Channel's financial condition prove misplaced. The broader point, however, remains. We must ask the hard questions now, before we dig ourselves in even deeper. If I had the ability to launch an FCC inquiry by dissenting to this transaction, I would. But I do not. Given the potential for some measure of de-consolidation, I reluctantly concur."
His fellow Democrat Jonathan S. Adelstein also noted that the deal would result in less consolidation in the US radio industry but added in relation to the Mt Wilson complains that, although he agreed it had failed to establish a prima facie case that Clear Channel has engaged in specific anticompetitive sales practices he was not convinced the FCC inquiry should end there and noted that small and minority groups across the US had "complained about the dominance of major radio station groups and the use of their size and scope to increase their share of local advertising revenue."
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2008-01-25: The BBC has revealed that two further breaches of its editorial guidelines in relation to radio competition have been found in its continuing investigations into these matters: One involves a May 2006 Jo Whiley Show on BBC Radio 1 and the other an April 2006 Russell Brand Show broadcast by BBC 6 Music.
In the first case, a programme had been pre-recorded to allow essential engineering work to go ahead in Radio 1's studios but listeners were invited to telephone and text when in reality there was no opportunity to participate. The transmitted programme included the participation of a genuine member of the audience who had expressed interest in entering the competition the day prior to the transmission and also the name of a second "invented" participant.
In the Russell Brand case, the show was conceived as a live programme but the second edition had to be recorded and a competition winner was a member of BBC staff. Again listeners who called in or sent texts had in reality no opportunity to take part in the competition. The BBC notes that in the case of three subsequent recorded editions of the show, it had been made clear at the outset that they were pre-recorded and says an apology will be broadcast on both networks this week.
In addition the Corporation is contacting listeners who sent texts but had no opportunity to take part and will offer them compensation.
The cases were revealed in an update to the BBC Trust by Director General Mark Thompson about the progress made in the BBC action plan to deal with editorial practice but both took place before the plan commenced. They have been reported to the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee and to Ofcom.
Under the action plan an Editorial Standards Board was established in July last year and has now met 18 times. It has established a comprehensive training programme for BBC staff, devised new guidance for running competitions on the BBC and reviewed editorial compliance procedures across the Corporation.
Thomson notes that all competitions were suspended by the BBC until new guidance was developed and a new code published in November last year. Competitions are being phased back in from this month following mandatory training for staff running them and there will be fewer competitions than previously.
In addition a mandatory training programme "Safeguarding Trust" in now well underway and more than 10,000 of the BBC's 17,000 programme and content staff who will have to take part have now attended sessions.
Thompson also notes that "All Divisional boards now have a Board member designated to have special responsibility for ensuring editorial compliance processes are well understood and are robust across their Division" and that in BBC Vision a full time Head of Editorial Standards and Training has been appointed with similar appointments to be made in other BBC Divisions.
In addition "Contracts for staff, freelancers and suppliers have been strengthened to emphasise the vital importance of adhering to the BBC's editorial policies and values."
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2008-01-25: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing a number of "localism" requirements from broadcasters in a "Report on Broadcast Localism" and associated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
Statements were issued by all five Commissioners with both Democrats - Jonathan S. Adelstein and Michael J. Copps, dissenting in part and thee three Republicans - FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin, Deborah Taylor Tate, and Robert M. McDowell in support although McDowell expressed some concerns about the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
This tentatively concludes that broadcast licensees should convene permanent advisory boards made up of community officials and leaders to help the licensees ascertain the programming needs of the community and that the Commission should adopt processing guidelines, such as minimum percentages to ensure that stations produce a certain amount of locally-oriented programming.
The report although saying some broadcasters devote significant time to locally responsive programming" noted the concern of many who took part in its field hearings about a serious shortfall in general and says, "Specifically, the record indicates that many stations do not engage in the necessary public dialogue as to community needs and interests and that members of the public are not fully aware of the local issue-responsive programming that their local stations have aired." The FCC says its proposed rules changes will "promote both localism and diversity."
In comments Democrat Commissioner Michael J. Copps was again the most trenchant: He commenced by writing, "Today's decision would make George Orwell proud. We claim to be giving the news industry a shot in the arm-but the real effect is to reduce total newsgathering. We shed crocodile tears for the financial plight of newspapers-yet the truth is that newspaper profits are about double the S&P 500 average. We pat ourselves on the back for holding six field hearings across the United States-yet today's decision turns a deaf ear to the thousands of Americans who waited in long lines for an open mike to testify before us. We say we have closed loopholes-yet we have introduced new ones. We say we are guided by public comment-yet the majority's decision is overwhelmingly opposed by the public as demonstrated in our record and in public opinion surveys. We claim the mantle of scientific research-even as the experts say we've asked the wrong questions, used the wrong data, and reached the wrong conclusions. "
He continued in the same vein about the damage done by previous "media merger frenzy", the need for "major policy changes and a coordinated strategy" to fix the problems of minority and female ownership of media instead of which "we are told to be content with baby steps."
He also spoke of potential future concerns, commenting that we "ought to be far more concerned with the threat of big media joining forces with big broadband providers to take the wonderful Internet we know down the same road of consolidation and control by the few that has already inflicted such heavy damage on our traditional media."
His colleague Jonathan S. Adelstein said the new report and proposed rules "merely recites the issues of public concern, repackages previous Commission actions, and proffers yet another set of proposals. There are no final rules - nothing concrete to foster a better relationship between broadcast licensees and the public they are licensed to serve."
"Today's item," he said, "literally does nothing meaningful to promote localism. It is as if we promised to deliver a book but produced only the cover. "
"I concur in part to this Report and Notice," he said, "because - in word, if not in deed -- it represents a shift from the Commission's earlier miscalculation that market forces alone will ensure broadcasters promote quality local news, local artists, and informative local political and civic affairs programming."
As to local news he said the localism hearings had taught "that there is far too little coverage of local issues voters need to know about in a way that prepares them to make educated decisions. We heard that 'breaking news' is being replaced with 'breaking gossip.' In community after community, we heard from citizens that serious coverage of local and state government has diminished. "
In contrast to the remarks critical of big media from the Democrats, those from the Republicans on the Commission were either bland or, in the case of Robert M. McDowell critical of the idea of imposing localism requirements. Regarding these he noted that in 1984 the FCC "eliminated ascertainment requirements for television and radio stations" after "a thorough examination of the broadcast market" and said that the commission was now "again heading back in time -- in the wrong direction. Vigorous competition motivates broadcasters to serve their local communities."
"I do not," McDowell wrote, "believe that government needs to, or should, foist upon local stations its preferences regarding categories of programming. We risk treading on the First Amendment rights of broadcasters with unnecessary regulation. An order reflecting these conclusions will be overturned in court." He added that he looked "forward to reviewing these issues carefully after receiving public comment."
The statement from FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin was in essence a summary of the process that led to the report and notice and Deboray Taylor Tate again raised the topic of the difference made by the Internet and in regard to local news cited studies that "showed that cross-ownership of broadcast and newspaper results in more local news."
She also raised concerns about imposing nationwide regulations concerning localism saying that the FCC should encourage local broadcasters to continue practices relating to the needs of their community and "require those that do not[have such practices], to start… However, I also think it is important for local news outlets to establish processes that work best in their own communities, rather than being forced to implement an edict from Washington, DC."
Tate also commented on the development of low power FM that she said "promotes a community presence which can provide daily locally produced programming at costs far below those of starting a full-power broadcasting station."
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2008-01-24: The BBC and its unions- the NUJ, Bectu and Unite - have reached an agreement in principle over job cuts at the corporation and threats of a strike have now receded. Further talks are to take place over the coming weeks with a ballot of union members to be held between March 10 and 27: The current industrial action ballot will be extended until 28 March.
The deal is to be put to a ballot and the BBC and Joint Unions said in a joint statement that "All the parties welcome the progress made so far on jobs, allowances and pensions and will continue to work together to achieve an acceptable final settlement."
NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, said of the agreement, "We're pleased the imminent threat of compulsory redundancies has been addressed and that all staff required to work unpredictable hours will continue to get a fair deal. These negotiations now give us a basis on which we can address further changes proposed by the BBC."
BECTU General Secretary, Gerry Morrissey added that the negotiations had been "particularly difficult given the financial constraints on the BBC and the number of areas targeted for cuts, all of which impact significantly on many staff" and continued, "After extensive talks overnight we have an agreement in principle which we hope will pave the way for a final settlement of the dispute. Talks in BBC Vision will continue up until the opening of a consultative ballot in March."
For the Corporation the Director of BBC People, Stephen Kelly, said the negotiations had been "very constructive given the complexity of the issues and the BBC's financial position. We are hopeful that the proposed agreement will settle the dispute and enable the BBC to make the necessary changes required for the benefit of our audiences."
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2008-01-24: After 11 years programming Clear Channel's AC WLTW-FM (Lite FM) in New York, Jim Ryan is to leave the station to start a content consultancy: He'll also be stepping down as Clear Channel's SVP AC programming.
Ryan will remain with Clear Channel until the end of May and will work with WLTW as a programming consultant: His PD role will be taken over on May 1 by veteran AC programmer Chris Conley who currently holds the VP/AC Programming post at McVay Media.
Ryan noted that since he joined Lite FM in 1996 the station had ranked top in 38 Arbitrons as well as its top ranking in the current PPM ratings and added, "It has been an honour for me to have been a part of this brand and its phenomenal success. I look forward to taking everything I've learned in New York, as well as working with the other Clear Channel AC stations, and starting a new chapter in my career."
Paying tribute to the work of Ryan and his successor, Clear Channel-New York SVP/Programming Tom Poleman said, "Chris Conley and Jim Ryan are widely recognized as the foremost AC programmers in the world. Chris has a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge in AC research, programming and marketing that will pay great dividends in his new role. No one is better suited than Chris to take the reigns of the legendary WLTW. Together, Chris and Jim make the ultimate AC programming dream team."
In the UK, GCap Media is losing another executive with the departure of Group Programme Director Dirk Anthony. Anthony is to leave at the end of March but so far nothing has been said of his plans.
Last week GCap's operations manager Steve Orchard announced that he was to leave at the end of April after 24 years with the group (See RNW Jan 19).
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2008-01-24: Shares in the US satellite radio companies jumped on Wednesday in the wake of a headline on Briefing.com suggesting that their merger could get approval from the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as soon as Wednesday evening.
At the close Sirius was up 8.3% at USD 2.87 having touched USD 2.88 at one point and XM was up 5.8% at USD 11.20, touching USD 11.22 at one point.
No sources were given on the website and some cynics suggested that there was some ramping of the shares to make a quick profit. At the time of writing a check has shown no announcement by either government agency on the merger.
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2008-01-24: Arbitron has announced yet another Portable People Meter (PPM) agreement, this time with Entercom for the latter's 64 stations in the radio markets scheduled to convert to PPM ratings by the end of 2010: 14 markets are currently in Arbitron's rollout plan - Austin, Boston, Denver, Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, Indianapolis, Kansas City MO, Memphis, Milwaukee, Norfolk, Portland OR, Providence, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Commenting on the agreement in an Arbitron release, Entercom President and CEO David Field said, "The Arbitron Portable People Meter is reporting that an average radio station reaches twice as many listeners as the diary has been telling us," said David Field, President and CEO, Entercom Communications. "If the New York Times were to discover that its readership was twice as large as everyone thought, they would likely stage a parade down Madison Avenue. Radio should not pass up any opportunity to remind advertisers that we are a reach medium, one that offers marketers the most cost effective opportunity to expose more of their consumers to their advertising messages."
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2008-01-23: The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has responded to last week's announcement by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it is to start a second phase of testing prototype television white space devices tomorrow by repeating its concerns about potential interference from the devices.
A statement from NAB Executive Vice President of Media Relations Dennis Wharton said the NAB was not "opposed to new technology" but its "paramount objective remains the delivery of interference-free digital broadcast television."
He added that "given the failing grade performance and incomplete implementation of the devices submitted in the first round of tests, we have a high degree of scepticism whether tests of these devices will demonstrate that a practical service using portable devices can be introduced without jeopardizing DTV service."
The alliance says there "is no doubt that this unused spectrum can be put to better use for consumers without interfering with TV signals."
NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr meanwhile has responded to allegations by the Wireless Innovation Alliance that it was engaged in a "public misinformation campaign" by denying this and accusing the Alliance of sending a letter "long on rhetoric and bereft of facts."
Rehr says the NAB's activities in this area have been "fact-based, using the testing and engineering data that we have develop