April 2008 Archive
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RNW Note: Technical problems meant we lost this month's comment. If we can find it, it will be reconstituted.
RNW March comment - "The satellite radio Merger - What Now?" considers what conditions the FCC might impose to approve.
RNW February comment - Performance Royalties - Principle, Practice and Fairness - considers the call for performance royalties to apply to US terrestrial radio. In principle it must, in practice nobody gains from putting radio out of business and in fairness the currently proposed charges are too high.
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.
2008-04-30: CBS Corporation has reported what its Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone called a "solid financial performance… in spite of a challenging economic environment" with net earnings for the first quarter up 14% year-on-year to USD 244 million on flat revenues - down a tad from USD 3.658 billion to USD 3.654 billion.
Within the results TV revenues were up 1% to USD 2.598 billion; radio was down 9% to USD 363.5 million; Outdoor was up 7% to USD 496.9 million and publishing was down 12% to USD 201.6 million whilst OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) was up 13% to USD 449.5 million for TV, down 26% to USD 122.3 million for radio; up 1% to USD 101,5 million for Outdoor; and down 28% to USD 17.1 million for publishing and operating income was up 15% to USD 402.1 million for TV; down 27% to USD 115.0 million for radio, down 6% to USD 44.1 million for Outdoor; and down 32% to USD 14.6 million for Publishing.
Within radio, CBS noted that same station revenues were down 6% year-on-year whilst reported revenues were down 9% to USD 363.5, a figure reflecting weakness in the radio advertising market and the impact of radio station divestitures: These decreases were partially offset by the recognition of $10.4 million of revenue associated with the Company's former agreements with Westwood One which were concluded during the first quarter of 2008.
President and CEO Leslie Moonves said he was "very pleased with the operating performance of the Company, which produced terrific first quarter free cash flow of USD 938 million and diluted EPS of USD 0.36" and added that as a result of "our continued confidence in our businesses, we are increasing our quarterly dividend by 8% to USD 0.27 per share, paying among the highest dividends in the industry."
Although he noted that the performance was driven by increased TV profits he added that radio was "seeing positive signs early in the second quarter with sales pacing up over last year in some of our larger markets."
Looking ahead, CBS says it expects OIBDA and operating income growth to be in the range of 3% to 5% for 2008, excluding stock-based compensation expense and restructuring charges.
The results exceeded market expectations and CBS ended Tuesday up 3.2% at USD 23.26, having touched USD 23.94.
Previous CBS:
Previous Moonves:
Previous Redstone:
2008-04-30: Clear Channel has won another round against the banks that it accuses of trying to renege on their commitment to finance its purchase by private equity groups led by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners with a ruling by a Bexar County,Texas, judge that denied a request by the banks to delay a trial, set for June 2, until January next year.
According to Reuters, which says it has seen the relevant court documents which refers to them also needing to prepare for a New York lawsuit, the banks said they needed more time to prepare but the request was denied by a Texas Court.
Clear Channel in a statement said, "We are thankful Judge (Lori) Massey wasted no time in rejecting the banks' latest attempt to postpone this trial. Hopefully the banks are running out of delay tactics, and they will soon face a Texas jury who will make them take responsibility for their actions.
Clear Channel and the putative buyers have launched legal action against the banks involved in Texas claiming "tortious interference" with the deal and the private equity buyers also launched a suit in New York asking that the banks be ordered to comply with a commitment letter that details the plans to fund the buyout. The New York case is due to begin on May 5 although it could be pushed back.
Reuters quotes the banks as saying in their submission, "Forcing the parties to trial on June 2 would not gain (the) plaintiffs the benefit they seek -- a forced closing of the merger on June 12 -- but would certainly result in chaos and needless cost and inefficiency as the parties spend countless hours and resources attempting to comply with a draconian discovery schedule."
It says they also argued that some factors in the New York case have to be decided before the Texas case can start and that many issues in the cases are intertwined.
Clear Channel in its filing argued that delay was unacceptable since the buyers can terminate the deal if it has not closed by June 12 and say "The banks should not be rewarded with a'self-help' causation argument conjured from their own, deliberate efforts to delay (the) plaintiff's efforts to close their merger, or failing that, to have their day in court before their merger is utterly demolished."
In monetary terms the banks stand to lose billions on paper if the deal goes ahead - the offer price if USD 39.20 and Clear Channel stock closed at USD 29.25 on Tuesday - whereas the penalty for the buyers to pull out before June 12 they will only have to pay a penalty of USD 600 million.
Previous Clear Channel:
Reuters report:
2008-04-30: Guardian Media Group (GMG) Radio has announced the commissioning of ten programmes as the first stage of action under its GBP 1 million (USD 2 million) programming fund.
The commissions include two to independent company Smooth Operations - which has no ties to GMG's Smooth Radio (it also owns the Real, Century and Rock Radio brands): these are for a six-part documentary "Rolling River of Rock" exploring the musical heritage along the route of the Mississippi for Smooth Radio and a two-part "Blogs from the Bunkers", which will across GMG Radio's network of 13 stations to mark Remembrance Sunday and give an audio portrait of the realities of war as told by serving soldiers in Afghanistan.
UBC Media has received a commission for three programmes - "Grease at 30", "Can't Stop the Music - The Village People Story" and "When Saturday Night Fever Ruled the World" marking the 30th anniversary of their associated pop phenomena and Wise Buddha is to make a six-part "Heroes Heroes" series of programmes featuring well-known entertainers sharing their personal admiration for each other's work.
The UK Guardian, which is owned by the same parent, quoted GMG Radio chief executive John Myers as saying, "This first raft of programmes will give listeners a feel for things to come and prove that creative and diverse programming can be just as at home on commercial radio as it is on the BBC. GMG is committed to providing listeners with new and compelling programming and, thanks to the support of the Scott Trust, we have chosen a fantastic array of programmes that we know will be enjoyed by our audience. This is only phase one of our commissioning process and we look forward to ordering more early in the summer."
The commissions were made from 300 submissions from independent production companies.
Previous GMG Radio:
Previous Myers:
UK Guardian report:
2008-04-30: Westwood One has appointed Andrew R. Hersam, most recently Vice President and Publishing Director at Rodale Inc, to the post of Executive Vice President of Sales and Chief Revenue Officer.
His main experience has been in publishing and he commented, "With over 20 years of media sales management experience, I have had the good fortune of leveraging great content across diverse platforms to achieve significant, dynamic revenue growth working with brands like Sports Illustrated and Runner's World" adding, "Westwood One offers the similar opportunity but on a much grander scale. Westwood One's leadership position in radio content, its aggressive expansion across new and evolving media platforms offers powerful, innovative and measurable solutions for advertisers."
Previous Westwood One:
2008-04-30: As sales of digital radio receivers in the UK grow healthily, the UK radio industry seems to be getting some cold feet over the medium although a number of big players including the BBC and Channel 4, whose consortium won the bidding for the second national digital multiplex, are continuing to emphasize their commitment.
Latest figures from Gfk posted by the UK Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) show that sales in the first quarter of this year were nearly half a million, up 28% on a year ago and 7% above the DRDB's forecast. In all some 6.94 DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) receivers have now been sold in the UK and DAB receivers account for a fifth of all UK radio sales by volume and 26% by value - the increase by value was 10% and annual sales of DAB receivers are now above GBP 170 million ( USD 340 million). There was a particularly strong performance with portable kitchen radios - taking an 82% market share by value- and DAB clock radio sales have more than doubled year-on-year and now account for nearly half all clock radio sales by value.
At the MediaGuardian.co.uk Radio Reborn conference this week, DRDB acting chief executive, Paul Brown, said DAB digital radio "came under fire earlier this year following announcements of withdrawal from the medium by GCap Media and the loss of several national DAB services. However, consumer, retailer and manufacturer confidence in DAB remains high as these figures demonstrate. That confidence is supported by the radio industry which is working together to ensure the future DAB landscape remains an attractive proposition for listeners."
Also at the conference outgoing BBC director of audio and music, Jenny Abramsky, called on the commercial sector to unite with the corporation to tackle issues that threaten DAB's future, saying they should work together on a joint marketing push and also for a higher quality signal - she was almost certainly referring solely to coverage problems but UK broadcasters use bit rates that have led to complaints that audio is not as good as the current FM signal for music - many experts say a 256 kbps signal is needed to get as good a result as FM on quality equipment and most broadcasts use 128KBPS.
Abramsky said that if they were serious about radio in the digital age, the commercial sector and the BBC had to collaborate and she suggested that amongst other things they should create a single DAB electronic programme guide. Abramsky said that radio faced bigger threats now than at any time in the past 50 years and warned that the biggest danger was "technological uncertainty, and this particularly applies to DAB".
Problems mentioned by her included coverage, affordability of receivers and the attractiveness of current receivers, the quality of reception and uncertainty over technological development, saying of the problems "They are not easy barriers to overcome, but they are not insurmountable."
Abramsky said there was no "agreed planning model for digital radio" for the BBC, commercial radio and their transmission providers and said she hoped the Digital Radio Working Group, which was set up by the government to help push digital radio and includes representatives from the BBC, commercial sector and Ofcom, could agree instead of the three current methods to have a "single planning model and common measurement and with a plan to fill in areas where DAB coverage has 'holes', thereby providing the consistent reception that DAB is capable of delivering."
Although stressing the importance of DAB as "the only platform that replicates some of radio's strongest features. It is both portable and easy to use", Abramsky said the most important factor was content without which there "will be no future."
"Content," she said, "is everything. Content is what matters to audiences. Everything else, all the digital technology in the world, comes down to convenience."
Abramsky also defended BBC Radio1 & 2 in the face of further calls for them to be sold off - last week Peter Bazalgette, best known for his work on the Big Brother TV programme, called for the sale of the stations and Channel 4 to fund new public service content from arts institutions, museums, galleries and individuals - and said that it was not necessary to destroy Radios 1 & 2 "to ensure that our great cultural institutions are given access to broadcasting."
She also defended the two stations in terms of their impact on the UK music industry, saying, "As the music industry will testify Radio 1 and Radio 2 support UK talent, new music and live performance. They underpin the nation's cultural life in the broadest sense. They also provide news and information for mass audiences and young audiences - think [BBC Radio 2's] Jeremy Vine and Newsbeat [on Radio 1]. For all these reasons it is vital that Radio 1 and Radio 2 remain part of the BBC's public service portfolio."
Commitment to DAB was also stressed by Channel 4's director of new business and corporate development, Nathalie Schwarz, who is also chair of the 4 Digital radio group. She said the second commercial national digital multiplex would be launched although she did not rule an initial launch of some stations on the rival Digital One national multiplex and commented on DAB -, to which she said there was no "viable alternative" - "There are a lot of cross-industry discussions going on and as we have made very clear we are very willing and interested in talking to parties that have an interest in securing a strong future for DAB radio."
Ofcom's director of radio and multimedia, Peter Davis, said DAB needed stronger national brands, improved coverage and more receivers, in particular for automobiles and commented that commercial radio companies had "missed a trick" by transmitting new brands on digital radio but not investing in them, and contrasting radio with the Freeview digital TV platform, which was close to failing before a re-launch caught public interest, Over time the number of [Freeview TV] services grew quite dramatically. The same thing could be possible with DAB. We need to get the re-launch proposition for the platform right."
Previous Abramsky:
Previous BBC:
Previous Brown:
Previous Channel 4:
Previous DRDB:
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Schwarz:
2008-04-29: The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which had already announced that 123 members of the House of Representatives had signed a letter opposing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to introduce new localism rules for broadcasters has now announced that 23 senators have expressed "'substantial concern" about the plans in a letter to FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin
It has posted the letter and another letter from Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu to Martin on its web site
The main letter starts of by saying those signing appreciate some of the agency's conclusions in its "Report on Broadcast Localism and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" but have " substantial concerned regarding certain proposals in the Report that look to bygone regulations for instruction on today's evolving and highly competitive media industry."
It continues, "We are most concerned with the imposition of permanent advisory boards and the creation of redundant and burdensome requirements for licence renewal. Nationwide, many broadcasters actively engage their audiences to ensure that they meet their public interest requirements. It is wholly unwarranted to force all licensees to adhere to a blanket regulatory regime that does not account for the diverse needs and challenges of communities across the nation and the measures that many broadcasters are already taking in this regard. Such an approach is at direct odds with the policy gal of ensuring our country's broadcasters serve the communities within which they operate."
They then say that implicit in some of the proposals are "clear Constitutional concerns regarding the spectre of government regulated content. Local licensees are compelled by financial and fiduciary incentives to provide responsive, community-oriented programming. If a particular licensee is not meeting the local interests of a given community, listeners and viewers may turn to another source."
They also comment that broadcasters, unlike other media outlets with which they compete, are already have to meet various public interest requirements and communities have a "means of recourse through existing regulations to address complaints if their local broadcasters fail to meet statutory public interest requirements."
They also object to the main studio rule and the requirement that broadcasters maintain a physical presence during hours of operation, saying that technological advances "make these burdensome regulations needless in today's marketplace." Reinstating the rule it says would "require broadcasters to make significant and redundant investment in facilities and personnel, simply to continue serving the same listening audience."
In her letter Landrieu says the commission "should take care so as not to overburden local broadcasters with punitive regulation prompted by the failures of a few."
"Voluntary advisory boards," she continues, "are a commendable approach" but a new federal mandate "may be unnecessarily excessive". Landrieu says that in Louisiana small independently owned stations, which are common, are often "locally or family-owned and routinely provide the best examples of community involvement - without any federal mandate compelling them to do so. Where stations do not meet community standards, the market and other existing regulatory avenues already exist to hold them to account."
She also argues that the technology that allowed unmanned remote operation allowed "several small broadcast businesses to remain viable despite rising costs, thereby keeping an important voice on the air in their communities" and also provides the capability for stations to remain on air when station facilities are destroyed or personnel are forced to evacuate ahead of a disaster.
Previous FCC:
Previous Martin:
Previous NAB:
2008-04-29: There was some mixed news for Arbitron and its Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings system on Monday with an announcement by UK radio ratings body RAJAR that it is to abandon its PPM trial - not posted by Arbitron when we last checked - and by BBM Canada that it has selected a joint bid by Arbitron Inc. and TNS Media Research to deploy Portable People Meter technology for electronic measurement of television in Canada.
BBM issued the request for proposals at the end of June last year and received bids from three organizations as well as a joint bid from Arbitron/TNS. The submissions were reviewed by a committee of BBM members and after ten months of evaluation a recommendation was made to select the Arbitron/TNS bid.
BBM Canada President and CEO Jim MacLeod said of the decision, "BBM's goal is this process was to ensure that our electronic television measurement system was employing the most efficient and cost-effective technology available. I am confident that BBM's Board of Directors has chosen a technology solution that will not only meet the audience measurement needs of today but will also anticipate and adapt to the needs of the future."
Arbitron president and CEO Stephen Morris added, "We're delighted that the Portable People Meter will be an integral component of the world's most advanced, single source, radio and television ratings system which the BBM is now creating for Canada's radio and TV broadcasters, agencies and advertisers. We designed the Portable People Meter to be a robust and adaptable technology. That's why the PPM is the ideal solution for single source media measurement where one panel of consumers is used to measure many channels of media distribution."
In the UK there is much less confidence in the system and RAJAR has announced that it is to draw a line under its current investment in personal meter testing and actively investigate the introduction of a new online digital survey.
RJAR says it will "undertake an industry-wide review of the future direction of radio audience research and draw up a new three-year strategic plan which is to be published in the latter part of 2008" and noted that the "radio medium has changed rapidly in the past four years, not only in terms of convergence and consolidation but also in terms of the rapid developments in mobile technology and the increasing significance of podcasting and time-shifted listening."
RAJAR has hired Morag Blazey, former chief executive officer of PHD Media Ltd, to undertake an industry-wide consultation. She is to elicit feedback on how the RAJAR survey should move forward in the coming years and will also address the issues and concerns of the radio and advertising industries on a raft of topics from the scope and content of the current survey, to reporting and trading turn-around times and proposed innovations including the value of bigger samples, the introduction of an online diary and future requirements for podcasting, programming information, time-shifted listening and event response.
Regarding the possible introduction of a new online diary RAJAR has commissioned international research agency Nunwood to design an online, interactive diary which is to be field tested in July 2008. Nunwood will work with RAJAR's current fieldwork contractor IPSOS Media and, subject to the results of the consultation and the field tests, could be tasked to develop a model for the integration of the online diary into the main survey (alongside the existing diary) in the near future.
RAJAR managing director Sally de la Bedoyere said of the decision, "RAJAR's vision is to offer a modern and more widely encompassing service for the digital age and the consultation, we hope, will give us a clear mandate to move forward on a range of issues. For instance we would like to become the first port of call, not only for audience data, but for measuring engagement, programme changes and event response. We would like to offer bigger samples and reduce costs." She added, "We would like to measure all audio distribution regardless of digital or analogue platform; live or listen again; fixed, mobile, or personal listening device; out loud or on headphones; alone or collectively; in the home, the car, the office or elsewhere. We would like to work closely with organisations such as ABC-e and JICIMS to encourage standard metrics and measuring of all station websites and traffic. We would like to be able to adapt the survey quickly as needs change, and deliver greater details with the same clarity as is currently used to reflect trend. In addition, RAJAR would like to be in a position to provide more frequent data, loading seamlessly into an enhanced, user-friendly trading system supporting agencies, advertisers and stations should this be their desire, and to provide up to the minute data for all audio and music broadcasts.
RAJAR has already spent some GBP 3.5 million (USD 7 million) on research into audio meters since 2001 and has tested four audiometers - the Arbitron PPM; Eurisko Media Monitor; IPSOS-RSL audiometer; and RadioControl MediaWatch.
Previous Arbitron:
Previous de la Bedoyere:
Previous Morris:
Previous RAJAR:
2008-04-29: Emmis has spun off its Emmis Interactive operations, already operating on a stand alone basis, into a wholly-owned subsidiary Emmis Interactive, Inc. that is to start marketing its services to radio broadcasters and other local media companies.
The new company will be led by founders Rey Mena and Deborah Esayian, who have been named co-presidents of the stand-alone operation. It is Chicago-based and amongst its past successes were a 2006 deal with iTunes that made it the first company in the US to integrate the iTunes Music Store into its radio station web sites, allowing listeners to shop from playlists of station artists as well as top picks from on-air talent and celebrity guests.
Services it offers include interactive strategy for executive management, interactive sales training, content management consulting, proprietary technology platform and hosting services, custom web-site design and interactive product development.
Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan commented in a release, "Emmis Interactive has been a true pioneer and innovator in the interactive space. I take great pride in what we've built, and we look forward to providing other media companies the benefits of our interactive platform, sales solutions and know-how."
Previous Emmis:
Previous Smulyan:
2008-04-28: This week for our look at print comment on media, we go mainly for various blogs albeit ending in the UK with a tribute allied with a call it a day message.
First up from the blogs, we go for Fred Jacobs and comments on radio and new media. He begins by noting a piece he and Mark Ramsey of Hear 2.0 both noted by Bonneville's New Media Director James Webb in the "INsight" column in Inside Radio.
Webb urged stations to think not of listeners but of users and asked "Why is radio so late to the New Media party?" on which Jacobs comments, "That's the question. And the answer is a combination of denial, fear, and 'that's the way we've always done it.'"
He goes on to comment on a top-down mentality "We broadcast - you listen" and then after comments on the measurements for internet audiences and getting them to come back for more pens a hopeful note: "In many ways, it is similar to the 'old way' of attracting an audience, and most radio programmers and managers could easily make the transition - if they were focused on achieving these goals."
Jacobs goes on to note services his company offers but the next blog, from Dave Martin, may in our view offers a view just as important but often neglected in terms of assessing US radio's performance.
"Today, at least in major market radio, "he writes, "the performance of the cluster appears, more often than not, to count for more than individual station performance. Indeed the conventional wisdom seems to suggest that the cluster affords operators the ability to rationalize one or more failed or marginal niche performers than pre-cluster days."
"Economies of scale and the arithmetic of aggregation," continues Martin, "permit the ratings laggard to be kept around on a kind of artificial respiration so goes the argument but is any such bean counting enabled life support actually hurting the industry?"
In other comments regarding clusters he notes the use of combinations to bar new entrants - "It's considered acceptable to employ a second station as protector of the mother ship (i.e., a flanker) allowing that second station to post a modest, less than full potential performance. The reasoning being the 1.5 share of the second when added to the 3.5 of the franchise not only yields a 5 share but creates a realistic barrier to entry as well."
After more discussion he considers clusters in terms of "avails", citing CBS Radio in San Francisco as an example and commenting that there's "a new and growing abundance of avails today, a potential for wealth creation not around in the last century (e.g., HD Radio spectrum, online)."
On balance he argues in favour of clusters, writing, "My take is the cluster buys time for programmers, reducing the economic stress and pressures on near-term ratings performance. Further, the cluster may be exactly the safe harbour needed to spark genuine product innovation in the most competitive of markets like San Francisco…" and concludes "On balance, my suggestion is we are living in a new sweet spot for radio and all measured media; opportunity abounds! The only limitation is our imagination. Game on!"
Finally the tribute, from Gillian Reynolds in the UK Daily Telegraph: She uses her radio column - under the heading "Humphrey Lyttelton: irreverent, irrepressible, irreplaceable" to pay tribute to the British jazzman and broadcaster who died last week, specifically in terms of his BBC Radio 4 programme "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue."
"Humphrey Lyttelton," she considers, "gave the programme its gravity, climate, geography, and eco-system. Thirty six years on [From his start with the programme], the death on Friday night of Humphrey Lyttelton, chairman of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for all that time, was significant enough to be the lead item on Saturday morning's Today programme, the subject of pages of newspaper coverage and comment all weekend. Anyone looking for evidence of the place BBC radio still holds in the national heart need look no further. "
She then goes on to note that this was a "show built on expedience and experience. Its title came from "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again", which ran to great acclaim from 1964-67 but whose stars and writers had become too busy with television to work for tiny radio fees, although they all missed radio's immediacy, fluidity, freedom."
After more history on how the show actually began , its surviving "long lists of directors general, controllers of Radio 4, heads of light entertainment" and then goes on to ask if it can survive without chairman Humph.
Her conclusion is that the BBC should not try - she comments of Lyttelton that "…it was Humph's unique presence, at the still centre of this magically turning world, that gave the programme its gravity, climate, geography, eco-system. Not only did he have wit, style, personality; all those years of experience in leading a jazz band live on a stage (a career that long preceded Clue and co-existed with it happily to the end) had developed his rare skill of letting silence make laughter for him" and concludes, "So repeat the shows, bring them all out again on BBC Radio Collection CDs, but let there be a silence now, because I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue can never be the same again. It was more than a "brand". It was Humph's masterpiece."
Then on to listening suggestions - we note below that BBC Radio 4 airs a tribute to "Humph" on Wednesday - but start with a literary group courtesy of "Radio Books" from Radio Netherlands. This Wednesday it airs a new book - "Arusha" by Tom Naegels, a look at the chasm between cultures as experienced by a young Belgium man who travels to Tanzania to climb Mt Kilimanjaro and stays for a few days in Arusha to find the "real Africa." Currently there are MP3s of nearly thirty other readings on the web site.
Sticking with Africa, on Friday Radio Netherlands starts a new programme "Bridges with Africa" -the first edition looks at Holland's development policy for Africa over the past decade.
Then to the BBC for its usual wide-ranging selections commencing this week with BBC Radio 4 and its own wide rang. This included last Saturday's "Archive Hour" - "Kington's Last Tapes" in which Tony Staveacre presented highlights from conversations with his friend, the late Miles Kington; and Sunday's "Could I Stop Being a Muslim?" and "Analysis" - "War on the Professions", which looked at the idea of the independent self-regulated professional.
Then back to books and this week's "Book of the Week" on the station (08:45 GMT weekdays) is "The Sky is Always There", the story of the 14 months Camilla Carr and Jon James spent in captivity, having been taken hostage by Chechen rebels.
From Monday we suggest "British Jews and the Dream of Zion" (19:00 GMT) , a look as the State of Israel marks 60 years of existence by Jonathan Freedland at the history of Anglo-Jewish attitudes to the Zionist project.
Also from Monday we suggest "x The Miracle Berry" in which Tom Mangold tells the the story of a fruit which turns sour tastes to sweet, and the entrepreneurs who planned to market it in the United States in the 1970s until the US Food and Drug Administration suddenly banned the product despite tests showing it to be safe - the suggestion is that it could have hit the sugar market hard and the action resulted from lobbying by that industry,
Then on Tuesday to "1968: The Year of Revolutions" ( 08:00 GMT) in which John Tusa recalls events in France during May 1968 and also "Great Live" - this week the life is that of US singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.
On Wednesday (also 08:00 GMT) in "Humphrey Lyttelton: A Celebration", the station pays its tribute to the veteran cartoonist, broadcaster and jazz trumpeter who died last week, and later (10:00 GMT) returns to 1968 with "1968: Philosophy in the Streets" in which Nick Fraser recalls the intellectual revolution of May 1968 whilst in the evening in "Unreliable Evidence", Clive Anderson looks at the issue of what legal standards should be applied to troops in the line of fire?
Finally from Radio 4 drama and next week's "Saturday Play" (13:30 GMT) - a repeat of "Cigarettes and Chocolate", which was first broadcast nearly two decades ago and won author Anthony Minghella the Giles Cooper Award. It's followed (14:30GMT) with another repeat, an issue of "With Great Pleasure" in which the author, who died recently, discussed his favourite pieces of writing.
We then switch stations to BBC Radio 3 starting with this week's "Composer of the Week" - on Richard Addinsell and his close contemporary Noel Coward, who both composed songs and music for stage and screen from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Also from Radio 3 we suggest "The Essay "(22:00GMT Monday through Thursday) -this week it's "Symmetry and the Monster"-named after Prof Mark Ronan's book "Symmetry and the Monster: The Story of One of the Greatest Quests of Mathematics" - and from tomorrow to Friday the Radio 3 "Lunchtime Concert" - this week they feature a trio of young musicians performing works by three of the so-called 'mighty five' composers who were so prominent in 19th century Russia.
And at the weekend from Radio 3 this week's "Jazz on 3" at 22:30 GMT on Friday is live from the opening night of the 2008 Cheltenham Jazz Festival whist Saturday's "Hear and Now" at 21:30 GMT is a concert of five world premieres and Sunday's "Drama on 3" is a production from the Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare's "Othello" featuring an award-winning performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role alongside Ewan McGregor as Iago.
After that another station change and from BBC Radio 2 we suggest Monday (22:30 GMT) and the final part of "Jac Holzman's Elektra Story" - the story of Elektra Records; Tuesday an "Icons Revisited" - the first in a five part series (This programme is on Cliff Richard) - and the second of the four part "The Cowboy's Last Ride" looking at the story of the cowboy and his music; and next Saturday's "ToeRag Studios" - the story of the Hackney studio in London that uses vintage equipment for artists seeking a sound from the past.
Previous Columnists:
Previous Reynolds:
Jacobs' blog:
Martin blog:
UK Telegraph - Reynolds:
2008-04-28: An easing of restrictions on foreign investment in India's broadcasting sector seems increasingly likely following the release of recommendations to this effect by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
TRAI says that foreign investments " have an important role as a source of funding in the development of the sector" and that they "have other benefits also such as bringing in new technology, international best practices, and access to export markets. However, the extent of foreign investment is also conditioned by considerations such as national security, preserving socio-cultural fabric of the country, protection of domestic industry etc."
It has recommended lifting the (Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in DTH, cable networks and teleport hubs from 49% to 74% and that for FM Radio from 20% to 49% with the cap for news channels that are uplinked from within the country to also be raised to 49%: It is currently 26% for the sector.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry, however, has indicated that it does not favour of an increase when it comes to news channels or cable networks whilst for FM radio it is suggesting the increase is only to 24%. TRAI says the limit should be upped to 49% and the broadcast of news allowed.
Regarding Satellite Radio it notes that it is in the process of examining the proposed draft policy guidelines along with the representation of the service provider and will be sending its comments to the Government separately.
Previous Indian Radio:
Previous TRAI:
2008-04-27: Last week was very quiet for the regulators with no radio decisions posted in Australia and Ireland and in the US there was still no word on Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval of the Sirius-XM Satellite Radio merger. Elsewhere there were only a few radio decisions.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) posted only radio licensing decision, a denial of an application by Radio Rimouski inc. to add a 280 watts FM transmitter in Amqui, Quebec, and a 1.4 watts FM transmitter in Edmundston, New Brunswick, to broadcast the service of CFYX-FM Rimouski, Quebec.
It had argued for the transmitters on the basis of improving its signal quality in Amqui and adding to the diversity of the Edmundston radio market by offering its listeners a French-language radio station with a Classic rock music format.
The application to add an Edmundston transmitter was opposed by Radio Edmundston inc., the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada, the Syndicat des Communications de la République du Madawaska and the Coopérative des Montagnes ltée, which said a new transmitter in Edmundston would have an adverse economic impact on the local radio market, which is already unstable, whilst Astral said of the Amqui application that it could be perceived as an attempt to bypass the competitive broadcasting licensing process and to expand into new markets without making any commitments to local programming and would also cut into the advertising of its Amqui station CFVM-FM.
In rejecting the application the CRTC said amongst other things that it did not consider the programming offered would be relevant to an Edmundston audience and regarding Amqui noted both the precarious financial position of CFVM-FM, due in part to competing stations in Rimouski, which together capture as much listenership in Amqui as it does and also agreed with the point raised about bypassing the licensing process.
The CRTC also posted a public notice with a deadline for interventions or comments of May 29 that related to an application by Radio-Acton inc. to increase the power of French-language Type B community station CFID-FM, Acton Vale, Quebec, from 1,650 watts to 2,647 watts.
In the UK, Ofcom has announced the receipt of only one application for the one bid for the Somerset local digital radio multiplex licence - from MuxCo Somerset Limited - and has also announced the award of four new community radio licences (See RNW Apr 25).
Earlier it rejected Guardian Media Group's request to change the format of its Smooth Radio stations in London and the North-West by dropping jazz output and also announced the award of the Surrey and northern Sussex multiplex for which MuxCo Surrey & North Sussex Limited (See RNW Apr 24).
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it was ready to award another three licences won in its FM Auction 62 - for stations in Jacksonville, Georgia; Kelliher, Minnesota; and Enderlin, North Dakota.
It also released a new version of its "The Public and Broadcasting" publication that all broadcasters must maintain in their public inspection files and added that it would establish a contact point within the agency for public inquiries about broadcast matters. Toll free numbers have been set up for calls relating to audio and video services.
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Ofcom:
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2008-04-27: GCap Media's UK digital station Planet Rock has been given yet another month before it will be sold or closed with a message on the station site (incorrectly dated as March, which is strange as they sent out an e-mail with the information this week) saying that although "We'd love to be able to announce that the deal to buy Planet Rock is all done and dusted but I'm afraid that we have to keep holding our breath for yet another month…The deadline for the sale to be completed has been extended until May 30th while the interested parties continue their negotiations with GCap Media."
The station adds that it "should have more news very soon" but there is no indication on who might be potential purchasers and speculation continues that Global Radio, who are in the process of taking over GCap and who have already stopped the sale of GCap's interest in the national Digital One commercial multiplex and two of the Xfm stations outside London although the South Wales Xfm station is still up for sale (See RNW Apr 12).
Previous GCap Media:
Previous Global Radio:
2008-04-27: Clear Channel and Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, who are leading a private equity purchase of the company, have won another round in their lawsuit against the banks financing the decision with a New York ruling by Justice Helen Freedman that Clear Channel and CC Media, the vehicle set up to purchase the company, are not bound by the terms of the banks commitment letter to the two private equity firms.
The two buyers have sued the banks in New York and, in conjunction with Clear Channel, in Texas, to force them to go ahead with the provision of USD 22.1 billion of finance for the deal or alternatively pay damages up to USD 26 billion. The banks had countersued in New York where amongst other things they asked that their exposure be limited to the USD 600 million it would cost the buyers to walk away from the deal.
The law suits are now to be heard on May 5 in New York and at a date to be set in Texas.
Clear Channel shares closed last week at USD 29.70 compared to the buyout price of USD 39.20 per share.
Previous Clear Channel:
2008-04-26: CBS Radio has now launched its latest initiative, the CBS Radio Digital Network, as a presentation in Hollywood with further presentations to come in Chicago next week and New York next month.
The presentation featured CBS Radio president and CEO Dan Mason; its president of digital media and integrated marketing David Goodman; and its president of sales Michael Weiss, as well as CBS-syndicated morning host Adam Carolla and former KROQ, Los Angeles host Carson Daly. It highlighted the company's "Rethink" philosophy that it says is helping it to improve experiences with CBS radio from clients and listeners on all platforms.
The company is soon to launch a single online player at play.it that will allow listeners to access streams from all CBS Radio stations, which can be sorted by market or format, and also to create and share personalized stations using a graphical interface.
Previous Carolla:
Previous CBS:
Previous Mason:
Play.it web site:
2008-04-26: British broadcaster, cartoonist, jazz musician - he taught himself to play the trumpet in 1936 - and composer, and journalist, Humphrey Lyttleton has died aged 86 in hospital following surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. A posting on his website said he "died peacefully with his family and friends around him on April 25th at 7.00pm following surgery" and added, "We would like to thank everyone for their support and express our deep gratitude to the staff of Barnet General for the care that they gave Humph."
Below that it carries a quote from the host, termed by Louis Armstrong the "top trumpet man in England" and a long-time chairman of the BBC Radio 4 "antidote to panel games", the comedy panel show "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" that is attributed to "Chairman Humph in introspective mode." This says, "As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation."
Amongst tributes paid BBC Director General Mark Thompson described "Humph" as "a unique, irreplaceable talent" and added, "One of the towering figures of British jazz, he excelled too as a writer, cartoonist, humorist and of course as a broadcaster on television and radio" whilst BBC Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer, said Lyttelton encompassed "so many" of the virtues people wanted from Radio Four comedy and added, "He's just a colossally good broadcaster and possessed of this fantastic sense of timing. It's a very, very sad day but we should celebrate and be very grateful for how much he did for Radio Four because he really was one of the giants over the last 40 years, really terrific..."
Outgoing BBC Director of Audio and Music Jenny Abramsky said eh "has been one of the wonders of radio broadcasting for years. He championed British jazz with his weekly programme on Radio 2. At the same time his deadpan stewardship of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, the unique ringmaster of an anarchic world, ensured the programme became the jewel of radio comedy."
Lyttelton went to school at Eton where his father was a housemaster and was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards but despite his background became what he termed a "romantic socialist" after spending some time in a steelworks in South Wales.
During the war he was in action at Salerno and on VE Day (8 May 1945), Lyttelton joined in the celebrations by playing his trumpet from a wheelbarrow - his first broadcast performance as it was aired by the BBC recording whose recording still survives. Following demobilisation after World War II, he attended Camberwell Art College for two years.
On his website he is described as "descended from a long line of land-owning, political, military, clerical, scholastic and literary forebears [RNW Note: His father was second son of the 8th Viscount Cobham and he was male-line descendent of Charles Lyttelton and thus in remainder to both the Viscounty Cobham and the Barony Lyttelton]). Not a musician among them. He claims to have most in common with a former Humphrey Lyttelton who was executed for complicity with Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder plot."
Lyttleton had chaired "I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue" since it was launched in 1972 and had also presented and performed in many jazz programmes including "Jazz Scene" and "Jazz Club" and most recently "Best of Jazz" which he hosted from 1968 until he bowed out earlier this year. He was still performing with his 8-member group until shortly before his death - he celebrated 60 years as a bandleader in January this year.
RNW Note: Of the obituaries we have read, we suggest The Times, which carries a number of quotations from the host and more than 50 readers' comments, as worth a read.
Previous Abramsky:
Previous Damazer:
Previous Thompson:
Lyttleton web site:
Times obituary:
2008-04-26: US host Rush Limbaugh has landed in controversy again with comments that -going by the transcripts- clearly indicate that he would welcome riots in Denver at the Democratic Convention as a means of ensuring that Democrats are not elected.
The host in comments and excerpts posted on his website gives only a partial transcript as so often but audio posted online has him saying, "Now, I am not inspiring or inciting riots. I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming of riots in Denver," whilst mimicking the tune White Christmas and then going on to say "Riots in Denver at the Democrat convention would see to it we don't elect Democrats. And that's the best damn thing (that) could happen for this country as far as anything I can think."
The comments led to a call from Colorado Democrat Senator Ken Salazar for a public reprimand of the host by Clear Channel, whose Denver station KOA-AM, carried the show and a comment from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper saying, "Anyone who would call for riots in an American city has clearly lost their bearings."
The station posted on its website letter from Salazar sent to Lee Larsen, Senior VP of the Rocky Mountain Region of Clear Channel Radio in which he says, "As I read Mr. Limbaugh's comments about riots at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, they appear to me to be a clear exhortation that those riots are exactly what he wants to happen. For that kind of incendiary comment, I ask Clear Channel to reprimand Mr. Limbaugh."
The station did not comply but issued a statement saying that Limbaugh was not advocating violence and carried a report that began: "Yesterday, Rush took a call from a listener who thought that Rush's ego may be getting away from him a bit, and that his Operation Chaos may have ramifications beyond Rush's control. Of course the local drive-by media (see Channel 7) is falsely reporting that Rush is calling for violence at the convention."
[RNW note: If you follow the link to the story carried by Channel 7 - ABC, Denver - it does not accuse the host but says his comments "appear to call for riots" and it later gives fuller comments by the host including the crucial "I am not inspiring or inciting riots, I am dreaming of riots in Denver", which he certainly didn't portray as a nightmare. Misrepresentation, it would appear spreads from Limbaugh to his affiliates.]
A poll on its website showed 70% of its listeners, presumably mainly right-wing, felt the host had not gone too far with 30% thinking he had.
Limbaugh took a number of calls on the issue and the station posed an excerpt in which it quoted the host as saying, in contrasting Republicans to the left - he does not specifically use the term Democrats in this segment, "We don't burn our cars. We don't burn down our houses. We don't kill our children. We don't do half the things the American left does."
RNW comment: The most illuminating things about this story came from the audio posted by the station and comments posted by various listeners. The station couldn't bring itself to do more than very mildly criticize the host - and most of the comment split into the bigots from both ends of the spectrum, albeit in this case with a healthy leavening of people in the middle who used temperate language to comment adversely on Limbaugh's comments. And as usual, of course, the host's own site and the reports on the internet failed to give a full transcript of the initial broadcast to allow assessment in a complete context albeit the audio we have listened to leaves us with no doubt that in this instance Limbaugh's comments are despicable - either as a calculating rabble-rousing because he knows what his audience want or because he really wouldn't be unhappy with riots to his political advantage. One comment summed it up fairly to us: "...add the obvious suppressed premise that Rush Limbaugh would *like* the Democrats' chances to be "hurt" and you're left with the unavoidable conclusion that Rush wants riots in Denver. Otherwise the entire soundbite is pointless, and Limbaugh says nothing without an agenda behind it. As usual, he got his intended message across, but he and the ditttoheads will now whine that he was 'misunderstood'."
We were also surprised to see virtually no comment on the other bigoted elements of his comments suggesting the American left has a habit of burning its cars, its houses, killing its children and much more.
Putting it all in perspective - Limbaugh's audience is around 14 million a week - less than 5% of the 301 million or so total US population - which leaves a vast majority of Americans who presumably are unlikely to dream of riots in a positive frame of mind. They might dream of someone ..whoops - we wouldn't want to be accused of inciting any physical harm to even Limbaugh.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Limbaugh:
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2008-04-25: The US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has voted to approve a resolution introduced last month by North Dakota Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan that would negate the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that was passed by a majority vote, opposed by both Democrat commissioners, in February allowing a media company to own a newspaper and broadcaster in the same market (See RNW Feb 5).
The measure now goes to the full Senate for a vote and a similar measure has been introduced in the House by Washington Reps Rep Jay Inslee (Democrat) and Dave Reichert (Republican) but President Bush has already indicated that he would veto any attempt to overturn the new rules.
Reuters in its report on the measure quoted Dorgan as commenting, "We really do literally have five or six major corporations in this country that determine for the most part what Americans see, hear and read every day. I don't think that's healthy for our country" and adding that he hoped both the House and Senate would vote to kill the rule.
Previous Dorgan:
Previous FCC:
Reuters report:
2008-04-25: Following an easing of regulatory requirements for local programming, GCap Media is to cut back further on local programming in June with the introduction of a three-hour weekday network show and a number of weekend syndicated shows on its One Network, a decision that follows similar moves earlier this month by Global Radio - currently in the process of buying GCap - to network daytime output on its Heart and Galaxy stations (See RNW Apr 9)
The new programming will run on most of the One Network stations from its inception although Radio Today UK reports that some stations including Trent FM (Nottingham), Invicta FM (Kent), BRMB (Birmingham) and GWR FM (Bristol) will not join the move until later and London station Capital FM is not expected to take it.
Also in UK commercial radio, Channel 4 is hiring another former BBC executive for its digital radio operations: He is Alex Donelly, a former head of music at BBC Radio 1 which he left in 2005 to join EMI where he is currently senior vice-president of A&R at EMI music publishing.
Donelly will become Channel 4 radio's head of music and will work with former BBC Radio Five Live controller Bob Shennan, now Channel 4 Director of Radio, on 4 Radio's three music stations the first of which, E4, is to be launched later this year.
The announcement came as Channel 4 released its annual report that showed an operating loss at its "core channel" of USD 7.8 million (USD 15.4 million), its first since 1992, despite ratings success and highest-ever share of TV advertising revenue) 24.1%).
Channel 4 in its news release noted its diversification into digital radio having led the successful bid for the second UK national digital multiplex and said it was "involved in industry discussions about a proposed DAB platform re-launch as well as continuing to advance plans to launch new national digital radio stations."
It also noted a number of disposals including its interest in the now-defunct commercial national digital speech channel Oneword Radio and its chairman Luke Johnson said it had now reached the "tipping point" it had been warning about "with the core channel now in deficit and being supported by profits from secondary activities."
Johnson added, "In response to market conditions, we are already having to cut editorial budgets and a new public funding solution is now urgently required if we are to maintain such impressive levels of public service plurality in competition with the BBC."
Previous Channel 4:
Previous GCap Media:
Previous Global Radio:
Previous Shennan:
2008-04-25: Entercom has announced a 4% year-on-year decrease in net revenues to USD 95.4 million in the first quarter but its station operating expenses were down 6% to USD 31.7 million with adjusted net income per share up from nine cents to 13 cents and net income per share of 15 cents, including a gain on the sale of assets, compared to a loss of one cent a year ago.
Same station net revenues were down 4% but same station operating expenses were down by only 3% and same station operating income was down 5%.
Entercom also announced a quarterly dividend of ten cents per share, currently representing an annualized yield of more than 4%, and also that its board had extended for an additional year its USD 100 million share re-purchase scheme that was doe to expire: It still has USD 40 million available to purchase shares under the scheme.
In its release it highlighted a 67% increase in Free Cash Flow to USD 11.4 million - driven primarily by a reduction in financing costs - and President and Chief Executive Officer David J. Field in a release commented, "We are pleased to report that during the first quarter, Entercom achieved strong growth in both free cash flow and adjusted net income per share and moderate growth in EBITDA despite the challenging state of the U.S. economy. We expect to continue to grow our free cash flow for the remainder of 2008, aided by lower expected financing costs this year."
Regarding the share re-purchase he added, "We remain committed to returning cash to our shareholders, but have adjusted our dividend to put greater emphasis on share repurchases in the near term given the relative valuation of the Company's stock" and of prospects he said, "While we continue to be affected by general economic conditions across the country, we are relatively pleased with the state of our business and are optimistic about the business development and growth initiatives that we are pursuing across our organization."
Entercom noted that during the quarter it had executed USD 450 million in hedging transactions to reduce its exposure to interest rate volatility and had also repurchased USD 30.9 million of its 7.625% Senior Subordinated Notes due in 2014 for USD 28.7 million.
Looking ahead Entercom says that it expects second quarter same station net revenues to be down low to mid single digits as compared to the prior year period with same station operating expenses down by approximately 2%.
Entercom shares ended Thursday up 15.2% at USD 9.78 having reached USD 9.84 at one point.
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Previous Field:
2008-04-25: UK media regulator Ofcom says it has received only one bid for the Somerset local digital radio multiplex licence - from MuxCo Somerset Limited in which a third interest is held by Muxco Ltd. with a third each held by UKRD Group Ltd and The Local Radio Company Ltd.
The applicant is proposing seven services in addition to BBC Somerset. These are:
Star Radio - A full service offering from UKRD Group.
Ivel FM - A full service offering from The Local Radio Company
Orchard FM - a contemporary hit radio offering from GCap Media.
Quay West - A full service offering from Laser Broadcasting.
Easy Radio - an Easy Listening service from Easy Radio Ltd.
UCB UK - a Christian service from United Christian Broadcasters.
Traffic Radio - a Traffic and Travel service from the Highways Agency.
Ofcom also announced the award of four new community radio licences, which went to:
Amber Sound FM (Ripley, Amber Valley, Derbyshire).
Erewash Sound (llkeston, Derbyshire).
Tulip Radio (Spalding, South Holland, Lincolnshire).
Takeover Radio (Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire).
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Previous Ofcom:
2008-04-24: A Texas jury has awarded Grantley Patent Holdings, Ltd. USD 66 million in a patent infringement judgment against Clear Channel Communications after finding that the radio giant infringed Grantley's intellectual property regarding integrated inventory management systems for multiple radio stations.
A post on the website of one of the law firms representing Grantley - Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P.(RKMC) - notes that the jury also found that the infringement was wilful, which may allow for damages to be trebled.
Ronald J. Schutz, chair of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group at the firm commented after the judgment, "We are very pleased that the jury understood the complex issues in the case and found that Clear Channel had infringed Grantley's patents."
Previous Clear Channel:
RKMC report:
2008-04-24: UK media regulator Ofcom has rejected Guardian Media Group's request to change the format of its Smooth Radio stations in London and the North-West following a four-week consultation period launched last month (See RNW Mar 16).
GMG had wanted to remove an obligation to play 45 hours of jazz music a week on each of the stations, originally Jazz FM stations in return for providing 24 hour a day jazz services on DAB in London and the North West: The 45 hours requirement was imposed last year when Ofcom agreed to allow a change to an easy listening format and Ofcom noted that it received 42 responses, 14 in favour and 28 against the proposed change.
Ofcom notes that more than half the positive responses, which were mainly from individuals, welcomed the creation of a jazz station on digital and suggested linking approval with a requirement to provide such a service but pointed out that it is not empowered to demand such an assurance.
Pf the negative responses 20 were from individuals and Ofcom notes that the tone of many was that GMG knew what they were buying when they took over the stations and had been allowed enough change.
Other responses included one from the All Party Jazz Group of Members of Parliament which had objected to the original changes and remained strongly opposed and termed the latest request "a blatant example of format creep" and one from Bauer, the only industry response, which expressed concern about the timing of the request.
Bauer noted that it had welcomed changes to formats that had been recently introduced following the Future of Radio consultation but added that the industry was only just starting to digest their implications and consequences. It referred to a request for any "further significant format changes. Especially so close to the introduction of the new regime" as "unnecessary and unwarranted" and took the view that Ofcom should defer consideration of any such requests until the new system had been operating for a while.
The request said Ofcom had gone first to its Content Board for advice and then to the Radio Licensing Committee, both of which were unanimous in their view that the requests be rejected: It said that support for more easy listening could not outweigh the effect of removal of jazz from the station.
Ofcom has also announced the award of a further digital multiplex to a Muxco-led consortium: This was the Surrey and northern Sussex multiplex for which MuxCo Surrey & North Sussex Limited -Muxco and UKRD Group each hold half of the company- was the only applicant with a proposal for seven local services (See RNW Licence News Apr 6).
Previous GMG Radio:
Previous Muxco:
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2008-04-24: Cork New Life Media Limited has now launched its Life FM station Ireland's first Christian station which will provide a music-driven service for the Christian community in Cork City.
Earlier this month it signed a ten-year community of interest contract with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) earlier this month.The service is 70% music and 30% speech.
Previous BCI:
2008-04-23: The banks involved in financing the USD 19.5 billion buyout of Clear Channel on Tuesday offered to go binding arbitration but the private equity buyers Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) have spurned the offer according to Reuters.
The agency said the banks -Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia -- had said in a letter that they remained "willing to fund the Clear Channel acquisition" and that they believed the situation could be resolved within six weeks.
Bain and THL responded said Reuters, with a statement saying the proposal was "yet another disingenuous attempt by the banks to avoid living up to their commitments. The banks want to move this case into the back room because they fear that a public trial will clearly expose their misconduct."
They added, referring to a lawsuit they have filed in New York seeking to force the banks to fund the buyout - another suit was launched in Texas in conjunction with Clear Channel - "We are ready to complete the deal to buy Clear Channel on terms consistent with the binding commitments the banks made nearly a year ago, and provided all the documentation needed to execute the funding, but the banks refused to sign. The New York court hearing on April 24 offers a further opportunity for these critical issues to be revealed in the bright light of day."
Clear Channel, whose shares ended Tuesday up 4.39% at USD 29.74, which compares to a buyout offer of USD 39.20 per share, refused comment.
Previous Clear Channel:
Reuters report:
2008-04-23: Arbitron has reported first quarter net income up 5% to USD 16.3 million (Up 9.6 % from 52 cents to 57 cents per diluted share) on revenues up 5.5% on a year ago at USD 94.1 million: Costs and expenses for the quarter were up 4.4% to USD 63.3 million, put down to planned expenditures for the Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings panels in New York, Nassau-Suffolk, Middlesex-Somerset-Union, Los Angeles, Riverside-San Bernardino, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Detroit. It also noted that share-based compensation for the quarter was up from USD 1.3 million in 2007 to USD 1.6 million this year.
Chairman, president and chief executive officer Stephen Morris
Said that the company had made "made solid progress in the first quarter toward our financial goals for 2008 and continued our ongoing efforts to optimize our capital structure, all as we worked toward further commercialization of the Portable People Meter ratings service."
He noted that five months had passed since they paused commercialisation of the PPM service "to address issues raised by our customers, the Media Rating Council and other constituencies" and added, "Throughout the first quarter, we worked hard to improve the important measures that our clients have told us are crucial to their confidence in the PPM ratings currency. I am encouraged by the results of our efforts. Arbitron has met or surpassed many of the benchmarks we established with our customers for sample size, sample quality, and in-tab rates. The Persons 18-34 sample among all ethnicities has been strengthened significantly."
At the company's earnings call Morris noted that it and its customers were operating in a "very difficult economic environment" and added that although small markets were still doing better than larger ones it was "hard to imagine" that they would not also be affected.
Regarding the PPM it said the company was on track with its PPM restart and noted industry support for commercialising more PPM markets with open support from CBS and Emmis whilst those with concerns were not going public. He added that they had also been getting positive signals from the buying community.
Following efforts made after the delay, which had been instituted after concerns expressed by several groups, Morris said there was now a "strong feeling" that the data looked good.
He also commented on the request from Cumulus for proposals for a new small-markets ratings service (See RNW Apr 14), which he said was "not a surprise" and confirmed what the company had been hearing from other small-market customers.
Expanding on the issue he said that qualitative information was more important to smaller markets and Arbitron had already enhanced he qualitative questions included in the back of its diaries in its small-market surveys and its Scarborough Research is examining the possibility of adding a small-market service.
Morris added that Cumulus wanted to have information that would enable them to continue to receive information such as AQH that national agencies understood together with qualitative information to help local sales.
Looking ahead, Arbitron has re-iterated its full-year guidance of revenue increases between 8% and 10% for continuing operations - excluding UK-based Continental Research which it has sold (See RNW Feb 15) - with per diluted share earnings from continuing operations between USD 1.30 and USD 1.44 including the costs associated with closing down Project Apollo that it announced in February (See RNW Feb 25).
Previous Arbitron:
Previous MediaRating Council:
Previous Morris:
2008-04-22: Recent posts from Jacob's Media bring gloomy news for digital radio in the US with its "Tech Survey IV" web survey of more than 27,000 respondents across 69 Rock-formatted radio stations finding that many current satellite radio subscribers "are not committed to continuing with either XM or Sirius" and a post on HD radio finding only a sliver of a silver lining concerning the future of HD.
The post on HD said that the survey shoed awareness and sales to be "up just a tick" year on year and continued, "And that's after all those ads that ran on hundreds of radio stations, and continue to this day. Up against iPods, cool cell phones, and other hot gadgetry, HD Radio isn't even an afterthought. It's just not on radar screens."
Jacobs says its survey asked about the "barriers to purchasing HD" and the bad news is a lack of clarity over what it is, what it's about and price before continuing, "But the roadblocks that worry me the most are that most consumers haven't even heard HD Radio and/or they don't know anyone who owns one."
A bar chart listed the ten barriers, the top five of which were: 40% saying the barrier was that they didn't know enough about HD, 32% that receivers were too expensive; 28% that they hadn't heard it yet; 22% that they didn't know anyone who had one; and 17% that they would need new radios in multiple locations.
Jacobs comments that "It will take consumer buzz about HD Radio content to start motivating radio listeners to run to Circuit City or anywhere else to check out and price these radios" but adds that it is heartening that WNEW is back on HD in New York and then continues, "We need to give these radios away, set up kiosks in high-profile retail centers (called malls), and let people experience HD Radio in markets where there's actually something worth listening to on HD2 channels. But sampling aside, consumers aren't going to get revved about HD Radio until there's unique, buzzworthy programming worth getting excited about. If HD Radio is going to be part of the future of our business, it needs to become a bigger priority in the present. "
RNW comment- As we said only a sliver of a silver lining.
As regards satellite the survey unsurprisingly showed that those who had acquired satellite as a result of an automobile purchase were less committed to keeping it than those who had made a positive decision to subscribe.
Jacob's asked for the first time how people came to subscribe and found that around 40% made the choice themselves but a third said their subscription came with a vehicle they bought or leased and a fifth that it had been a gift.
Jacob's comments that "the subscription model is a tough putt, made all the more difficult by the plethora of new - and old - entertainment choices. While many traditional broadcasters have long been concerned about the growth of satellite radio, this data suggest that our challenges are clearly coming from other sources - notably, iPods, cell phones, and the Internet. "
The survey also showed that although satellite grew by 12-13% interest amongst non-subscribers is at its lowest level since Jacobs first conducted its first study in 2005 and that for most non -subscribers there is either an attitude of indifference or lack of information about the proposed Sirius merger.
Jacob's also notes that as in the past it found stronger satisfaction with Sirius than XM but says this could be in part because of "Howard Stern who is obviously a big reason why our Rockers opted for Sirius in the first place."
Previous Jacob's Media:
2008-04-21: BBC Radio 4 has cancelled the spring series of its long-running comedy show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" after its presenter jazz musician and broadcaster Humphrey Lyttelton was admitted to hospital for an operation to repair an aortic aneurysm: He had been hosting the show, self-styled as the "antidote to panel games" since 1972.
Producer Jon Naismith said they were "unclear precisely how long Humph's recovery period will be" but that "Humph" was "otherwise fine and in good spirits".
Lyttelton, who is 88, last month hosted his final "Best of Jazz" show on BBC Radio 2 after some four decades (See RNW Mar 12) and his band's current tour has also been cancelled. A notice on his web site says that the live tour of the show, which ends in Bournemouth tomorrow, will be chaired by Rob Brydon "because of Lyttleton's operation" and also notes the cancellation of concerts planned in Devon (Gt. Torrington) on April 25 and Cornwall (Liskeard) on April 26.
No further details have been posted concerning his health.
Also at the BBC, where Adrian Van Klaveren today moved into his new role as Controller BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra, the station has announced that Blue Peter children's TV programme presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star Gethin Jones will join the station with his own Saturday show for two months from July 5.
"The Gethin Jones Show", says the station will "delve into the great summer of sport, music and culture that lies ahead, and reflect Gethin's own interests in entertainment and sport as a former rugby player for Lancashire."
Jones leaves Blue Peter at the end of June and his show, a Bite Yer Legs production, will initially run from 09:00 to noon but this will be changed in August to fit around the station's cover of the Beijing Olympics: He said of his move that "Joining Radio 5 Live with my own show is fantastic and I can't wait to get started. I relish a challenge and my first venture into radio will be just that. I've always loved the station and look forward to bringing my own flavour to Saturday mornings."
Previous BBC:
Previous van Klaveren:
Lyttleton web site:
2008-04-21: Last week was another of gloomy prognostications about the future of US radio from various angles with hardly a positive peep from anywhere.
Amongst commentators leading the charge were Jerry Del Colliano in his "Inside Music Media" blog and hear2.0 president Mark Ramsey, neither of whom rate radio's attempts to move forward very highly.
Del Colliano headed his comment "Radio's Future Is Off-the-Air" and then went on to say why, beginning with a note of the decline of traditional spot revenues and rise in revenues from new areas such as the Internet and mobile devices according to figures from the Radio Advertising Bureau.
He later comments, "The recession is going to cause a flat business like radio to post declines at the end of this year and possibly next. The best radio can hope for is to finish flat beyond that because it is a business without a future generation -- that's a big reason. That generation was lost to - new media."
And that he says doesn't mean just streaming a signal since the "next generation is not going to listen to your terrestrial signal streamed on the Internet. And radio has to find a way to get in the content business to generate revenue from the next generation or else it dies as its older audience continues to age."
There are, adds Del Colliano, "some glimmers of hope "- in relation to which he comments that "Dan Mason at CBS is going full throttle into new media. He's building webcasts for AOL distribution, on CBS-owned Last.FM, on his HD channels (lots a luck on that one), and on their own CBS stream. There's a great new WNEW.com channel. Dan's got interesting niche projects going on like a psychic radio channel and so on."
Overall though his predictions are depressing reading for over-the-air broadcasts - he comments amongst other things in a list of challenges ahead:
* On-air and online do not - and probably should not - be tied together. They are separate businesses. One attracts older listeners and the other is where the next generation lives. Never the twain shall meet.
* Podcasting will be the new broadcasting," Ramsey comments on what he headlines, "New! The Worst Rebranding in History! And it's all Radio's!" and goes on to put the boot into the "Radio Heard Here" campaign and research from Inside Radio on perceptions of its logo and imagery - it features a "lightening-bolt emblazoned logo and ads showing people listening to a boom box with a double cassette deck prominently displayed "- saying of the latter: "This is perspective divorced from context - the worst kind of research trash."
He then says, "The context in radio needs to be considered as feedback is gathered. You can't view a logo apart from the context in which that logo will be used and apart from the product which will use it… Lightning bolts go back to the origins of radio, and anytime you talk about a hundred year old origin you are communicating one message: OLD."
Also laying into the radio industry was John Gorman who in his blog decried the emphasis being put on satellite radio whilst ignoring other developments such as "the Microsoft-Yahoo merger or who's next in line to get gobbled by Google."
He takes the view that the merger should just be allowed to happen, commenting of satellite, "Show me how it is going to take money away from radio? Or listeners? You can't. Terrestrial radio derives revenue from advertising. Satellite gets theirs from subscribers - and some paltry national business and a fair share of p.i.'s."
He also had no time for "Radio Heard Here," describing it as "a campaign that's certain to repel the iPod generation…but we'll save that one for another time."
And also some doubts about the direction of satellite, commenting, "Have you listened to XM or Sirius lately? Does it sound like some of the stations have tightened the playlists? Even the comedy channels. Punch lines get a little stale when you've heard them for the fourth of fifth time in just a couple of weeks. There are already signs of things to come following the proposed merger. You don't have Lee Abrams to kick around anymore, for example."
Gorman thinks a merger failure would be worse for terrestrial radio than an actual merger since it would force up the promotion and marketing by the companies but also that a merger will not benefit listeners, writing, "Anyone who's worked for CBS/Infinity knows what'll happen when it becomes a one satellite radio universe. They'll never see another dime in upgrades. You'll never see more than a three percent increase in salaries. Name me one company whose product improved when its competition was eliminated? "
RNW comment: As part of the "Old" we rather fear that far too many of the comments are accurate and that the future of advertising-funded broadcasting - Google has now overtaken the main UK commercial TV company, ITV, in advertising revenues - is weak. Fortunately so far support for public broadcasters has remained strong enough to ensure that varied and intelligent radio remains on the air in the UK and some other countries and that more and more of it is available in download form. We still see radio as a medium with tremendous strengths albeit technological progress has significantly reduced its impact when it comes to pop music and, when we are forced to listen to pop radio when in a car with sons wonder what the attraction there is in much of the inane drivel and puerile jokes of some DJ's does to attract anyone but those equally puerile.
Which of course takes us onto listening suggestions, most of which would probably not interest many of the young who seem to want a noise on - most of whom rarely seem to really listen to music so much as have sounds on as a backdrop - but which do reveal something of the range of public broadcasters.
We start with BBC Radio 2 and the current "Icons Revisited" series - last Saturday's (on the site) was on Bruce Springsteen and next Saturday's, the fifth and last in the series (18:00 GMT) in on Prince.
Also from Radio 2 we suggest Monday and "Jac Holzman's Elektra Story", the third of a six part series on the history of Elektra Records; and Tuesday - "Who Knows Where the Time Goes... " (21:30 GMT),the first of a two-part documentary on Sandy Denny in which Bob Harris marks the 30th anniversary of her death plus"The Cowboy's Last Ride" (22:30 GMT) in which Tom Russell starts a four-part series looking at the story of the Cowboy and his music.
On Saturday in the lunchtime comedy slot (Noon GMT) the station has the continuing "The Blagger's Guide" plus a new celebrity-based panel show "Hot Gossip" hosted by Claudia Winkleman in which three profession gossip mongers compete for the main prize.
Then to BBC Radio 3 for this week's "The Essay" (Monday to Thursday 22:00 GMT): This week it's "Raising My Voice" in which four artists consider the impact of mental health problems on their creativity. Those featured are songwriter and artist Rachel Studley; Christopher Danes, writer and manic depressive; Monika Dutta, a filmmaker and multimedia artist who talks on living with obsessive-compulsive disorder; and painter Tracey Britton, who resists the label mentally ill.
Also from Radio 3 we suggest "Night Waves" (20:45 GMT) on Tuesday in which former editor of The Economist Bill Emmott argues that three great regional powers in Asia - China, India and Japan - present great dangers, as well as opportunities, for the world economy; and on Thursday when Rana Mitter and guests discuss the British fashion for 'Chinese Style' in the 17th and 18th centuries, as displayed in a new exhibition in Brighton.
Finally from the station we suggest Friday - starting with "The Verb" (20:45 GMT) with novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and best-selling jazz singer Stacey Kent discussing their musical collaboration. It's followed by "Jazz Library" (21:30 GMT) which highlights selections from jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery and "Jazz on 3" featuring a New York gig by Dave Douglas with his electronic sextet Keystone - and Sunday's "Drama on 3" (19:00 GMT) , a new version of Arthur Schnitzler's "Professor Bernhardi" plus the "Sunday Feature" (20:30 GMT) - "The Splintered City: The Halifax Harbour Explosion, 1917", the story of the largest man made explosion before the atomic bomb. It killed more than 2,000 people when a refugee relief vessel and a munitions ship collided.
After that BBC Radio 4 and we go for this week's "Book of the Week" ( 08:45 GMT) - "Isabella de' Medici" taken from Caroline P Murphy's biography and read by Fenella Woolgar; "The Afternoon Reading" - 14:30 GMT weekdays and this week featuring specially commissioned stories exploring the ways in which we interact with technology and machines and the following (14:45 GMT) "Hunting the Beagle" in which Dr Robert Prescott searches for the final resting place of the ship aboard which Charles Darwin began to formulate the ideas which would eventually become his theory of evolution.
Also from Radio 4 we suggest Monday's "Beyond Belief" in which Ernie Rea presents a special edition of the programme, looking at the theological debates across faith traditions on whether it is ever right to create hybrid embryos and "The Chemistry of Addiction" in which Dr Graham Easton explores how the brain deals with drugs and who might become an addict.
Later in the week we suggest a run on Tuesday - "A Sunparched Country. Water Is Precious" (08:30 GMT) which looks at how drought has made Australian take water usage more seriously and also on Tuesday "Turned out Nice Again!" in which Allan Beswick tells the remarkable story of two George Formbys, father and son and also "The Music Feature" - "Tales from the Stave: Pulcinella" in which Frances Fyfield tracks down the stories behind the scores of the ballet score and at 15:30 GMT "Great Lives" in which Stirling Moss nominates fellow racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio. Finally on Tuesday we go for "Could I Stop Being a Muslim?" featuring former Muslim radical Shiraz Maher
Then from Thursday we go for another run - all available as podcast cum downloads -with "In our Time" ( 08:00 GMT), which this week looks at "Materialism"; "Material World (15:30 GMT), which this week looks at stealth technology's use by the military with stealth warships seemingly on the horizon (or not on it as the case might be); and "Analysis " (19:30 GMT), which this week queries the idea of the independent self-regulated professional.
From Friday we suggest "The Now Show" (17:30 GMT and also a podcast/download) and from Saturday the continuing "Fish Tales" series (04:45 GMT) which after the Trout last week looks at The Perch plus an oddball programme later with "Telly Savalas and Quota Quickies" in which Laurie Taylor recalls a series of 1970s B-Movies, created by the late Harold Baim, in which Hollywood star Telly Savalas waxes lyrical about the charms of certain British cities, including Birmingham, Portsmouth and Aberdeen plus in the evening "The Archive Hour" (19:00 GMT and also a podcast/download) - this week in "Kington's Last Tapes", Tony Staveacre presents highlights from conversations with his friend Miles Kington, recorded shortly before the latter's death.
Finally from the BBC we go for the World Service Documentary Archive and "The My Lai Tapes" which airs Wednesday and will then be available as a download.
RNW note: We may also update later with further suggestions from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Netherlands: In the meantime a dip into their podcasts is worth the time.
Previous Columnists:
John Gorman blog:
Hear 2.0 - Ramsey:
Insidemusicmedia- Del Colliano:
2008-04-20: Last week saw the main regulatory activity in Australia where the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced what it terms a "new approach" to its dealings with the community radio sector starting with the setting up of a new ACMA team, the Community Broadcasting Group (CBG): Elsewhere there was a steady but not high flow of activity.
The ACMA notes that Australia at the