June 2008 Archive
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- May 2008
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July 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 May comment - Playing to strengths! We suggest radio has to accept the world as it now is and play to its strengths rather than waste effort in attempts to stifle competition.
RNW April comment - Imus's demise - what can be learned from it?
RNW March comment - Considers copyright in view of increased feed for Internet broadcasters and the possibility of their introduction for terrestrial radio in the US and suggests we would benefit from different classes of copyright.
2008-06-30: Last week saw some -welcome to us - scepticism about a conversion of UK radio to digital as opposed to allowing the marketplace to decide as regards commercial radio and overall public interest when it comes to the BBC.
Under the headline "Must FM die to save digital radio?" Claudine Beaumont in the UK Daily Telegraph expressed doubt about the push for an "analogue switch-off" for radio, commenting that "Most radio listeners see little reason to replace old sets that work perfectly well " and referred to the digital-only future for radio mooted by the Digital Radio Working Group as "slightly scary."
She notes that unlike TV where a firm date has been set there was no recommendation of a definite switch-off date and argues that there is a major flaw in correlating a radio switch-off and that for TV, commenting, "Innovation in the radio market progresses at a far slower pace than in television; whereas new televisions are launched every year promising sharper pictures and compelling new features, radios do pretty much the same thing they've always done. And there's no halfway house - whereas most televisions, even old-fashioned black-and-white sets, can be fairly easily "upgraded" to handle a digital signal by plugging in a Freeview set-top box, the same doesn't hold true for radios - they are digital or they are not."
The Working Group report she says illustrates this perfectly - "while about 20 per cent of all radio listening happens in cars, very few vehicles have digital radios - and even when new cars do offer DAB radios as an optional extra, take-up is low. According to the committee, of the 34 million registered vehicles in the UK, at best just 150,000 are equipped to receive digital radio."
Beaumont does see the argument from both sides - the pressures on investment for the industry for whom broadcasting in digital and analogue is much more expensive and the pressures on the purse for consumers as well as the problems of signal coverage and robustness for digital.
After commenting on the pressures and suggestions of subsidies to encourage the purchase of digital receivers she concludes, "Whether all this is enough to revive the fortunes of a largely stagnant and unloved technology remains to be seen. By the time the industry and the Government swing into action, the entire idea of digital radio on a dedicated, single-purpose device could be laughably outdated. So, while we await the working group's final conclusions, and for the broadcasting industry to get its house in order, I will be sticking to good old FM radio on my tried and trusted tranny."
After UK digital to the US and content, courtesy of Ben Fong-Torres in the San Francisco Chronicle: In an earlier column (See RNW Columnists June 3), he had commented on the frequency with which stations played popular songs, particularly noting that "data from Mediabase, an airplay-tracking service, showed that most stations don't repeat songs as often as listeners think they do."
This prompted a number of responses that were illuminating about the behaviour and preference of listeners. James Sethian after commenting on his over-estimation of plays, wrote, "Finally, I realized that there is an ever-growing list of songs in my head that I once really liked but now resent hearing. Part of the reason is that the association of those songs with events is disappearing: hearing them over and over again becomes annoying."
"Two years ago, I got Sirius," he added, "and it was heaven - an all-Springsteen station, an all Stones. I am a big Who fan - and even that band reached overload. I remember thinking, 'I used to love it, but now I don't want to hear 'Armenia" again,' which is just absurd."
Another letter indicated a clear problem with logic -except maybe for that of the marketplace: In it Bruce Bjorkman, who has a radio show in Oregon commented, "Perception is reality! If that's what listeners believe they are hearing, then guess what? That's what they're hearing!"
He was on firmer ground when he commented, "There is so much great music that is not being played that it sickens me! I long for the days when DJs could devise their own song sets and segues ... when personalities were just that, real personalities! John Mack Flanagan, Chuck Buell, Dr. Don Rose, Bobby Ocean, etc. ...Don't defend homogenized corporate radio! Don't!"
To that latter Fong-Torres responded reasonably enough, "Hey, Bruce, I don't. But you must know that, while DJs on free-form stations like KMPX and KSAN chose their own music, Ocean and company, on Top 40, followed strict playlists, just like radio today."
Then to a combination of the US and UK courtesy of Paul Donovan's "Radio Waves" column in the UK Sunday Times.
He pegged the column on the "resurrection" of Alistair Cooke through the use of five editions of his long-running "Letter from America" series as BBC Radio 4's "Book of the Week" under the title "Cooke's Elections."
The elections involved start with the 1948 Dewey-Truman election and go on to consider Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and G.W.Bush, the last President Cooke covered before his death.
"The key person in this process<" writes Donovan, "is Justin Webb, the BBC's North America editor, who introduces all the Cooke letters this week. Though smooth, even slightly oily, in manner, Webb has guts: when he was Washington correspondent in 2006, he told an internal BBC meeting that the corporation failed to ask serious questions about why the USA is "as successful as it is, why the system it invented works. And, in the tone of what we say about America, we have a tendency to scorn and deride. We don't give America any kind of moral weight in our broadcasts". (All this is in a BBC report on impartiality, From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel, published last June.) "
Donovan also notes that amongst other programmes due on the BBC is "American Dreams is a four-part trek across the USA by James Naughtie, and his series promises a balance between America's deep problems - economic, political and military - and its "unquenchable optimism" and continues, "Which is how Cooke himself might have approached the subject: he loved his adopted country, but he never forgot its complexity."
They start with "Book of the Week" just mentioned (Radio 4 08:45 GMT) and sticking with Radio 4 go on to the "Afternoon Reading " (14:30 GMT) that this week is "SOS - Save Our Souls", a series of short stories to mark the 100th anniversary of the international distress call. The reading is followed (at 14:45 GMT) by the continuing history of astronomy "Cosmic Quest".
Next from BBC World Service we suggest last Saturday's BBC World Service "Interview" (Available as a stream or download).
This was with Juma Mohammed Al Dossary, who was held for five-and-a-half years in Guantanamo before being released without charge a year ago. Interviewed in Saudi Arabia, where he was born, he is remarkably positive about moving on to a new life rather than looking back.
Then BBC Radio 2 for Monday's "Charles Hazlewood Show" in which the classical conductor takes 'songs of innocence and experience' as his theme and the following "Marc Riley's Time Machine" which this week dipped into the BBC Archives and features The Ramones, arguably the first punk rock band, talking to Radio 1's Bob Kilbey in 1977.
Tomorrow the station begins a three-part series "The Greatest Dance Music... Records of All Time" (22:30 GMT) and on Friday it has "Hey! Bo Diddley!" the start of another three-parter, in this case presented by Roger Daltrey.
Moving to BBC Radio 3 we suggest last Sunday's "Private Passions" that featured Michael Berkeley talking to the BBC's Washington Correspondent Matt Frei and also from Sunday last week's "Drama on 3", a production of Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" and "The Sunday Feature" - "Ideas - The British Version", the first of a three part series on the origins of British intellectual traditions and their subsequent influence here and abroad.
The first programme looked at John Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration, written in 1689 at a time of Protestant persecution, and followed its influence across history and the world.
Finally from Radio 3 on Sunday we suggest "Words and Music" that last week looked at the theme of "Birth and Rebirth".
During the week we suggest a dip into "Afternoon on 3" that includes "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"-an exploration of music inspired by the seafaring and the satanic, and also "The Essay" series (Monday through Thursday 22:00 GMT) that this week looks at the beliefs at the heart of Britain's National Health Service.
And finally from BBC Radio 3 next Saturday we suggest "The Real Karajan" (in the 11:15 GMT Saturday Feature slot), a look at the Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan who was born 100 years ago this year.
RNW note: Yet again pressures have prohibited us from listening to some of the podcasts and downloads we try to pick up but fortunately some stations keep these more than a week ( A month for most of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Netherlands downloads) so we hope to catch up on some of these for our next week's columnists.
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous Fong-Torres:
San Francisco Chronicle - Fong-Torres:
UK Daily Telegraph - Beaumont:
UK Sunday Times - Donovan:
2008-06-30: Clear Channel Radio Chief Executive John Hogan has signed a new five-year contract after a year in which he was working on a day-to-day basis.
The agreement was signed on Sunday according to Reuters which says it had obtained an internal memo it in which Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark Mays said, "This management team will be on point to compete successfully against newspapers, cable, television and all of our other competitors," referring radio's ability to capture share of the advertising market.
Hogan, who was promoted from Clear Channel Radio COO to CEO in August 2002 (See RNW Aug 21, 2002) replaced Randy Michaels, who is currently Tribune Co's COO, but actually took over from Mark Mays, who had been acting CEO after Michaels was moved sideways to a post heading Clear Channel's New Technologies division (See RNW July 24, 2002).
Reuters adds that retaining Hogan is seen as a key step to shoring up company leadership after its $17.9 billion takeover by private equity funds led by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Hogan:
Previous Mark Mays:
Previous Michaels:
Reuters report:
2008-06-30: The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled in relation to two decisions that there is nothing inherently problematic with a municipal politician having a radio programmes, noting that the only formal rule in effect is that radio personalities who are candidates in an election cannot appear on-air during the campaign period.
It made its comments in relation to complaints concerning Ontario hosts Bob Bratina of "The Bob Bratina Morning Show" broadcast on CHML-AM, Hamilton, and Jack Miller's participation on the CIGL-FM, Belleville, morning show.
The two complainants felt that politicians who maintained their positions as on-air hosts while holding municipal office put them in a conflict of interest whereby they could use their positions in the media to promote their own political points of view but the CRCT Ontario Panel noted that the issue appears to relate to the unfair advantage that may accrue to an on-air individual in the midst of an election contest.
In relation to both cases the Panel concluded that the hosts had responded to issues that had already come before City Council and there was no question in either case of advocacy regarding matters "about to come before City Council."
In Miller's case complainant asserted that Miller, as a sportscaster, should not be reporting on a matter, municipal affairs, that was not his primary on-air responsibility: The panel disagreed and noted that he had a expertise on municipal matters and was as entitled to speak of that subject as he would have been to deal with stamp collecting, had that been an expertise of his.
Previous CBSC:
2008-06-30: Emmis has announced that it is dropping the current morning show line-up at its Hot 97 in New York to replace it with a new line-up that features nationally syndicated (by ABC Radio Networks) "Big Boy in the Morning": The show is to be preceded by an early edition 5am-7am local show featuring the eclectic combo of HOT 97 rising stars Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg, who have previously been on the station from 08:00 to 10:00 on Saturday and Sunday.
Emmis says Tarsha Nicole Jones who hosts the "Miss Jones in the Morning" show will exit next week after some airtime to bid farewell to her listeners: She is then due to start on Radio One's WPHI-FM (The Beat), Philadelphia, from July 7, returning to a station she left after an 18-month spell that included two suspensions and a slander lawsuit that was settled out of court.
HOT 97 Program Director Ebro Darden said of her in a news release, "Miss Jones is one of the hardest working radio people I have ever seen and she made history with HOT 97. Miss Jones will have the mic in mornings all of next week so that she is given her proper respect to tell her listeners how much she appreciates them and reminisce about how great this program has been."
Of the replacements he said, "Great talent is recognized by listeners coast to coast, and Big Boy is well known to be one of the funniest and hardest working entertainers in radio today. "Big Boy has an unmatched reputation for being entertaining...he also has great relationships with artists… Putting Big Boy on HOT 97 in New York City helps keep the high standard of radio happening for us."
Previous Emmis:
Previous Miss Jones:
2008-06-29: The main regulatory news this week was the imposition of a record GBP 1.11 million (USD 2.21 million) fine on GCap Media for offences related to a premium rate phone service competition. Another topic of interest that we noted from the regulators last week related to adverts with both the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) posting notices related to them: Elsewhere interest again centred on community stations in Australia with a steady flow of radio-related decisions from Canada.
In Australia, there was just one radio-related posting by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), a ruling that Macarthur Community Radio Association Inc, the licensee of community radio service 2MCR Campbelltown, New South Wales, breached the Community Broadcasting Codes of Practice 2002 in the way it handled a complaint made in December 2007. It also found that the station breached codes because it did not include a copy of the code with its response to the complaint and did not advise the complainant that he had the right to refer his complaint to ACMA if he was dissatisfied with the response.
The Authority took no further action, noting that the licensee had acknowledged the breaches and had not again breached the relevant code provisions.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) posted a number of radio-related decisions including the following (In order of province):
Manitoba:
*Approval of acquisition by Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. of the assets of CFEQ-FM, Winnipeg, from Kesitah Inc.
New Brunswick:
*Approval of application to add frequencies 7310 kHz, 7325 kHz and 7345 kHz to the licence of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CKCX, Sackville, for its short-wave operations. The short-wave transmitter complex at Sackville rebroadcasts the programming of Radio-Canada International and CBC North Quebec and the CBC says the frequencies would be used a few hours a day and only during certain months of the year.
Quebec:
*Conditional approval of acquisition from a Corus subsidiary by 9183-9084 Québec inc., which is controlled by the Hockey Club, Les Remparts de Québec inc., of the assets of French-language station CHRC-AM, Québec.
Corus had owned the station less than three years and the Commission noted that overall AM stations in Quebec had not been profitable in the previous five years and that in this situation the difficult and deteriorating circumstances facing this station were adversely affecting its operations, the communities it was licensed to serve, its employees and the development of the AM radio industry in Quebec. At the same time it agreed with the majority of interventions made that the proposal as submitted could not be approved and said it was "was particularly concerned that little local programming was proposed for the AM station in question, and by the lack of reflection of the community it served" - the applicant is proposing to broadcast sports and cultural programming plus news-based information programming including open-line programmes and had said at a hearing that announcers would discuss local news, primarily through comments by announcers on news in local newspapers and on other stations, during some programmes but would not offer newscasts.
It therefore decided to issue a new short-term licence running to August next year for the station together with a requirement that the new owners place on record the Canadian content development (CCD) it intends to make and also to require filing within 30 days "a new local programming proposal that is acceptable to the Commission and that includes maintaining the station's information service so as to ensure that the station offers a newscast." The buyer also has to file a "report detailing how it intends to incorporate, into its local programming, spoken word programming of direct and particular relevance to the community being served" and also a "a report describing the action that has been taken in order to find an acceptable solution with the Syndicat des employés de CHRC and thus avoid the loss of journalism at the station. "
It noted that Corus had tried unsuccessfully to turn the station around financially and had cumulative pre-tax losses of more than CAD 1.9 million (USD 1.9 million) since the end of May 2005 and that the value of the transaction was estimated at CAD 282,000 made up of station net assets of CAD 257,000 and land valued at CAD 25,000.
*Approval of acquisition by Radio communautaire de Windsor et region inc. of the assets of community station CIAX-FM, Windsor, from Carrefour jeunesse-emploi comté Johnson. The CRTC noted that the transaction will formalize CIAX-FM's situation by transferring the undertaking's licence to the organization that controls it. Both parties involved have agreed that the transaction would have no financial implications.
*Approval of acquisition by the Coopérative des travailleurs CHNC of assets of CHNC-AM, New Carlisle, and its transmitter CHGM-AM, Gaspé: The CRTC notes that this transaction will not affect the effective control of CHGM Gaspé, which will continue to be exercised by la Coopérative's board of directors.
The CRTC also posted a public notice with a deadline for the submission of interventions or comments that included the following radio-related matters:
Quebec:
*Application by Coopérative de travail de la radio de Granby to increase the power of French-language commercial station CFXM-FM, Granby, from 200 watts to 1,184 watts, change channels, relocate its transmitter and increase the effective antenna height
*Application by Carl Gilbert, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated (OBCI), to use 103.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 6,000 watts for a new French-language commercial FM approved for Saguenay (zone La Baie) in March last year subject to finding a suitable alternative frequency to that originally applied for.
*Application by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to add a 5,460 watts FM transmitter at Saint-Donat to broadcast La Première Chaîne programming originating from CBF-FM, Montréal.
In Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) did not post any radio decisions as such although it congratulated Clare FM on winning the 2008 "Gradam Gaeilge an Chláir" award under a scheme, now in its fourth year, that is specifically directed at companies and organisations in the commercial sector who do the most to promote the use of Irish both internally and externally.
The award was presented to Clare FM Managing Director Liam O'Shea at an awards ceremony organised by An Clár as Gaeilge Teo, the language promotion group.
BCI chief executive Michael O'Keeffe commented, "We wish to congratulate Clare FM on winning this award which was presented to the station in recognition of the way it integrated the use of Irish throughout its daily programming. It is wonderful to see a local radio station promoting the Irish language and developing the use of Irish in its schedule in this manner."
The BCI also announced details of the seventh funding round of its Sound & Vision Broadcasting Funding Scheme for radio and is inviting applications from programme makers for funding for new radio programmes dealing with the themes of Irish culture, heritage and experience, and such programmes in the Irish language.
In addition it was involved as already noted in issues of advertising and posted its new General Advertising Code Information Resource and E-Learning Tool. This is says offers an "E-learning Course, ideal for induction, refresher and training purposes, as well as a Code Information Resource for an easy to access, interactive version of the code with guidance Interactive Code notes and case studies."
In the UK, Ofcom has imposed its largest-ever fine on a radio broadcaster with a GBP 1.1 million (USD 2.2 million) penalty on GCap Media in connection with a premium-line phone competition (See RNW Jun 26) and also posted its latest broadcast bulletin in which it upheld two radio standards complaints (Also RNW Jun 26).
In Wales, it awarded the new digital multiplex licence for North Wales to MuxCo North Wales Limited, the sole applicant, whose shareholders are Town and Country Broadcasting Limited (70%)
MuxCo Ltd (30%). Being proposed are six services in addition to BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru (See RNW May 24): Muxco Wales had previously been awarded the Mid Wales digital multiplex (See RNW Mar 19)
Ofcom also announced that David (Lord) Currie is to step down as its chairman after next Easter: His post is to be advertised in September this year (See RNW Jun 26) and posted its 2007-08 Annual Report.
This 99 page-report shows the agency to have carried out 55 consultations in the year - most -22- related to spectrum; 19 to telecoms and 12 relating to broadcasting - and to have closed a total of 12,726 cases relating to broadcasting complaints and to have reached decisions on a total of 67,742 programme complaints, of which 67,548 were complaints about programme standards.
Within the total 135 cases were found to be partially in breach/in breach either of the Broadcasting Code or of licence conditions (accounting for 45,228 complaints including those about Celebrity Big Brother) and of these, 11 cases resulted in sanctions against nine broadcasters.
Ofcom noted that it did not meet its performance targets in this area, due principally to the handling of an unprecedented number of sanctions and complex cases (in particular, relating to the use of premium rate services (PRS) in programmes).
In terms of Broadcasting - Fairness And Privacy complaints it closed 194 cases, 27 of these going consideration of its Fairness Committee with 14 being upheld, 13 of them partially.
Ofcom also reported an increase in its total operating expenditure for the year of GBP 8.8 million (USD 17.6 million), which it put down amongst other things to an increase in average employee numbers, pay increases in line with inflation and also an accrual for sabbaticals compensated by a release of National Insurance accrual from previous year that led to a net increase of GBP 5 million (USD 10 million) in staff costs.
On an adjusted cash basis it said its actual operating expenditure in the year was GBP 130 million (USD 259.3 million), up from GBP 129.4 million (USD 258.1 million) in 2006-7, a total GBP 200,000 (USD 399,000) below budget.
Regarding broadcast radio plans, chief executive Ed Richards comments in his annual report that Ofcom would "implement a new regime for the regulation of analogue commercial radio stations'
Formats" and added, "We will also contribute fully to the cross-industry Digital Radio Working Group, which is examining the future digital options for radio broadcasters."
Ofcom also commented of broadcast radio that it "faces significant challenges, including competition from other technologies such as the internet, as well as increased listening
on digital platforms that puts greater pressure on local analogue stations" and noted reforms that it had made: It also noted that its research showed that "when it comes to key local information
such as travel, weather and news, listeners use radio as the default medium. They were also concerned that quality would suffer if this content were not made and delivered locally" and added, "We therefore proposed that all FM local radio stations should provide at least ten hours of locally made programming each weekday, and four hours on weekends. But to assist flexibility, smaller stations would be able to share a large proportion of this programming (outside breakfast)
with other nearby stations."
In the US the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a call for comment on what it terms "the relationship between the Commission's sponsorship identification rules and increasing industry reliance on embedded advertising techniques" noting that, partly because of "technological changes that allow consumers to more readily bypass commercial content, content providers may be turning to more subtle and sophisticated means of incorporating commercial messages into traditional programming."
The call is made mainly in relation to TV but the FCC comments in terms of all broadcasts, saying, "As these techniques become increasingly prevalent, it is important that the sponsorship identification rules protect the public's right to know who is paying to air commercials or other program matter on broadcast television and radio and cable."
FCC chairman Kevin J Martin commented of the proposal, "I believe it is important for consumers to know when someone is trying to sell them something. That is why, at our media ownership hearing in September of 2007, I called on my colleagues to adopt this Notice, which seeks comment on the relationship between the Commission's sponsorship identification rules and increasing industry reliance on embedded advertising techniques."
Comments were also issued by the two Democrat Commissioners with Michael J. Copps commenting specifically on TV where "is difficult to watch television and not be struck by the amount of product placement" and adding "the NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) section tees up certain key issues on which we can move directly to rules-such as whether and how to make sponsorship identification more obvious to consumers, and rules regarding embedded advertising in children's programming. "
His colleague Jonathan S. Adelstein added that the NPRM "addresses concerns at the heart of my Agenda to Protect American Children and Families, specifically whether our current rules governing commercials in children's programming need to be updated to adequately protect children from embedded advertising" and also commented, "The true reality is that news and entertainment alike are practically being turned into undisclosed commercials."
He also commented, "Many current practices make a mockery of our regulatory requirement that consumers have a right to "full and fair" disclosure" and said, "Such inadequate disclosure is bad for content, democracy, and our children's health. When viewers cannot distinguish content from advertising, the market check on content quality fails, and we see a race to the bottom where television shows become program-length infomercials. "
RNW note: We regret other demands mean we will have to update later other Federal Communications Commission (FCC) postings - including a number of enforcement actions and decisions on disputed licences.
Previous ACMA:
Previous Adelstein:
Previous BCI:
Previous Copps:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous Martin:
Previous Muxco:
Previous Ofcom:
Previous O'Keeffe:
Previous Richards:
ACMA web site:
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
Ofcom web site:
Ofcom Annual Report (2.05 Mb 99 Page PDF):
2008-06-28: Canada's Supreme Court has cleared former Vancouver talk host Rafe Mair of libel in relation to comments he made in relation to the 1997 Surrey School same sex book controversy in which a teacher in a British Columbia school was refused permission to use three books in which families were of the same sex.
The ban itself was eventually overturned by Canada's Supreme Court in a 2002 ruling which held that a local school board could not impose religious values by refusing to allow use of books that sought to promote tolerance of same-sex relationships and Mair in a commentary on CKNW-AM had referred in comments about Kari Simpson, the then executive director of the Citizens Research Institute, to the Klu Klux Klan, the Nazis , and Adolf Hitler, leading Simpson, one of the leading lights in the fight to ban the books, to sue for libel in 1999.
At a first court hearing the judge ruled that Mair's comments could be taken as implying that Simpson condoned violence but awarded no damages against Mair because the host held an honest belief in the views he expressed.
This decision was overturned by the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which ruled that Mair and WIC Radio, the then owner of the station (Corus purchased it in 2000), had not produced an adequate defence.
The station appealed to Canada's Supreme Court, which has held in a 9-0 judgement that Mair was making fair comment.
The Canadian Press quoted Justice Ian Binnie as saying in his comments, "In my view, with respect, the court of appeal unduly favoured protection of Kari Simpson's reputation in a rancorous public debate in which she had involved herself as a major protagonist " and adding that there was no proof that Mair's comment was motivated by personal malice so that his "expression of opinion, however, exaggerated, was protected by the law… We live in a free country where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones."
It also quoted Mair as saying he was glad the station appealed the case and adding, "This could be an enormous benefit to the journalism industry and therefore, to the people that read and watch it… I've always felt that I was doing a work-for-life job, and not showing malice to any."
Previous Mair:
Canadian Press report:
2008-06-27: The BBC has appointed Tim Davie , currently director of the its Marketing, Communications and Audiences division, as Director of BBC Audio & Music to take over from Jenny Abramsky who is leaving the corporation after 39 years at the end of September and will chair the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
In his new role Davie will oversee BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Live and the BBC digital radio stations 1Xtra, 6 Music, BBC 7, 5 Live Sports Extra and the Asian Network and will also take charge of Radio Drama, Television Music Entertainment and will be strategically responsible for all audio across the BBC.
Davie moved to the BBC to take up his current role in April 2005 before which he had been Vice President, Marketing and Franchise of PepsiCo Europe. His appointment to the new role is the first time someone with a marketing background has been appointed by the BBC to so key a role with programming responsibilities and he will have control of a budget of some GBP 200 million ( USD 400 million). In the current role he has been heavily involved in the development of the BBC iPlayer broadband service for both radio and TV and he is also a director of Freeview, the UK terrestrial digital platform; of Digital UK, the body set up to oversee the switch of TV to digital; and is one of a four-strong board for Freesat, the free-to-air digital satellite joint venture with ITV.
He commented of his appointment, "It is a great privilege to build on the outstanding legacy of Jenny Abramsky and take on the leadership of a very talented team. This is a special role because of the unique cultural contribution of the BBC's audio and music output, which is highly valued by millions of people. As a passionate advocate of radio, I am excited by the challenge of continuing to deliver not only distinctive BBC services but also to support the growth of the medium as a whole across traditional and digital platforms."
Abramsky said, "Radio is at the very heart of the BBC's public service offering and music stands at the pinnacle of its contribution to the UK's cultural life. I have no doubt, having worked alongside Tim on the executive board for the last three years, that he will lead Audio & Music with passion and understanding and that radio and music will be in very safe hands."
BBC Director General Mark Thompson added of the appointment, "Radio is at the heart of the BBC's public service mission and millions of listeners rely on its quality, range and integrity every day. Tim's drive, knowledge and sheer love of the medium will ensure that BBC radio remains creatively strong and vibrant in the years to come. His insight into audiences and their expectations of the BBC will be particularly valuable."
Previous Abramsky:
Previous BBC:
Previous Thompson:
2008-06-27: XM Satellite Radio in a move related to delays in approving its merger with Sirius has borrowed USD 100 million and also extended its contract with chairman Gary Parsons from its scheduled ending next Monday (June 30) to November 18 next year.
Parsons base salary last year was USD 495,593 out of total remuneration of USD 5.94 million.
In an 8K filing disclosing the moves, XM said that is to use a "portion" of the new loan from USB AG towards repaying its USD 150 million credit facility from GM Corporation and notes that the new loan as did the previous one "contains a financial covenant that requires XM to maintain a level of cash and cash equivalents from time to time of either USD 50 million or USD 75 million."
Previous Parsons:
Previous XM:
2008-06-27: The US House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property has passed The Performance Rights Act that would introduce performance royalties for music aired by US terrestrial radio stations prompting a response by US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) EVP Dennis Wharton that it was a "complete non-surprise, given the House IP Subcommittee's history of support for the RIAA-backed tax on local radio stations."
Wharton added, "Despite today's action, there remains broad bipartisan resistance to the RIAA tax from members of Congress who question whether a punitive fee on America's hometown radio stations should be used to bail out the failing business model of foreign-owned record labels."
The NAB has backed the Local Radio Freedom Act, a non-binding resolution saying Congress should not impose "any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings" on broadcast radio, that it said earlier this week now has the support of a majority of the House (See RNW Jun ).
It was introduced last year by Texas Republican Mike Conaway and Texan Democrat Gene Green who have circulated a letter asking for more support for its resolution. The letter, which adopts the NAB's propaganda mangling of language by using the term "tax" for the charge, was posted by NAB as a PDF: It says in part, "Local radio and artists have a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties. A 'performance tax' that would require local radio stations to pay a fee to the recording industry every time a song is played would destroy this relationship and inhibit upcoming artists."
The NAB has also again run advertisements urging Congress to reject the introduction of performance royalties featuring a duck, this time with a suitcase under its wing on which are stickers saying "Universal -France", "EMI - England" and "Sony - Japan" below which is the headline, "First the record labels said it wasn't a tax ... Now they aren't telling you the money migrates overseas."
The ad continues, "The recording industry is asking members of Congress to force local radio stations in their district to subsidize the outdated business model of giant international conglomerates. While three of the four major record labels are located outside the U.S., free, local radio stations are the lifeblood of towns and communities right here in our country -- delivering vital local news, weather and emergency information to your constituents."
"Local radio stations," it adds have been the driving force behind music sales in this country for years. In fact economists estimate radio provides anywhere from USD 1.5 to USD 2.4 billion dollars each year in free promotion for artists and their labels.
"Don't let the recording industry hurt local radio stations just to put money in the hands of big international companies."
Previous NAB:
Previous Wharton:
2008-06-27: Entravision has announced the promotion of Russell Sakamoto, most recently its Corporate Controller, to Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer.
Sakamoto jointed Entravision in 1988 prior to which he had been with Nestle USA and McGladrey & Pullen, LLP.
At Triton Media Networks, which has just bought Jones Media Networks (See RNW Jun 20) veteran programmer Beau Phillips has joined its Dial Global subsidiary as executive VP of programming: Following the purchase Jones Media America is being combined with Dial Global and Phillips will oversee Dial Global's 24-hour formats, programs and services.
Dial Global Programming president Kirk Stirland commented in a release, "With Dial Global's acquisition of Jones Radio Networks last week, our depth of programming is greatly expanded. Beau will focus on making our programs and services best-of-breed and set them up so both our affiliates and our sponsors can benefit."
Dial Global has also appointed Jones Media America veteran Marty Damin, who has been with Jones for 15 years the last three as director of its sports sales, as its VP of Sports sales.
Previous Entravision:
Previous Triton Media/Dial Global:
2008-06-26: UK Media regulator Ofcom has fined GCap Media a record radio fine total of GBP 1.11 million (USD 2. 21 million) for breach of its rules relating to unfair conduct of competitions. The ruling involved 30 GCap stations - a penalty of GBP 37,000 (USD 74,000) a station - and an Ofcom investigation found that on a number of occasions programme makers deliberately put to air text entrants with incorrect answers in order to prevent the prize from being won too soon, thus meaning listeners who had paid to enter the competition on these occasions had no chance of winning.
The problem with premium rate lines had already led Ofcom in May this year to fine commercial broadcaster ITV GBP 5.68 million ( USD 11.19 million) for its abuse of premium rate phone lines in a number of programmes.
The investigation into the Secret Sound four-week premium rate service listener competition was launched after a whistleblower complained to PhonepayPlus alleging that GCap had deliberately selected entrants with wrong answers to participate in the competition on air. In all according to Ofcom a total of 297,215 entries were made to Secret Sound, generating total revenue of GBP 104,536 (USD 206,000) - the cost to the participants was higher because of operator charges - of which GCap received 41%.
PhonepayPlus in July last year recorded a breach of its Code of Practice against GCap for misleading its listeners and fined it GBP 17,500 (USD 35,000) and gave it a formal reprimand. PhonepayPlus then referred the case to Ofcom.
Ofcom in the ruling said the breaches were "extremely serious" noted that "this practice had been agreed in advance at a programme team meeting by a "Director" [GCap described the person as a "mid-ranking employee" and not a member of its senior management], who had operational responsibility for the content and production of network syndicated programmes. "
It also commented that "At the time that GCap became aware of the unfair conduct, its own investigation into the matter did not appear to Ofcom to have been either thorough or extensive" and said of a statement posted on the company's web site some four months later that it was "extremely concerned about the manner in which GCap had announced the compliance failures in this corporate statement."
"For GCap to describe this deliberate and repeated unfair conduct as 'an isolated
Incident' and a 'system error'," said Ofcom, "was fundamentally misleading and inaccurate and represented, in Ofcom's view, an inept attempt at 'news management' on GCap's part. The fact that GCap's Board had authorised the wording of this statement, and its publication on GCap's corporate website, was a matter of serious concern … The same statement had included an offer of refunds to any listeners who had entered the Secret Sound competition. The decision not to broadcast details of this refund offer on the participating stations, or even to publish these details on the stations' websites where listeners would have been more likely to see them, but instead to publish the statement only on GCap's corporate website was, in Ofcom's view, wholly inadequate, as evidenced by the single refund to a listener of GBP 2 (USD 3)"
It also noted that "It was a matter of serious concern to the Committee that this was the first case of its kind in which the behaviour of the licensee (or as in this case, the parent company acting on behalf of the licensees) had effectively hindered Ofcom's investigation. The Committee considered that GCap did not co-operate with Ofcom's investigation in a manner that it would expect from its licensees. In light of this, the Committee was firmly of the view that this conduct should be considered as a factor tending to increase, rather than decrease, the level of penalty."
In its comments to the Sanctions hearing, GCap said it considered the unfair conduct of Secret Sound to have been "totally unacceptable" and added that it was committed to ensuring that it was not repeated.
It also said it had compliance measures in place at the time of the conduct, although these had proved to be inadequate and that it had, at the time, considered that its compliance procedures were well understood by its staff: The unfair conduct, it said, was a serious error of judgement on the part of those involved, but also admitted that GCap's senior management had not supervised sufficiently well on the matter."
GCap was taken over by Global Radio in a GBP 375 million (USD 730 million) that closed on June 6: It said in a statement that since the competition ran it had been involved in two senior management changes as well as the change of ownership but that it took the ruling "extremely seriously."
It added: "The new management and owners look forward to building a strong future for the commercial radio industry where the trust of its listeners and of its regulator is of the highest importance. "To that end the new management are already putting in place new measures to build on the already improved controls implemented at GCap and the company has not run premium rate competitions of this kind for the last 12 months."
Ofcom has also posted its latest Broadcast Bulletin in which it upheld two radio standards complaints and considered another resolved through action taken by the broadcaster: It also upheld six TV standards complaints and posted details of two TV Fairness and Privacy complaints not upheld.
The numbers compare with a finding in its last bulletin that GCap Media's Ocean FM was operating outside its format and the upholding of two TV standards complaints plus a TV Fairness and Privacy Complaint with another TV standards complaint partly upheld and the posting of four fairness and privacy complaints - two each for radio and TV - that were not upheld.
The radio complaints upheld involved "The Bush and Troy Show" on GWR 96.3 FM (Bristol and Bath) and "Thunder Crew link" on Mercia FM (Coventry & Warwickshire): In the first case two listeners had complained to Ofcom that attempts to mask out the words "fucking" and "motherfucker" in a promotion with the line "Easter bunny here. If you laugh at my big teeth again, I'll knock yours out. Happy f (*) cking Easter, you fat motherf (*) cker"." But that this was only partial making it obvious what the words being masked were.
GCap Media had apologized for inclusion of the promotion in the breakfast show and said that the incident occurred because the presenters believed 'bleeping out' the expletives would be sufficient to comply with the Code.
It added that the material was not checked by the programme's producer or the production team before it went on air because GWR's editorial resources were "considerably stretched" by a marketing promotion it was involved in and that as soon as the station became aware of the material it was immediately taken off air.
Ofcom in its decision commented "The masking of the words in fact resulted in the unwelcome effect of drawing listeners' attention to the terms" and termed the broadcast of the expletives a "clear misjudgement and failure of compliance."
Regarding Mercia FM, a listener had complained about what he considered "continuous plugs" in programming. GCap had responded by saying that "…this case arose from an overly zealous Thunder Co-ordinator who was relatively new and naively thought he was being creative in how he set up the audio link" and apologized for the broadcast, adding that it had taken appropriate steps to explain the code to all the "Thunder Co-ordinators employed by Mercia FM".
Ofcom ruled that mentions of a car in the programme were promotions that were not editorially justified.
In an Xfm case that was considered resolved a listener had complained about the use of the words "shit" and "motherfucker" in a song played in early evening. GCap, who owned the station, said that human error had resulted in the wrong version of the song being aired and that when the matter came to light the edited version was loaded into its system to prevent recurrence. It also noted that Xfm itself had received no complaints about the incident.
In considering the matter resolved Ofcom said it took into account measures taken by the broadcaster and the fact that the language was broadcast as a result of human error. It also noted that Xfm was a "niche station aimed at a predominantly adult audience and at a time when RAJAR figures typically indicate no children are listening to this show."
Ofcom also listed without details 283 TV complaints against 128 items - 53 against one programme - and 28 radio complaints against 19 items - that it did not uphold or were considered out of its remit: This compares with 2929 TV complaints against 128 items - 2731 against one programme - and 52 radio complaints against 21 items - 27 against one Radio Scotland programme that it did not uphold or were considered out of its remit in the previous bulletin.
Previous GCap Media:
Previous Global Radio:
Previous Ofcom:
Previous Ofcom Complaints Bulletin:
Ofcom ruling (177kb 29 page PDF):
2008-06-26: BBC World Service is to close down its Romanian-language service, the last non-English language service it provides for EU member states, on August 1 with a loss of 46 jobs - 30 in Bucharest in Romania; four in Chisinau in Moldova and 12 in London: The closure will produce an annual saving of GBP 1.3 million (USD 2.56 million) a year and will also end Romanian-language services to the Republic of Moldova that rely on the Romanian service's infrastructure.
The BBC notes that the closure has been endorsed by the BBC Trust and the FCO and that the decision was made in the context of a review of language services after overall funding levels were agreed with the UK government in October last year: These increased resources for new projects such as TV services for BBC Arabic and Persian but also imposed a savings target of around 3% a year.
The change in emphasis had already led to a number of language service closures - in October 2005 it announced the closure of ten language services - Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai - under wide ranging changes that included the launch of an Arabic TV channel (See RNW Oct 26, 2005), then retaining Albanian, Macedonian, Romanian and Serbian services. The BBC says the Romanian service closure will be the only one during the current funding period.
The BBC notes that mergers had meant that several FM partners that had carried the Romanian service had dropped it with the result that the audience fell to below 3% of the radio audience in Romania and that its limited number of FM relays could not counter the loss. The service says that it plans to retain its four local FM relays in Romania and one in Moldova, which currently carry English and Romanian services, to carry English services - plus Russian and Ukrainian in Moldova, subject to approval by local regulators.
The service was launched in September 1939 and BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman said in a release, "Like the other European services we closed three years ago, BBC Romanian had its roots in the Second World War. It has served its audiences with distinction through the Communist era to the present day."
He added, "The contribution of all BBC Romanian staff has been immense: serving Romanians with innovation and commitment for 68 years. The quality of the current output is of the highest standard. But Europe has changed, fundamentally, since the early nineties; and with the rapidly declining audiences in Romania we can no longer justify continuing the service."
Previous BBC:
Previous Chapman:
2008-06-26: Arbitron in response to a letter sent by a group of six broadcasters expressing their concerns about its Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings service (See RNW Jun 24) has defended itself in terms of the sample targets for the 18-34 and 18-54 demographics, a matter on which it says it has "made substantial progress since November, building on what was already a statistically sound base," and adding that it is "consistently delivering in excess of our benchmarks and targets in a number of markets and demos."
The response in an e-mail from CEO Steve Morris also notes of complaints about a perceived reluctance by Arbitron to re-allocate meters from children 6-11 to those above 12 that it had "already agreed with our Advisory Council to present additional proposals regarding higher benchmarks and options for re-allocating children 6-11 samples at the upcoming July meeting" and added, "We look forward to that discussion and trust that your Council member will represent your company's point of view.
Morris says Arbitron remains committed to obtaining Media Rating Council accreditation and thanks those who wrote for their "continued attention to the quality of our radio rating services."
"I would very much like to hear from you directly on these issues, so I will be calling to follow up this note," he says. "While much progress has been made, we welcome a continuing and important dialogue as we move ahead with electronic measurement."
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Media Rating Council:
Previous Morris:
2008-06-26: UK media regulator Ofcom has announced that David (Lord) Currie is to step down as its chairman after next Easter: His post is to be advertised in September this year.
Currie, who has been chairman of the organization since it was formed from a merger of predecessor organizations in 2003, said he looked forward to "working with Ofcom well into 2009 on such crucial matters as the development of policy on public service broadcasting, [next generation broadband access] and consumer protection.
Before he joined Ofcom Currie, who sits in the House of Lords as Lord Currie of Marylebone, was professor of economics and deputy dean at the London Business School and he has also been dean of Cass Business School at City University, chairman of Trillium Investment Partners, and on the board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ofcom also announced that Philip Graf has been re-appointed deputy chairman of Ofcom and chairman of the Ofcom content board for a further three years to December 31 2011 and that competition partner Stuart McIntosh and strategy and market developments partner Peter Phillips will become executive board members from July 1.
Previous Currie:
Previous Ofcom:
2008-06-25: The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is now claiming the support of a majority of the US House of Representatives to proposals to for a bill to bar the introduction of a performance royalty charge - NAB terms it a "tax" - for music aired on US terrestrial radio stations.
Announcing that a further four members of the 435-member House had expressed support for The Local Radio Freedom Act - taking the total to 219, NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said in a release that the announcement "sends a powerful message to foreign-owned record labels that Congress is not falling for their bogus campaign to blame local radio stations for their financial woes."
He added, "NAB thanks those members of Congress who appreciate the fact that free radio airplay of music generates untold millions into the wallets of performers and record labels. We will continue to educate policymakers on the devastating impact this RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) tax would have on America's hometown radio stations."
RNW comment: Yet again we feel impelled to comment on the despicable way in which the NAB is organising lobbying on this matter and contempt for those members of Congress who have supported the Local Radio Freedom Act, which opposes the introduction of royalties, without adding some caveats about the NAB's language.
The issue as a matter of accurate use of language is not one of a tax; we doubt that the NAB would approve charges were the labels, as most of them used to be, American-owned which makes use of the "foreign-owned" tag contemptible; and the impact would only be devastating if royalties were set at a high level, a matter concerning which NAB could legitimately voice opposition.
We wonder, did US law not forbid foreign ownership of broadcasters (unlike that of many other countries that allow foreign ownership), whether many broadcasters would also be foreign-owned and if so if NAB would stick to its petty-American labels.
Previous NAB:
Previous Wharton:
2008-06-25: Following criticism of remarks he made about Dallas Cowboys player Adam "Pacman" Jones (See RNW Jun 24), Citadel syndicated host Don Imus defended himself on his show on Tuesday, saying that what he was actually doing was making a point about the unfair effect of racial profiling on African Americans.
Imus said that when he asked about Jones' colour, "Obviously I already knew what colour he was. The point was to make a sarcastic point."
He continued, "What people should be outraged about is they arrest blacks for no reason. There's no reason to arrest this kid six times, maybe he did something once, but I mean everybody does something once."
In a statement posted on his National Action Network lobby group web site civil rights campaigner the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement, "It has been reported to me that statements were made by Mr. Imus this morning and National Action Network has monitored his show since his return. I find the inference of his remark disturbing because it plays into stereotypes. Any use of stereotypes is always counterproductive. We will determine in the next day or so whether or not his remark warrants direct action on our part as we did in April of last year."
Previous Citadel:
Previous Imus:
National Action Network web site:
2008-06-25: Triton Media including its newly acquired Jones Media Networks (See RNW Jun 20) was the prime winner in the RADAR 97 (Radio's All Dimension Audience Research) Radio Network Audience rankings just released by Arbitron covering the period April 5, 2007 to April 2, 2008.
Its Jones MAI Adult Power retained number one network ranking and it had four other networks in the top ten including the Dial-Global Contemporary Network that moved up to second, overtaking the ABC Daytime network, plus the Dial-Global Complete FM Network (4th), Dial Global News & Information Network (7th), and Jones MAI Female Perspective (9th).
The top five networks in the survey were:
1 - Jones MAI Adult Power which gained 29,000 listeners to end with an average audience of 6.710 million and an average rating unchanged at 2.6%
2- Dial-Global Contemporary Network, which gained 629,000 listeners and moved up from third with an average audience of 6.438 million and an average rating up from 2.3% to 2.5%
3 -Citadel-owned ABC Daytime Direction Network, which lost 296,000 listeners and fell from second to third with an average audience of 6.163 million and an average rating down from 2.5% to 2.4%
4 - Dial Global Complete FM Network, which gained 186,000 listeners to end with an average audience of 5.764 million and an average rating up from 2.2% to 2.3%
5- Westwood WON I Network, which lost 43,000 listeners to end with an average audience of 5.452 million and an average rating unchanged at 2.2%
*Premiere Networks highest ranked offering is the Premiere Morning Drive Network in tenth rank with an average audience of 4.015 million and an average rating of 1.6%
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Citadel (Formerly Disney)/ABC, America:
Previous Premiere Networks:
Previous RADAR & RADAR ratings (RADAR 96):
Previous Triton:
Previous Westwood One:
2008-06-25: As forecast (See RNW Jun 23), Clear Channel's Q102, which dropped local host Chris Booker a month ago has replaced his morning show with the syndicated "Elvis Duran & the Morning Show".
Duran, who was previously on-air at on-air at WIOQ-FM in Philadelphia and its program director from May 1989 until just before he was fired in February 1990, will be joined by 102 mainstay Diego, who will remain based in Philadelphia whilst Elvis remains in New York.
His show on Z100 is already syndicated to WHYI (Y100) in Miami/Ft Lauderdale, and WHCY ("Max 106.3") whose signal covers in northern New Jersey and north-eastern Pennsylvania.
Previous Clear Channel:
2008-06-25: SMG has announced plans to change its name to stv Group plc following the sale of its outdoor and Virgin Radio operations and also a new "digital strategy" based around its website - stv.tv, saying it is "building a world class platform featuring top quality network and regional programming, which will be promoted to an available audience of 4 million viewers via the stv television channel."
The plans were outlined at an analysts' event in Glasgow by stv's Head of New Media Alistair Brown, who said the company is "preparing the business for the future by building a first rate digital team in sales, editorial and web development, with the aim of becoming Scotland's essential online source of information and entertainment."
The site will offer a video service to launch later this summer that stv says "will deliver a high quality flash based user experience and chief executive Rob Woodward commented, "In the same way that stv delivers broadcast services to the people of Scotland, stv.tv will deliver digital services to the people of Scotland. "
SMG also said that its trading continues in line with its AGM guidance last month but that in addition, as a result of our tax planning, the Board believes that the Group will gain a cash benefit of GBP 10 million (USD 19.7 million) across the period 2008 to 2011.
Previous SMG:
Previous Woodward:
2008-06-24: This week, for fairly obvious reasons in view of comments by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin J. Martin that he was now in favour of it, the Sirius-XM merger attracted considerable US print comment with much of it, now that approval is more likely, in opposition.
Amongst these was an article by Paul Farhi in the Washington Post, which ended by asking, "Is it really in the public interest for the FCC to foster yet another media flight from quality and diversity? "and answering,, "The right move -- both to protect consumers and to position the satellite companies for the intense competition in the next phase of the great media shakeout -- is to force XM and Sirius to enter the new world not fat and happy but lean and hungry."
Before that Farhi had gone through the by-now well disseminated pros and cons in terms of whether satellite radio competes in its own market or against a multitude of other sources of audio from terrestrial radio to Internet offerings.
Farhi separates out in his argument programming and technology - he terms satellite radio "an interim technology, hardly likely to survive far into the next decade" and asks, "Once Internet radio is available simply and cheaply in Americans' cars, offering an infinite universe of audio programming, why would consumers want to buy a separate radio, antenna and wiring to pull in XM-Sirius?".
The latter he suggests would be moved onto the web to fight it out with material offered by such other organizations as "Clear Channel, Pandora, CBS, NPR, BBC, local radio stations and news organizations around the globe" and in this context he asks why they are so special "that the government should grant them a competitive advantage in that marketplace" by providing them for the battle ahead.
He also went back "to the original promises XM and Sirius made and found fabulous lists of programs in many languages, with half a dozen genres of classical music, pop sounds from every corner of the planet, live radio dramas, high-end scientific and academic debate, and all manner of other esoteric and minority fare" and reflected what reality did to this vision - "Millions of Americans proved to be dissatisfied enough with AM and FM radio to pay $13 a month for 150 channels of music, news and talk. But what did they listen to on their new toy? The top pop hits, country, oldies, hip-hop, Howard Stern, baseball, news headlines, and traffic and weather reports."
And in that context he has a somewhat gloomy message for minority interests in the future competition against the giants- "The history of media teaches us that big businesses in that position reach for mass-appeal content."
Also opposing the merger, this time from the perspective of a terrestrial broadcaster purportedly also arguing for artists was Bayard H. "Bud" Walters, president of Cromwell Group Inc. who responded in the Tennessean to a previous op-ed in favour from Tim DuBois and Butch Spyridon (See last week's Columnists).
Walters makes his argument on various grounds - that "losing money" as both Sirius and XM are is not a reason to allow a merger - he comments of this "All it does is bail out Wall Street and reduce competition. If we want one satellite company nationwide, let one of them fail. The Federal Communications Commission can then recover the spectrum and make it available to others."
He then argues that part of the reason for the loss is that the two companies have had to compete for talent and programming asking, "How did Howard Stern get such a high price from Sirius? Sirius did not want XM to have him. If they were one company, would Howard or any other talent have any leverage in negotiating?"
Regarding artists and writers he says they "know too well the power of big music companies - and what mergers have done to or for them" and asks, "How does it follow that an XM-Sirius merger would be good for them?"
As for competition he argues that terrestrial stations compete for listeners on a local level but satellite on a national level and comments of a post-merger situation, "It is wishful thinking to believe that in an XM-Sirius monopoly will be altruistic or even fair. That has not been the history of their past performance and can be expected to be less so if allowed to merge."
Amongst the reactions, one subscriber Rickyc summed up fairly concisely his fears when he wrote: "…. I view this issue only in one context; as an XM subscriber, what happens to me when Sirius merges and is no longer an option. Probably, the XM price goes up and choice goes down…"
In another commentary in the Indianapolis Star, Jeffrey M. McCall, professor of communications at DePauw University, did not think approval was a done deal and does not favour it, commenting, "A merger amounts to a government bailout. XM and Sirius spent big money on high-priced celebrities and got little subscriber growth for the effort. Oprah is in the midst of a three-year, $55 million deal with XM. Howard Stern gets $100 million a year from Sirius."
He concludes, "It is sad to see the once-promising satellite radio industry in such a state. The industry provides great content for music lovers, sports fans and others, but a merger of two under-performing companies won't necessarily help from the engineering or business side of things, and will create an anti-competitive environment that makes consumers vulnerable to price hikes."
Finally comment from a different perspective, from the Wall Street Journal in the form of a blog by Heidi N. Moore headed with some élan, "XM and Sirius Get Downgraded. Yippee!"
The comment is made on the basis of a downgrading of the companies by Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes, who "painted a dire picture of the competitive landscape for the two broadcasters. He said put the value of Sirius shares at only USD 1 each if the merger doesn't occur", something Moore sees as potentially likely to improve the changes of approval.
The responses to the blog were generally positive about satellite radio with a number of people praising the service and attacking the analyst.
Finally some signs of US-style consolidation in British radio as reported by James Ashton in the UK Sunday Times. He starts by citing the experience of DJ Keri Jones who has "visited the Welsh town of Llanelli only six times in his life" but for two years "presented a marathon, seven-hour breakfast show for Scarlet FM, Llanelli's commercial radio station."
Jones at the time was 50 miles (80 km) away and gave his show a veneer of localness by "employing a local resident to be his eyes and ears." AT the time he was simultaneously hosting the breakfast shows on Scarlet, Radio Pembrokeshire and Radio Carmarthenshire, all currently owned by Town and Country Broadcasting.
"I would rather link a show together from 1,000 miles away and have somebody in-market providing unique local content," Jones said. "That is better than having a bunch of DJs just sitting in the town reading stuff out of the national newspapers that has no relevance whatsoever."
Ashton notes that research by UK media regulator Ofcom last year found that stations covering a population of fewer than 100,000 people each make an average annual loss of GBP 14,000 (USD 27,600) and that things are getting tougher for radio with income falling in real terms, a situation that has led Ofcom to relax rules on sharing studios and networking shows for smaller stations.
The radio groups adds Ashton are lobbying for more and he notes that major players are also involved in networking shows citing as an example the planned networking across 42 of its local stations by GCap Media of a three-hour morning show to be hosted by one of its London DJs Philippa Collins.
Expansion of this he says could put hundreds of local DJs out of a job and in addition when Global's takeover of GCap is completed there is likely to be further loss of localness through the replacement of "dozens of station names" by a "national brand, probably Heart."
The changes save money although some groups deny that this is the reason to make them he says, quoting Travis Baxter, managing director of Bauer's Big City stations, as saying in relation to its "In Demand" evening music show that airs across eight stations in north England and saved some 10%, "We believed we could make a better programme. We did not do it because we were trying to have fewer presenters." The show, says Ashton is able to secure bigger showbiz guests because of its larger audience.
Of the plans, which Ashton notes are modelled on the Clear Channel "hub and spoke" set-up, the article quotes former Capital Radio and GCap executive David Mansfield, as saying, "The trend towards networking shows seems sensible, delivering higher quality 'national' presentation than each station could achieve on a stand-alone basis, while cutting the cost of paying many local presenters. "
Mansfield adds a note of caution, however, saying, "On paper it looks good and should work. However, some would argue this is the road to ruin pioneered by Clear Channel in that the whole point of local radio is that it is local. Listeners neither expect nor want national celebrities on their local station. They can get those elsewhere."
Ashton also quotes Grant Goddard at Enders Analysis as saying, "Consolidation alone will do nothing to improve the industry's performance in ratings or revenues in the long run. What commercial radio still desperately requires is a forward-looking strategy."
We regret other pressures have curtailed out listening over the past week so listening suggestions are from a rather limited UK base. They include three shows from BBC Radio 2 on Monday "Marc Riley's Time Machine" that looked back a 1983 interview of "The Police" by Kid Jensen; It was followed by "Acid House - The Next Generation" presented by veteran DJ and producer Chris Coco and "Paul Morley's Guide to... Musical Genres" that this week was on "Pop".
Then from BBC Radio 3 we suggest dipping into the afternoons at 13:00 GMT when the music reflects the station's current "China Focus" and also in relation to that Monday's "Performance on 3", which was a concert last month from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's tour of China; this week's "The Essay" slot (22:00 GMT) which is on "Nature in China" ; Wednesday's "Night Waves" (20:45 GMT) which is on the future of Chinese identity and culture; and Friday's "The Verb" (20:45 GMT), which concentrates on Chinese literature.
Also with China on mind we suggest from BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, "The Ping Pong Diplomats", a look at the 1971 table tennis players' visit to China that presaged the new era of diplomacy between the US and China that was launched by Chairman Mao and President Nixon.
Then one close to our personal interest , also from Saturday, the latest "Archive Hour", "Like Blackpool Went Through Rock", in which Sean Street recalls the Radio Ballads, a series which heralded a completely new form of radio feature making which began in 1958 through a collaboration between producer Charles Parker and folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
Also from Radio 4 we suggest the current "Classic Serial" -"The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" - whose final episode aired at the weekend and this week's "Book of the Week" (08:45 GMT weekdays" - "Casanova", readings by Benedict Cumberbatch from Ian Kelly's biography of the world's most famous lover and libertine and also "Book at Bedtime" (21;45GMT| ) which features Richard Roxburgh reading from "Breath", Tim Winton's tale of adolescence on the edge, set on the Western fringe of Australia.
And to end with comedy in the form of The Now Show (in the Friday 17:30 GMT comedy slot and also available as an MP3).
Previous Columnists:
Indianapolis Star - McCall:
Tennessean - Walters:
UK Sunday Times - Ashton:
Wall Street Journal - Moore:
Washington Post- Farhi:
2008-06-24: Don Imus, fired by CBS Radio last year for his "nappy headed ho's" comments about the Rutgers University Women's Basketball team (See RNW Apr 13, 2007) and now with Citadel may be in hot water over other racially insensitive comments, this time about suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones.
During his show, now aired by Citadel's WABC-AM, the subject turned to a story about Jones wish to drop his nickname and it was mentioned that Jones had been arrested six times since "since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005."
Imus than asked of Jones, "What colour is he?" and on being told by Charles Warner Wolf that Jones was African-American commented, "Well, there you go. Now we know."
The comments have aroused mixed comments with responses to a critical report on faniq.com ranging from suggestions that he should be fired through one that comments that unlike the Rutger's comments he didn't "utter 'The N-word' or anything else objectionable…" to yet another that suggested Imus asked about Jones' colour then "said what he said to highlight the MEDIA'S constant negative {and deservedly so} reporting about Jones...that THE MEDIA'S highlighted each legal or financial problem because Jones is black....isn't that a possibility? "
There was a similar range of comments in reaction to Michael Calderone's report on Politico, which also posted audio of the exchange, thus allowing people to make their own judgement.
Previous Citadel:
Previous Imus:
Faniq.com report:
Politico.com -Calderone report:
2008-06-24: Six US radio companies including Clear Channel have written to Arbitron expressing concerns about particular areas where they think its Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings has fallen short of their expectations and outlining what they think could be done about it - the others are Cox Radio, which has been amongst the most vociferous in expressing doubts about the PPM, Cumulus, Inner City Broadcasting, Radio One inc. and Saga.
The letter to Arbitron CEO Stephen Morris, its President/Sales & Marketing Pierre Bouvard, and President Operations, Technology, Research and Development Owen Charlebois expresses particular disappointment relating to sample sizes in the 18-34 and 18-54 demographic groups and says the companies consider the money-back guarantees offered by Arbitron to be inadequate when what they need if full ratings data.
The letter says the companies "expected full sample size delivery when we signed up for PPM", adding they had a right to expect this and continuing, "Failure to fully meet these targets makes it difficult if not impossible to evaluate a station's success or use the data to transact business."
They also say that they are already concerned about the 80% sample target - effective in the third month after PPM ratings become currency - for the 18-54 age group
Other issues raised are a perceived reluctance by Arbitron to re-allocate meters from children 6-11 to those above 12 - they term the younger group a hangover from Arbitron's proposed joint venture with Nielsen that the "vast majority of the radio industry never asked for, never wanted, and still has no need for..." and also their expectation that Arbitron gain Media Rating Council accreditation for its Radio First PPM methodology by the end of this month.
Arbitron has not commented on the issues raised but both CBS Radio, which has been supportive of the move to PPM ratings and Emmis have distanced themselves from the letter.
Emmis declined to sign the letter, saying that although it agreed with much of it did not think that a further postponement of the introduction of PPM ratings was in radio's best interests and CBS Radio said in a statement that it does not believe that "delaying commercialization of PPM data is in the best interest of the industry," and added, "We support the new methodology and have every confidence in Arbitron that they will continue to improve the service and deliver us information that will help elevate our accountability with our clients."
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2008-06-24: The Digital Radio Working Group that was set up by the British Government last November has recommended in an interim report that the UK stick with Eureka DAB, which it says should become the primary platform for all national, regional and large local services: It adds that the "aspiration" should be to see migration completed by 2020 although it adds: "In the case of community radio and smaller local services we recognise that for now analogue still remains the most effective, and cheapest, way of delivering radio to small geographic areas."
It then continues, "For this reason we recommend that until an appropriate migration path to digital can be achieved for these services, they should be carried on FM. However, there should be continued work on a plan to assist smaller commercial and community stations to migrate to digital without adding significantly to their transmission costs."
4.8. Whilst the intention must be to deliver DAB coverage to
The group notes that there are "encouraging signs that other European countries are now adopting digital radio" but that some are adopting different variants of the Eureka 147 family - France has decided to license digital radio in DMB-A and Germany is proposing to re-launch digital radio on DAB+ or DMB-A.
It expresses concern that the needs for economies of scale mean that a need to build different receivers for individual markets "would do little to encourage the major manufacturers to produce new receivers or to plan their product ranges effectively" whereas "a common profile for radio receivers would drive innovation and help create economies of scale, which could ultimately bring down the cost of sets."
In the UK, says the group, "…it is not sensible, at this stage, to switch to technologies which are not compatible with the more than 7 million DAB sets already sold" although in the longer term variants such as DAB+ "may help solve some of the problems of migrating to a totally digital future."
The group also says that "in the context of falling advertising revenues", and "a tight licence fee settlement for the BBC", increased transmission costs are challenging the traditional radio business models and that "the industry cannot indefinitely support the increased transmission costs of broadcasting on analogue and multiple digital platforms."
The report was welcomed by the UK Digital Radio Development Board, which said it believed the group's report "sets out a clear route for increased growth of DAB listening in the UK."
DRDB Chief executive, Tony Moretta, said, "It is important that any existing barriers to growth are addressed by the industry as a whole with a cohesive strategy that allows us to build on the success DAB has enjoyed over the past few years. This report goes a long way to setting out an agreed vision for the future of digital radio in the UK. We look forward to reading the full report later in the year."
There was also a welcome from industry body the RadioCentre whose chief executive Andrew Harrison said the group had done a lot of good work and added that the report "outlines a clear route map and timing aspiration for digital switchover."
RNW comment: As might be expected the bodies involved who stand to save costs whilst consumers have to spend extra money have welcomed this report although we rather doubt they would take the same view if part of the deal was that they had to provide for free an equivalent digital receiver for every analogue one rendered unusable by the migration.
We also note an assumption, albeit unspoken, that consumers will have to fork out again should there be a future agreement on a more advanced system for Europe as a whole. We still have our doubts over the wisdom of an enforced switch although should commercial companies wish to turn off their analogue signals - which are unlikely to have the same geographical reach as current analogue signals - that should be left to them as a business decision. The BBC, as a national broadcaster, should in our view have different priorities and maintain analogue for longer.
As regards receivers, maybe part of the discussion should be on a standard module interface so that future receivers can be upgraded with a simple plug-in change rather than equipment change.
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Previous RadioCentre:
Working Group report (Links to PDF -90 kb -and rich text - 272kb versions):
2008-06-24: Air America Radio has named Clear Channel veteran Bill Hess as its Senior Vice President of Programming: he is to take up the post on July 14.
Hess was a regional VP of Capstar Communications, which was taken over by Chancellor Media in 1998 and later renamed AMFM before it was bought by Clear Channel in 2000. He subsequently became Director/Programming for three Clear Channel stations - WHJJ-AM, WSNE-FM and WWBB-FM - in Providence and was more recently PD of its adult contemporary music station WASH-FM (from 2003), adding in 2006 Operations Manager duties at progressive talk 1260 WWRC-AM, Sports Talk 980 WTEM-AM, and conservative talk 570 WTNT-AM, which were sold to Red Zebra Broadcasting earlier this month (See RNW Jun 5).
Air America Radio chairman Charlie Kireker said in a news release, "With more than 30 years in the radio industry, Hess brings his expertise in programming, content creation, promotions, marketing, and sales. We are confident that he will help Air America achieve stronger ratings and revenue success, as we continue to provide listeners with entertaining and thought-provoking programming throughout this critical election year."
Hess commented, "I strongly believe that the future success of our business will spring from the audiences we cultivate, stimulated by the talent we nurture and attract. I am excited by the vision and commitment of Charlie and his team to build on the foundation that's already in place at Air America Media -- both on-air and online. I can't wait to get started!"
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2008-06-24: Fisher Communications says that it has rejected an unsolicited bid of between USD 43 and USD 45 per share for the company that it received in April.
It has not disclosed details of the bidder but says its board, in "consultation with outside financial and legal advisors" unanimously concluded that the offer was not in the best interests of shareholders.
The offer values Fisher at some USD 390 million compared to a market valuation of around USD 305 million: Its shares were up 9.6% on Monday to close at USD 34.90: During the past year they have reached a high of just under USD 52 with the low just above USD 28.
Previous Fisher:
2008-06-23: Comedian George Carlin, best known for his "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", routine (The words were Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits and when they were aired on WBAI-FM, New York, led to a 1978 Supreme Court 504 ruling in F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation that upheld the agency's authority to impose penalties for indecent or obscene broadcasts at times children might be listening) has died of heart failure aged 71 in Los Angeles.
An Associated Press report in the Los Angeles Times said Carlin went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham.
His web site when we last checked had not posted news of his death - the latest postings related to Internet postings attributed to him whose authorship he denied.
Carlin, who had been on stage in Las Vegas the previous weekend, teamed up with Jack Burns in the early 60's and Burns commented to the AP, "He was a genius and I will miss him dearly."
Carlin, who was born and brought up in New York City, began his career as a DJ at KJOE in Shreveport whilst in stationed nearby in the US Air Force at Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, Louisiana.
After his discharge from the air force - he was labelled" unproductive" - he teamed up with Jack Burns in 1959 when both were working for KXOL in Forth Worth, Texas: the two moved to California in 1960 and remained together before going their owns ways.