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Friday January 16, 2009 The new owners of radio giant Clear Channel Communications will next Tuesday begin implementing a massive restructuring plan that seeks to cut $400 million in costs at the company, The Post has learned - The company is also likely to move toward a "national programming" model that would require less local-level staffing (read more - Peter Lauria - NY Post) FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, a Bush appointee who angered many in his own party with a push to reform cable pricing, said yesterday that he will leave the agency upon the handover to the new administration and join the Aspen Institute (read more - Cecilia Kang - Washington Post) L.A.’s much-beloved independent rock station - Indie 103.1 - has left the terrestrial airwaves and migrated to the Internet (read more - Chris Morris - LA Times) Porsche Fox discovered a lump in her left breast three weeks before she left V-103. She said she lacked “support” from the station management. That’s all she would say why she left her job seven months before her two-year contract was over (read more - Rodney Ho - Atlanta JC) The bottom line for three of Houston’s four sports radio stations had a decidedly red tinge in 2008, according to the annual reports compiled by Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. KILT (610 AM) reported advertising revenue for the year of $9.85 million, down 12.4 percent from $11.2 million in 2007. KBME (790 AM) took in $4.5 million, down 3.5 percent from $4.7 million; and KFNC (97.5 FM) totaled $1.6 million, down 8.4 percent from $1.7 million a year ago. KGOW (1560 AM) was not included in the Miller Kaplan report. Of Houston’s six major corporate radio groups, only Clear Channel was up in 2008 from a year ago (read more - David Barron - Houston Chronicle) The business of newspapers is starting to resemble what one suspects auditions for Cirque du Soleil are like. There is so much contortion and juggling in hopes of securing a place in the only venue where these performers' unique skill sets have found real financial rewards. What's being done requires incredible strength, focus and balance to not only pull off, but pull off gracefully enough to hold an easily distracted audience. And, obviously, not everyone is going to make the cut. Everyone in newspapers is trying harder and trying something different (read more - Phil Rosenthal - Chicago Tribune) CNN's John King is looking to do something different in the new Sunday morning program he's launching this weekend. "One of the things that I am obsessive about is that, while we will maintain the tradition of big newsmaker interviews in Washington of Washington power players, we're gonna get out in the country," he promises. "You will see me traveling, just about every week. You will see me doing pieces on what I call the real America" (read more - Tim Cuprisin - Milwaukee JS) The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) on Thursday said it has reached an agreement with SoundExchange, an entity set up by record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, on the rates and terms that public radio stations will pay to stream music online (read more - Mark Hefflinger - Digital Media Wire) Arbitron numbers for Tampa - St Pete, Buffalo - Niagara Falls, Minneapolis -St Paul, Lake Charles LA, Lima OH, Beaumont - Port Arthur and Rochester NY (read the numbers) Harry Martin on Monday becomes the only person in town to anchor on two different stations in two different states on the same day. Each weeknight from then on, he'll anchor WNYW/Ch. 5's 6 p.m. news, housed on E. 67th St. and then race through the Lincoln Tunnel - he hopes - to co-anchor the 10 p.m. news at sister station WWOR/Ch. 9 in Secaucus, N.J. "It would be nice to be a footnote in the broadcast museum," Martin said of the milestone. "It is a first - that's one of the reasons I'm thrilled about it" (read more - Richard Huff - NY Daily News) An e-mail purporting to have been sent by Jeff Haley, CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, the industry association, hit the inboxes of RAB employees and dozens of media reporters Thursday afternoon - The statement from the RAB read: "In a malicious attempt to damage the organization, someone accessed the email account of RAB President Jeff Haley, generated a false memorandum filled with factually inaccurate and malicious accusations designed to embarrass and damage the Radio Advertising Bureau. This fraudulent memorandum was then widely distributed to employees, business associates and members of the news media" (read more - Andrew Hampp - Ad Age)
News Burps We apologize in advance to anyone who already believes WLS-AM (890) mid-morning host Mancow Muller is getting too much virtual ink in this newly-launched blog. But we must, for a moment, revisit the Muller item posted a few days ago about his appearance on an upcoming segment of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" on the Travel Channel (read more - Lewis Lazare - Chicago Sun-Times) The table is set for more massive personnel cuts in radio -- with Clear Channel's big bang possible within days. By now, most radio people can see what group CEOs have done over the 12 year history of consolidation and have a pretty good idea what the general effect of more budget cuts will be going forward (read more - Jerry Del Calliano - Inside Music Media) Could the morning show do a live endorsement? Or could the afternoon guy make an appearance for a key advertiser? Or how bad would it be if we ran an extra three units an hour just for May to get us through an oversold situation? Well, you'll be happy to know that those same types of conversations are occurring in media outlets across the country (read more - Fred Jacobs - Jacobs Media) 30 Years ago it was video that was killing the radio star, today it’s electronic technology. The latest example of this technology is called Slacker. The iPhone Slacker doesn’t have an FM tuner but it doesn’t need one. In addition to getting Pandora, the iPhone Slacker can stream Internet radio music over its data connection with its web radio service provider. In addition to getting tons of free music of your own choice, you can pick one of your favorite stations, arranged by preset genres and away you go. And iPhone is not alone in this enterprise (read more - Mel Phillips) Late last fall I went to Ottawa in Canada for the induction into the Canadian Radio Hall Of Fame of my long time radio pal, Gary Russell (read more - George Johns) Rachel Maddow has reached a new agreement with Air America Media to extend her tenure with the company’s Radio Network and Interactive Division. “The Rachel Maddow Show” will air as a one-hour program to be presented in morning drive time on the network’s affiliates and streamed on airamerica.com
Dave Graveline
and his "Into Tomorrow" team bring you the
Cox Radio revealed that Scott Laudani will be the new Program Director of WPLR 99.1 New Haven beginning February 2 Broadcast Architecture’s The Smooth Jazz Network has launched the Network on KYZK-FM Sun Valley, Idaho KGO Radio's sudden layoffs affecting on and off-air personnel is no surprise, given the state of the worsening economy and significantly lower ad revenue. What is surprising is the fact that the Citadel-owned property is the #1 station in the SF-Oakland market, and has been for over 30 years. In spite of that distinction, KGO is losing significant money; how much? (read more - Rich Lieberman) Jeff Howard, an 18-year company veteran, was named sole President of Clear Channel Radio Sales Radio talkist
Leslie Marshall
has launched a new website at SIRIUS XM Radio will broadcast a Howard Stern-Paul McCartney special this weekend on SIRIUS XM’s Howard 101 channel Indie 103.1, a long-running radio station known for playing the edgy music that "corporate" stations wouldn't touch, is ceasing to broadcast today - There is probably no better day than today for someone interested in broadcasting. There's a simple reason: the market responded to the demand of dissatisfied radio listeners, and new technologies provided alternatives. Satellite radio gives you more dial choices than terrestrial radio in any city in the world. But more significantly, podcasting has turned anyone into a DJ (read more - Matthew Bandyk - US News & World Report) Thursday January 15, 2009 These are heady times for African-American media, with the inauguration next week of Barack Obama as president. Chris Bennett himself isn't going to Washington, D.C., in part figuring he'll have a better view staying at home watching on TV. "I witnessed what I wanted to on Nov. 4," he says. But Bennett also figures the African-American media will get a hearing from the new administration, especially with Obama's roots in Chicago, a city with a long heritage of a black-owned press (read more - Bill Virgin - Seattle PI) Dominic Mancuso, a Chicago TV veteran of more than 20 years, has had his position as vice president of programming and promotions eliminated at Fox-owned WFLD-Ch. 32 and WPWR-Ch. 50. Six other positions -- two account executives, two sales assistants, a stage hand and an overnight weekend assignment editor -- also were cut at the News Corp. duopoly (read more - Phil Rosenthal - Chicago Tribune) Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the idea for the name change to Steelerstahl was not his own. Callers to the Star 100.7 morning show "called in and thought it would be a good idea to change from Ravenstahl, given we are playing the hated Baltimore Ravens this weekend, to Steelerstahl," he said. "As soon as I heard it, I thought it was a great idea" (read more - Rich Lord - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) "Well, hi there! This is Happy Hare." If you're a San Diegan of a certain age, you know the name and the voice. Decades ago, Harry "Happy Hare" Martin dominated the local dial like no one else - "He had an abundance of that mysterious thing called 'talent,'" said Cookie "Chainsaw" Randolph, co-host of KGB's morning show. "To the very end, Harry always 'got it.' " (read more - Randy Dotinga - North County Times) Radio talkist Stephanie Miller will be chattering on about the inauguration on CNN's Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz this Sunday at 10am Eastern / 7am Pacific Sam Zell's bankrupt Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times as well as eight other major U.S. dailies, appears to be looking at outsourcing its foreign reporting to the Washington Post (read more - Lewis Lazare - Chicago Sun-Times) Run-DMC the powerhouse trio from Hollis, Queens, that helped slam rap music into America's musical mainstream, is among nine inductees to the Class of 2009 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (read more - David Hinckley - NY Daily News) During a three-hour dinner conclave at columnist George Will's Chevy Chase home Tuesday night, Obama charmed eight of the right's most prominent commentators, mixing small talk and policy debate in a move that mesmerized the media elite (read more - Howard Kurtz - Washington Post) Since the November merger of XM with Sirius, listeners have been experiencing what seems like constant change to a channel that had always been among the top three most popular on the XM service, the 60s on 6. Post-merger, Sirius subscribers heard an entirely new personality lineup and were exposed to a much larger selection of songs from the decade than they were used to on Sirius. XM subscribers weren't immune to upheaval either (read more - Mike Austerman and Art Vuolo - Michiguide) Arbitron numbers for Phoenix, Pittsburg, St Louis, Cincinnati, New Haven, Tucson, Canton, Youngstown-Warren and Frederick (read the numbers)
News Burps
ESPN Radio
is planning programming changes Feb. 2 and March 16: The
Doug Gottlieb
Show moves to 4-7 p.m. ET, The Herd with
Colin Cowherd
Adds 1-2 p.m. Hour and First format change of the year: say goodbye to Smooth Jazz 107.5 (read more - Rodney Ho - Atlanta JC) This is a crazy
time to be looking for a job,
especially in the media/advertising world. From senior level pros to
recent hires, all levels are on the streets looking for that perfect
fit. Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday finally admitted that his health problems were severe enough for him to take a medical leave of absence (read more - Peter Lauria - NY Post) While we're all waiting around for the mass firing of many Clear Channel employees (expected any time now), don't think that Citadel's Farid "Fagreed" Suleman and his wife, Judy Ellis, aren't doing a little nip and tuck. A snip here at KGO. More firings -- the first in years under arguably the best general manager in radio, Mickey Luckoff. I'm told it was done with the usual class he has shown over his long career (read more - Jerry Del Colliano - Inside Music Media) I hope the NAB and RAB realize that selling Radio is not the same as selling flowers. Public Relations firm MWW has been hired to carry on the “Radio Heard Here” campaign that was launched last spring in hopes of bringing in new radio listeners. MWW lists 1-800 Flowers as one of their clients but that won’t diminish the enthusiasm voiced by NAB President/CEO David Rehr (read more - Mel Phillips) Firing people won't fix the problem. The problem radio faces requires the restructuring of management up and down the ladder. It requires new skills, different skills in certain roles - many of which don't even exist at the market level - or any level - in radio today. I wish I could tell you the solution was as simple as "get more dollars from the website," but it isn't (read more - Mark Ramsey - Hear 2.0) Radio can benefit from this trend toward cheap and reliable, because that's what our medium is all about. We're free, wireless, and easy to use. No subscription fee, nothing to buy, familiar, reliable - And with local concerts and entertainment, radio has the chance to provide free (or low-dough) outlets for listeners who can't afford $9 to see a movie, much less $75 to see an NBA game (read more - Fred Jacobs - Jacobs Media) When the Wings Over America tour touched down at the Coliseum in Richfield on October 5, 1976, it was the first time Paul McCartney had visited Greater Cleveland since the Beatles’ Cleveland Stadium concert on August 14, 1966. It was also the first time in a decade that any Beatle had visited or played Cleveland. We were told in advance that the prospect for an interview was unlikely - and the best we could count on was a remote chance of getting WMMS IDs from Paul and Linda and other members of the band and we’d have to wait until the end of the show to get them (read more - John Gorman) The Conclave's Agenda Committee co-chairs for the 2009 Conclave Learning Conference to be held July 15-18th in Minneapolis are veteran Conclave Board member and R&R Executive Editor Paul Heine who will join Preslaff Interactive’s Michelle Novak Commercial broadcasters and television networks will number among the businesses that will need to comply with new rules designed to mitigate identity theft that become effective on May 1 of this year. Referred to as the “Red Flag Rules,” the new regulations require financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs, as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003. On Thursday, January 22nd, from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m., the Media Financial Management Association (MFM) will host a Distance Learning Seminar to assist media industry businesses in understanding and complying with the regulations (read more - MFM) Sirius XM issued a statement after the close showing how the company is taking tiny steps to trim its debt balances. Every penny of debt it can shed helps its overall negotiating position with creditors as it seeks to refinance. Unfortunately, this comes with only more dilution to common shareholders (read more - Jon c. Ogg - 24/7 Wall Street) The newly combined satellite radio service, XM Sirius with its 18 or so million listeners, intends to devote 17 channels entirely to Obama inauguration coverage (read more - Andrew Malcolm - LA Times) The Jim Rome Show adds KRKO-AM 1380 in Seattle, WA and KWES-AM 1450 in Ruidoso, NM |
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