If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here.
To ensure delivery of your newsletter add tom@radio-info.com to your address book.

by Tom Taylor | tom@in3media.com | 609.883.3321

Monday, February 15th 2010

CBS Border Check

CBS Radio cuts off streaming access beyond U.S. borders.

The policy change happened quietly on Friday, but was quickly detected by the Webcasting/Internet Streaming Board of Radio-Info.com. I checked around and got a couple of confirmations that it’s indeed a permanent change – driven by the thorny problem of music royalties. But the CBS talk-based stations (news, talk, sports) are collateral damage here, because their Internet streams are also now unavailable to users outside the U.S. If you try to log on from the UK or Timbuktu, you get a message that due to costs and regulations, the station can no longer stream. The issue for the talk-based stations is the CBS/AOL player software – the platform shared by all the CBS Radio terrestrial stations which stream. It’s a problem trying to pull out the stations that don’t play music. More on the Webcasting/Internet Streaming Board of Radio-Info.com.

SBS resumes encoding for the People Meter – under protest.

Spanish Broadcasting System abides by the Temporary Restraining Order that Arbitron won in a New York state court last Thursday – “on less than an hour’s notice to SBS counsel”, complains the PPM Coalition. Raul Alarcon-run SBS is a member of the coalition, which aims to hold Arbitron’s feet to the fire on its pledge to fully represent the black and Hispanic population, and to win accreditation for its PPM system in all markets. There’s a court hearing in Manhattan tomorrow on the TRO, filed by Arbitron’s law firm, Dickstein Shapiro. Meanwhile the Coalition appeals to the Federal Communications Commission for support. Its filing gives us the first blow-by-blow account (from the SBS side) of the dispute.

Here’s how Arbitron and Spanish Broadcasting System landed in court.

The PPM Coalition says the broadcaster "requested that Arbitron issue a credit" as per their PPM contracts – based on a lack of Media Rating Council accreditation in all but three markets, you suspect, and the SBS claim of a “flawed” system. Would you think that was going to fly with Arbitron? Nope. Coalition attorneys Antoinette Cook Bush and David Pawlik of Skadden Arps say that "without any explanation, Arbitron rejected SBS' demand" for a credit. That’s what prompted SBS to suspend its payments. Then "in retaliation", Arbitron cut SBS off from People Meter data about seven weeks ago. So SBS quit encoding (probably February 4). Then late in the day last Thursday, Arbitron sought and won the court order. So SBS is encoding again in its five PPM markets (New York, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco and its hometown of Miami). While other PPM subscribers wait to see how it plays out.

There was no chance for broadcasters to “opt out” of PPM, says the Coalition.

The Skadden Arps letter to the FCC says Arbitron’s court filing removes some of the secrecy about People Meter contracts, and that “it becomes clear that, because Arbitron is the monopoly provider of radio ratings information in most major markets, broadcasters and advertisers have been required to accept unreasonable terms.” That’s particularly so, since broadcasters had to “prospectively” commit to the PPM while the diary was still the only measurement. Of course, if the black and Hispanic broadcast owners who make up the PPM Coalition were generally enjoying the same ranks they got with the diary – there wouldn’t be this uproar. The attorneys general of three states have wrung settlement agreements out of Arbitron (Florida’s still pending, I believe). And we don’t know what House Oversight Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) might do next, following last Fall’s hearing and the disastrous performance by ousted Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski. The PPM Coalition renews its call for the FCC to open its own investigation.

Midwest station owner Armada Media is sued by lender Wells Fargo Foothill.

The lender wants – and this is getting to be a familiar refrain – a receiver appointed by the court to oversee its interests. Armada owns 28 stations and allegedly defaulted on $16.2 million in loans, says the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. For the paper, the news hook is the presence in the ownership group of Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. But he was just one of a number of notables in the group that (as it turned out) bought stations at the wrong time for a rich price. Armada launched in 2006 with backing from Wells Fargo Foothill and King Street Capital, and principals such as Wisconsin broadcaster Terry Shockley, San Diego’s John Lynch and Jim Coursolle. (Coursolle left last year to start his own new group.) The suit was filed in a Fond du Lac circuit court in January and the two sides appear to be engaged in negotiations that don’t sound rancorous. CEO Chris Bernier and Thompson believe there will be a mutually-acceptable resolution. Among other things, the suit claims that Armada failed to make monthly principal payments from last August through December. Armada has a different story, and Bernier says “the fact that [a hearing to appoint a receiver] has been postponed and not re-scheduled is obviously positive.” Armada has stations in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado.

Citadel pushes Birmingham talker WAPI (1070) onto the FM dial.

Fans of Birmingham’s modern rock “Live 100.5” WWMM are anxious about a rumored change to talk – and they should be. The “Save Live 100.5” Facebook group created by one of its advertisers quickly swelled to more than 13,000 people. But a thread on the Alabama Board at Radio-Info.com contains some worthy Sherlock Holmes-style detective work – a domain registration for “NewsTalk100WAPI-FM” by Citadel. And in fact, Sunday’s Birmingham News carries the report from writer Bob Carlton that Live 100.5 is indeed going “news-talk within the next six to 10 days”, per a source at Citadel. All the jocks are now off the air, with weekender Scott Register being the last live voice on the rock station. Next destination – talk, in a simulcast with sister WAPI (1070). The newspaper says there’s already a Facebook group for the new talk FM. The Alabama Board of Radio-Info.com is all over the news.

KFI's Bill Handel only has to do one shift a day, now that Bill Carroll is joining the L.A. talker.

Highly-rated KFI (640) morning man Bill Handel gamely added the early afternoon hours vacated late last year by Dr. Laura – and now he wants his old life back. Bill says “I definitely underestimated how much having a second show would eat up my day.” Remember – he’s also still hosting the syndicated weekend “Handel on the Law” for Premiere. Starting next week, another “Bill” will do noon-2pm, and that’s Canadian import Bill Carroll. He’s been a headliner at Toronto’s “News Talk 1010” CFRB. KFI programmer Robin Bertolucci calls him “smart, articulate and one of the best storytellers in radio." He’d better be ready for a cram course in the dysfunctional world of California politics. The Los Angeles Board of Radio-Info.com holds a wide variety of opinions, including from posters who say Handel was trying to do something that was impossible, and others who don’t feel too badly about his arduous schedule, given the size of his Clear Channel paycheck. See the opinions online.

For most formats, not much difference between landline households and CPOs in Arbitron.

More from the Fall 2009 survey breakdown by Arbitron – 10 of 12 formats saw virtually no change in rating points for age 12+. Rock does about 10% better in Cell Phone Only households (up a tenth of a point on a base of one point, explains Arbitron’s Dr. Ed Cohen). News/Talk does a bit worse (“down a tenth of a point but off from a base of 2.2, so it’s down around 5%”). There are now enough Cell Phone Only households to start making comparisons between them and corded-phone homes, and Arbitron must be relieved. The households aren’t that much different from each other, despite the use of (or rejection of) a landline phone. That data’s from last Thursday’s Fall-book Diary sample client call held by Arbitron.

Generational change at Bott Broadcasting – Rich Bott succeeds his father as CEO.

Founder Dick Bott and his wife Shirley started out in Kansas City in 1962 with a single radio station and the vision to do Christian broadcast ministry. Like so many entrepreneurs of their day, they made sure the next generation got a sound education and then welcomed it into the family business (think of Entercom, Beasley, Clear Channel, etc.). Son Rich Bott got his MBA from Harvard in 1981 and brought his own ideas just at a time when groups were thinking about expansion and then (in the 1990s) the ownership limits were relaxed. Now Bott Radio Network is 82 stations, plus its satellite, Internet and other new media outreach efforts. Dick Bott actually created two completely separate Christian radio operations – one commercial and one not-for-profit. Dick Bott is still on the board of the National Religious Broadcasters, and his son Rich is a VP of the association – which gathers in Nashville in about two weeks for its annual convention. I’ll be there to cover the well-produced NRB sessions for you. More about the “NRB 2010” convention here.

Can a network make its affiliation last forever – despite format changes and sales?

The FCC says “nothing is forever” and hands licensee Rocking M Radio a convincing win. The Commission throws out the odd one-way deal that was cancelable only by the network – even though the current licensee accepted it voluntarily when it bought 11 stations. The Kansas group owned by Rocking M Radio was once the property of Lawrence Steckline, who also owned the parent of the Mid-America Ag Network and the Mid-America News Network. When Liberal-licensed KSMM-AM/FM and its siblings were sold to Rocking M Radio, they came with a perpetual affiliation agreement dating back to 1996 – which the FCC now says was “self-dealing” on the part of Steckline and his son Greg Steckline. (Greg later took over majority control of the networks.) The problem occurred when Rocking M changed the format of KSMM (1470) to Spanish-language sports and KSMM-FM (101.5) to regional Mexican – and Mid-America insisted the stations continue to air the network content and spots. Steckline Communications Inc. (SCI) went to state court. Rocking M turned to the FCC, which tends to be protective of a licensee's control over programming. What we got on Friday was a Declaratory Ruling. The findings will provide guidance in other cases, as well as relief for Rocking M. Ready for the bottom line?

“Perpetual contract terms are per se unacceptable.”

The FCC says in the Steckline/Rocking M Radio case that strictures like the ones Rocking M accepted with Steckline Communications’ Mid-America Ag/News Networks amount to unauthorized transfer of control – a big no-no. On Rocking M’s “Issue #2”, whether a station must keep airing incompatible programming or pay “substantial damages” for breach – a supplier can’t force an agreement that bars a change in format, because that unduly restricts the licensee. But as for damages – that’s a matter for the courts. Issue #4 is about assignability. And #5 is about whether a licensee can delegate “the absolute right to determine programming” – and the answer is “no.” Though will it possibly be liable for “reasonable monetary damages”? Yes. Read the FCC’s letter to Rocking M Radio here.

» Buzzing on the Boards
back to top »

St. Louis once had a hip-adult standards station named "Red 104" WMLL, and now the Soft AC/EZ Listening/Adult Standards Board of Radio-Info.com says recently-sold WQQX, East St. Louis (1490) has begun offering its own locally-programmed standards format - heavy on what the poster calls "martini music."

A new “Bridge” in Albany, New York? Or a diversion, as one poster on the Albany-Hudson Valley Board suspects? It’s for sure that Pamal’s WKLI (100.9) is due for a change, because it’s been telling listeners of its easy-oldies “Magic” music format to tune to 590, the former talk WROW, instead. So if the domain registrations for a “100.9 Bridge” are correct – will that be adult alternative? Contemporary Christian? Follow the thinking on the board.

Indiana high school station WEEM (91.7) is a likely victim of school board budget cuts. WEEM, Pendleton is a Class A (not a Low Power FM) that’s just lost its funding from a hard-pressed school board that’s also cutting 15 teaching jobs. The Herald-Bulletin reports a funding crisis that’s not unique to the South Madison Community School Corporation Board. WEEM’s been on the air as a training facility and communication tool for decades, says the Indiana Board of Radio-Info.com. It’s historically been a top 40 station with the programs created and hosted by the students. It covers nearby Anderson as well as Pendleton.

» Wheeling & Dealing
back to top »

In Texas, there's a $450,000 sale of an FM and six translators. Idaho Falls-based Radio Assist Ministry and Edgewater Broadcasting sell a bucket-full of signals to The Worship Center of Kingsville, based in Corpus Christi. The Worship Center gets Class A KTLZ, Cuero (89.9), plus the translators. Five of the translators will repeat non-commercial KTLZ. Those are K282AR, Victoria (104.3). K226AV, Beeville (93.1). K210E, Alice (89.9). K296FR, El Campo (107.1). And K288FU, Edna (105.5). The sixth translator is in Corpus Christi, and the buyer will use that one to re-broadcast full-power Spanish religion “Radio Libertad” KDAE, Sinton (1590).

» Sound Bites
back to top »

Citadel's soft AC in Baton Rouge is far from "Sunny." It’s the latest station to take the plunge into "Gen X" classic hits, playing some music from the 80s and this decade, but centering on the 90s. Like some other "Gen X" stations that have sprung up, WCDV, Hammond (103.3) is mixing together music that ranges from hip-hop to grunge - music that wasn't originally played together on the same station. More on the Louisiana Board of Radio-Info.com.

Nine hours a day of Bob & Tom, on Regent’s new talker in Flint. That’s WFNT (1470), and Regent’s taking both the four-hour live morning show (6-10am) from Premiere, and also Premiere’s midnight-5am “Bob & Tom All-Nighter.” The only hour between midnight and 10am that’s not Bob & Tom is the Wall Street Journal This Morning, 5-6am. The switch to talk ends a string of ten years of adult standards at WFNT. Here’s the lineup, after Bob & Tom say adios at 10am - Value Connection and then Brenda Brissette-Mata, followed at noon by TRN's Laura Ingraham and Jerry Doyle. At 6pm, Citadel Media's Mark Levin and Fox Radio's Brian & the Judge, 9pm to midnight. The website for the new talk version of WFNT is here.

Hoping to build his Charlotte move-in, Gig Hilton wants Mooresville to annex his proposed tower site. In 2006, Rowan County, NC nixed construction of a 1,340-foot tower on the property of Richard and Dorcas Parker, says the Salisbury Post, and Hilton battled all the way to the North Carolina State Court of Appeals. (He lost.) Now Gig Hilton of Davidson County Broadcasting has a scheme for 18 acres of the Parkers’ farm to be annexed by the town of Mooresville, in Iredell County. That would advance Hilton’s plan to re-license WTHZ from a Class C at Lexington to a Class C1 at Faith, North Carolina – much closer to the Charlotte area. You can get an idea of what Hilton’s dreaming about in terms of covering metro #23 with the 60 dBu contour map of the proposed new signal, here. WTHZ currently hits mostly the area around the Triad market of Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, doing classic hits as “Majic 94.1.”

Northeastern Pennsylvania radio/TV pubcaster WVIA is dark, following a Friday afternoon transmitter fire. Channel 44 is still available on cable systems and ditto for classical/news/variety WVIA (89.9). But the TV station’s over the-air-signal may not be back for two days, and the Citizens Voice says it will be longer for the FM. The Northeastern Pennsylvania Educational Television Association “experienced a major electrical fire at our transmitter.” The Northeast PA Board of Radio-Info reported the blaze and the outage, here.

Two weeks after its tower was vandalized, “Lake Hartwell Radio” WLHR, Lavonia, GA is back on. Art Sutton says they’re on from a temporary transmitter site at 70% power, and he’s very, very grateful to the folks at Toccoa Falls College-owned WRAF (90.9) for the loan of a backup transmitter. WLHR (92.1) was crippled when somebody clipped a set of guy wires, which caused the 284-foot tower to collapse and take out a lot of equipment, too. Sutton and Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting co-owner Terry Carter salute their own staff for continuing to stream WLHR during its two-week absence from the airwaves. The county sheriff and Georgia Bureau of Investigation are on the case.

In Cincinnati, Clear Channel promotes the ESPN Radio brand to a new home at 50,000-watt WCKY (1530). ESPN Radio has been on sister WSAI (1360), but now most of the lineup will clear on ‘CKY. The Tri-State Media Watch picks up the new schedule from Lance McAlister’s blog on yet a third Clear Channel AM, “Big One” WLW (700). Lance says that starting today, 1530 will use Mike & Mike, Colin Cowherd, Scott Van Pelt, then himself & Mo Egger (3-6pm), with ESPN Radio from 6pm on. 1530 still features the NFL Bengals, Major League Baseball, the NBA, and college sports from UK and the University of Louisville. Meanwhile, 1360 will be re-branded as “Fox Sports 1360” and will add in Dan Patrick and stablemate Tony Bruno, plus Premiere’s Jim Rome. The new order takes effect at 10am this morning, following a simulcast of Mike & Mike on both frequencies. Online, the Cincinnati Board of Radio-Info.com is talking it over.

This iPhone app from Juicy Development is for talk radio listeners who travel, using the cell phone’s GPS and its own algorithm to list the local radio stations and airtimes. Juicy says the newest version of its Talk Radio app (version 2.3.1) tracks Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Glenn Beck and other hosts, and it keeps adding personalities, with input from users. More about the $2.99 downloadable app here.

» Faces on the Radio
back to top »

George Flinn, the Memphis-based radio/TV group owner and successful radiologist/clinic owner, is preparing to run for Congress. He owns over 40 radio and TV stations and continues to actively file for new licenses as the FCC opens up auctions. On the political side, he’s served on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners since 2004 and once ran for county mayor. The Memphis Commercial Appeal says Flinn recently filed “a statement of his intent to run for the 8th District seat of retiring Congressman John Tanner.” Flinn’s in for an expensive primary fight, with the paper saying “the GOP establishment in Washington has rallied around the gospel-singing Crockett County farmer Stephen Fincher.” Oddly enough, Dr. Flinn is also competing in the primary against another M.D., Dr. Ronald Kirkland.

Ben “DJ Complex” Romero is dubbed the new PD of rhythmic “Wild 101” KWYD in Boise, in a promotion that has him reporting to Director of Programming Mikey Fuentes at Impact Radio Group in Boise.

Steve Black of Greater Media’s Detroit rocker WRIF (101.1) lines up a fulltime job programming in Flint, says Michiguide. He’s leaving 'RIF to be the next PD at Cumulus Media’s “Classic Rock Authority, Fox 103.9” WRSR. Black spent close to 20 years in Detroit radio and he thanks ‘RIF masters of the art such as Doug Podell and Mark Pennington.

John Boland wins one of the plum jobs in public broadcasting – though at an extremely challenging time, especially for local public TV. (TV's generally faring worse than radio in listener support and underwriting.) Boland takes over the San Francisco mega-plex that includes news/talk KQED (88.5) and Sacramento-market KQEI (89.3). The regional TV network is based at KQED-TV. Newspaper reporter/editor Boland also worked in PR (at Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton) and was the first chief content officer of PBS in Washington. He takes over as President/CEO from Jeff Clarke, who’s retiring.

Larry Aiken was the very first station owner to sign up for the newly-syndicated Bob & Tom, in the days when he owned Evansville, Indiana’s WGBF (103.1). That was in the mid-1990s, and he was definitely right about the syndication future of the morning show based at WFBQ, Indianapolis. Aiken also owned WGBF-AM (1280) until he sold in the post-Telecom Act consolidation wave. He’s just died in Indiana, where he was also a “concert promoter, restaurateur…and former chairman of the Vanderburgh County Democratic party.” JakesDTVBlog reports that Aiken was 69. He also jocked at places like Louisville’s legendary WAKY and Pittsburgh’s KQV. They’re talking about him online, on the Indiana Board of Radio-Info.

It's a good day to remember what our past Presidents sacrificed to give us a nation "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Abe, George and a lot more set examples for all of us, many years later. Enjoy Presidents Day and see you back tomorrow with the next T-R-I Newsletter from Chicago-based Radio-Info.com. Tom Taylor

» Classifieds
back to top »

LOCAL SALES MANAGER – Utica, NY

Galaxy Communications is looking to hire an enthusiastic Local Sales Manager with a desire to lead a talented sales staff in Utica, NY.

Locally owned and operated, Galaxy Communications is a broadcast company that super-serves its customers with successful advertising and marketing campaigns. If you are tired and bored with sitting around writing corporate reports as to what isn’t happening, and want to run a sales operation and make things happen, this opportunity is for you!

Time to roll up your sleeves and go to the streets and work with a fabulous group of seasoned account executives and heritage advertisers. We’re looking for a creative leader with strong selling skills. These stations also include a strong sports marketing platform including Syracuse University Basketball and Football games and national and local sports talk on ESPN!

If you think you have what it takes to succeed in a fast paced company, send your resume and cover letter to:

Beth Coughlin, VP/Sales
Galaxy Communications
235 Walton Street
Syracuse, NY 13202

Or email
bcoughlin@galaxycommunications.com
Galaxy Communications, LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer