Cox Media Group has repositioned its WNCB Birmingham, Ala., from “New Country 97.3” to “97-3 the Buck,” which the company describes as “a lifestyle radio station featuring new country songs and attitude.” The Buck is streaming live here. The station picks up the Birmingham-based syndicated Rick & Bubba show for afternoons and will be adding local air talent in other dayparts in the coming months. Justin Case remains PD. He also programs sister country outlet WZZK.

The 10% decline in top line revenues exactly matches the industry average, as reported by the Radio Advertising Bureau for last October through December. Clear Channel also reports declines at its “Americas Outdoor” division of 1% and its International Outdoor division of 5%. The company’s fierce cost-cutting shows up in a 20% drop in operating expenses at the radio unit, and a 20% gain in what Clear Channel has always reported as OIBDAN. That’s Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization. Study the Clear Channel Media Q4 and full-year report here.

It’s moving from a non-commercial, frequency, 89.1, to 99.9, and the sale document at the FCC says W206BI, Hamtramck, Michigan will be used to simulcast Radio One’s urban AC “Kiss 105.9” WDMK. There’s already speculation that Radio One may in fact be interested in putting something different on 99.9. It could use the new translator to give Black talk WCHB (1200) a place on the FM dial, or it could simulcast something else. Seller of the translator is New York City’s Best Media Inc. Take a look at the signal of the re-located translator at 99.9 here.

In Chicago, it’s official as former TV news reporter Amy Jacobson joins John Howell as morning co-host on Salem-owned WIND-AM (560), says Vocalo.org’s Robert Feder … Trish Gazall has resigned as the co-host of the mid-afternoon “John Brown’s Mindset” show on KTRS-AM (550) St. Louis … Connoisseur Media in Bismarck, North Dakota brings in Debra Boechler, formerly of Cumulus in Bismarck, as station manager for KKBO-FM (105.9) “Bob-FM” … Boston’s WBZ-FM (98.5) “The Sports Hub” brings Ted Sarandis on board to host the “Ted Nation Show” on Sundays, starting in April – Discuss it … Clarinda, Iowa’s KMA-FM has moved from 99.3 to 99.1FM, now broadcasting at 100,000 watts … Envision Radio Networks' “Full Metal Jackie” adds Spokane, Washington’s KHTQ-FM (94.5) as an affiliate … MetroNetworks in New York City adds Inner City’s WBLS-FM (107.5) for traffic and content during morning and afternoon drive. MetroNetworks' Lori Blanchard will handle PM drive reporting … Nikki Sixx, host of the syndicated “Sixx Sense,” will highlight the 4th annual “Rock On The Range” in Columbus, Ohio in May.

The final quarter for Seattle-based Fisher saw an overall revenue drop of 19%, from $47.7 million to $38.6 million. However, that loss was largely due to lower political advertising compared to late-2008. While TV revenue plunged 23% in the fourth quarter, radio dropped just 8%, from $6.6 million to $6.1 million. For all of 2009, Fisher’s overall revenues were down 23% for the year, and radio plummeted 38%, mostly related to the loss of broadcast rights to the baseball Seattle Mariners. That also reduced Fisher’s expenses. A bright spot for Fisher’s bottom line was that operating expenses dropped 43% in 2009. Fisher President/CEO Colleen Brown says, “2009 financial results were severely impacted by the worst economy since World War II … we aggressively managed our expenses while increasing total revenue share in our radio and TV markets.”

We're not even half way into President Obama’s term in office, and already some surprising names may be lining up for a chance to move into the White House. WorldNetDaily is reporting that syndicated “Coast to Coast” overnight host George Noory may be on that list. Noory tells WND, “every night I am reaching out to millions of Americans on the radio and I am deeply concerned that the middle class of the United States is being sold out to multi-national corporations with a globalist agenda,” and adds “The current crop of political candidates looks out of touch.” Noory is contracted with Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks to host “Coast to Coast” through 2013.

The 2-6pm afternon drive show will be billed as “The Roe Conn Show with Richard Roeper”, and the Sun-Times columnist will be a full-fledged member of Conn’s show. Roe was most recently paired with Cisco Cotto, but new Citadel GM Michael Damsky recruits Roeper for the job. Robert Feder at Vocalo.org recalls that Roeper “began on the radio as a Sunday morning talk show host on WLS in the early 1990s and eventually landed his own Monday-Friday midday show on WLS-FM (94.7) during its run with a ‘young talk’ format from 1994-95.” The common thread, then and now, is programmer Drew Hayes. Roeper will continue his newspaper column and nationally-distributed movie review work. He’s just published a book titled “Bet the House: How I Gambled over a Grand a Day for 30 Days on Sports, Poker, and Games of Chance”.

Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker believes TV, followed by radio, will see a boost in ad spending from the auto industry. Before the recession and the auto industry meltdown, radio used to get about 15% of its revenue from the auto sector. That dropped to only about 9%, but says Ryvicker, “we believe there is still room for potential upside.” Ryvicker says the recent Toyota ad blitz due to more car acceleration issues will likely be extended past April 5. Couple that with other automakers piggy-backing on the Toyota ads, and GM bringing more dealerships back, and the potential is there for increased revenue. Read more from TVB here.

Twenty-five year old Chidi Uzomah Jr. was charged with stalking Seacrest after trying to gain access to the E! headquarters where Seacrest has his radio studio – and Uzomah was armed with a knife. Prior to that, he assaulted a security guard, and at one time tried to gain access to the studios of KIIS-FM (102.7) in Los Angeles when Seacrest was doing his morning show there. Uzomah was jailed for 15 days and given three years of probation after pleading guilty to the assault charge, and ordered to stay away from Seacrest. In this latest incident, Uzomah pleaded no contest to stalking, and will remain in jail to undergo a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. He will return to court in Los Angeles on June 14 to face a sentencing hearing. The L.A. Times reports Seacrest wrote in a declaration filed in November, “His aggressive and violent efforts to come into physical contact with me are extremely frightening to me … They have jeopardized not only my personal safety, but also the safety and well-being of those around me.”

Sunrise operates two simulcast services in the Newburgh-Middletown, NY market: oldies WGNY (1220) and WDLC (1490), and the AC “Fox Radio” simulcast of WGNY-FM (103.1) and WTSX (96.7). Original Nielsen Ratings backer Cumulus Media is also in Newburgh-Middletown, which should be in the first weeks of diary keeping for the Spring 2010 survey. Nielsen employs a sticker diary based on the research methods it has long used in Australia. It surveys about 50 smaller U.S. markets, in competition with Arbitron.

CBS Radio’s KROQ, Los Angeles (106.7) is in a pitched battle with Clear Channel’s modern rock KYSR (98.7) and CBS pushes the sex/relationship advice “Loveline” talkshow back from 10pm-midnight to a midnight start. That coincides with the return of DJ Stryker to afternoons. Nicole Alvarez now handles 8pm to midnight (instead of 7-10), followed by Dr. Drew Pinsky with Loveline. It continues to be nationally syndicated by Westwood One. The L.A. Board of Radio-Info.com talks about the CBS strategy.

He says “I’ve written a bunch of songs over the years, but none of them has ever been recorded or released" – until a recent station visit by country songwriter/singer Steve Azar to Wilson’s country KUPL, Portland turned into a songwriting session. That produced a tune Azar has now recorded and released. It’s titled “I Thought I Missed You, But I Didn’t.” Wilson voices some of the lyrics, about some “less than successful dating experiences.” After hanging out in Portland, Azar was flown back to Nashville on the Alpha corporate jet, and he quickly went into a studio and laid down the tracks for “Missed You.” A proud Larry Wilson is now working the phones on behalf of his song.

He was convicted of using a computer while committing a sex crime and pled guilty in a case where he videotaped himself having sex with a woman without her knowledge. Brandon Goddard was facing 26 days in jail and probation – that is, until he decided to call Detroit’s WRIF-FM (101.1) prior to being sentenced. WDIV-TV reports he said on the radio about the victim in the case, “This girl is a total nut job. She decided to tell the cops and say she didn’t know she was being recorded.” Goddard didn’t realize that someone in the Macomb County Prosecutor’s office was listening to WRIF, and after getting a tape of the call, played it in front of the judge prior to Goddard’s sentence. For his lack of remorse, Goddard received 63 days in jail, and the one year’s probation he was to receive was increased to three years.

For the second time in four months, white supremacist Hal Turner found himself on trial for threatening the lives of three Chicago-area Federal judges. For the second time, a jury could not reach a verdict. Turner testified that he was a paid informant for the FBI to help gather intelligence on hate groups, claiming his handlers both knew what he was saying on the radio and condoned it. Turner was arrested after threatening the three judges, saying they “deserved to be killed” for their decision against the NRA on a handgun ban, and he posted the judge’s addresses and phone numbers on his website. Turner was arrested in Connecticut prior to this case for similar threats against two state lawmakers. A new trial date, which would be his third, has been entered for Turner: April 12.

TV revenues looked much worse, percentage-wise – down 27% from the year before. But they're a much smaller part of the Miami-based SBS, accounting for $4.3 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009. While radio was about $31.6 million, down from $35 million. Operating income from both divisions was better: Radio’s improved from $12.6 million to $13.8 million and the operating loss for TV dropped from $5.6 million to $825,000. Looking just at radio, the company says local revenue trended down in all its markets. Like many other radio operators, Spanish Broadcasting System conducted an impairment test on the carrying values of its FCC licenses, and took a non-cash write-down of $8.5 million in the fourth quarter. The company remains listed on the NASDAQ, thanks to a reprieve granted following a special meeting with the exchange on January 7. It has until June 7 to get the stock price for “SBSA” back above $1 a share. It closed unchanged at 80 cents today (3/10), before the market saw the quarterly and full-year results. Study the Spanish Broadcasting System report.