by Tom Taylor | tom@in3media.com | 609.883.3321
Monday, February 8th 2010
Toyota is still rolling
 Toyota dealers may be frustrated, but they’re still running radio spots, says Media Monitors.
The service provides T-R-I with the weeklies for January 11-17 – before the embarrassing publicity – and January 29-February 4. That’s when a succession of revelations and recalls stunned Toyota dealers, who were suddenly unable to sell eight models and were avalanched by calls from customers about the “sudden acceleration” recall. For the earlier week, the one in mid-January, Media Monitors detected a total of 19,220 ads in the markets and stations it follows. For the week when Toyota’s name was in the headlines every day, that figure declined - but not to zero. Media Monitors found 11,419 spots running that week. Some of them were for Toyota’s Lexus and Scion brands and of course not every Toyota model was involved in the quality issue. So dealers want to get the word out and they're turning to radio.
"Dead husband" phone scam earns a $16,000 fine for New York’s “La Mega” – with a warning about license revocation.
The FCC cautions WSKQ (97.9) owner Spanish Broadcasting System with this second $16,000 fine that “we exercise discretion in not imposing a higher forfeiture." The base amount is $4,000, if that tells you how seriously the Commission takes this. It says “future violations of this nature may result in harsher enforcement action, including license revocation proceedings.” The agency isn’t kidding. It takes the “phone notification rule”, protecting innocent people from having their voices used on the air without permission, quite seriously. In this case, “La Mega” WSKQ-FM claimed that the phone scam that aired twice on August 23, 2007 was the product of an outside contractor. The FCC doesn’t care. It holds the licensee responsible. And it doesn’t matter that after the terrifying call from a hospital “doctor” informing a woman that her husband has died following a motorcycle accident, the scammer called back to get her permission. Or – that her husband was playing along with the gag. The wife was literally crying at the end of the call, and the FCC is on her side. It labels the call "entertainment at the expense of an individual's right to privacy." Read the transcript of the phone scam and the FCC’s stern reprimand of SBS here.
 Another phone-notification fine from the FCC, though it wasn’t a phone prank.
An employee of Augusta-market WAAW, Williston, SC (94.7) called three local airport officials on March 23, 2006 and aired the conversations without telling them they were on the air. Licensee Rejoynetwork argued that the talk host identified himself and said he was calling from the station. But the FCC says "mere identification of oneself by name and as calling from a radio station" isn't adequate notice. It must be clear that someone is either going to be talking on the air or being recorded for that purpose – before they start talking. The $4,000 was first issued back on October 16, 2008, and it’s now turned into a Forfeiture Order. Read the circumstances here.
Cowboys great Michael Irvin loses his gig at “ESPN 103.3”-Dallas after a civil lawsuit alleging rape.
The July 4-5, 2007 incident at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida was reported to the police two weeks later, but they declined to prosecute. They did forward their information to the Broward County authorities, says the Miami Herald. No criminal charges were ever filed, and now there’s a civil lawsuit filed by the woman. The Herald says she and Irvin’s attorney held talks about a settlement, which Irvin’s lawyer characterized as “attempts at extortion.” Now, Disney-owned KESN, Dallas drops Irvin from the lineup. ESPN in Bristol, CT tells Barry Horn at the Dallas Morning News that Irvin’s show hadn’t been doing well and they had “previously determined to end” it. The woman's suit “expedited the situation.” Meanwhile the Dallas Board of Radio-Info.com picks up KESN’s super-quick hiring of Big D veterans Ben & Skin to replace Irvin.
 Station owner Cecil Heftel was one in a million – and $1 million was a number he liked.
Give “Cec” credit for helping popularize big-money giveaways and understanding the value of marketing. He also grasped the demographic changes that Hispanics were bringing to America. Heftel (“hef-TELL”) died Thursday in San Diego at age 85, leaving behind many admirers. He got into radio in the 1950s and managed stations in Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. John Rook worked for him at Denver’s KIMN and says on his website that Heftel was "one of the most unforgettable early top 40 giants...a showman with an appreciation of on-air talent that he financially rewarded handsomely." In 1965 Heftel landed in Hawaii and bought KGMB radio and TV. KGMB (590) became KSSK and Heftel later bought and sold a couple of FMs, including what is now market-leading KSSK-FM (92.3). He acquired stations on the mainland, too, in cities such as Los Angeles, Miami and Pittsburgh (the legendary 13Q) and discovered the allure of large cash prizes. Erika Engle at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin once worked for Heftel and tells me what happened after famed personality Aku (Hal Lewis) died – “Cec gave away $1 million to help ensure the success of the new morning team, Michael W. Perry and Larry Price.” She recalls “the mountain of paper on the stage” at a local ballroom, with Mike and Larry “on stage in tuxes when they announced the winner.” Heftel had political ambitions and represented Hawaii in the U.S. House from 1976-1986, when he resigned to run for governor. His company eventually became part of what's now Univision. More about “Cec” from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
  “The time has arrived for the FCC to approach the Canadian and Mexican governments” about AM frequencies…
…says GA-Carolina Radiocasting CEO and AM-band fan Art Sutton. His response to last week's discussion in T-R-I about Corus shutting down 50-kw “Canadian clears” CINF (690) and CINW (940) in Montreal looks both north of the border and south. He argues that many Canadian and Mexican AMs are leaving the band for FM. So “why should U.S. stations which operate on the channels (540, 690, 730, 740, 800, 860, 900, 940, 990, 1010, 1050, 1220, 1550 and 1580) be required to protect a silent frequency? At present, U.S. stations operating on these channels must protect the nearest border to Mexico and/or Canada.” Sutton says “It would seem the time has arrived for the FCC or the appropriate governmental agency to approach both the Canadian and Mexican governments about a relaxing of the protection to their clear channels. If not a total elimination of those protection levels, perhaps protection levels to their interference free nighttime contours. Obviously the United States will continue to operate on the AM band long after Mexico and Canada have left for FM. It's no longer fair, and the United States must protect their AM clear channel frequencies.” Can it make a difference? Read on –
When Montreal’s 940 went dark, you could hear a Massachusetts station in Canada.
I’m told the chief engineer at Montreal’s CINW (940) called the U.S. station to say he was picking up WGFP, Webster, MA. And WGFP has nowhere near the signal of the signed-off 50,000 watt CINW – it’s licensed for 1,000 watts daytime and 4 watts at night. But with the right ground conductivity and no co-channel interference, it can travel great distances. These “Canadian clear” sign-offs are a reminder of how the radio dial worked in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, before the FCC began licensing many local AMs when the World War II freeze was lifted. In the 1930s it was common to listen to stations hundreds of miles away. Nashville’s WSM at 650 and Cincinnati’s WLW at 700 blanketed much of the population of the U.S.
 Green Bay’s newest FM signed on Friday doing conservative talk.
That was picked up by the Wisconsin Board of Radio-Info.com. WTAQ-FM (97.5) takes the branding of its highly-rated AM sister WTAQ (1360), and it’s the station that Duke Wright’s Midwest Communications bought from Randy Michaels’ Radioactive LLC last year for $1,725,000. Michaels acquired the construction permit for what was then a Class A FM on 97.1 at Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and moved it in to Glenmore (still as a Class A) at 97.5. Michaels paid $628,500 for the CP in the FCC’s Auction #37, so it was a nice payoff for him. A poster on the Wisconsin Board of says WTAQ-FM’s broadcasting from the “the old analog TV site for WFRV, Channel 5.” The Wisconsin-Board thread is here. 
Indiana University color man Todd Leary is arrested on real-estate fraud charges.
His attorney Ginny Maxwell tells “Fan 1070” WFNI, Indianapolis host Dan Dakich she doesn’t understand why the arrest was timed to occur just before one of the Hoosiers’ biggest games of the year, against Purdue. Especially since the allegations concerned his activities with title insurance broker Joseph Garretson over a year ago. (Garretson has pleaded guilty, says the Indianapolis Star.) There are some close connections here – attorney Maxwell works with Dan Dakich’s brother Thomas P. Dakich, and Dan coached Todd Leary when he played basketball for the Hoosiers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For now, rightsholder Learfield Sports says play-by-play man Don Fischer will work solo. Joe Smith still does pre-game, post-game, and the welcome half-time breaks for Fischer. Check the podcast of Dan Dakich’s chat with Ginny Maxwell here.
 Want more news during the day?
You’re one those folks who compulsively looks for breaking news about radio, right? Satisfy the itch at the News page of Radio-Info.com. Go here, and bookmark it -
Revised Arbitron Fall-book ratings for Atlantic City –
What was the impact of those two “media-affiliated diaries” that Arbitron excised from the numbers re-posted on Friday? Instead of a 3.8 share (age 12+ AQH), classic rock WMGM has a 3.1. While Atlantic Broadcasting sister WTKU, doing classic hits, has a 3.4 instead of the original 3.6. Again, there's no finger-pointing from Arbitron about the company itself. Next up on the Arbitron calendar – the January PPM book, covering January 7 through February 3. That’s due February 24-26. Both Arbitron diary numbers and PPM numbers are available any time on the Ratings Page here.
» Arbitrons Fall Quarterly Books, diary-based
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» Buzzing on the Boards
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“Snowmageddon” at the Jersey Shore takes some stations down, at least temporarily. One New Jersey Board poster kept reporting in from his Atlantic City hotel room, to say (on Saturday) “I think all of the Cape May County stations are or were off the air” and he listed the frequencies. Some came back on later Saturday, and the NJ Board carried this “5:25 Super Bowl morning” post from engineer Neal Newman – “I’m just about ready to leave the house for the 100-mile trek down to Ocean City to get WIBG-AM/FM back on the air. Crazy weekend.” By the way – Newman is largely the inspiration for the “Jerry Seinfeld” character named “Newman.” Check the New Jersey Board here.
 The ultimate franchise refresher for “American Idol” – Howard Stern replacing Simon Cowell? When his Sirius XM deal’s up in December, will Stern be idle – taking it easy – or “Idol”? The report in the New York Post has the New York Board of Radio-Info.com positively vibrating about the possibilities of Stern taking the “tough cop” role at American Idol. The paper quotes two sources saying they’ve had conversations, though here are some negatives from Stern’s standpoint – he prefers New York to L.A. and the next Simon Cowell would need to spend significant time in Los Angeles. There would also be time spent on the road in regional tryouts. And from Idol’s position – there’s the danger that Stern could take over the show. He’s a fabulous interviewer and you know he could take over the camera time. See what the New York Board is saying, now.
Bold Gold Media may go talk on its new FM in Northeastern Pennsylvania, says one poster on the NEPA Board of Radio-Info.com – and then go sports on its new AM simulcast. The FM is WLNP, Carbondale. The former AC “Lite 94.3” is temporarily simulcasting with Bold Gold’s classic hits “River 105” WWRR. The silent AMs are WNAK, Nanticoke (730) and WCDL, Carbondale (1440). Follow the conversation and speculation on the NEPA Board.
» Wheeling & Dealing
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In South Carolina, religious broadcaster Radio Training Network buys currently-silent WYOR, Cross Hill (94.1). Seller is Stanley Griffin-run Big Fish Broadcasting LLC and the price for the Class A station outside of Greenwood is $350,000 cash. (If you draw a line between the state capital of Columbia and Greenville, headed “upstate”, you’ll find Cross Hill just a bit south of that line.) Last October 20, Big Fish filed to take WYOR silent “due to financial difficulties.” Griffin and his associates have interests in three other stations in South Carolina (like the silent WKSC, Kershaw at 1300) and two in Eufaula, Alabama. Buyer Radio Training Network is based in Lakeland, Florida and its president James Campbell oversees a growing Southeastern empire of 15 non-commercial Christian stations in Florida, the Carolinas and Georgia (with one FM in Springfield, MO). Radio Training also owns commercial Contemporary Christian WIZB (94.3) in the Dothan, Alabama market, and it holds the construction permit for the future WZAE, Wadley GA (93.3). Brokers – South Carolina-based Todd Fowler for seller Big Fish, and Mark Jorgenson of Jorgenson Broadcast Brokerage for the buyer.
Arthur Liu sells Orlando-area AM WUNA, Ocoee (1480) for $750,000. Buyer J&V Communications – Jesus and Virgen Torrado – makes the regional Mexican station their fifth property in central Florida. Their “Kadena Fantastica” already owns Spanish talk WSDO, Sanford (1400), Spanish WPRD, Winter Park (1440), Spanish WOTS, Kissimmee (1220) and currently-silent WTJV, Deland (1490), up north toward Daytona Beach. Their newest acquisition, WUNA, has 1-kw daytime and 71 watts at night, in the lake country west of Orlando. Seller is Arthur Liu’s Way Broadcasting, and Liu’s owned it for ten years. The Torrados are putting $75,000 down now and paying the rest in cash at closing.
 No “Trojan Horse” here – everybody knows what the move to Troy is all about. A migratory Missouri AM sells for $230,000, assuming the license for KYRO (1280) can be successfully moved from Potosi, Missouri to the tower of KFNS-FM, Troy (100.7). The buyers (KYRO Group LLC) are based in Troy, and part of the sale agreement is that Plateau Management Services will do the engineering needed to move the station about 75 miles away from Potosi. KYRO Group (James Beck, Jason Mensinger, Michael Noonan) will pay $190,000 by closing, plus another $40,000 if KYRO moves up to them in Troy. KYRO currently has 1-kw day time and 84 watts at night.
» Sound Bites
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 Washington Redskins fave John Riggins will not only get a radio show on WTOP-FM’s HD-3 channel, says Dave Hughes at DCRTV - the new 4-7pm radio sports talk show probably sets the stage for a cable-cast. DCRTV’s followup to its earlier report about a Riggins signing says “TV engineers have been seen in the first-floor studio at 3400 Idaho Avenue NW, where Riggins will be doing his show, installing HD gear plus lights and cameras.” So the speculation is about a simulcast on a cable service like Comcast SportsNet or MASN, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.
 Around South Puget Sound/Tacoma, forward movement on a “Bigfoot” plan to bring Jodesha Broadcasting’s KANY (93.7) closer to the area. This chain of events begin in Port Angeles, Washington, at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula, with an unbuilt allocation for a Class A at 93.7. What the FCC granted on Friday was a change in the allocation table from 93.7 to 102.1, still as a Class A for Port Angeles. Step 2 in this three-part exercise involves “Bigfoot Country” KANY. It’s a C3 at 93.7 in Ocean Shores in the Aberdeen-Hoquiam market, southwest of Seattle. It will upgrade from a C3 to C0 (C-Zero), still at 93.7. Then it wants to move to Montesano, which is closer to the South Sound. Step 3 involves AC KSWW at 102.1. It’s traveling the opposite way from KANY, downgrading from a C3 to a C2, and re-licensing from Montesano to Ocean Shores. That replaces the Ocean Shores allocation of KANY and keeps the Commission happy. Read the FCC’s Report & Order here.
New Generation Programming announces the talent for its “Nuts & Bolts Mainstream CHR” format, aimed at what Chuck Geiger calls “economically-challenged small and medium market radio” stations. Albie Dee, Sonja, Austin Henry and Tony Banks have enlisted for the “New Gen Hits Crew.” Jude Corbett will voice the CHR format when it launches February 22.
 Seven people linked to the U.S.-funded Farsi-language Radio Farda have been arrested in Iran. The government is probably trying to discourage demonstrations at next Thursday’s anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah and set up an Islamist government. Iran accuses the seven staffers of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s Radio Farda of playing a role in the violent late-December demonstrations in Tehran, and says some were working with the CIA.
Mike Tyler’s Broadcast Affiliate Syndicators will rep “Hit Parade Radio” from Earthworks Entertainment. Mike and his dad John Tyler built the pioneering SMN (Satellite Music Network) in the 1980s and Mike went on to work with Jones Radio Networks in sales management and other roles. He worked with ad-delivery company Digital Courier International, and now runs his own Broadcast Affiliate Syndicators, based in his familiar surroundings of Dallas (where SMN was). The music format “Hit Parade Radio”, as envisioned by programmer John Rook, launches this week. Tyler says Rook “has designed Hit Parade to put the fun back in radio.”
Riverside-market KWRM (1370) has its tower snapped in half, probably by winds. The latest CGC Communicator carries a couple of pictures by Dick Vosper of what an AM tower looks like when it’s lying broken on the ground following meteorological violence. The station is KWRM, Corona, CA and it has been airing a mixture of brokered ethnic programming, including shows in Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Samoan. It “strives to become the most successful multi-lingual radio station in America.” KWRM is licensed for 5-kw days and 2.5-kw nights. It’s owned by Major Market Stations, Inc.
» Faces on the Radio
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Frank Feeley is the new GSM for the Sovereign City cluster in Ft. Myers/Naples – the hip-standards “Timeless Cool” simulcast of WMYR (1410) and WCNZ (1660) and oldies WVOI (1480). The Ft. Myers News-Press says Frank’s worked in radio sales in Cape Cod and Orlando and knows Ft. Myers from 15 years on the job.
Linda Smith is the new Executive Chairman of the RAB – the UK Radio Advertising Bureau, that is. She came from the TV side years ago to Capital Radio, then worked in the agency world as chief executive of StarCom MediaVest. The Executive Chairman role at the RAB is a new one, advocating for the UK’s commercial radio sector, and it reports to RadioCentre Chief Andrew Harrison.
 Frank Magid, “an amazing visionary”, says onetime Frank N. Magid Associates staffer Jon Coleman of Coleman Research, died Friday at 78. Most of the encomiums in the press will be about how he worked behind the scenes to transform and contemporize TV news in his five decades as a consultant. But Magid (“MAG-id”) had a major effect on radio, directly and indirectly, through the talented cadre of researchers and consultants who made their own marks on the business. Those included Bill Moyes, Jon Coleman, Fred Jacobs, Alan Burns, Doug Jones, Bruce Fohr and Bob Harper, and they brought modern research techniques and strategic thinking into what had mostly been seat-of-the-pants radio. Jon Coleman tells me “Frank changed the way radio and TV and all subsequent media companies ran/run their businesses – rather than just guessing what people want, research it.” Jon says it all happened “from the cornfields of Iowa…my office there really did look out onto a cornfield.” “News Doctor” Magid kept his business based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He died in Santa Barbara of cancer, reports KCRG-TV.
Captain Mel Berman was "one of the true good guys in our business", Gabe Hobbs tells T-R-I - "both literally and figuratively." Mel had been on the air on Florida for four decades and worked until the weekend before he died (last Friday). Gabe knew Captain Mel from Tampa's WFLA (970), where he hosted "Florida's most popular radio fishing show" for 27 years. The "Captain Mel" show was sometimes #1 in its Saturday morning timeslot. Before that, Berman had been a top 40 jock at WHB, Kansas City and a "WMCA Good Guy" in New York in the 1960s. He later worked with the high-powered Metromedia news team in New York, and programmed Pittsburgh's WJAS, an early news/talker. Mel settled in Florida around 1970. As a poster on the Tampa-St. Pete Board of Radio-Info.com says, they "had the pleasure of knowing him at 'FLA...and by the way, a great set of pipes!"
Sins – Programmer Ray Massie’s destination in Billings is classic rock “Hawk” KHMK (95.5). T-R-I reader Rebecca Pixley noticed that in Friday’s story I gave the Hawk the East coast call letters of WMHK, a station which she says is “alive and well in South Carolina.” Ray’s also taking on “Cat Country” KTCR (102.9) and beginning some project work with Albright & O’Malley. Speaking of country - the 41st Country Radio Seminar starts just two weeks from tomorrow (February 23) with the Tuesday evening Country Music DJ and Radio Hall of Fame Dinner, and the Wednesday Keynote by Dave Ramsey. I'll be there to cover it for you - Tom Taylor
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