by Tom Taylor | tom@in3media.com | 609.883.3321

Thursday, March 11th 2010

Automotive revs up

An “Auto Ad blitz” should help “all traditional media”, says Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker.

Radio used to get about 15% of its revenue from auto and Marci says that’s dropped to somewhere around 9% lately. Ryvicker lists five driving factors for an “auto ad blitz”, starting with Toyota’s brand-repair campaign. That was scheduled through April 5, but “may likely be extended.” There’s also GM’s reinstatement of as many as 661 dealerships who had appealed their loss of a franchise. Oh, and don’t forget “easy comparisons”, which radio’s enjoying this year as a kind of silver lining for last year’s pain. Radio should do okay with the surge in auto business, but it’s TV that will benefit most of all, on the back of major events such as the Super Bowl, the Olympics and a stream of political ads. But that’s indirectly good for radio – a tight TV market should send some spillover ad buys to radio.

All-nighter Joey Reynolds is dropped by New York-based Buckley Radio.

Why? Buckley’s WOR (710) once again has a chance to pick up a syndicated property, as it did earlier with shows such as Michael Savage and Glenn Beck. This time it’s Premiere’s “Coast to Coast with George Noory”, which lost its New York-affiliate when Citadel’s WABC (770) began airing the recently-syndicated Doug McIntyre’s “Red Eye Radio” show. WOR had not only featured Joey Reynolds in the overnight slot for the past 14 years, it syndicated him nationally through its in-house unit. “Radio’s Best Friend” Art Vuolo is also one of Joey Reynolds’ best friends, and he notes in his article for Michiguide that the WOR Radio Network had only recently secured a Detroit affiliate for Joey’s all-night show (Clear Channel’s progressive talk WDTW at 1310). Reynolds, a reformed “shock jock” who hosted the best of Broadway, showbiz and the odd and eccentric – which is what you want, overnights – will do his last show for WOR April 2. We don’t know whether Buckley’s getting any “comp” for airing Noory on WOR, but it’s at least saving a salary, though diluting its special local identity and New York-ness. The New York Board of Radio-Info.com picked up on the change yesterday.

Larry Wilson – country songwriter.

The Alpha Broadcasting CEO mentioned the song title “I Thought I Missed You, But I Didn’t” during a memorable “Town Hall” appearance to wind up this year’s Country Radio Seminar, and the audience wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. (Nobody had trouble understanding Wilson saying that he’s “pissed at Entercom” for suing his music programmer Scott Mahalick.) Turns out that “Thought I Missed You” has become a fleshed-out country song with the help of singer Steve Azar. You’ll remember that Larry promised to send the “Alpha One” jet back east to Nashville every day, to pick up artists for appearances in Alpha’s new street-level performance space in downtown Portland. That jet figures into this song. Seems that Azar was hanging at country KUPL in Portland and Wilson mentioned his idea for a title and the song. They started throwing out ideas and soon after Azar stepped off of Alpha One back in Nashville, he went into a studio. And voila – a song about love and "less than successful dating experiences”, says Alpha. Wilson voices part of it, too.

After four years of classic hits “Jack FM”, owner Tyler Media kills off KOJK (97.3) and transfers “King Country” KKNG there from its longtime home at 93.3 – which was a stronger frequency for it. Blanchard-licensed 93.3 is a Class C1 and Newcastle-licensed 97.3 is a Class A. So what will Tyler do with 93.3? That’s the mystery. No clues from Ty Tyler, who is temporarily simulcasting King Country – minus three of its familiar DJs – to move listeners to the new frequency. But some KKNG fans won’t be able to hear the new signal. Along with laying off morning personalities Bill Thomas and K.C. Sheperd plus PM driver James Ayers, Tyler is returning the positioning to traditional country. The Oklahoma Board of Radio-Info.com is chattering away about the surprise, and the reported domain registration of “933TimFM.com” – which could well be a smokescreen.

Stevens, who’s done it all in radio, from being a WMCA “Good Guy” DJ to group head and then savvy broker, can’t leave this issue alone. That’s the issue of a national rep’s relationship with its client stations. Here’s Gary – “As a Director of Saga, I watched with interest when CEO Ed Christian’s relatively innocuous comments on an earnings call sparked a brouhaha with the national rep segment. The parties have since resolved their differences, and I hasten to add that my thoughts are mine alone, and not reflective of the company. Frankly, I was stunned by the aggressive public stance taken by a vendor. The parallel with Arbitron was unmistakable...yet another example of the industry letting a supplier reshape it. In my experience, the national rep probably has the least understanding of the dynamics of local radio, and would do well to worry about its own issues. Radio is a partnership. Being dismissive of a customer is unhealthy. The de facto ability of the rep to decide who gets the order, and how much they will be paid, represents a paradigm shift that can only hurt the client. Failure to nip this in the bud will, as airline customers have discovered, only lead to more excess. While I may have gone soft in my old age, and my current view of the industry is from the front seat of a Lamborghini, I know radio doesn't need any more help making it tougher to sell. In my day, if a vendor had come at me like that, they'd have had a religious experience. The industry needs to take better control of its destiny, and that starts with reminding vendors that’s what they are. As the sole remaining major rep, there is a natural temptation for Katz to exceed its defined role. While doing that may provide a momentary rush, they need to remember that their long term prosperity is inextricably linked to that of the client base.”

The Bears, Giants and Eagles attract the biggest NFL game-day audiences in PPM.

The Chicago Bears actually have a big lead over the Giants and Eagles, with a PPM-estimated 626,600 radio listeners for the average game. The Giants do about 450,000 and the “Iggles” about 425,000. Of course PPM offers a gusher of information, and Arbitron’s new “Sports Report: “PPM Listening for Pro Football” also singles out the broadcast markets where the in-game listening to a radio flagship “averages more than 40 shares among men aged 25-54.” Those are Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Boston, Minnesota and Baltimore. Chris Meinhardt is the Arbitron Sports Manager and he promises a baseball report soon, covering the 2009 season. The “Pro Football” research includes data on 25 teams in 23 PPM markets.

We know about the public groups, from CBS and Entercom to Cumulus and Regent. But here in "Earnings Season", I’m wondering about the privately-run groups who are still so important to the industry. Here’s Day 2 of T-R-I's Radio 2010 –

“We are returning to growth in Q1 faster than we projected”, says GAPWest CEO Erik Hellum.

“There are a few key reasons for that - Both the retail and automotive categories posted growth in February, which is continuing into March. Due to demand and internal focus, spot rates are improving year over year. And while digital posted massive gains in 2009 and national and local agency returned to growth in Q4, local direct was still pacing down at the end of 2009. But now in first quarter, we are seeing local direct posting gains for the first time in a year and a half. Main Street is finally, albeit slowly, starting to heal (and I think this healing process will take a long time). Our digital focus continues to pay off, with revenues up 30%+ in Q1 and representing over 6.5% of our total revenue. There is one other thing: 2009 was a tough year and we certainly had to make our cutbacks like everyone else. That said, we kept our best people, didn’t shrink sales staffs (in fact added to them), retained our top on-air talent, invested a lot of money in our digital future, and worked hard to make our stations better and more connected to our listeners and our community. We are seeing that focus pay off in 2010.”

Rolland Johnson is the Chairman and CEO of Three Eagles Companies and he says "We started to see improved numbers in November, even compared with political dollars from '08. Then we had the worst weather on record in the upper Midwest, in both January and February. It would make the East coast storms look like Disney World by comparison. Stores were closed and people weren't shopping. So we were up slightly in January and down a bit in January." But after snow-plowing through the inclement weather, Johnson says "We're not trying to look through rose-colored glasses [but] we are optimistic about the future. We have good salespeople, well-trained people who are working very hard." More of T-R-I’s Radio 2010 tomorrow. Got your own contribution about Q4 results, first quarter trends or the general vibe? I’m at Tom@in3media.com.

Spanish Broadcasting System’s Q4 – Radio revenues down 9%.

SBS Raul Alarcon is no longer holding conference calls with analysts and taking questions, but he does release some details on the quarter. Yes, radio revenues were down 9%, from $35 million to $31.7 million. But percentage-wise, the TV division fared much worse, off 27% from the fourth quarter of 2008. But it’s still radio that drives things at SBS, with radio revenues (that $31.7 million figure) dwarfing television (about $4.3 million). Operating income from radio improves from $12.6 million to $13.8 million and the operating loss for TV shrank from $5.6 million to $825,000. Looking just at radio, the company says local revenue trended down in all 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 Q4. The company remains listed on the NASDAQ, thanks to a reprieve following a special meeting on January 7. It has until June 7 to get the stock price back above $1 a share. “SBSA” hasn’t closed above a buck since July 2008. Yesterday it was unchanged at 80 cents. The full SBS report is here.

One T-R-I reader scans the 119 words and phrases and observes that a boss at a TV station once had a similar list – “though that one didn’t come from the CEO, like this one.” Robert Feder at Vocalo.org says “WGN staffers are at a loss for words”, after finding out that Michaels is banning commonly-used words such as “alleged”, “authorities” and “auto accident.” (And that’s just from the “As.”) What Michaels really wants to do is freshen up the station’s news presentation, I think, and vacuum up clichés such as “fatal death” (there’s another kind?), “medical hospital”, “complete surprise”, “senseless murder” and “perfect storm.” Raising awareness of worn-out usages is a good thing. And there are some PPM-related things that should be on a “banned” list in any People Meter market. Phrases like “We’ll be right back” and “after these commercial messages” are killers. With punch-happy PPM-wearers, you might as well just say “Seeya.” But phrases like “sources say” and words like “undisclosed” are pretty handy. Maybe the oddest part of the Michaels memo is the monitoring. Feder says the WGN news director is asking his people to “report any on-air infractions by co-workers, making sure to note the precise time and date on ‘bingo cards.’” Feder calls that “just plain creepy.” The Chicago Board at Radio-Info.com is searching for its own words.

Today’s Ross On Radio – Two “firsts” – “First Sign of Summer Songs” and “First Listen to Jelli on WPST.”

One of Sean Ross’ perennial fascinations is which song will be the anthem that’s forever associated with a particular Summer. It’s only March and the our executive VP of music & programming here at Radio-Info.com says the recent 15 inches snow in north Jersey have barely melted away. But he’s already getting hunches about the “Summer Song”, at least in country. (Little Big Town's "Little White Church", perhaps?) Today’s “Ross On Records” section visits the intersection of country and rock (remember the Kentucky Headhunters?). And Sean happily reports on Tuesday night’s action of the crowd-sourced “Jelli” feature on hot AC WPST, Trenton/Philadelphia. If you’re not getting Ross On Radio every Tuesday and Thursday, take a moment and sign up here.

In the Texas state capital of Austin – Four different stations have been #1 (for age 12+ AQH share) in the last four books, but country KVET is bidding to repeat from Fall. It won’t be a cake-walk, though. It’s fallen 6.9-6.3 while Clear Channel sister country KASE is steady at a 5.9. And Entercom AC “Majic” KKMJ is running 5.5-6.0.

Gainesville, Florida – Entercom talker WSKY-FM has shown real ups and downs since last Winter – 9.0 to 6.8 to 5.9 to 9.6 and now a 10.2. It occupies second place, behind Dix-owned "K-Country" WOGK – up 10.1 to 13.9.

Charleston, SC – Citadel’s urban AC “Magic 107.3” WMGL keeps growing and is now fourth. It’s improved 4.5-5.2-5.8 since the Summer. Rival urban AC “Star 99.7” WXST, owned by Apex, hasn’t been troubled by that movement – it’s gone 10.1 to 10.3 to 10.8, and remains #1.

In the Michigan state capital of Lansing – Citadel owns all five of the top five stations listed by Arbitron, starting with country WITL (11.2-10.4). But Lansing is a “subscriber-only market”, meaning that non-subscribers aren’t listed in the data that’s released to the public. The other Citadel top performers, lined up behind WITL – CHR WJIM-FM (8.6), AC WFMK (7.2), talk WJIM-AM (6.3) and classic rock WMMQ (5.8).

» Arbitrons Phase I Arbitrends back to top » 38. Austin - 1,412,100 79. Baton Rouge - 565,900 81. Gainesville-Ocala - 563,400 83. Charleston - 554,900 102. Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol - 464,700 122. Jackson - 396,000 125. Lansing-East Lansing - 387,000 Click on the city to review recently released Arbitron ratings. View a complete list of Arbitron markets here.

» Buzzing on the Boards back to top » Biz-talk in Orlando - Salem has apparently broken up its Orlando-area Christian teaching simulcast to put business talk on WHIM, Apopka, FL (1520). Sister WTLN, Orlando (950) remains in the Christian format, says a poster on the Orlando Board of Radio-Info.com. Salem has recently added financial talk to its clusters in several west coast markets, so this is the latest in a trend. “Loveline” starts two hours later on its flagship, CBS Radio’s KROQ, Los Angeles (106.7). That gives KROQ two more hours of music, at a time when it’s fending off Clear Channel’s modern rock attacker KYSR (98.7). It also coincides with the return of Stryker to afternoons. KROQ’s Kevin Weatherly positions the music-playing Nicole Alvarez from 8pm to midnight (instead of 7-10). So now Dr. Drew Pinsky-hosted Loveline – syndicated by Westwood – runs midnight to 2am, instead of 10pm to midnight. (Just checking this week's guests – last night was former adult film star and Dr. Drew patient Kendra Jade, tonight is actress/singer/songwriter Aly Michalka, who starred in the Disney Channel’s “Phil of the Future”). The L.A. Board of Radio-Info.com has some early opinions on the strategy. » Sound Bites back to top » Pittsburgh-area WZUM, Carnegie, PA (1590) is silent, reportedly with an unpaid landlord and a lock on the door. WZUM is licensed to Believe & Achieve Family and Educational Center, and it’s got 1-kw daytime and 24 watts after sundown. Skip Joeckel’s Talk Shows USA goes short – short-form, that is. Skip’s specialty has been long-form programming such as the Cigar Dave Show, Gun Talk with Tom Gresham, the Money Pit, Auto World with Bob Long, Free Talk Live and “Small Business Advocate” Jim Blasingame. Now Skip says “PDs and sales manager are interested in short-form features" that their sales departments can sell. So on the way – Joeckel’s going to “spotlight short-form features” on the website. That becomes an efficient place to shop for features about home improvement, high tech, autos and lifestyle. Sales consultant Jim “Taz” Taszarek is offering advice on selling the short-forms locally. Tom Kent Radio Network to supply new lunchtime "Your Request Live" and afternoon drive shows to Citadel Media. The PM drive program "for all contemporary music formats" will use Kent's "CLASS" customization software. (The acronym stands for Customized Linked Automatic System Solution.) The request-focused lunchtime program has the capability for Kent to answer local-affiliate phone calls. Citadel Media already has the evening "Tom Kent", Saturday night "Ultimate Party" and Sunday night "My 70s Show" in its portfolio. Morning Show Boot Camp’s “Bring someone free” offer expires March 31, with the chance to get a free registration if you pay for at least two people to attend Talentmasters' 22nd annual Morning Show Boot Camp. It’s in New Orleans August 5-7 (yes, August in New Orleans, so don’t pack the long johns). Don Anthony’s also got a “cluster purchase rate” and an “in-between gigs” Tweener Rate – a strategy that worked for the recent Country Radio Seminar. Details here. » Faces on the Radio back to top » Trip Savery is Rick Feinblatt’s choice to be Director of Sales for Greater Media’s properties in Charlotte – talk WBT-AM/FM (1110/99.3) and Bob & Sheri homebase (“personality AC”) WLNK at 107.9. Savery spent the last 14 years with Don Curtis at Curtis Media in Raleigh, most recently as a Senior VP and the GM of country WQDR (94.7). The Chapel Hill native moves to Charlotte as of March 23. Ted Sarandis has done more than 30 years of radio around Boston and was recently inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame. Now he’ll create the “Ted Nation” Sunday evening show for CBS-owned “Sports Hub” WBZ-FM (98.5), beginning with an NCAA March Madness show this weekend. The Boston Board of Radio-Info.com is on the story, now. Darrin Klayman doesn’t have the vogue-ish word “multi-platform” in his new title, but that’s the sense of it – he’s the Vice President of Corporate Sales for Citadel Broadcasting and will also work across the room with Citadel Media. The company says “he will lead the development of new advertising revenue across the portfolio of assets including radio, digital, events and mobile.” Klayman reports to EVP Mike Pallad, and he’ll have to get used to not answering the phone “Katz” – because he spent the last 22 years there, most recently as Senior VP-Director of Network Sales. Steve Cole and Bill Cochran will host new specialty shows for Chicago’s smooth jazz "87.7FM", the Channel 6-based WLFM-LP. “Sittin’ In With Steve Cole” brings the famed sax player front-and-center for a Wednesday evening show. “Dinner Party with Bill Cochran” is designed to help Chicago entertain (and be entertained) on Saturday nights, 6-10pm. Ron Lundy needs some good thoughts and positive energy sent his way. Approaching 76, the former WABC and WCBS-FM, New York personality had already lost a lung to cancer surgery, and now he’s in the hospital again after a series of ministrokes two weeks ago (says the Daily News). They’re in the process of taking him off a ventilator (the tube was removed on Tuesday), and that’s a good sign. Lundy met Dan Ingram in St. Louis in the mid-1960s and they both came to top 40 WABC (770). Lundy jocked there from 1965 until WABC went talk on May 10, 1982. He eventually transferred to oldies WCBS-FM (101.1) and worked there from 1984 until his retirement to Mississippi in 1997. The New York Board of Radio-Info.com has a thread going about Ron Lundy. » Classifieds back to top » Miami Dolphins Integrated Media Sales Group Account Executives Responsible for developing Integrated Media Campaigns for new customers utilizing one or multiple Miami Dolphins Media Assets: Broadcast / Digital Video Print / Digital Publications Broadcast / Digital Audio (Radio Play-by-Play and Shoulder Programming) In-Stadium and Out-of-Stadium Association, Events and Sponsorships New customer development skills need to include a complete understanding of the strategic and conceptual sales process from suspect to renewal, as well as, a strong acumen and proven track record for uncovering and understanding customer marketing / sales needs; ability to develop a creative marketing / promotional solution utilizing multiple media assets to communicate a concept; and a passion for learning about new media and integrated media selling. We are committed to serving our fans and advertisers in the General and Hispanic Media Markets. Contact: Jim Rushton SVP Corporate Partnerships and Integrated Media Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Stadium jrushton@dolphins.com