by Tom Taylor | tom@in3media.com | 609.883.3321

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Another diplomatic win for Arbitron

Spanish Broadcasting System is back on board with PPM.

Arbitron CEO Bill Kerr keeps soothing his customers and bringing them back into the fold – even if some privately still aren’t 100% happy about it. First, Arbitron engineered the crucial global settlement with the PPM Coalition and House Oversight Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns. Then Spanish Broadcasting System resumed encoding. (So did rival Univision, though on a different schedule from SBS.) Now Arbitron actually has Spanish Broadcasting System on board as a subscriber to the People Meter service in its five mainland U.S. markets. Those are New York (including “La Mega” WSKQ/97.9), Los Angeles (“La Raza” KLAX/97.9), Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. SBS Chief Revenue Officer and New York market manager Frank Flores says the company has "reached an amicable resolution with Arbitron” and extended its contract as a subscriber to the ratings. SBS was among the minority broadcasting groups which claimed the PPM was under-representing minority listeners and harming black and Hispanic stations. Yesterday morning’s announcement was good for the stock of Arbitron (up $1.04 to $29.96, or nearly 4%) and SBS (up 7 cents to $1.77).

It was apparently a fire that began in an electrical panel associated with the stations – causing a total loss of those facilities and the neighboring Xpress Graphics business. Five of Cameron's six area stations are off, says VP of Operations Craig Powers. Cameron says on the websites of its country KFLG (94.7) and – irony alert –“Lucky 98” KLUK that “our studios in Bullhead were destroyed by fire in the early morning hours [Wednesday], along with several other businesses in our complex.” There’s some good news, though – “our studios in Kingman and Lake Havasu City remain in operation. The management is currently seeking new Bullhead City offices and hope to be back on the air, in full operation, as quickly as possible.” The Cameron cluster also includes talk KAAA, Kingman (1230). More on the Phoenix Board of Radio-Info.com.

The Radio-Info.com site - now faster, easier to navigate, and more sharable on your social network pages.

We heard you: Users like you have told us they love the site, with its discussion boards and features and ratings and breaking news, but they want it to run faster and be more functional. We've been working on it for months, and now the new version is up and running. We think we've improved the navigation, the subscription sign-up process for our newsletters, and the overall look. It's also now easier to share and post on your social networking pages. All the things you like on Radio-Info, one of the most-visited sites in the radio realm, are still there - and easier to read. Got a comment about it? Let us know, please.

It’s just what the experts at the recent BIA/Kelsey were saying – AT&T can’t afford to offer unlimited data usage, because its system is strained to capacity in markets like New York and San Francisco. Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan said in his keynote that AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega has been watching the consumption patterns soar off the charts. Smulyan says “AT&T’s data use has grown almost 5,000% in the last 12 quarters” and de la Vega knows that 3% of his customers use 40% of his data. Those are mostly likely iPhone owners – and just wait until Apple introduces the new iPhone 4.0 OS, which permits multitasking. Bottom line – AT&T concludes that it can no longer live with $29.95-a-month unlimited data fees. As of Monday, it’s introducing a new tiered system that starts with a $15 monthly charge for downloads of up to 200 megabytes of data. That’s about 400 web pages or 20 minutes of video. If your usage goes beyond that, it’s another $15 for the next 200 megs. Current subscribers will be grandfathered in, but they can probably expect to be transferred to the new tariff when their current deal’s up. There’s a lively discussion about Internet radio – like its economics – on the “Business of Radio” Board of Radio-Info.com.

NPR boss Vivian Schiller gets headlines predicting “Internet-equipped cars”– but member stations hear something else.

The tension between Washington-based NPR and the member stations who pay the bills may be increasing, with Schiller saying it doesn’t matter to her how NPR listeners get their Morning Edition or All Things Considered. Barron’s quotes her from the D8 “All Things Digital” conference saying she’s agnostic about the delivery platform. She says the strategy isn’t hurting terrestrial stations. The total audience for NPR stations just hit 34 million with the average listener tuning in for six hours a week. Schiller says the digital delivery methods are additive and there’s no cannibalization (stations might add "yet"). Schiller’s the former NYTimes.com executive who took over NPR last Fall, and she’s clearly tuned into digital. And she didn’t come to NPR from a public radio station. Her comments about Internet delivery will earn the most headlines in the general press. Schiller believes that all cars will have Internet capability fairly soon. And – the big worry for member stations – she thinks that over the next 5 to 10 years, Internet radio will succeed broadcast radio. NPR recently showed its faith in digital by completing re-writing its software to accommodate the iPad – and Schiller says that’s already paying off.

The coming iPhone 4.0 operating system, which allows multitasking, will finally let iPhone users play Pandora in the background, and that could increase usage. But TechCrunch points out the double-edged sword for Pandora – more listening means higher music royalties. Last year its revenues were about $50 million and Pandora paid $28 million to SoundExchange. But venture capitalists see the huge number of registered users – 50 million or more – and they want in, especially since the amounts of money are still small by dot-com standards. Tim Westergren-run Pandora has raised about $56 million in previous rounds of funding. This just-completed round was led by GGV Capital and had participation by Herb Allen-led Allen & Company. Pandora announces the new funding but not the amount. If this were 10-12 years ago, Pandora would’ve already been taken public and would probably have a market cap of zillions, on relatively slender revenue. But the dot-com crash made everybody gun-shy about IPOs. Pandora did get noticed when it recently hired Steve Cakebread as its CFO. Cakebread was the CFO who helped SalesForce.com go public. The immediate revenue growth prospects for Pandora are probably in advertising, and not the $1 they start charging after you listen more than 40 hours a month. That’s what the venture capitalists want a piece of.

Jeff Smulyan begins his tender offer to take Emmis private.

The terms are – you can offer to sell your shares of “EMMS” now for $2.40 a share. Or you can wait to see if the tender offer is successful, and if is, you’ll automatically have to sell at the same $2.40 a share (you get a “right to receive the offer price”). Smulyan’s partner in the buyout is Alden Global Capital and they’ve got a low threshold to meet – all they need is a majority of the outstanding Class A shareholders. That’s a lower hurdle than, say, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners faced when they took over Clear Channel in 2008. Smulyan-owned JS Acquisition Inc. is doing the tender offer and will merge into Emmis when the process is complete. Technically, the deal also requires approval by a majority of the Emmis super-voting Class B shares – but Jeff already owns all of those. One dealmaker points out something about Alden Global Capital, which looks for “distressed” situations. All the convertible preferred stock that it’s holding now will be converted into new debt in the form of 12% notes. The dealmaker says “Jeff better keep making the payments, or Alden will wind up with more of his company.” Meanwhile, the “EMMS” stock gets close to the $2.40 price, gaining a nickel yesterday to $2.26.

Details about Emmis Interactive’s new iTunes tagging for analog broadcasts.

Emmis and Broadcast Electronics have come up with "TagStation", the software needed to do all the back-end work for iTunes tagging. Two steps here - You’ll be able to integrate with iTunes tagging-capable receivers as they come to market. And you’ll be able to manage the relationship with Apple to get paid for songs that listeners hear and purchase. Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan broached the subject of his new venture with BE two weeks ago, at the BIA/Kelsey Digital Strategies confab in Jersey City, NJ. Now Emmis fleshes out some particulars of the “next generation iTunes song-tagging solution for the radio industry.” Previous song-tagging worked with HD Radio. The new web-based TagStation works with analog RDS, as well as HD Radio-equipped stations – as long as the receiver is iTunes-tagging compatible. As Emmis Interactive co-president Ray Mena says, it builds on the Emmis relationship with Apple’s iTunes, something Emmis has enjoyed for years now. Emmis Communications CTO Paul Brenner (also president of the Emmis-led Broadcaster Traffic Consortium) says it’s “affordable, easy to use and works with any on-air playout system.” Check the details here.

A loose coalition of more than 30 public interest organizations like the Center of Media Justice are petitioning the FCC to monitor alleged “hate speech” on programs that are “masquerading as news.” They say the Internet is changing the playing field, that it “gives the illusion that news sources have increased, but in fact there are fewer journalists employed now than ever before.” The Julius Genachowski FCC may be sympathetic to the complaint about the decline in the number of journalistic voices – but don’t expect it to get anywhere near a proposal to regulate content labeled “hate speech.” Heck, it’s having enough trouble with indecency and obscenity, after decades of court decisions that gave it the explicit authority to regulate for those. Read more about the letter to the FCC from The Hill, here.

“News Talk Edge” from Radio-Info.com – “When local hosts aren’t: Managing Long Distance Relationships.”

For three weeks every month, WSPD afternoon talker Brian Wilson does his show not from Toledo, but from 500 miles away, near a fishing stream in Huddleston, Virginia. The Toledo Blade wrote what “News Talk Edge” columnist Randall Bloomquist calls a “remarkably detailed and breathless” story about the fact that Wilson’s not sitting in a chair in Toledo – which gets Randall thinking about how managers should approach requests from talent to work long-distance. What are some do’s and don’ts? Randall delves into that in today’s NTE, along with the need to “take a calculated risk” in programming, and how one talk station is helping the families of wounded warriors. If you’re interested in talk radio, take a moment to subscribe (at no cost) to the new weekly “News Talk Edge” from Radio-Info.com – here.

Today’s Ross On Radio – “Educating a market on a new format.”

So – would country radio still work in New York, nine years after the folding of the last country “WYNY”? KIIM, Tucson PD Buzz Jackson responds to Sean Ross’s Tuesday ROR with a “probably not.” He opines that “the interest has probably declined as time has gone on and people have given up” on country in New York. That gets Sean Ross, our executive editor of music & programming here at Radio-Info.com, thinking on a pretty cosmic level. He says “top 40 has staged numerous comebacks in some markets” And this – “Hip-Hop has spent the better part of two decades succeeding in markets where it never had a dedicated radio outlet before.” That brings up the question of “just how much radio controls the agenda” for music. See where Sean takes that topic, and take a tour of “Radio’s Best and Worst” of the week, in today’s Ross on Radio. If you’re not already getting ROR every Tuesday and Thursday, sign up here.

In Buffalo – Can country WYRK (9.9-9.4) hold first place in the Spring quarterly book that’s taking shape now? We’ve got one-third of it, and WYRK is just a paperclip ahead of urban WBLK (7.8-8.7) and news/talk WBEN (10.8-8.7). All shares are age 12+ AQH shares, by the way. Nice months for rock WEDG (4.2-5.3) and AC “Joy FM” WJYE (5.9-6.6).

Shreveport – Cumulus Media holds its usual 1-2 spots with urban KMJJ (11.6-10.4) and R&B oldies KVMA (8.5-8.1). But KVMA may have to share – rival urban AC KDKS improves 6.6-8.1.

» Arbitrons Phase I Arbitrends back to top » 53. Buffalo-Niagra Falls - 968,000 133. Shreveport - 336,100 Click on the city to review recently released Arbitron ratings. View a complete list of Arbitron markets here.

» Wheeling & Dealing back to top » Dr. Glenn Cherry’s bid to overturn the FCC decision that gave the Tama Radio stations to a receiver is denied. It didn’t have much of a shot, says the FCC – Dr. Cherry failed to “specify with particularity” the grounds for his appeal, known as an Application for Review. The FCC could’ve rejected his plea right there but given the gravity of the situation – 10 southeastern stations are involved – it “reviewed the entire record.” And it still thinks the 2009 decision to turn stations in Tampa (WTMP-AM/FM), Jacksonville (including WHJX) and Savannah (including WSGA) over to court-appointed receiver Scott Savage was correct. The Commission also denies Dr. Cherry’s request for a Stay of the decision – so he may be out of options, at least at the FCC. Dr. Cherry claimed that receiver Savage took premature control of the licenses. » Sound Bites back to top » Clear Channel renews its Fox News Radio deal for 100+ stations. The beginning of an important relationship for both organizations was just about five years ago, when the first wave of Clear Channel-owned news and/or talk stations dropped their previous news affiliations and began relying on the beefed-up service at Fox News Radio. That happened on about 100 stations, and Clear Channel continued to convert more stations in the years after that. Now Clear Channel’s John Hogan says “it’s clear this is one of the most successful branding relationships in all of media.” The deal goes the other way, too – Fox has access to content generated by local and regional Clear Channel newsrooms. Fox News Radio EVP Kevin Magee says “Our original relationship helped propel Fox News to be a pre-eminent player in the radio industry” – which it did. Clear Channel points out in today’s press release that its stations “continue to get national news feeds from a variety of providers.” The Fox contract renewal is for five additional years. Dial Global and Clear Channel join “ARF”, the Advertising Research Foundation. Clear Channel joined a couple of months ago, we now learn, and Dial Global says it enlisted in the past week. Clear Channel EVP and President of Global Media Sales John Partilla says ARF is showing leadership “in creating an ROI [return on investment] model that will demonstrate the full value of these innovative new platforms” – CC’s various integrated platforms. Dial Global President of Operations Charles Steinhauer says this “is an exciting time for media, and radio specifically.” More research and deeper understanding of how radio advertising works should be good for radio and the agencies and buying services, not to mention advertisers. “Goin’ Mobile” is a classic Who song – and the title of a new study by Jacobs Media and Arbitron, to be presented at the 2010 RAB/NAB Radio Show in Washington, September 29-October 1. Fred Jacobs promises to “take Radio Show attendees into cars, bars, workplaces and homes to show the pervasive impact of smartphones and their implications for the future of radio.” Jacobs produced the pretty stunning “Bedroom Project” a few years ago, where it put video cameras into the hands of young-adult interviewers, who then interviewed their peers about how they consume media at home. The video clips were eye-openers. Tom Joyner’s deal for a second Chicago-area morning show affiliate is different from the first one, says his syndicator Reach Media. This follows up on Wednesday’s TRI Newsletter story about Joyner adding Crawford’s urban “Power 92” WPWX to the TJMS lineup, a year after Reach secured carriage on Crawford-owned “Soul 106.3” WSRB. Reach has been buying the entire morning daypart on “Soul 106.3” from Crawford and selling its own spots. Now Reach says “Power 92 came aboard strictly as an affiliate, and the content and commercials during the local breaks will be different for each station.” » Faces on the Radio back to top » John Curry and Brendan Walsh are the two newest Ad Sales Directors for Westwood’s Metro Traffic division, both with regional responsibilities. John Curry, a veteran of Hearst TV and McGraw-Hill, has Southwest markets such as Phoenix, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Denver. He’ll be based in the Mile-High City. Brendan Walsh is promoted from National Account Manager at Metro to Director of Sales for the Midwest, covering Kansas and Missouri. Nunzio DeGregorio will head up the New York City sales team for Premiere Radio Networks, reporting to Senior VP Cathie Mongarella. He comes to Premiere from Citadel Broadcasting as a director of corporate sales – see the next story for a possible connection – and also served as national sales manager for AMFM Inc., Clear Channel Northeast and a national sales exec at Katz. Greg Simonson and Pamela Godfrey are both longtime Katz Media staffers and are both joining Citadel Broadcasting as Directors of Corporate Sales. Greg started with Katz in 1995 and has been running the Atlanta office. Now – he’ll work in Atlanta for Citadel. Pamela joined Katz in 1997 from the agency side (Wells Rich Greene and DDB Needham) and has most recently been at Katz Marketing Solutions. She’ll work out of the Katz office in Manhattan, and like Greg will report to VP of Corporate Sales Darrin Klayman. Juan Fina continues a 10-year career at Spanish Broadcasting System as the newly-promoted National Sales Manager for SBS-Miami, at “Romance 106.7” WRMA, Spanish classic hits “Clasica 92.3” WCMQ-FM, regional Mexican “La Raza 106.3” WRAZ and the station Juan first sold for, as a new AE ten years ago – Spanish tropical “El Zol” WXDJ (95.7). Jackie Nosti Cambo is the General Manager for SBS-Miami and also the “Forensic Operations Manager” for the company. Paul Miraldi will wind up a lengthy career with Clear Channel when he leaves on August 2. He’s done promotion and marketing for stations such as New York CHR Z100/WHTZ and classic rock “Q104.3” WAXQ. He also worked at CBS-owned WCBS-FM (101.1), and was active at the station level in Minneapolis and San Francisco. Most recently he’s been Clear Channel’s Digital Senior VP/Programming and Marketing. Kevin LeGrett already has a dozen years of experience in Rochester, NY radio with Citadel and CBS, and he’ll burnish that record as the market manager for Clear Channel. Kevin’s new charges include news/talk WHAM (1180), classic rock “Fox” WFXF (95.1) and AC “Sunny 102.3” KVOR. He takes over the cluster when Karen Carey leaves tomorrow. She wants to spend more time with her family, and that creates the opening for Kevin. The Buffalo-Rochester Board of Radio-Info.com is talking about new market manager LeGrett now. Bob Doll loved radio, but particularly small market radio – and he’d just pick up the phone and talk to you about it, or buttonhole you at a convention, and share what he was excited about. Doll learned plenty about how small market radio works in the years when he owned stations, and after he sold them in 1983 he cranked up the “Small Market Radio Newsletter”, as a service to the industry. He continued to contribute content to the newsletter after he sold it to another small-market owner (and fellow consultant), Jay Mitchell. Jay still publishes the Newsletter, and does consulting on issues such as new media strategies in small markets. Bob Doll’s own consulting work led him to the door of entrepreneurs such as Art Sutton of Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting, who tells TRI “I can honestly say that no single person has had more impact on my career than Bob Doll.” He calls him “a cheerleader for the industry, and he loved the lifestyle that being a small-town radio station operator provides.” You get a strong sense of that in the five books that Bob wrote. Sutton laughs about Bob’s “gruff exterior” and says “it didn’t matter if you were Lowry Mays or some kid working the night shift in a small town AM, Bob treated you the same.” Radio lost a true friend and a real character when Bob Doll died Tuesday night of a heart attack. He was 77. Bill Austin came off the air in February – ending a 20-year run as part of the “Beth and Bill Morning Show” at AC KESZ, Phoenix (99.9). The reason is that he needed the time to fight cancer fulltime, and sorry to report he died yesterday morning – “at exactly 10am, in true Bill fashion”, says partner Beth McDonald. She says “he was not just my radio partner, he was the brother I never had.” Clear Channel market manager Jeff England says "Bill was one of those rare individuals who touched hundreds of thousands of people every day for many, many years, and always left everyone smiling." You can catch video of Bill Austin’s last day at “KEZ” from the local Fox affiliate, courtesy of Red Lasso, here. KESZ is devoting the 6-10am shift this morning to a tribute to Bill Austin, and folks (including an old friend) are talking about him on the Phoenix Board of Radio-Info.com. Robert O. Smith was one of the rare breed of talents who was both a great jock and a brilliant voiceover artist – using any of the literally hundreds of character voices he could do. He once supplied 20 different voices for a single radio ad. He worked in radio in both Seattle and Canada, earning a hard-to-obtain Canadian work permit because of his facility for doing voices. In the Puget Sound area, “Robert O.” worked at KVI (on the widely-listened-to overnight shift), at KJR, KIXI-AM/FM, KTAC-AM/FM, KOL-AM/FM, and up in Vancouver at CFMI and CISL. Smith also created voices for cartoons and movies, and was known as “The Masked Avocado”, Dr. Zingrr and Walter Wart the Freaky Frog. Smith – who as you may have guessed has just passed away – was an internationally known weightlifter (a masters champion) and bodybuilder. In that world, he was famous as “the Bench Bozo." Catch a video of Robert O. Smith as TV’s Dr. Zingrr on KTVW/Channel 13 here. The Seattle Board of Radio-Info.com started filling up yesterday with tributes to Robert O. Smith. He died at age 67 of pancreatic and liver cancer, and the thread about him is here. » Classifieds back to top » Director of Sales - Columbus, Ohio We have a panoply of properties starting with AC WSNY, with decades of dominance and proven advertiser results. The proper candidate should be well marinated in creative sales practices and procedures, dipped in organizational skills, dusted with humor, commitment and drive, and finally baked with broadcast sales passion and goals. Send letter and resume to sagahr@sagacom.com. Complete confidentiality assured. Saga Communications – A camera free company E.O.E.