|
KRLD-FM, Dallas is hiring, but CBS trims the payroll at KLUV and KRLD-AM.
KRLD-FM? That’s right – As of Friday, those are the new calls of all-sports 105.3 the “Fan”, the successor to “Live 105.3” KLLI. Looks like the Fan’s now finished assembling its staff. But over at news/talk KRLD-AM (1080), there are suddenly three fewer bodies, as reported on the Dallas board of Radio-Info.com. The casualties reportedly include morning co-anchor Carla Marion. While over at oldies KLUV (98.7), the board says 16-year staffer Debi Diaz is on the sidewalk, as of last Friday. Down in today’s “Buzzing on the Radio-Info.com board” section of T-RI – there’s talk about CBS talent cutbacks in Phoenix, Seattle and L.A. Meanwhile, see what the Dallas board is saying about KRLD, the new “Fan” and KLUV here – just click on the “discuss it” button. 
What’s happening with Clear Channel and HD Radio? One T-R-I reader says “check the website.”
Actually, what Fred Stiening of StreamingRadioGuide.com really says is – you can no longer tell from a CC station website what they’re offering on their HD-2 or HD-3 signals. Is that good for HD? Here’s his take – “Clear Channel was probably the most aggressive company trying to raise consumer awareness of HD Radio to achieve critical mass for the technology. But about two months ago, Clear Channel restructured their entire HD lineup. Originally, each station's website had the HD streams identified with that station and city (although they were mostly just selected from a group of genres, all playing the same preprogrammed music with computers). But at least they made the pretense of localism. Now, if you visit the HD radio station of a Clear Channel web site, it just lists a selection of national simulcast streams, most of which have no correlation with the station's own audience - with no identification of which stream is even carried on that specific radio station's real HD channel. For example, here's the site for WMMS, Cleveland. As a result, for StreamingRadioGuide.com, I've stopped classifying HD2/HD3 channels by genre for Clear Channel's stations.” Stiening’s site is very handy, by the way – topline, he shows that 43% of the 15,320 stations in his universe are streaming, and he breaks down streaming by formats. Check it here.
Radio Disney is the odd mouse out of NRG’s moves in Omaha.
The double-switch benefits the existing Spanish adult hits “La Preciosa” format with a better signal at 1020 and creates a new talk station at 1180. But it leaves Radio Disney out in the cold. Here's the schematic – “La Preciosa” leaves KYDZ/1180 (25,000 watts daytime, 1-kw at night) for the Plattsmouth-licensed 1020, which has 50-kw daytime and 1400 watts after sunset. So the 1020 will go Spanish-language on January 1 – exactly three years after it adopted Radio Disney. Meanwhile the replacement format at 1180 will be talk, featuring Salem’s Bill Bennett in mornings, Dial Global-distributed Clark Howard middays, some local talk, plus the Omaha Royals minor league baseball franchise. The new talk station at 1180 will be tagged as “KOIL”, moving those historic calls up from 1020.
Meanwhile, somebody ripped off the Radio Disney van in Dallas.
It was stolen last week from – where else? – an elementary school, and then the Dallas News reports somebody used a credit card left inside to fill it with gas. There is a mostly happy ending to this odd story – there was no police chase, no violence, no crash. Just the theft of about $15,000 worth of equipment. Police found the van belonging to Disney-owned KMKI (620) that same night in a convenience store parking lot. There’s at least one moral here – don’t leave station credit cards in an unattended station vehicle.
No PPM weeklies today – Arbitron spots some “ineligible panelists.”
It’s not that they were Klaatu-like aliens from a movie - they just didn’t report enough “carry time” for specific days. The “December Week 2” numbers for the nearly one-dozen People Meter markets were due today, but will be held up until Thursday for re-processing. We get some pretty good transparency about the problem from Arbitron - but are also left wondering how many markets had the “ineligible” problem. It can’t be just one or two, or Arbitron would’ve delayed just those markets, as it did due to recent processing problems in San Francisco and San Jose. Instead, New York, L.A., Chicago, etc. will all be issued on Thursday at noon local time, four days late. Arbitron’s explanation is that it “discovered that a limited number of panelists who had not met the minimum daily motion requirement had been inappropriately entered” as having qualified for those days. First time I can recall a delay for that reason. “December Week 2” is actually November 20-26, since Arbitron slices the calendar up into 13 months. “December” runs November 13-December 10, and we’re in the “holiday month” now – December 11-January 7.
 The orthodox way to write that headline would be “Emmis suspends a preferred dividend” – but right now, Emmis needs to preserve its cash and won’t be paying a January 15 dividend to holders of its 6.25% preferred stock. That announcement on Friday did just what you’d expect to the trading price of the debt – it pushed it down. That dividend was probably the single most attractive feature of the Emmis preferred, because a steady predictable cash flow is why a certain kind of investors buy preferred stock. Those stockholders still have something coming eventually - the dividend will still accrue at the rate of 6.25% a year.
Beasley and its founder buy back 9% of the company’s float at $1 apiece.
That private-market transaction is cheaper than the $1.55 that “BBGI” closed at on Friday, and lets the company and founder George Beasley reduce the amount of stock out there. This stems from a large block trade of stock between third parties that “was not completed by the purchaser.” Looks like Beasley Broadcast Group then took half (1,078,410 shares) and George took the other half. Why didn’t the seller just wait for somebody else and get a higher price than a buck per share? Beasley’s average volume is about 75,000 shares a day. Selling two million shares would’ve taken a very long time – and would’ve depressed the price. So somebody big wanted out, and Beasley saw that as an opportunity. Separately, Beasley joins Emmis in suspending its quarterly dividends. But the Beasley situation is different, because it had been paying dividends on its Class A and Class B common shares. While Emmis quit paying a dividend on its issue of 6.25% preferred stock.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications will sell its building site in Chicago’s Loop.
T-R-I told you last Thursday that Museum principal Bruce DuMont was finally able to get a strange story off his chest, because of the Blagojevich scandal – that the Illinois governor had promised the museum $8 million in construction money three years ago, and then played keepaway. DuMont even told WTTW television that the state blocked a white-knight offer of a $6 million bridge loan, because it came from a wealthy individual who backed the governor’s political opponent. Now – DuMont says the unfinished building that was the focus of his hopes for the museum (and would be the future home of the National Radio Hall of Fame) is up for sale. He tells WLS-TV the museum owes $4.7 million on the project. Here’s DuMont’s website statement – “The MBC board hopes that a new owner will have a sense of history and community spirit, and will want the museum to remain as a tenant.” He says that sadly, “much time and money has been lost due to the failure of the state to act.”
Richmond’s WBBT has fun with the Blagojevich scandal – they’re auctioning off a seat, too.
Not a seat in the U.S. Senate, but in the control room at Main Line-owned oldies WBBT (107.3). Morning host Ozone got the bidding started last Wednesday at $30 and it’s swelled to $2,500. The listener who makes the highest bid – proceeds to the Central Virginia Food Bank, not the Blagojevich legal fund – gets to co-host either mornings with Ozone or afternoon drive with Tony Booth. Ozone says the idea came up last Tuesday and “we just went with it…and it has just snowballed into something special.” Details here.
» Buzzing on the Boards
back to top »
More radio-TV cross-pollination for Christmas, as Clear Channel’s KOST, Los Angeles (103.5) will supply the “Yule Log” background music for CBS-owned KCAL-TV. T-R-I told you last week that the WGN America cable channel will replay Old Time Radio Christmas episodes from shows like Jack Benny and Burns & Allen on its newly-shot Yule Log. They’re talking the cross-plugs on the "National TV" board of Radio-Info.com.
Seattle board regulars are shocked by the news that personality Steve Slaton – who’s worked at just three local stations since the early 1970s – is out at KZOK (102.5). He started at Tacoma’s KLAY (106.1), moved on to KISW (99.9) in the early 1970s and has been at KZOK for close to 20 years. It’s another cut inside CBS Radio.
Phoenix board readers track down the tale of two suddenly-MIA CBS Radio afternoon jocks. Namely, Camelback Jack Dean at oldies KOOL-FM (94.5) and Stu Evans at country KMLE (107.9). Both guys have long been identified with their respective stations, and Jack’s been at KOOL since the early 1990s.
L.A. veteran Dave Williams is apparently off mornings at CBS Radio’s all-news KNX (1070), and it’s a budget matter…
The Alabama board believe it’s spotted a Citadel format change in the making near Tuscaloosa – with “Oldies 99.1” WDGM apparently turning off the music to simulcast Birmingham-market WJOX (94.5). WDGM had been running ABC Radio Networks’ True Oldies.
Bob & Tom switch affiliates today in Columbus, Ohio, and that’s got the Columbus board talking. Interestingly, the Premiere-syndicated morning show remains with the same owner, since (as the Dispatch reports), it’s moving from North American Broadcasting-owned FM talker WTDA (103.9) to sister WRKZ (99.7). Bob & Tom will simulcast on both signals until rock WRKZ takes sole custody on January 8. WRKZ’s “Blazor and Mo in the Morning” are sideswiped by the change.
» Sound Bites
back to top »
Wasilla, Alaska’s new AM made it on the air, just before expiration of its CP. That’s the one whose neighbors had blocked an access road to the tower site, making it difficult for licensee John Klapperich to make his FCC-imposed deadline. But KTUU-TV says the new 1430 hit the air last Wednesday, and Klapperich tells the TV station it was a matter of brute-force “Flintstone technology”, with him and six other folks working on the installation for nearly two weeks. The neighbors are worried about wetlands and potential health problems, and vow to keep up their opposition. Klapperich already owns a nearby FM – Anchorage-market KMBQ-FM at 99.7. The AM, with 1-kw day and night, takes calls of KMBQ. For now, it’s simulcasting adult contemporary KMBQ-FM.
Want to talk to a soldier stationed in Iraq? I got this note from 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office media facilitator Justin Carmack: “Our unit [based in Ft. Hood, Texas] is currently deployed in Baghdad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Due to the holiday season, we are searching for radio stations, television stations and newspapers interested in speaking with our soldiers. If you are interested in speaking with our men and women, please contact me via email – justin.carmack@1bct4id.army.mil or
justincarmack@gmail.com.
ReplaceAds debuts in the October comScore/Arbitron online radio ratings as the third-largest advertising network. Its client base includes 3,500 online stations and shows up with a total of 1,770,500 listeners tuned in for at least five minutes during an average week in October. Jeff Pescatello calls comScore/Arbitron “the gold standard of online ratings”, and says that’s why they subscribed. Unlike a standard Arbitron radio market measurement where every station’s listed, regardless of whether they subscribe – comScore Arbitron lists only results from subscribing sales networks. (Sorta like RADAR, in that regard.) ReplaceAds deals with advertisers from the local level to regional/national, and is a subsidiary of Jetcast.
The day after the Christmas party at London-based Last.fm – CBS Interactive ordered 20% personnel cuts, says PaidContent.org. The staff party was last Wednesday and the axe fell not on the traditional Christmas goose but on a bunch of jobs – about 20 out of 95 - on Thursday. CBS bid against sister Viacom for social networking/music fan site Last.fm back in the frothier days of mid-2007, and paid $280 million for it. Meanwhile, a much bigger Les Moonves purchase also sees some cuts and consolidation -
CBS is merging the newsrooms of CBSNews.com and technical website CNET.com, says PaidContent, and I’d point out that CBS boss Les Moonves stretched to pay a whopping $1.8 billion – cash – for CNET. CBSNews.com and CNET will operate as separate brands, but will share content. CBS says it “continues its integration process, which now calls for the further combination of several portions of the division into unified groups oriented around similar content.”
In Duluth-Superior, GAP-owned WEBC (560) will stay sports in 2009, but end its pickup of programming from Clear Channel’s KFAN, Minneapolis (1130) in favor of ESPN Radio programming and local sports like Duluth Huskies baseball and Superior Stampede football. The Superior Telegram paper says ESPN had been affiliated with Midwest Communications’ WGEE (970) until September, when the station dropped sports for standards.
» Faces on the Radio
back to top »
John Lander may be looking at new employment/syndication options, now that his contract’s up at CBS Radio’s “Mix 98.5” WBMX in Boston. Just speculation, but Greater Media does happen to own stations both in Boston (where John did mornings for nearly 13 years) and Philly (where he worked at the long-ago Eagle 106/WEGX). As for WBMX – expect word about a replacement morning act soon.
Charlie Steiner switches from the TV booth to the radio microphone for the Los Angeles Dodgers, raising the “who succeeds Vin Scully?” question. Charlie has been calling the 40-or-so televised games played east of the Rockies, because the 81-year-old Scully doesn’t travel that far. But now Charlie's back to his radio roots, doing PBP for all 162 games on the radio. The L.A. Times carries this quote: “God’s honest truth, I love baseball, I love radio, I love baseball on the radio. My ego is not that big that I have to be on television.” He’ll pair up with Rick Monday, and former Dodgers pitcher-turned-broadcaster Jerry Reuss is out of the broadcasting rotation. Steiner was asked how long Scully will carry on and says “I think it will be, give or take, roughly…forever.”
Darrin Jackson, like Charlie Steiner at the Dodgers, is also returning to radio from the tube – in Darrin’s case, for the Chicago White Sox. Darrin’s been doing TV work for the past nine years, and for 2009 he’ll be the radio analyst, alongside Ed Farmer.
Michael Smerconish is getting a syndication push, all right – but is it internally from CBS, or from a third-party syndicator? It may be both, with the WPHT, Philadelphia-based morning personality being prepped for a January launch by the non-CBS syndicator.
Troy Neff has now lost the four-hour morning show for which he’s been buying time on Toledo’s sports WCWA (1230) – following what the Toledo Blade calls a “profane email” to its PD. That followed the “road rage” incident Wednesday night where Neff was stabbed three times by another driver. Check the Blade’s story here – and catch the picture of Neff’s tattooed arm with a bandage on it.
Kurt Owens and Jim Spector will be exchanging notes and emails, as Journal re-routes some PD responsibilities in Omaha. Kurt has been the PD at classic rock “CD 105.9” KKCD, but now segues to fill the PD opening at AC “Star 104.5” KSRZ. That opening exists because J. Pat Miller is gone, programming and hosting mornings at Journal’s new classic hits “Lake 94.5” WLWK. So Kurt takes over at “Star” in Omaha, and Jim Spector will annex the CD 105.9 job to his role of PD at rock “Z92” KEZO (92.3). Mark Todd is the ops manager for Journal in Omaha.
Tom Finneran gets “picked up” for a one-year extension of his morning-show contract at Entercom’s WRKO, Boston (680) – though the Herald hears the station ultimately wants to “make a play for crosstown WTKK duo Jim Braude and Margery Eagan and are waiting for their contract to run out.” If that’s true – it sets up another Entercom-Greater Media battle over talent, except this time, it would be Entercom doing the wooing. The last time, it was Greater Media making a serious effort to land WRKO afternoon star Howie Carr.
Joe Puglise is the pre-holiday choice of Clear Channel Eastern region EVP Tom Schurr to take over the New York cluster, moving back East from Phoenix. He’s been the market manager in Phoenix since mid-2005, but managed for CC in Wilmington, DE before that (and he’s a native New Jerseyan). Puglise takes over for Rob Williams, who left the mothership in early October. Puglise’s cluster includes CHR “Z100” WHTZ (100.3) and urban “Power 105.1” WWPR-FM.
Jeff England will rise from the Phoenix Director of Sales position to run the market for Clear Channel – succeeding Joe Puglise. Jeff came to Phoenix five years ago from Atlanta, and will report to Executive VP Susan Karis, who once ran Phoenix, herself.
Nat Wright – who was WIP, Philadelphia’s “Nat Wright all night” for years – is recuperating from open-heart surgery, and his wife Sue posts his progress on the Philadelphia. She also says he’d appreciate a call or a card. More on the board.
| 
