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 here.

Former original ESPN Radio host Chuck Wilson tells Radio-Info he is heading back home to ESPN, and “It feels great to be back.” His first assignment will be to host the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection show … KTXX-FM (104.9) in Dripping Springs, Texas signs a five-year deal with the minor league baseball Round Rock (Texas) Express to be their flagship station, with Mike Capps providing play-by-play … Gap West Broadcasting-owned KMPT-AM (930) in Missoula, Montana signs a three-year deal with the minor league Missoula Osprey to broadcast games through 2012 … WSPO-AM/FM (1390 / 99.3) in Charleston, South Carolina adds the syndicated Don Imus for morning drive – Discuss it.

Astral Media announces the new GSM for for their Hamilton, Ontario market will be Peter Hobbs, effective April 5 … Emmis Interactive and Astral Media sign a partnership agreement, with Emmis providing an interactive platform and sales consulting services to Astral’s 82 radio stations … Corus Radio Winnipeg is on the move. They will relocate their studios and their staff of 85 for CJOB-AM (680), “Power 97” CJKR-FM (97.5) and “Groove FM” CJGV-FM (99.1) to Polo Park … Astral Media announced they'll provide real-time PPM results in their various markets on their website on Friday afternoon … Radio-Info.com’s Sean Ross is at Canadian Music Week and in celebration, he’s written a series on Canadian Top 40 radio, from coast to coast. Read the series here.

Chicago’s WBBM-AM (780) promotes suburban bureau chief and Sunday “At Issue” host Julie Mann to managing editor, says the Chicago Tribune … Mark Keefe, who was the OM at the four-station Wilks-owned cluster in Reno, Nevada, is moving to Milwaukee as PD of non-commercial WYMS-FM (88.9) … Greater Media names Trip Savery as Director of Sales for the Charlotte, North Carolina cluster, overseeing sales for WBT-AM/FM (1110 / 99.3) & WLNK-FM (107.9), starting March 23 … Adrienne McWilliams, the VP Urban Sales for Citadel leaves to join Tom Joyner’s Reach Media as VP for Eastern Sales … Ironwood, Michigan’s WIMI-FM (99.7) adds “Uncle Al” Rice for afternoons, and also makes a moniker change from “The Storm” to “The Best Variety,” says Upper Midwest Broadcasting … Birmingham, Alabama’s WERC-AM/FM (960/105.5) appoints Aaron Trimmer as PD. You can listen to “Talk Radio 105.5” here … In Syracuse, Citadel’s WLTI-FM (105.9) “The Big Talker” adds Premiere’s syndicated Bob & Tom Show for morning drive … One of the original voices on Oswego, New York’s WRVO-FM (89.9) is retiring. Station GM John Krauss, a 41-year veteran of WRVO is hanging up his headphones. Read more about Krauss here.

The contest on CFRQ-FM (104.3) in Halifax, Nova Scotia asks listeners how much a certain fictitious politician by name has absconded with, saying on the air “Now is your chance to be the only Nova Scotia taxpayer to benefit from the slimy douche-baggery of Richard the frugal MLA.” The promotion by CFRQ features a photo of a man in a suit lighting a cigar with a $100 bill, according to the CBC, and offers listeners a chance to win as much as $20,000 and a trip to Cuba. However, not everyone is happy with the promotion. The CBC says at least one advertiser has pulled ads from the station in response to the contest, saying the fictitious character bears the same name as a former area politician. You can view the contest on “Q-104” by clicking here. You can listen to CFRQ here.

ENGLAND: The iRadio Group, which operates i102 to 104 in the NorthWest and i105 to 107 in the North East, will cut 10 staffers, nearly one-fifth of their workforce, due to the economy … Former Telewest chief executive Adam Singer is named chairman of digital radio switchover body, Digital Radio UK … Former Mindshare business director Dominic Poynter will move to Global Radio as a client strategist … Add the publication “Music Week” to the growing voices protesting the BBC’s proposed plan to shut BBC Music 6, calling the plan a “a massive service gap that no terrestrial commercial broadcaster is filling” … The 80’s band Heaven 17 will join the line-up for a tribute concert organized for the late-Sheffield DJ Dave Kilner, who died last year at age 48 … WALES: A published report says Radio Ceredigion (103.3) in Aberystwyth could be taken over by a rival broadcaster, which could mean both job losses and a loss of local programming … IRELAND: Communications Minister Eamon Ryan fears a new $475,000 annual tax on broadcasters to fund the newly created Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, could break the backs of companies already facing revenue shortfalls.

Premiere’s Coast to Coast with George Noory has been without a New York-market affiliate since Citadel’s WABC (770) recently went with Doug McIntyre’s Red Eye Radio for the overnight hours. Now WOR owner Buckley Radio picks up the popular syndicated Coast to Coast and drops its own Joey Reynolds, after 14 years. WOR has also been syndicating Reynolds through its WOR Radio Network, and that will also apparently end after April 2. Reynolds had just recently cracked the Detroit market on WDTW (1310), and Michiguide contributor Art Vuolo writes about the irony of WOR cancelling Reynolds (“No More Joey Showey”). Back in the Big Apple, The New York Board of Radio-Info.com is talking about Buckley Radio’s strategy.

The former Miami Dolphins football star who became a popular sports talk show host is going to take time off. Mandich, the afternoon drive host on WQAM-AM is battling cancer of the bile duct, and is now undergoing chemotherapy. He says he will not return to WQAM. Mandich, a former All-American college football star, played with the Dolphins for eight seasons. While with WQAM, he was also a color commentator for Dolphins radio broadcasts. However, his position calling games was placed in doubt when WQAM lost the Dolphins broadcast rights to Clear Channel’s WINZ-AM (940) & WBGG-FM (105.9). Mandich tells the Miami Herald “my talk-show days are done. It was a lot of fun.” WQAM has yet to announce a permanent replacement for Mandich.

The forecast shows small but sustained gains for local revenues. The updated report by BIA/ Kelsey projects local ad revenues for radio & TV will increase from $29.9 billion in 2009 to $34.3 billion in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate of 2.8 percent. BIA/Kelsey’s chief strategy officer and PD for Digital Strategies for Broadcasting Rick Ducey says, “Broadcasters must evolve to participate in more areas of the media ecosystem … This means developing the right multiplatform and multiple revenue stream strategies, which in turn requires new workflow, partnerships, business models, and resources.” The report also says that digital revenues will climb at an even higher rate, forecasting that radio’s digital revenues will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.8 percent through ‘14.

The new “Arbitron Sports Report” carries breakouts on 25 pro teams playing in 23 PPM-measured markets this past season. Among the findings: the Chicago Bears scored the highest with actual listeners, showing an average game audience of 626,600. The Bears were followed by the New York Giants with 457,000 radio listeners per game. The Philadelphia Eagles had 422,400. Looking at shares instead of actual audience, Arbitron says “the in-game broadcasts average more than 40 shares among all men aged 25-54” in the broadcast markets of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Boston, Minnesota and Baltimore.

Legendary DJ Rick Dees will be joining the TKO Radio Network’s Classic Top 40 format, taking over for Charlie Tuna on the weekends. The network adds Dees’ “Weekly Top 40” show (featuring the ‘80s). Dees joins TKO’s line up of top 40 greats like John Landecker, Jim Zippo and others.

Lundy was part of WABC (770) from 1965 right up until its conversion to talk on May 10, 1982, says David Hinckley in the New York Daily News. He went on to be one of the signature jocks at oldies WCBS-FM (101.1) from 1984 until his retirement in 1997. The paper says he’s already lost a lung to cancer surgery and “about two weeks ago, he suffered several ministrokes, became dehydrated, went into cardiac arrest during rehydration, was resuscitated and put on a ventilator.” He underwent a tracheotomy on Tuesday to remove the ventilator tube. The New York Board of Radio-Info.com is talking about Lundy.

The March 10 Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter says “This ends the temporary and unexpected reprieve from the new CBS policy, where CBS joined the ranks of those streamers which cut off access to their online product for computer users outside the United States.” At first, the block affected only the music stations. Now a CBS memo says that on Thursday, March 11, it “will complete all phases of the GEO-IP project…this includes all music, talk, news and sports stations streaming [their] broadcasts.” Foreign users will still be able to download podcasts and “episodes-on-demand.” But if they click on a live stream, they get a message “directing them to our sister property Last.fm, where the consumer can enjoy endless personalized radio stations and discover more music.”

Direct from the CEO of Tribune Company, there’s now a list of “forbidden ‘news-speak’ words and phrases”, says Robert Feder at Vocalo.org. Some are obvious tuneout phrases to be avoided in PPM markets, such as “We'll be right back” and “after these commercial messages.” But here are some others: “flee” (meaning “run away”). “Alleged.” “Allegations.” “Auto accident.” “Authorities.” “Campaign trail.” And “Seek.” Michaels' list contains some obvious cliches, such as “medical hospital” and “shots rang out.” The loss of others, such as “perpetrator” and “undisclosed”, will force some difficult re-wording at times. Robert Feder says Tribune is asking its staffers to keep “keep tabs on each others' compliance: they're to report any on-air infractions by their co-workers, making sure to note the precise time and date on ‘bingo cards.’” The Chicago Board of Radio-Info.com takes note of the Robert Feder report and the “list”.

After four years, owner Tyler Media blows up classic hits “Jack FM” KOJK, Blanchard OK (97.3) to make 97.3 the new home of country KKNG, which moves up the dial from 93.3. For now, the Oklahoman says Tyler will simulcast the two signals. But eventually there will be a new format at 93.3, and KKNG will survive at 97.3. The Blanchard-licensed 97.3 is a lesser facility: a Class A compared to the Class C1 signal at 93.3, licensed to Newcastle. Another change on Tuesday was the laying off of KKNG morning personalities Bill Thomas and K.C. Sheperd plus PM driver James Ayers. Manager Ty Tyler says Lynn Waggoner will continue in mornings, and says KKNG will focus on “traditional country.” He didn’t drop any hints about the future of 93.3. The Oklahoma Board of Radio-Info.com is speculating about that, and the mysterious registration of “933TimFM.com.”