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September 2001 Archive

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September 2001 Archive
Previous month -
Links- internally where there are follow-up stories we try, at the end of each story, to put a pertinent link to the top of the next relevant story. Regarding external links see note at end of page.

RNW September Comment looks at how US media reacted to the tragic events of the attack on the US and what we think is needed in the future.

RNW August Comment considers the advantages likely from digital and satellite radio.

RNW July Comment looks at the value of International Radio Services.

2001-09-30: The UK Radio Authority has just published its proposals for a 2001 version of its codes for commercial broadcasters.
The New version brings together the News and Current Affairs Code, which has not been updated in its entirety for seven years, and the Programme Code, which was updated three years ago.
The Authority is now seeking comment on the suggested new code, which among other things makes amendments to a number of clauses, including those concerning taste and indecency, and adds a new section on "Wind-up" calls.
Among the issues the Authority has considered needed changes are those concerning sexual matters, bad language and blasphemy.
It says that there is no absolute ban on bad language but it has to be defensible in terms "of context and authenticity" and "must not be used in programmes aimed at young listeners or when audience research indicates they might be expected to be listening in significant numbers."
The authority has amended its rule to highlight the need for "considered judgements having regard to scheduling" when airing songs with explicit lyrics, highlighting "school run" times as a particular issue.
Concerning sexual matters, the authority says "Entertainment and comedy have often relied on sexual innuendo: but this does not justify gratuitous crudity, the portrayal of perversion, sexism or the degradation of either sex."
"Music and art are often concerned with love and passion, and it would be wrong (and impossible) to require writers or lyricists to require writers or lyricists not to shock or disturb; but the aim should be to move, not offend."
The proposed rules now highlight the context and presentation and also say concerning humour that "humour relying on sexual innuendo should take account of the likely audience and should not be gratuitous "
There is also a ban on "portrayal or description of sexual activity between humans and animals or between adults and children" with a note that references to such matters must be aired only after consultation with senior station management.
"Gratuitous sexual stereotyping and degradation." The rules say," must be avoided" On humour, the rules also note the "danger of offence in the use of humour based on particular characteristics like race, gender or disability" and comments on the avoidance of "racist terms", and "Insensitive comments or stereotyped portrayal".
The Authority has also added a new section of rules concerning "wind up" calls.
This reads, " The 'wind up' call is a technique that, if it is to be used, requires care. The general idea behind 'wind-ups' should be that they are good-humoured and that 'victims' should not be exploited in an unacceptable way."
"The Radio Authority expects that permission to broadcast 'wind up' calls will be sought in a proper manner. The person being 'wound up' should be both fully able to realise what has taken place and fit to grant permission with his/her wits about him/her and without feeling s/he has been put on the spot or is being a 'bad sport' for refusing permission to broadcast."
"Additionally, when a person is 'wound up' in his/her professional capacity, that is, when s/he are representing an organisation or an employer, then broadcasters must be clear that the permission of that organisation has also been given before the call may be broadcast."
"No 'wind up' scenarios should distress or upset callers or offend against good taste or decency, either when recorded or when broadcast."
For the first time the Code also includes, for quick reference, a 'without prejudice' guide to both libel and contempt guidelines.
Previous UK Radio Authority:
UK Radio Authority news release (has links to relevant documents - circa 800 kb in Microsoft Word):

2001-09-30: A fairly quiet week for the regulators with nothing of import in Canada and Ireland and a fairly quiet week elsewhere: In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) is proposing to switch the new Melbourne commercial licence awarded to DMG Radio (See RNW Dec 15, 2000) to 100.3 MHz instead of the current 91.5MHz frequency because of the potential interference with the ABC Channel 3 TV service in North East Tasmania.
In the UK the Radio Authority has published assessments of a number of recent licence awards, given details of applicants for the re-advertised Northampton area AM and FM licences and re-awarded other licences.
The Northampton licences re-advertised are the FM licence currently held by Northants 96 with a contemporary and charts music service plus local news and information and the AM licence currently held by Classic Gold with a classic pop hit service.
They are re-applying and are facing competition from an application for both licences from Better Radio Northants Ltd., which is proposing a service comprising pop music of the past 25 years and local news and information service for the FM licence and a full service community-focussed service for the AM licence.
The re-awarded licences are those for:
*the Luton/Bedford AM licence currently held by Classic Gold and for which there was no competing application;
the London licence of Jazz FM, which was automatically renewed because the station is providing a service on the relevant local digital multiplex;
*and the north London licence re-awarded to London Greek Radio against competition from Fusion FM. A third competing application was ruled out because it was submitted after the deadline.
The assessments were those for
*the Dundee and Perth digital multiples which was awarded to Score Digital earlier this month against competition from Switchdigital (Scotland) Ltd (See Licence News Sept 9);
* for the new Rugby licence awarded to Rugby FM against competition from Fosseway Radio (Jet FM Ltd.), The Lion (Lion Radio Ltd.), and Rugby 1 (Rugby On Air Co. Ltd.;
*and the Haringey, North London, licence re-awarded to London Greek Radio (Both also Licence News Sept 9).
In assessing the Dundee and Perth Award, the authority said both applicants complied with the coverage brief and added that Score had demonstrated a firm commitment to the establishment of digital radio services in Scotland, and would be a reliable and long-term investor in that industry.
The business plan in Score's application, it said, showed a good, if rather sober, awareness of the practicalities of multiplex operation in this part of the UK. Members also commented on the inclusion in the services offered of major local analogue services, Tay FM, Tay AM and - subject to their agreement - Kingdom FM and Wave 102, would be included in the bouquet of programme services offered on the multiplex.
In addition they noted that other existing community-oriented services, each currently serving only a small portion of the overall coverage area (in terms of population), together with a range of educational, campus and hospital radio services, will also have the opportunity to broadcast digitally as part of The Bridge, a community access channel.
Members considered that this shared service, which would broadcast in mono, was an appropriate use of scarce digital spectrum and was a good idea given the current stage of digital radio's development.
In the case of the Rugby licence, the Authority commented that Rugby FM's board brings together individuals with a strong local profile and relevant experience, and the group benefits from containing well-established radio and newspaper interests as well as other local business involvement.
Its investors, it added, include companies with current experience of running small-scale local stations in similar markets.
The Authority noted that the group remains largely unchanged since its application for a licence in a neighbouring area in 1997, and has demonstrated its ongoing commitment through operating trial broadcasts in Rugby.
It also noted that its news coverage plans were well developed including two staff journalists and a news-sharing arrangement with the Rugby Evening Telegraph.
In the case of the North London licence re-awarded to London Greek Radio, the authority praised the company's "cogent and well-presented application" and noted the local support it had.
Members considered, the Authority added, that the wide-ranging speech content proposed by LGR for its new licence term particularly the review and discussion programmes and its comprehensive news service, was impressive.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has opened a Construction Permit settlement window running to the end of November.
This allows competing applicants for permits in commercial frequencies where there is an application from a non-commercial body to come to a settlement before an auction is instituted.
During the window an applicant can induce other applicants to withdraw by the offer of payments over and above that applicants reasonable expenses.
The FCC in the person of its Enforcement Bureau's Investigations & Hearing Division, Chuck Kelley, has also commented on the issue of radio prizes.
He told a National Association of Black Broadcasters (NABOB) panel that the Commission had received complaints from smaller operators about the larger prizes that the big players can offer.
Kelley noted that regulations required the stations "accurately disclose the material terms of the contest and conduct the contest substantially as announced or advertised."
US radio giant Clear Channel has been in hot water over some of its contests with complainants saying that it has promoted national contests in a manner that gives the impression they are local ones.
Previous ABA:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous NABOB:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
ABA web site
FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority web site:

2001-09-29: XM Satellite Radio, whose shares fell 22% on Thursday following an acknowledgement by Boeing of problems with the solar panels on its 702 satellites, which are used by XM, had recovered most of the loss by the end of the week.
XM stock fell to a low of USD4.51 on Thursday before picking up to end at USD4.85 but had recovered to USD5.24 by the close on Friday.
Boeing said that the satellites could eventually suffer from decreased power output.
XM in a statement said it anticipated "no material impact on its quality of service, conduct of business or cost of operation" although it admitted than it might need to replace the satellites earlier than expected to maintain its service.
XM has a spare ground satellite that is currently being modified to eliminate the power problem.
Boeing acquired the satellite-making business from Hughes Electronics Corp last year and has been working to overcome a manufacturing errors and quality-control lapses; six of the 702 series satellites, which have a design life of 12-15 years, are currently in orbit.
XM says that its satellites are currently performing above requirements.
Previous XM:
XM web site:

2001-09-29: Another straw in the wind of advertising cut backs has come from Ireland where the country's North West Tourist Authority has postponed a USD30000 radio advertising campaign in the US. The adverts were pulled following consultations with US tour operators who advised that they would have a better idea in January about the prospects for the tourist trade.

2001-09-29: Another "Mom and Pop" US radio station looks as if it is to be sold: the deal involves WSNJ AM and FM, licensed to Bridgeton, New Jersey, which are to be sold for USD20 million according to the Bridgeton News.
The paper says owner Ed Bold has decided to retire at the age of 82 and has said he wants to finalise details before commenting on the sale to a South Carolina company.
Bridgeton News Report:

2001-09-28: UK broadcasting watchdog, the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) has upheld three complaints against radio and partially upheld a fourth in its latest bulletin.
This compared to none upheld in its previous bulletin (See RNW Aug 1).
In all the BSC dealt with six complaints involving fairness, only one of which was against radio, and 105 concerning standards, 20 of them involving radio.
The fairness complain involving radio was made against an edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme What do they know about us?, but was withdrawn after the Corporation apologized to the complainant over any distress caused.
Of the 20 standards complaints against radio, 12 were not upheld, four were resolved, one partially upheld and three upheld, one of these concerning an advertisement.
Of the three resolved complaints, two concerned remarks alleged to be racist or containing inappropriate sexual content, made by Chris Evans who was subsequently fired by Virgin Radio, albeit not over the complaints.
The others involved extremely strong language in a Radio 4 studio discussion of an exhibition about which an immediate on-air apology had been made and the playing during TFM's Dance Chart Countdown of a CD version of Cold as Ice by MOF.
The presenter stopped the play out and moved on to the next song when he realized that the version being aired contained explicit lyrics and the station subsequently took action to ensure that only radio versions of CDs were aired.
The partially upheld complaint was against Century 105's Breakfast Show.
Of the three complaints upheld against radio, one involved a spoof advert for confectionary whose sexual double-entendres were held to have exceeded acceptable boundaries.
The other two upheld were against BRMB.
One was against an edition of Tim's Confessions on BRMB that included explicit sexual references to masturbation and sexual intercourse with a woman under the influence of alcohol.
The other was against a trailer for BRMB's Late and Live show, which included a clip of a caller discussing, attempted suicide.
Previous BSC:
Previous BSC Complaints Bulletin:
BSC web site (Note: This is a Flash 5 site: It links to the report in PDF format-123 kb).

2001-09-28: More warnings over advert revenues, this time from the UK where Capital Radio and GWR have both issued cautionary trading updates.
Capital, Britain's largest commercial radio group, said advertising revenue for the year would be down 6% and GWR, which owns Classic FM, predicted a drop of 3.5% in its first half revenues.
Capital's like for like radio revenue for the quarter from April to June was down 16% from the strong figures for 2000 and it anticipates that it will be down 9% in the July to September quarter.
It says that for the year to September preliminary results, due on November 15, are expected to show an underlying profit before tax of �30m, in line with the guidance given in May's interim statement and ahead of current market consensus.
GWR, whose interim results are due on November 20, said that if acquisitions were included he 3.5% revenue decline becomes a 6.5% increase in the year to September.
It is upbeat about its broadcasting performance, saying," Latest audience research figures show that Classic FM in the UK, Danubius in Hungary, Antenne Wien in Austria and Nova in Sydney, Australia are all growing their audiences to record levels�local stations in the UK also continue to deliver market-leading audiences."
A third group, Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) in its update says that "although the UK media sector has experienced a significant downturn in advertising revenues during the last six months, SRH group revenues have held up relatively well."
Excluding acquisitions and disposals its revenues are estimated to be up by 1% for the financial year as a whole to some GBP70 million in what it terms, "a robust performance in a challenging market."
In radio, it points to strong audience figures for its stations, which have increased listening, but is less upbeat about their financial performance.
Radio revenues it says for the year to the end of September are expected to be 3% down on 2000, adding that a 12% fall in national advertising revenue has been offset by a 7% increase in local revenue.
It also remarks favourably on the performance of Today FM in Ireland in which SRH holds a 24% stake.
Figures issued earlier in the week by EMAP, which also publishes magazines, indicated that first half radio revenues would be down 6%, again compared with a strong 2000 performance.
"Taken against the market as a whole this was a good performance," EMAP said, "with London revenues holding up particularly well."
The markets had already taken the likely warnings into account and there was a neutral to positive response with EMAP's shares volatile but ending unchanged, GWR up just over 1% and Capital up 6.5%.
Previous Capital:
Previous EMAP:
Previous GWR:
Previous SRH:
Capital web site:
EMAP web site:
GWR web site:
SRH Web site:

2001-09-28: The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), whose 25th Annual Fall Broadcast Management Conference ends in Washington, DC, today, has heard that US urban stations are now backing off from airing violent songs.
At a panel session it was suggested that songs on positive themes will start to get more airplay and some participants observed that they were noting more ballads on air since the September 11 attacks.
The panel also heard that many younger listeners are taking a liking to cover songs, often not realising that they are versions of songs more than a quarter of a century old.

2001-09-27: Emmis Communications has reported net revenues up 30.6% to USD142.2 million and broadcast cash flow (BCF) up 20.6% to USD 47.4 million compared to 2000 in its fiscal second quarter to the end of August.
However its After Tax cash flow (ATCF) was down 17.9% to USD 22.6 million and it has said that the events of September 11 attacks have reduced its expectations for the third and final quarters.
The company says Emmis' radio group has lost about $3.5M in ad revenues as a result of the attacks, less than half of that from New York where it has three stations
It also pointed out that it depends on New York for only a quarter of its radio revenues, around an eighth of its total revenues.
Previous Emmis:
Emmis web site:

2001-09-27: RNW note: For those interested in seeing the content of the Voice of America interview with Taliban leader Mullah Omar Mohammad, which was dropped after US administration pressure (See RNW Sept. 25) the UK Guardian has now run details. Click on link below:
UK Guardian VOA interview:

2001-09-27: Media and marketing research firm Arbitron has released a second round of ratings from tests of its Portable People Meter (PPM), which currently undergoing U.S. market trials.
The trial, in Wilmington, Delaware, part of the Philadelphia market, shows some marked differences between results from the new system and from the company's traditional diary system; overall the PPM indicates higher overall audiences for television (AQH up from 8.8 to 9.9) and cable (AQH more than double from 2.1 to 4.6) but similar numbers for radio (AQH 10.1 up a little to 10.3).
These results are in line with its previous study released in July (See RNW July 20).
Within the totals, the average quarter-hour (AQH) ratings among teenagers (12-17 years old group) are nearly a quarter lower at 7.4 according to the PPM compared with 9.7 according to the diary system; for the 18-34 group the PPM indicated higher listening at 12.3 compared with 11.3 followed by a dip from 10.7 according to diary methods to 10.3 with the PPM for the 35-54 group and another rise, according to the PPM from 6.0 to 9.1 amongst the 55 plus group.
There were significant differences according to the two methods at different times of the day; radio AQH for 5 am to 10 am was down at 10.0 compared to 12.2 and from 10 am to 4 pm also down, from 18 to 15.7.
After this the PPM AQH increased, from 11.1 with the diary method to 14 from 4pm to 8pm, from 4.7 to 7.2 between 8pm and midnight and from 2.0 to 3.6 from midnight to 5 am.
Arbitron is now to conduct a Philadelphia-wide trial in January of next year to include at least 1500 people.
It says the increased sample size will allow direct comparisons of audiences for individual radio stations and formats, TV stations and cable networks.
Previous Arbitron:
Arbitron web site:

2001-09-27: XM Satellite Radio, which launched commercially earlier this week with several hundred subscribers in Dallas-Forth Worth and San Diego (See RNW Sept. 25) has halved its estimate to the number of customers it expects by the end of this year from 100000 to 50000 according to R&R.
The company will launch the next stage of its service in the Southwest United States, including major cities such as Los Angeles, Denver and Houston,on October 18 and complete its launch nation wide on November 15.
Previous XM:
R&R site:
XM web site:

2001-09-26: After all the encomiums for the way radio handled the events of September 11, a couple of brickbats.
The first goes to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio 1 channel, which for 40 minutes continued with its This Morning programme and a discussion between the host, Shelagh Rogers, and Chuck Strahl, leader of dissident MPs of the Canadian Alliance.
It did carry the news in bulletins and put the decision to stick to its programme initially down to the complications of its tape-delay system and sensitivities about bumping local programmes.
The second, courtesy of Radio Business Report which on Monday carried a comment by publisher Jim Carnegie that was, for a publication normally fairly uncritical of US radio, something of a shock to us.
He starts by commenting that since the 1970s when the Federal Communications Commission dropped content requirements the US radio industry has been phasing out local news, which he terms its "strongest local brand builder."
This has resulted he says with reduced operations in major markets, no real news operation at all in many medium and smaller markets, and the farming out of local" news to an outside provider of a generic newscast heard on virtually every station in the market.
"September 11's tragic events demonstrated," he continues, " just how totally radio news has been decimated over the past three and a half decades."
"Lacking any news product of their own, thousands of stations switched to rebroadcasting television to provide their listeners with the thing they craved most - - information."
"That did nothing to build each radio station's brand and listenership. Rather, it was brand building for the television station which was being rebroadcast."
"Incredibly, many local managers viewed this as a logical and responsible decision, rather than something to be ashamed of."
Carnegie goes on, "The economics of consolidation provided the financial potential for radio to rebuild its news operations and build stronger local platforms to compete with the looming threats of satellite radio and wireless Internet."
"But that hasn't happened. Radio groups continue to view local news as a financial drain�(other media has latched on to local news)� But radio executives continue to believe that they don't need to provide listeners with anything more than "traffic and weather together."
"That is, until tragedy hits and radio finds itself unprepared and inadequate. That happened September 11 and it will surely happen again, unless this industry wakes up and starts rebuilding local radio news operations to restore a vital link to its listeners."
RNW note: We'll be interested to see if RBR gets any counter-responses from Clear Channel, NAB, or any other radio organisations and commentators who have been arguing that consolidation has led to better programming and have suggested there were few if any downsides to the process.
Previous CBC:
RBR web site (comments can be found in the month's news for Sept 24).

2001-09-26: Radio newcomer Mapleton Communications, whose deals to build up clusters in Merced, California, and Medford, Oregon, have been redlined by the Federal Communications Commission (See RNW Sept 22), is now in a deal to buy five more California stations.
The deal this time is with New Wave Communications for KBTU-FM, KCDU-FM, KHIP-FM, KMBY-FM and KPIG-FM in the Monterey market.
Mapleton will operate the stations under a JSA until FCC approval comes through and also has a JSA for KBOQ-FM.
No price has been announced for the stations, which cost New Wave some USD 7.5 million in 1997.
In another deal giant Clear Channel is topping its portfolio yet again: it's to pay USD 1.8 million to Mountain Wireless Inc for WSKW-AM & WHQO-FM in the Augusta-Waterville, Maine, market.
Clear Channel has been operating the stations under an LMA since April of this year.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Mapleton:

2001-09-26: Latest Internet audience ratings from Measurecast, which now seems to have settled into a pattern of releasing them a week late, show that the events of September 11 unsurprisingly pushed News/Talk stations up the rankings for the week to September 16th.
Perhaps more surprisingly only one of them made the top five, although part of this may be because the major Internet broadcasters such as the BBC and CNN are not part of Measurecast's remit.
Five News/Talk AM stations were in MeacureCast's top 25 ranked by total time spent listening (TTSL)-- WSB-AM/750, WLS-AM/890, KRLA-AM/870, WTMJ-AM/620 and CFRB/1010-AM; a sixth station, Santa Monica College station KCRW-FM/89.9, which switched programming to cover the September 11 events, reached number eight on the list - the highest ranking the station has ever achieved.
To put the audience numbers into perspective the Cume (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, for Cox Radio's WSB-AM, the top-rated news/talk station was 10,021, absolutely puny compared to the millions watching TV or listening to terrestrial radio broadcasts.
T he overall audience recorded dropped slightly, taking the MeasureCast Internet Radio Index, which is based on a 100 benchmark at the start of the year, down a half a percentage point to 215.
The events did force some change in MeasureCast's five top ranked stations, pushing pop down the list, forcing MediaAmazing down to sixth and moving classical up. The top five were, ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) and with, where applicable, previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets:
1): Jazz station Jazz FM TTSL 184536 (165564); CP 55602 (60088) Position unchanged,listening up, but cumulative audience down.
2): Classical music King FM TTSL 84861 (82503); CP 14,337 (16639) - Previously fifth
3): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 66956 (121154); CP 12,884 (20455)- previously second; listening way down.
4): News/Talk WSB-AM TTSL 57597, CP 10,021 (A new entrant)
5): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 57,383 (100182); CP 14185 (17333) - Previously fourth
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:

2001-09-25: Satellite radio in the US makes its commercial debut today with the launch of XM Satellite Radio in Dallas, Fort Worth and San Diego, complete with high promises from the company of both programming and audio quality plus in the main an absence of or only limited amount of advertisements.
On XM's 71 music channels, some 30 will be advert free and the others will only carry around six minutes an hour of advertising, around a third of that on the typical US terrestrial station.
Its rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, is due to start its commercial service towards the end of the year and will have no advertisements on any of its 50 music channels.
Both companies stress the difference in approach of their services from terrestrial channels.
They will not carry local programming and say that satellite radio will be focussed on the listeners rather than the advertisers.
Sceptics contend that, even before the current US economic slowdown, the companies were over optimistic about the number of Americans who would be prepared to pay around USD10 per month in subscriptions for radio services when they can get current services for free and cite the experience of Internet companies.
These have found a severe shortage of people willing to pay for their services and a recent report by Webnoize says that, following the demise of Napster as a wide-ranging free service, around two thirds of college-age music fans plan to continue to access free MP3 music files through non-commercial channels including various sharing networks.
In addition the sceptics point to the threat that broadband wireless Internet access in automobiles could further threaten their services although this was more of a threat when Napster was in full swing.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Sirius Web site:
XM web site:
Webnoize site:

RNW Note: Both satellite radio companies' web site have links to sample programming.

2001-09-25: In a move that RNW thinks will yet further reduce its value, even if thought of merely as a propaganda tool, the Voice of America decided not to air a story that included parts of an interview with the leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, Mullah Omar Mohammad, following pressure from the US administration.
Senior National Security Council officials and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had contacted members of VOA's board to express concern that airing the interview would be giving a platform to terrorists.
They said that they did not think it consistent with the VOA charter or appropriate for VOA to broadcast the voice of the Taliban into Afghanistan.
The item concerned was a report on Afghan reaction to President Bush's speech to Congress and included a brief clip from the Omar interview and a statement from the Taliban opposition.
The State Department had found out on Friday that VOA had been offered an interview with Omar and had said that it should be refused but by then the 12-minute phone interview had been carried out.
RNW Comment: A major factor in the strength of BBC World Service radio in much of the world, particularly in Afghanistan, is that it understands that news reports have to be fair and carry a range of views to be credible to all but those committed to a viewpoint.
In so doing, it ensures that viewpoints contrary to those generally broadcast in an area, provoke thought and gain serious attention.
The US approach to us seems to be one of engaging emotion rather than brains, particularly in the current situation when effective action by the US will require assistance from many countries, some of whom are already showing that they require more than repetition of condemnatory statements from the US before such assistance will be given.
A case where the VOA staff who carried out the interview acted sensibly and the administration ostrich could do with a hearty kick up the backside sooner rather than later.
In our view, the point of increasing broadcasts to the area (RNW Sept 21)has been weakened not strengthened by this action.
Previous VOA:

2001-09-25: Chrysalis's Galaxy Radio brand is to make its London debut next month via an outing on Ministry of Sound Radio, a restricted service licence station that will be operating throughout October as part of efforts to raise awareness of digital services available on SwitchDigital.
The Galaxy format is currently broadcast on five analogue stations in the UK and on MXR multiplexes in the North East, North West, West Midlands and South Wales and the West.
Previous Chrysalis:
Chrysalis web site:

2001-09-25: The US Radio-Television News Directors' Association (RTNDA) has asked for a ban on news helicopters, imposed after the Sept 11 attacks in the US, to be lifted.
It claims that the ban violates journalists' First Amendment rights and also complains that other aircraft including commercial passenger flights and recreational balloons are being allowed to fly.
The issue is only one of many now before the Federal Aviation Authority, which is still restricting cargo plane flights and has also imposed restrictions on the flight of crop-dusting aircraft after suggestions that they could be used for chemical or biological warfare attacks.
The RNDA itself is facing severe financial strains as a result of the attacks. It had to cancel its 2001 Conference & Exhibition which was due to start in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 12 (See RNW Sept 13) and there are estimates that this could cost it up to around half of its annual USD4 million revenue.
The organisation is now consulting with its insurance company about how much of the loss it can recover and President Barbara Cochran wrote in a letter to registrants, exhibitors and sponsors that they were "confident that RTNDA will survive and continue its vital work." The revenue loss could cut significantly into RTNDA's routine activities, especially those concerned with the US Freedom of Information Act.
Previous Cochran:
Previous RTNDA:
RTNDA web site:

2001-09-24: As the US markets open again for the second week after the attacks in the US, analysts remain downbeat about media stocks and expect further falls.
Radio, particularly stations that have most income from local advertising, is seen as much less vulnerable than TV, which is more dependent upon national advertising.
All round the world travel-related advertising has been cut back as airlines are hit hard with a consequent knock-on effect and in Australia the collapse of Ansett, the country's second airline, has dealt a triple blow to hits caused by a general economic slowdown and travel-related problems in general caused by the attacks.
In the UK, Capital Radio is due to give a trading statement this week; it had been particularly boosted last year by dot.com advertising and analysts had already reduced pre-tax profit forecasts by around a quarter.
Perceptions have been made worse by comparisons with 2000, which was a one-off year in that it combined general economic optimism and corporate profits with the dot.com boom plus major events such as the US election and the Olympic Games.

2001-09-24: A week ago was too early, but now many of the radio commentators in Europe (the US had general comment but it was fairly predictable and univocal to use a phrase currently in vogue) have been looking at how radio in particular reacted to the attacks in the US.
We; we are therefore concentrating this week on their comment.
First a column from Ireland by UK Sunday Times columnist Gerry McCarthy, in which he looks at the range of responses on Irish radio.
He opens his column by writing, "There is something to be said for the way the old Soviet media dealt with disaster: solemn music, no talking, no explanations. As the days pass, our media still reverberate from the shock of the New York atrocities."
"But once the clear-the-airwaves phase passed, broadcasters found different ways of dealing with the new world disorder."MCarthy then looks across the spectrum starting with what he says is "something horribly chirpy" in the way in which on RTE broadcaster, John Creedon, carried on with "bad puns, jolly music, silly anagrams - the same mix, in fact, that made him a fresh new voice about 10 years ago."
This he says was speaking to "those people for whom the bad news is overwhelming."
"They want to be told that the safe old world they've always known still exists, even when it doesn't."
At the other end of the spectrum, he comments on the decision by another RTE broadcaster Joe Duffy, to go to New York, noting that "The people round him were friendly, and they wanted to talk, but they were busy."
"One of them," he continues, " on hearing that an Irish caller wanted to come to New York to help with the digging, advised him to stay at home. Hotels had collapsed, he said, a huge chunk of Manhattan was still closed off, and there were no resources to devote to extra people."
" Shouldn't," MCCarthy asks, "somebody have made the same point to Duffy? "
A fair point we would concede but a difficult balance to strike for a broadcaster and we would think there is a value in being on the spot even in these circumstances!
Still from Ireland and what we found a rather surprising comment from Irish Times writer Harry Browne, who has a New York background.
If nothing else his column will probably provoke some outrage; maybe it will also provoke thought.
"He starts his column by writing," The US government "is the world's leading purveyor of violence" and continues," The words are those of that noted anti-American, Martin Luther King, and though they were spoken in 1967, they offer a context for some of the righteousness emanating from the parishes to our west."
After commenting on the death toll from the actions of the US and its proxies since World War 2 and noting that Bin Laden and his "mujahadeen mates" were among those proxies, he continues, "A few of us reckoned such points were worth making last week, in light of the bellicosity and "Good v Evil" rhetoric that was, quite understandably perhaps, dominating the airwaves."
"They're still worth making, as the freedom-loving regimes of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the like, line up, some of them obviously at gunpoint, to join the forces of "Good"."
Unsurprisingly this led to vilification of those issuing the comments, he says, but then adds, "Some of this week's radio voices made the best possible reply to those pundits who will ride out this 'war against terrorism' from safety."
"By far the most diverse range of opinions about what the US has done and what it should do next was mouthed in American accents."
Putting his perspective upon reports from New York and Washington on both BBC and RTE radio, Browne writes, "they found in their interviews, phone-ins and vox-pops not only earnest desire for retribution, but also voices of caution, of doubt and of questioning."
"The real anti-Americanism," he adds, "is the attempt to stifle this debate, with its huge implications for the US and the world - especially given the baldly imperial rhetoric coming from some corners of the US administration."
Browne also picks up on a number of occasions when listening to the words actually spoken show them up as close to nonsensical if not indeed nonsense.
An example! A comment by host Charlie Bird on RTE that the re-opening New York Stock Exchange "may not be the most important in the world but is "symbolically important."
As Browne notes of this particular example of portentous comment, "New York's is, of course, the world's most important exchange."
Browne goes on to make his own comments about the re-opening that are open to some of the same criticism as he has levelled but he is certainly correct about the importance of Wall Street; just look at the trading numbers!
More comment about the balance to be struck came in the UK Financial Times in which Martin Hoyle wrote, "In the aftermath of what all civilised people consider, in humanitarian terms, an atrocity, whatever the political background, it is difficult to tread a line between honest analysis of extremism and sympathetic tact for the victims."
"A supposedly trenchant political discussion programme that is no more than a protracted expression of condolence is obviously not doing its job, and might as well be postponed."
He then compares a BBC TV programme Question Time that led to an apology over comments being perceived as inappropriate and a Radio 4 programme "Any Questions" a few days later.
"It said," Hoyle comments, "much about the divergent natures of "serious" radio and television programmes; and about the suspicion that even serious programme-makers on TV conceive of their brief as entertainment, preferably gladiatorial."
Finally a look forward to the importance radio may yet have in the events to come, this time culled from the UK Sunday Telegraph where Charlotte Edwardes writes of the importance of radio, in this case BBC World Service Radio, as a prime source of news in Afghanistan.
"For most of Afghanistan, where television images and newspapers are illegal under the Taliban, the World Service is the only source of international news," she writes.
"It is through BBC transmissions that they have learnt of the imminent American incursion into Afghanistan and the threats to the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the main suspect for the World Trade Centre and Pentagon atrocities."
She looks at the delivery of the news to the country from the perspective of World Service presenter Emal Parsarly whose parents and brother are still in the country.
Commenting on his feelings at having to deliver news of impending war, he said," "When Serbia was under attack, I asked one of my Serbian colleagues how he felt about telling his family and friends of forthcoming strikes through the radio. He was quiet for a while and then he said: 'It is very difficult to do this job at the moment.' I know I will feel the same way. It is very sad." Indeed so!
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2001-09-23: This week we had routine activity in much of the world and indeed in the US, despite the continuing dominance of reaction to the attacks which have led to a large number of complaints about Howard Stern (See RNW Sept 21).
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has approved two new community station licences.
They are being awarded in Cunnamulla, Queensland and Geelong, Victoria.
That for Cunnemalla goes to Cunnamulla Aboriginal Media Association, which was the only applicant and has been broadcasting under a temporary licence on the frequency that has now been awarded to it on a permanent basis.
The Geelong licence was the subject of applications from Southern Victoria Community Radio Inc., which had been broadcasting on the frequency under a temporary licence and proposed a community station based on a country music format, and Vision Australia Foundation, which applied for a licence for a station to serve the print handicapped community.
The award was made to the latter by the ABA on the basis that it "as it found that the unique needs of the print handicapped community for access to the printed word indicates a greater and deeper need for a community radio service compared to the needs of country music enthusiasts."
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has been active on both the digital and analogue fronts.
On the digital front, it has approved an application by Cogeco Radio-T�l�vision inc. (Cogeco), licensee of CFGL-FM Laval. for a broadcasting licence to carry on a transitional digital radio undertaking (DRU) to serve Montr�al and Laval.
The transmissions will use the EUREKA-147 digital audio broadcasting system, which was first developed in Europe and has been confirmed by the Department of Industry as the standard for digital broadcasting in Canada.
On the analogue front, the Commission has approved licences for a new low-power English-language FM radio station at Jasper, Alberta, which will offer a hybrid format combining a local information service and a rebroadcasting service for the signal of CIRK-FM, Edmonton; and for a developmental French-language FM campus radio programming undertaking at Shawnigan, Qu�bec, which will replace the carrier current or closed-circuit radio service currently operated at the S�minaire Sainte-Marie, Shawinigan.
It has also approved a conversion to FM of adult contemporary CFQB-AM, Fort Frances, Ontario, the only station currently serving the area; CQFB had argued that the conversion would improve its signal quality, and allow it to compete effectively with the signals from six commercial U.S. radio stations broadcasting from International Falls, Minnesota and nearby areas.
In Saskatchewan, the CRTC has approved amendments to the licence of CJLR-FM La Ronge comprising a frequency change and power increase from 49 watts to 28,000 watts and in Ontario, an amendment the other way to relocate the transmitter of the Haliburton Broadcasting Group's CHNO-FM Sudbury and decrease its power from 100,000 watts to 11,000 watts.
The latter changes are necessary in order to resolve interference problems with aeronautical NAV/COM services and will downgrade the station from a Class C1 to a Class B.
Things were quiet in Ireland but in the UK the Radio Authority has renewed three licences for stations whose operators gained automatic renewal under provisions mandating this when they provided a services on the relevant digital multiplex for the area concerned.
The licences renewed were the Greater London FM and AM licences held by London News Radio Ltd., broadcasting as ITN News Direct 97.3 FM and LBC 1152 AM, West Sound Radio's Ayr licence, and Galaxy 102's Manchester FM licence
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission has received a large number of complaints about comments by shock-jock Howard Stern on his show during National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.
Commissioner Michael Copps issues a statement of dismay about them (See RNW Sept 21) but they do not seem to breach FCC rules.
The Commission has also redlined deals by Mapleton Communications over clusters it is trying to build up in California and Oregon (See RNW Sept 22).
On a more positive front, it has now issued a statement concerning rule changes adopted to facilitate deployment of software defined radio technology.
Such radios can be quickly reprogrammed to transmit and receive on multiple frequencies in different transmission formats and could enable more efficient use of radio spectrum by enabling transmissions to be split up and switched around to use spectrum where normal transmissions are not fully using the bandwidth allocated to them.
The rule changes simplify the procedures for modifications, both for original manufacturers and also by other parties such as software developers
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2001-09-22: This was a week which saw stocks falling and analysts and companies issuing warnings and downgrading their forecasts for media in general.
The market had a slight bounce back on Friday when radio stocks generally started on a low but overall there were no real signs of improvement.
Among radio stocks at their week lows at the start of Friday were giants Clear Channel - a low of USD 35.2 and Viacom - a low of USD 28.62.
Overall most stocks lost around a further tenth of their value from the when trading recommenced at the beginning of the week but there was a bright spot in Christian-oriented Salem whose stock actually went up by around 9%, although it fell back a little on Friday.
The satellite radio company stocks did worse than the market in general, losing around a quarter of their value over the week.
Media stocks were down by a similar amount in Canada where the Toronto Stock Exchange's communications and media index has fallen more than 12% per cent since the attacks in the US.

Next column

2001-09-22: NTL, which transmits most of the United Kingdom's commercial radio services and its terrestrial commercial television networks, has confirmed that it intends to sell or spin off the division involved by the end of this year.
NTL's broadcast transmission division is valued by analysts at around GBP1.7 billion .
One possible major contender, American Towers, has already said it is not interested.
Analysts say that France Telecom, NTL's largest shareholder, would also be unlikely to bid because of its substantial debts.

2001-09-22: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has red-flagged two deals by Mapleton Communications this week.
Both concern attempts by the group to build up clusters in areas where the deals would give them market domination.
The stations involved are in Medford, Oregon, and Merced, California, and in both cases the FCC has set aside the purchases for further review on the basis of advertisement revenue and ownership concentration concerns.
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2001-09-21: Despite the public platitudes, many Americans don't seem to have much time for the First Amendment at the moment and this has spilled over into the radio business.
In Baltimore, WCBM-AM host Les Kinsolving said earlier this week that Radio One's management was "terrorist sympathizers" because callers to its WOLB-AM Baltimore were allowed to express support for Muslim and Islamic ideals.
Radio One founder and chair, Cathy Hughes, came back robustly and the company issued a statement saying, "Like many radio stations, we encouraged and permitted our listeners during this very difficult time to express their opinions, and a very limited number of opinions were clearly controversial."
"These opinions do not reflect the views of Radio One. This past Monday a member of the media, in a public forum, criticized Radio One and its founder because we permitted these opinions to be expressed."
"But, even in these most difficult times, we are mindful of the cherished constitutional right to express an opinion, even if it is unpopular and not endorsed by the vast majority of our listeners." "Radio One is deeply saddened by the events of last Tuesday in New York and Washington, D.C.," it continued.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost their lives and those who are injured, along with all of their families and friends."
"We are heartened by the Herculean efforts of the rescue crews and the resurgence of patriotism displayed in many symbolic ways."
"Like many radio companies across the nation, we mobilized our employees and listeners to demonstrate their support in both word and deed."
Also in the US, US Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps issued a statement about remarks made by shock-jock Howard Stern.
After a Stern sidekick has asked if New York's prostitutes were also losing business, a caller to the Stern show had suggested that they should donate their services and give oral sex for firemen involved in the rescue efforts.
Stern commented, "New York prostitutes ought to do what everyone else is doing. They ought to donate their services and go down there and give oral sex to the firemen while they're digging for bodies."
Later in the show listeners heard voices with mock Arab accents make comments along the lines of, " I am Mohammed. I was involved in the terrorism. I would now like to bomb your vagina with my power pack."
Copps statement said, "I am saddened and dismayed at remarks reportedly made on Howard Stern's nationally syndicated radio program last week during our National Day of Prayer and Remembrance."
"... It was a week of precious lives lost, endless hours of painful and sustained rescue and relief work, countless acts of individual and community heroism, and a reaffirmation of the ties that forge the unity of the American people in times of national emergency."
"It was a week when America's broadcast media and other communications companies performed with self-sacrifice and often heroism. Most of Stern's programming last week seemed sensitive to this and supportive of encouraging a positive reaction to the disaster we had experienced."
"So it was all the more surprising that remarks were made, from whatever motivation, that so crudely distorted and demeaned the essential nobility of what our people were coming together to accomplish..."
In the UK, the Guardian newspaper reports on the sensitivities of DJs and stations concerning their playlists in the wake of the attacks.
As in the US there were immediate concerns and decisions concerning songs which might be found sensitive (See RNW Sept 19 re Clear Channel's supposed "banned" list).
At BBC Radio 2, executive music producer Colin Martin, it reports, immediately dropped what he considered the most obviously inappropriate tracks : Aerosmith's Fly Away From Here, Goldfrapp's Pilots and, Bob the Builder's Mambo No 5, the last because it was too frivolous in the circumstances.
Other songs were added as the day went on and Martin commented, "One of the most difficult things is to try and remember what the lyrics to songs are." says Martin.
"The titles are fairly obvious, but it's knowing the sentiments too. You play something and halfway through it might tie in with particular things that have happened. They're a bit of a horror for us, lyrics."
The BBC, notes the paper, has guidelines concerning tragedies and high-profile deaths with a general practice that news bulletins take precedence while quizzes, features and anything irreverent are cancelled.
Changes were also made at the BBC Radio 1 pop channel.
Its editor of music policy Alex Jones-Donelly commented, "It wasn't about abandoning Radio 1's music policy; it was about adapting it." says Jones-Donelly.
"We don't ban records, but some weren't played for a few days."
The Guardian also notes, amid expectations of military action, that during the Gulf war, Radio 1 banned no fewer than 67 songs, ranging from the political (John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance) to the absurd (Lulu's Boom Bang-a-Bang). Massive Attack and Bomb the Bass were urged to change their names for the duration of the conflict.
"It's business as normal now," says Jones-Donelly. "But if events change we'll take appropriate action again. We're well prepared to do that."
"What exactly that 'appropriate action' might be remains to be seen," concludes the report, " but Massive Attack must be watching the news closely. "
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2001-09-21: John Hopkins University has formalised details of its deal to sell its public radio station WJHU-FM to a Baltimore group, Maryland Public Radio Inc. (MPR), headed by WJHU host Marc Steiner.
The Baltimore Sun reports that under the terms of the deal, Maryland Public Radio has now deposited USD250000 in an escrow account held by the University and papers will be filed within the next few days with the Federal Communications Commission to transfer the licence.
At the transfer point the group will have to hand over the rest of the USD 5 million purchase price. MPR still has to obtain finance for the deal but the paper says it and the university regard this and the licence transfer approval merely as loose ends.
The paper says that Steiner is to be MPR's President and Baltimorean Anthony Brandon, president of a company that controls more than 40 stations in western states, its vice-President.
Brandon will swerve as a consultant to the university until the licence is transferred and will then become general manager of the new station, which will change its call sign although the planned new letters have not been announced.
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2001-09-21: BBC World Service radio is boosting its transmissions to Afghanistan and the surrounding area as well as the Middle East in the wake of the attacks in the US.
It has already expanded output in Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Urdu, the main languages in the area, boosted its FM transmissions and online services.
It is also adding an additional medium wave transmission on 1314 kHz, which covers Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, and UAE during different times of the day, as well as large parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
This new frequency supplements existing medium wave broadcasts on 1413kHz in the region.
At the moment the organisation's Arabic service has increased its broadcasts to become a 24-hour news and current service; the Pashto service has increased its broadcasts from 11� to 18� hours per week; the Persian service (Farsi) has increased its broadcasts from 28� to 37 hours per week; and the Urdu service has increased its broadcasts from 11� to 13� hours per week.
Further increases are planned for the last two of these.
The World Service says that survey work before the crisis indicates that some 72 per cent of Pashto language speakers and some 62 per cent of Persian speakers in Afghanistan listen daily to the BBC World Service.
It also says that the Urdu language service, which has now also switched to a rolling news and current affairs format, has a daily audience of more than 15 million in Pakistan.
BBC World Service Director Mark Byford commented, "For the region, the BBC World Service is a vital lifeline. Audiences, literally, depend on the BBC for impartial, accurate, trustworthy news and information."
"In Afghanistan, with no television and no national newspaper, BBC radio is a main form of communication."
Byford also added that world wide in the 24 hours after the attack, provisional figures show the BBC World News online site had a nine-fold increase in traffic, the Spanish site a 10-fold increase and the and Arabic site a six-fold one.
The Voice of America (VOA)is also to increase transmissions to the area.
Pashto and Dari broadcasts are up by 30 mins to a total of 105 minutes a day, Urdu up 30 minutes to 2 hours a day, Arabic up by four half-hour programmes to 9 hours a day and Farsi up by two half-hour programmes to four and a half hours a day.
Although the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)site heads its home page with news from the area, it has not announced any transmissions to the area, which is outside its remit.
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2001-09-20: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that, following a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), US broadcast stations will be allowed to suspend routine tests of emergency alarm systems until October 2.
FEMA made the request "In connection with the recent terrorist attacks, and in order to avoid potential public confusion or fear" and the FCC says that, should an extension be requested, it will issue a further public notice.
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2001-09-20: US radio giant, Clear Channel, has publicly denied that it has issued any list of "banned songs" following the attacks on New York and Washington.
The story of a list of some 150 banned songs had made its way into publications ranging from the august New York Times to various online publications, although the Times version carried the story as one of not a ban but said Clear Channel had "asked its stations to avoid playing them."
The Clear Channel statement says, "Clear Channel Radio has not banned any songs from any of its radio stations."
"Clear Channel believes that radio is a local medium. It is up to every radio station program director and general manager to understand their market, listen to their listeners and guide their station's music selections according to local sensitivities."
"Each program director and general manager must take the pulse of his or her market to determine if play lists should be altered, and if so, for how long."
A statement from President and Chief Operating Officer Mark P. Mays said," In the wake of this terrible tragedy, the nation's business community is responding with a degree of hypersensitivity."
"Even some movie companies have altered some of their release schedules in light of the mood in America today."
"Clear Channel strongly believes in the First Amendment and freedom of speech."
"We value and support the artist community. And we support our radio station programming staff and management team in their responsibility to respond to their local markets."
Clear Channel says the story developed after a regional programming vice-president conferred with programme directors who were asking for direction and comments following the attacks.
A number of them came up with suggestions concerning songs that had sensitive lyrics which he put together, subsequently circulating a list of thoughts" about songs that might be thought sensitive.
A Clear Channel spokeswoman emphasized that the list was not a mandate or order to radio programmers.
The list itself seems to have "growed like Topsy" and includes such songs as Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World"; the Beatles' Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and Ticket to Ride; Simon And Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire"; Don McLean's "American Pie"; Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust"; Bruce Springsteen's "Goin' Down"; and all songs by the politically minded rap-rock group Rage Against the Machine.
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2001-09-20: The British Government has appointed Gavyn Davies as BBC chairman for five years from October 1.
Davies, who is a partner in investment bank Goldman Sachs and has been Vice-Chairman of the BBC since January 2001, is a known supporter of the ruling British Labour Party as is the Corporation's Director General Greg Dyke.
This has led to criticism from the opposition Conservative Party, which says that a prominent Conservative supporter should now be appointed as his deputy.
Davies himself says that his political allegiances will not cause any conflicts of interest.
Both Davies and Dyke are millionaires; Davies and some 200 other partners are each due to receive shares worth some USD 50 million when Goldman Sachs becomes a public company in the next few months whilst Dyke sold shares worth some USD 9 million in commercial TV company Granada after he took up the BBC post (See RNW Jan 20, 2000).
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2001-09-20: Tampa, Florida, host Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Clem), infamous for his wild boar slaughter connections, returned to the airwaves on Wednesday following a walkout early on Tuesday.
He had walked when he learned that Clear Channel subsidiary Premiere Networks was syndicating Glen Beck to some 30 stations whilst a syndication deal he had anticipated had been put on hold because of the boar killing.
The slaughter led to a number of advertisers pulling spots from the station (See RNW Mar 18) and Bubba and three others have been charged with animal cruelty offences.
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2001-09-20: Michael Cathcart, the host of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's flagship radio arts programme, Radio National's Arts Today, is to leave the post at the end of the year.
He had said he would only do the job for two years when he took up the post and, although he says he will do some work for ABC radio, intends to spend more time on his academic activities.
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2001-09-19: More gloom, in the short term at least, about the outlook for US radio from the analysts, although they still favour the medium over its big stable mate, television.
Bank of America Securities analyst Tim Wallace warns of market volatility in the short term and expects downward revision of estimates for the rest of this year in the wake of the September 11th attack.
He has revised his forecast that radio would end 3% down this year, compared with 2000, and now thinks the fall will be 6%.
For next year, he expects a flat year compared to his previous forecast of a 5% gain. However he still favours radio over television because of its lower costs, local orientation and potential to increase its share of advertising.
James Marsh of Robertson Stephens is more bullish andis not yet revising his 2002 forecast; he's not making a full year prediction but expects growth after the first quarter.
For this year he expects third quarter revenues down 10% rather than 6% as he previously forecast and the final quarter down 5% instead of his forecast of 3%.
March estimates radio lost up to USD 200 million in revenues from running commercial-free for most of last week. He also singles out as particularly vulnerable Emmis and Spanish Broadcasting System, both of which are heavily dependant upon New York for its revenues.
SBS gets over a third of its revenue from New York and Emmis nearly 30% compared to under 8% for Viacom's Infinity, which is concentrated in larger markets, and the 4% for Clear Channel.

2001-09-19: Following conditional granting of authority to operate its terrestrial repeater stations, XM Satellite Radio has now re-scheduled for September 25 its commercial launch, originally scheduled for last Wednesday but postponed after last Tuesday's attacks.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave the special temporary authority for the terrestrial repeaters to complement their satellite signals to both Sirius and XM on Monday.
Objections had been raised to the satellite radio companies' plans by wireless date providers who said their could be interference with their services and by broadcasters, with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) suggesting that the companies planned to use their terrestrial networks to provide local content (See RNW Aug 23).
The FCC Permission was granted on condition that XM and Sirius cease operations if they interfere with wireless communications services and the FCC says the issue will be addressed further during the final approval process
The FCC has also barred the companies from using the repeaters for any local origination or commercial insertion.
Its order, which allows operations until March 2002 when rules for permanent operation should have been finalised, says that the use of repeaters is restricted to "the simultaneous retransmission of programming, in its entirety, transmitted by the satellite directly to � (subscribers' satellite) receivers.
In a statement XM President and CEO Hugh Panero said, "We are grateful that the FCC has moved so expeditiously in the face of the tragic events that have obviously affected all aspects of government."
"It is important that all U.S. businesses return to some state of normalcy. The Federal Government is working, the stock market is open and now it's time for new businesses like ours to show that the tragic events will not deter us."
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2001-09-19: MeasureCast, which has just released its weekly ratings for the week to September 9, gets in its release a plug for Internet radio on September 11, noting dramatic increases in streaming.
It quotes MeasureCast CEO ed Hardy as saying, "because many people don't have TVs or radios in their offices, thousands of office workers tuned in to Internet radio to get the latest information of the terrible attacks...This is indicative of the growing importance and growing popularity of Internet radio."
As we have already reported (RNW Sept 17), the percentages may be large but the totals are insignificant compared to the millions turning to over-the-air radio and TV broadcasts.
The new weekly ratings, which follow a re-issue of the previous week's ratings (RNW Sept 14) having changed its system to include log file analysis as well as is proprietary software, shows listening slightly down compared to the previous week.
At the top it shows some jostling for place but no change in the stations in the top five.
They were, ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) and with, where applicable, previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets:
1): Jazz station Jazz FM TTSL 165564 (157016); CP 60088 (45145) Position unchanged but listening up.
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 121,154 (123,211); CP 20,455 (23,731) Previously third with higher listening.
3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 100182 (92,865); CP 17,333 (14,695) - Previously fifth.
4): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 91581 (131433); CP 40385 (39794) Previously second.
5): Classical music King FM TTSL 82503 (97769); CP 16,639 (15711) - Previously fourth..
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2001-09-18: Despite an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, the doomsayers had it right when Wall Street re-opened on Monday.
By late afternoon the market had steadied a little above the days lows with both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq down around 7%.
Media stocks fared less well with Clear Channel and Viacom both down by more than 10%.
The satellite radio companies did even worse with Sirius down nearly 14% and XM down nearly 16%.
Radio stocks in general did worse than the market average with falls between 8% and 13% although Beasley Broadcasting held its fall to under 5%.
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2001-09-18: Spanish Broadcasting System's New York station WPAT-FM, whose transmitter was on the north tower of the World Trade Centre and which was taken off the air by last week's attack, has now resumed broadcasting from a tower at the Empire State Building.
Sister station WSKQ-FM already operated from the Empire State Building and its broadcasts were not interrupted.
Previous SBS.

2001-09-17: Following a week, the events of which it can accurately be said that to have predicted them would have attracted the description "incredible", US broadcasters are gradually making moves towards a return to more or less normal programming.
As we write this, the rest of the world's financial markets are waiting for the US stock markets to open, with analysts' views in two camps - that initially "patriotism" will mute any fall or that money has no morality and fears of losses will talk louder than any other motivation.
Most analysts expect strenuous efforts to support the market to begin with but a fall in the mid term and, as well as airlines, media stocks are likely to be among the harder hit.
Since Tuesday, the continuous coverage of the "Attack on America" has cost broadcasters hundreds of millions of dollars in lost advertising revenues and also imposed extra costs on many.
In New York, one estimate from M-Street Daily is that major market stations billing around USD15 million a year will have lost around 80000 USD between Tuesday and the weekend
At the same time, the value to the public of traditional broadcast media was yet again demonstrated with the Internet a poor third in the information source stakes according to The Pew Internet & American Life Project.
It said that a telephone survey showed more than four fifths of Americans used TV as their primary source, 11 per cent used radio and only three per cent turned to the Internet.
Internet use was actually slightly down on Tuesday and Wednesday but around a quarter of Internet users, although relying on other sources, still logged on.
Similarly most people used the phone to reach friends and relatives despite the problems of an overloaded system.
Numbers from MeasureCast back up the Pew survey.
Although they show jumps of up to some 8000per cent in the streaming audience for news/talk radio the actual totals are not that impressive in traditional media terms.
ABC Radio station WSL-AM in Chicago, which is the advert-insertion test bed station for ABC radio, streamed some 3000 hours on Tuesday and had a cume (cumulative audience) of 2,069.
On US radio stations, apart from the programme changes to news, the tragedy has led to a rethink by many stations about their playlists and the dropping of songs referring to death and destruction.
XM satellite radio, as well as delaying its commercial launch, also removed from its advertising scenes in which in which musicians Snoop Dogg, David Bowie and B.B. King fell from the sky in various locales, followed by falling sports equipment, musical instruments and other items.
For many stations, there was a symbolic end to the week with a special tribute that began with a moment of silence, "Taps" and live coverage of a prayer service from the National Cathedral in DC.
This was carried by all regional Clear Channel, Radio One, Infinity, ABC and Bonneville DC and Baltimore radio stations.
In addition to their on-air activities all major US radio chains and most local stations were involved in various campaigns to aid victims as well as carrying public service announcements, some of them prepared by the American Red Cross and released in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters. They included appeals for donations of money and blood.
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Pew Internet site: .

2001-09-17: This week's events dramatically underlined the difference between "live" and "tape" and also give emphasis to comments in his column this week by Paul Donovan of the UK Sunday Times.
It concentrates on the difference in the context of the tendency of broadcasters to mangle meanings in their marketing efforts and in particular the efforts of the BBC in this area.
In his case, the prime example he give is of a BBC programme, called "Elton Live - Live and Exclusive" and, with no mucking about over the clarity of language Donovan bluntly writes," This is a lie."
"The concert took place last Sunday in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House. By no stretch of the imagination is it "live". It is the opposite of live. It is recorded. "
He then gave the BBC a chance to comment. They responded by digging the hole deeper: "Live and Exclusive," said a Radio 2 spokeswoman, "is the new name we are going to be using for all the concerts done specially for us in the Radio Theatre, like this and the Bee Gees concert earlier this year, to differentiate them from snoop concerts." ("Snoop concerts" are non-BBC ones, which the BBC just goes along to record.) "
As Donovan says this abuse of the language demeans "all those programmes that are genuinely live and all the more exciting for it - such as the Proms, the Monday lunch-time concerts from the Wigmore Hall starting tomorrow, Late Junction (all of these are on Radio 3, whose passion for live performance is reflected in its Sunday Feature today on this very subject), and, most obviously, the news. "
Having got the liars/marketing department out of he way, on to the events of the week which swamped the airwaves, both live and from tape with TV giving interminable replays of planes hitting the World Trade Centre and the subsequent collapse of buildings.
For most people TV was the gateway to the events but around a tenth of Americans used the radio as a primary source.
Reporting on the way radio went that day the best article we saw was from Frank Ahrens in the Washington Post. "For one very emotional day," he writes, "Washington's radio stations reverted to their public-service roots, becoming a cross between the Emergency Broadcast System and a crisis-counselling network."
"Following yesterday's terrorist attacks in Washington and New York," he continues, "most music stations substituted news for songs while deejays tried to stem caller blood lust directed against Arabs and Muslims."
One example Ahrens gives of DJs reactions, in our view, put the subsequent reactions of most Americans to shame.
On black-hits WPGC-FM, deejays EZ Street, DJ Flexx and Todd B who had abandoned their "high-energy, shout-out style" received a call from someone who said, "I am from Afghanistan and I want to know which ignorant fundamentalist group did this. I think we should attack Afghanistan. Yes, that's right, and I am Muslim."
"These ignorant groups are ruining the reputation of other decent Muslims."
EZ Street responded: "Bro, I am not mad at you and I would never throw a blanket over you. We are not pointing fingers. That's not how we roll here."
On sister station WHFS-FM, DJ Rob Timm reminded listeners: "Remember -- when Oklahoma City got hit, we all thought it was Arabs at first."
Compare and contrast that with the reaction of most Americans according to a CBS-New York Times poll.
More than two thirds of respondents said that the US should retaliate even if innocent people are killed, 60 per cent maintaining that view even if "Many thousands of innocent civilians are killed."
One up to these DJs over the majority of the "American People" it would seem!
Previous Ahrens:
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
CBS Web site - links to poll:
UK Sunday Times - Donovan:
Washington Post - Ahrens:

2001-09-17: "Here and Now", the Boston public radio station WBUR-FM midday news and features show is making its national debut today.
The show has been syndicated in New England for two years and is now being fed by satellite to interested National Public Radio (NPR)stations: No fee is being charged although the producers hope for additional funding if there is a significant take up. Interest has been expressed by a number of stations including some in Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and New York state.
Previous NPR:
Previous WBUR:
NPR web site:
WBUR web site:

2001-09-16: A fairly busy week in licence terms with only Ireland totally quiet: In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority is proposing one new commercial station, five new community services, and two new open narrowcasting services in its final plan for the Adelaide area.
To allow the new commercial service will require a frequency change to a translator for existing commercial service 5SSA and a frequency change for community service 5CST.
Of the five planned new licences, two will be for Adelaide-wide community services and the three others will be for local communities in the Adelaide Foothills, Port Adelaide and the Barossa Valley; in addition, pioneer community radio station 5UV will convert to FM after 29 years on the AM band.
The new open narrowcasting services will be for Adelaide and the Barossa Valley.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved a number of conversions from AM to FM and also a number of new stations.
The conversions are in British Columbia.
They are those of
*CKEK-AM, Cranbrook, which is to be replaced by a new 1600 watt FM offering an adult contemporary hits music format and also broadcasting a minimum of 125 hours of local programming each week;
*of CICF-AM, Vernon, which is to be replaced by a new 46,000 watts FM offering an contemporary hit radio"/"hot adult contemporary" music format;
*of CKCI-AM, Parksville, which is to be replace by a new 960 watt FM continuing CKCI's coverage of local news and events, and airing of local programming.
New licences include:
* a low-power English language 1.5 watt tourist information service for Pigeon River Border Crossing, Ontario;
*a new developmental English-language 5 watt FM at Hanover, Ontario; a new 1.4 watt developmental English-language FM at Little Current, Ontario;
*a 4.3 watt low power developmental community-based campus FM for the Education Alternative Radio Society, Prince George, British Columbia;
*and a 1.6 watt low-power English language religious radio FM Rimbey Church of the Nazarene,Rimbey, Alberta.
The Commission has also approved a transmitter re-siting and power reduction from 40000 watts to 21000 watts for CHCQ-FM Belleville, Ontario.
In the UK, the Radio Authority, has been active on the disciplinary, AM, FM and digital fronts.
It has fined Castle Rock FM, Dumbarton, Scotland, GBP1000 for signal over deviation, announced that next week it is to re-advertise the Greater London local radio licence which is currently held by London Christian Radio Ltd., broadcasting as Premier Christian Radio.
This licence is for a service on the AM (medium wave) band, using three frequencies and broadcasting from five transmission sites and is one of three London AM services due for re-advertisement.
The licence currently held by Spectrum Radio Ltd. will be re-advertised next month, unless that company is contracted to provide a digital sound programme service on a London multiplex in the meantime, thereby qualifying for the automatic renewal of its existing analogue licence.
On the FM front, the Authority says that it has received five applications for the new FM licence for Reading in Berkshire.
The applications were from:
*Crown FM (Reading Broadcast Ltd.), which is offering adult contemporary music plus local news, sport and information;
*Juice Reading (Reading Fm Ltd.), which is offering a youth music service;
*New City Fm (Reading Broadcasting Co. Ltd.), which is offering family oriented music combined with local news and information;
*Reading 107 (Oracle Broadcasting Ltd.), which is offering local news, information and entertainment complemented by soft rock music; and
RFM (Reading Community Radio Ltd.), which is offering a mix of local news, sports and community issues together with music.
The Authority has also announced that it has received one application for the new Peterborough digital multiplex in Northants, from GWR Group subsidiary Now Digital Ltd.
Now is proposing six commercial services to start with plus an additional one within two years.
It will also carry the existing BBC local radio service, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
The initial commercial services planned are:
*Contemporary hit radio - Hereward FM (provider: Hereward Radio Ltd.)
*Gold - Classic Gold (provider: Classic Gold Digital Ltd.)
*Dance - Vibe FM (provider: DMG Radio Ltd.)
*Local (City of Peterborough) - Lite FM (provider: GP Broadcasting Ltd.), subject to confirmation.
*Adult contemporary - Passion (provider: Passion for the Planet Ltd.).
*Country - Provider: to be confirmed
In addition the Authority has invited "public interest" comments on The Kent Messenger Group's acquisition of South East Radio Ltd, which broadcasts Neptune Radio, the local radio station in Folkestone and Dover ( See RNW Sept 4)
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was closed for most of Tuesday following the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, has taken a step along the line of re-working or abandoning its media cross ownership rules (See RNW Sept 14).
It is also to undergo a re-organisation that will see the former Mass Media Bureau and Cable Services Bureau subsumed into a single Media Bureau.
This will oversee all broadcast services including AM, FM and LPFM (Low Power FM) radio, TV, LPTV, cable and DBS services. Licensing will come under a new "Office of Broadcast License Policy" within the new bureau.
The office will be headed by current Mass Media Bureau Chief Roy Stewart.
Previous ABA:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
Previous Stewart:
ABA web site
CRTC web site:
FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority web site:

2001-09-15: The Lebanese Muslim Association in Sydney is to seek legal advice as to whether it can take any action following comments made by Sydney 2UE host Alan Jones on Thursday according to the Sydney Morning Herald in a report on the knock-on effects of reporting of the attack on the US in Australia.
It says that Jones, who first denied that he was a bigot, then asked "Are the Muslim rapes of Australian women in the Bankstown area the first signs of an Islamic hatred toward the community that welcomed them here years ago?" "Have we now, because of multi-culturalism, created an Islamic community in Australia that's more aligned with Islam than it is with Australia?"
(RNW note: the remarks follow a recent horrific case of gang rape by Lebanese youths in Sydney).
Keysar Trad, of the Lebanese Muslim Association, told the paper that comments of this nature incited racial hatred and should be subject to racial vilification laws.
He also criticised radio talk back hosts more generally, saying, "It's got to the point where talkback hosts have made Muslim women prisoners in their own homes."
Amongst the reports referred to was a fictitious report of public celebrations following Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington of which Superintendent John Richardson told the paper that the only emotion he had discerned was one of collective sorrow.
David Bacon, 2UE's general manager, argued that the station has fielded radical views on all sides of the debate." And I believe that 2UE's presenters - every one of them - have defused what is potentially an explosive situation," he told the paper.
Previous Jones:
Previous 2UE:
Sydney Morning Herald report:

2001-09-15: The British Government has conditionally approved all the five new digital radio services that the BBC had asked for but slapped it down for the moment on one of its three digital TV channel applications.
This was for a youth service, regarding which it has been asked to submit new proposals.
The plans had been opposed by commercial broadcasters.
The announcement was made by Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, who commented that, "overall, the new stations should attract a wider range of viewers to all digital services. This can only be good news for all broadcasters and for the viewer and listener."
The new radio services planned (See RNW Sept 29, 2000) are:
* Network X, for a young specialist audience;
*Asian Network,
*Five Live Sports Extra,
*Network Y, an archive music and voice channel;
* Network Z, a speech-based service. In addition the BBC World Service will also be extended to the UK on digital services; it is currently available on AM but the signal is weak to unacceptable in much of the country.
Previous BBC:
BBC News release:
BBC Online news report:

2001-09-15: The business deals of radio were totally overwhelmed by the news in the US this week and attention at major networks and many stations was devoted more to covering the tragedy and supporting relief efforts but they did not cease.
In addition, the closure of Wall Street, has piled up the pressures for next week when it re-opens; many are predicting a precipitate fall in stocks in general and media stocks in particular.
The latter will not be helped in the short term by the decision by many broadcasters to eschew advertisements and go for news and information broadcasting.
Amongst the deals worthy of a note were:
*a USD7.95 million in which Northern Star Broadcasting is buying nine Michigan stations from Marathon Media;
*a Pennsylvania deal in which Dame Broadcasting is paying Boalsburg Broadcasting Co. USD 4M cash for WBUS-FM.
*Another Michigan deal in which Birach Broadcasting is to spend USD 1.19 million for Grand Rapids market stations WMJH-AM Rockford and WMFN-AM Zeeland;
*and a USD1 million deal in which Results Radio Group is purchasing KHME-FM Winona, Minnesota, from a subsidiary of Mid-West Family Radio which is in turn in the process of buying the station from Marathon Media.

2001-09-14: The US Federal Communications Commission has taken tentative steps to possibly abandoning cross ownership regulations by adopting a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to examine whether to abandon or modify its current cross ownership rule that prohibits a single company from owning a daily newspaper and broadcast station in the same market.
Commenting on the issue at the FCC's Thursday meeting, chairman Michael Powell, said comments should focus on the real world not theory, adding, "Lets go look at the number of grand fathered and waivered applications that exist in the marketplace."
The current rule was adopted in 1975 and Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy noted that this week's events had demonstrated the extra news sources that had sprung up since then.
Among options being considered is a suggestion that common ownership be allowed but require separate news operations.
The FCC is also to look at an inconsistency in the current rule, which requires a waiver before a newspaper can buy a broadcast station in a market but allows a broadcaster to buy a newspaper and only seek the waiver then the station's licence is up for renewal:
Previous Abernathy:
Previous Powell:
Previous FCC:

2001-09-14: Among the stories, which got squeezed out by the pressures of more momentous events, earlier this week is the re-jig of its Baltimore radio operations by Viacom's Infinity radio subsidiary.
Oldies station WQSR-FM, formerly on 105.7 FM, has now been moved to a stronger 102.7FM signal in a switch with rock and roll WXYV-FM that has been given an urban contemporary format as it moves to 105.7FM.
Allied with the call-sign moves, which have yet to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, Infinity has tweaked the format of adult contemporary outlet WWMX to give it more appeal to former listeners to the old WXYV and changed the line-up at easy listening WLIF-FM.
There morning hosts Michael Filippelli and Mary Street have been fired t be replaced by a new show hosted by former WWMX figures Greg Carpenter and Tamara Nelson.
The Baltimore Sun says Infinity commented that it was trying to cover "as many demographics and listeners " as it could and noted that the changes would also put the new WXYV-FM in competition with African American oriented Radio One's stations WERQ-FM and WWIN-FM.
Viacom has made no changes at sports and talk WJFK-AM and Annapolis-based modern rock WHFS-FM
Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:
Baltimore Sun report:

2001-09-14: It all depends where you start from, it would seem: Internet audio ratings organisation MeasureCast Inc has now re-released its original ratings for the week to September 2 (See RNW Sept 6) with a different station heading the rankings.
This is because it has now included streaming radio customers measured by log file analysis.
Previously ratings were solely based on measurements that used MeasureCast's proprietary event monitoring software but some customers were unable to use this according to the company.
The re-issued list puts London-based Jazz Fm at the top of the rankings, knocking out MediaAmazing; it also puts Classical music King-FM in the top five and Boston Sports talk station WEEI-AM in the top 25 at number 15.
Knocked out of the top five are Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville and Classic Rock WFXZ-FM.
The new top 5 individual stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were (with, where applicable, previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets) are:
1): Jazz station Jazz FM TTSL 157016; CP 45145
2): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 131433 (132623); CP 39,794 (38950) Previously placed first with these figures.
3): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 123,211 (119975); CP 23,731 (21274) Previously second with these figures.
4): Classical music King FM TTSL 97769; CP 15711.
5): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 92,865 (97351); CP 14,695 (14462) - Previously third with these figures.
RNW note: As we have commented before now, the Internet audiences are miniscule compared to those of over-the-air stations and dividing the above TTSL by the number of quarter-hours in September gives a top "AQH" rough equivalent of some 55 listeners
More interesting have been the trends, which show a continuing steady rise in listening, albeit from a low base.
The above change does not substantially change these but we would also find it interesting to see what the figures were on Tuesday of this week when US stations switched largely to news cover of the horror in the US and put massive pressures on the Internet
We would think that the figures for Internet accessing of organisations such as the BBC, CNN and other major news organisations would dwarf all the MeasureCast clients put together and in turn be dwarfed by the people watching broadcast TV or, where this was not available, listening to traditional broadcast radio.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:

2001-09-13: In the US all activity remains dominated by the horrors of Tuesday; some organisations - including the Federal Communications Commission are now back at work and others such as cell phone companies are now getting back to normal service after the initial peak which overwhelmed them.
Yet others have been cancelling planned events which now seem inappropriate in the circumstances just as did continuing with normal programmes on Tuesday when entertainment and sports were largely superseded by a switch to news output.
The Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) has cancelled its 2001 Conference & Exhibition scheduled to have begun on Wednesday Sept 12 in Nashville, Tennessee.
A notice on its web site gives reasons including a feeling by members of a "deep obligation to serve the public in this time of national crisis" and the more practical ones such as the shutdown of the US air traffic system.
The FCC on its web site expresses its "deepest sympathy for everyone involved in yesterday's tragic events."
A statement by chairman Michael K. Powell said, "I am deeply saddened by the loss experienced yesterday by the people of New York and Washington, DC, rescue workers, federal employees, and all Americans affected by yesterday's tragedies."
"I am grateful for the tireless and heroic efforts of those in the telecommunications industry who are working hard to keep our most fundamental communications systems - such as telephone service, wireless phone service and television service - operating efficiently under the circumstances."
"This is a difficult time for everyone and we must be patient."
RNW comment:We find this statement a welcome contrast to the ritual drivel we have heard from many leading politicians who mangled their language in condemning the perpetrators of the atrocity and if the content is analysed are promoting the impractical or ill thought out action.
In New York, four radio towers were on the World Trade Centre, those of non-commercial stations WNYC-FM and WKCR-FM (Columbia Univ.) WKTU-FM; Clear Channel's WKTU-FM, and Spanish Broadcasting System's WPAT-FM.
Clear Channel has back-ups in operation and WPAT hopes to be back on air within a week operating from temporary equipment at the Empire State Building.
Previous FCC:
Previous Powell:
Previous RTNDA:
Previous SBS:
FCC web site:
RTNDA web site:

2001-09-13: Latest Australian ratings from AC Nielsen McNair, show new Sydney commercial station Nova FM increasing its audience share slightly, from a 7.3 to a 7.4.
Austereo's 2-Day FM and Triple M held their top spots but lost and gained share, from a 14.2 to a 13.7 and an 11.7 to a 12.0 respectively.
In the talk stakes in Sydney, 2UE was still comfortably in the lead with a 12.7 share, up from 11.7, boosted by the Afghan refugee ship row.
ABC 702 fell back from a 9.1 to a 7.2 share, losing some 113000 listeners a week.
Classic hits station 2WS gained some 93000 listeners a week as it took its share up to 8.0 from 7.4.
At breakfast time Alan Jones not only stayed in the lead for 2UE but also bounced his share back up to 16.3 from last months 15.4 to which it had fallen from 17.7 in the previous period.
In other Australian main cities, the top three were as follows (previous % share in brackets):
Adelaide: SAFM with 25.6 (25.9); 5AA with 14.8 (13.5); 5MM (11.7) with 12.5 (knocking Mix to fourth place:
Brisbane - B105FM with 25.5 (26.6); Triple M with 17.5 (18.2); 4KQ with 11.9 (10.9):
Melbourne - Fox FM with 17.2 (16.8); 3AW with 13.2 (14.7); 3MM with 11.2 (9.8):
Perth - 94.5FM with 22.0 (19.6); 96FM with 16.5 (16.8); All New with 14.3 (14.1):
Previous 2UE:
Previous Austereo:
Previous Jones:
Previous Nova:

2001-09-12: Today's scheduled commercial launch of XM Satellite Radio in San Diego and Dallas has now been postponed.
the company put out a statement by President and CEO Hugh Panero saying," Due to (Tuesday's) national tragedy, XM Satellite Radio has postponed the launch of its commercial service in San Diego and Dallas scheduled for September 12, as well as events in those cities and Washington, DC, related to the service launch."
"The thoughts and prayers of all XM employees go out to those affected by these horrible events."
The events also hit the Federal Communications Commission in Washington DC;, along with all Federal office buildings it closed early.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) office was kept open for a while but then closed shortly after noon.
In New York itself, a number of broadcasters that had transmitters on the World Trade Centre building were also affected although most of them had transmitter sites elsewhere.
Previous Panero:
Previous XM:
XM web site:

2001-09-12: Scottish Media Group, whose holdings include Virgin Radio, has reported profits down from GBP 30 million to GBP20 million, a 30% fall, in the six months to the end of June.
GBP six million of the fall resulted from a fall in TV advertising, GBP 2 million from its investment in Scottish Radio Holdings(SRH), and another GBP 2 million from increased costs of its broadcasting licences.
Turnover was down from GBP152.7million in the first half of 2000 to GBP 139.7million in the first half of this year.
Previous SMG:
Previous SRH:
SMG web site:

2001-09-12: Measurecast's latest monthly figures show Internet-only broadcasterMediaAmazing.com retaining the top spot for the sixth consecutive month; 29 of the top 50 spots went to Internet-only stations, two more than in July.
At the top rank, thee was again little change with only the fifth rank by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) changing.
The top 5 stations ranked by Total Time Spent listening (TTSL), with last month's TTSL and Cume (Cumulative Audience) in brackets were:
1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 634405 (679,946); CP 124189 (119,791) - Position unchanged- but listening down for second month
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 511572 (416,183); CP 52542 (44,702) - Position unchanged, listening up.
3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 441755 (359,277); CP 39959 (28,617) - Position unchanged, listening up.
4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 319156 (293,075); CP31395 (27,260) - Position unchanged, listening up.
5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM (Wilmington, NC) TTSL 227038 (138,471) CP 19316 (13,897) - Previously 7th
Previous Measurecast ratings:
Previous MeasureCast monthly ratings:
MeasureCast web site:

2001-09-11: Austereo, the Australian group which was formerly owned by Village Roadshow and which had a disappointing debut when it was listed separately in March (See RNW Mar 6), has reported a 2001 pro-forma net profit of Aus$50.5 million.
This is a little above the Aus$49.9 million (around USD25 million) it had forecast for the year to June 30 but its long run of double-digit growth is likely to have ended.
The company has had a five-year run of double-digit revenue growth but its prospectus forecasts for 2002 were only a 1% increase in EBITDA to Aus$98.8 million and profit of Aus$52.6 million.
In the the latest financial year, the group, which owns the Triple M and 2Day FM commercial networks, fought off the challenge from new Sydney competitor Nova FM, launched in April by the DMG Group, to record a 14% growth in EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) to a total of Aus$97.8 million.
For the four months to June 30 it reported a net profit after tax of Aus$12.7 million.
More recently it missed its revenue targets for July, but was on budget for August and expects to remain so in September.
Radio revenue for the year, assisted by the performance of the company's Malaysian radio interests, was up 10.6 per cent compared to broader industry growth of 2.9 per cent.
During the year, Austereo spread its international activities into Greece (See RNW July 17) and the United Kingdom (See RNW Dec 4 2000).
Executive Chairman, Peter Harvie commented, 'The two Austereo networks produced exceptionally strong results in our core markets."
"In addition, we believe the development of offshore operations, primarily utilizing the company's intellectual capital, will provide Austereo with additional growth paths."
Previous Austerereo:
Previous DMG:
Previous Harvie:
Previous Nova FM:
Austereo web site :

2001-09-11: The UK's Chrysalis Group, which owns the Heart and Galaxy radio networks, has said it expects a rise in radio revenues of around 16% to GBP 43.3million for the year to August 31; at the same time it has confirmed the problems with its New Media activities (See RNW Aug 5).
In New Media, it has written off some GBP 9.6 million and is to concentrate future activates on its on-line sports network Rivals, which it says is now the UK's leading sports website, although it says "converting this success into revenue remains a challenge."
The company will support Rivals from its "ring fenced funds", which are sufficient to support the Rivals business plan for the foreseeable future. No further investment will be made into any of the Group's other New Media ventures.
In radio, it says, "Whilst trading conditions in the radio advertising market remain difficult, Chrysalis is confident that it can continue to outperform the market given the further organic growth potential of its stations."
Previous Chrysalis:
Chrysalis web site:

Next column

2001-09-10: A week in which the radio writers seem to have been on holiday, or perhaps in the case of the US at the National Association of Broadcasters radio show; whatever the case, their comments were thin on the ground leaving the pick of the week to one newspaper, the UK Sunday Times.
o its credit, as well as reviews, this maintains weekly radio columns for Great Britain and Ireland and both are usually worth a dip into.
To take the last first, and the end paragraph as our starting point, at least provides an intriguing introduction, courtesy of Gerry McCarthy. "There are women," he writes," who'd say that a robot gigolo with the intelligence of a cockroach might be an improvement on the real thing."
The comment is not, however, anything to do with wars between the sexes; it follows comments about an edition of The Open Mind on RTE Radio 1 where the guest was Michio Kaku, author of several pop-science books.
Somewhat acerbically McCarthy comments "While it is a good thing to hear a scientist able to explain his subject lucidly on radio, it is unfortunate that the result was this hackneyed brand of futurology."
And the concluding paragraph? This developed from Kaku's comments that computer intelligence was still remote, that android gigolos of science fiction will not be around for a while but "a computer with the IQ of a cockroach should be feasible soon. "
Still on a technological bent, but this time looking to the past and the near future, McCarthy's colleague Paul Donovan, notes that of this year's radio anniversaries the most important will be celebrated on a windswept Cornish cliff in 13 weeks' time. It will mark Guglielmo Marconi's first transatlantic radio transmission which was sent from Newfoundland to Cornwall, using balloons and kites to lift the antennae that received the historic signal.
An obelisk on the cliff at Poldhu on the Lizard Peninsula commemorates the event and the UK's National Trust has restored Marconi's wooden hut and co-funded the anniversary event on December 12.
Donovan then speculates on what Marconi might think if he were to return to earth today, suggesting that he would not be surprised to "radio waves still enwrap the world", noting that before Marconi died " a fellow physicist discovered the ionosphere - the only thing that enables radio waves to bounce their way round the planet - and the BBC had started circling the globe with its Empire Service in 1932."
He might, however, suggests Donovan, "well wonder, in his occasional, non-scientific moments, why it is that we can put a man on the moon, but not build a radio with no crackle, and why it is that everywhere to-day you can buy a portable digital phone, but nowhere - nowhere at all - can you yet buy a portable digital radio��. Above all, Marconi would surely be amazed at just how much radio has clung on to people's affections - as tenaciously as the limpets clinging to the rocks far below his monument at Poldhu - despite its often dreadful reception."
"This is not so much to do with the quality of the programmes, which is obviously a matter of opinion, but more a reflection of radio's basic advantages."
"It is cheap, easy to use, light to carry around, and enormous fun."
"A century - almost - since Marconi became the first person to receive radio signals across the Atlantic, we have much to thank him for."
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous McCarthy:
UK Sunday Times - Donovan:
UK Sunday Times - McCarthy:

2001-09-10: A new slant on the uses of radio from the UK Sunday Telegraph: it reports that scientists at Glasgow University experimenting on voice recognition using characters from the BBC Radio 4 soap opera, The Archers, found that the human brain recognises voices as efficiently as it recognises faces.
The team used more than a hundred fans of the show, which in January marked its 50th year on air (see RNW Jan 2), in their experiments.
They were asked to listen to a wide range of voices, some using only a word or two, and then press a button when they thought they recognised a character from the soap.
Prof Michael Burton, who led the research team, said, "Most of them were able to pick out the characters' voices within a second of hearing it, which we found quite amazing.
To avoid people being able to recognise the voices by what they were saying rather than how they were saying it, we used excerpts that could not obviously be connected to The Archers.
"We are stunned at how well the volunteers could so quickly recognise accurately the characters' voices," he said.
"Of course there is a huge difference between recognising the voice of someone you have heard before and someone you have never heard, but this is the same for faces too."
He said the study proved for the first time that humans could recognise voices as well as they could faces and speculated that it could aid in solving criminal cases that rely on or use voice identification.
Previous BBC:
UK Sunday Telegraph report:

2001-09-09: Nothing from Australia of licence news this week but a fair level of activity elsewhere: In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has mainly been dealing with amendments and minor matters.
It has approved a new a 24-hour Christian music service for Sudbury, Ontario and a new French language FM station for Radio Roberval inc., Roberval, and Quebec, to replace CHRL-AM.
The new station's market is to be considered a single-station market and three months of simulcasting will be allowed.
In addition to this it has approved a number of changes to existing licences.
These include decreases in power for two Rogers Radio stations in British Columbia - from 640 to 303 watts for CKVX-FM Chilliwack, and from 20,000 watts to 12,480 watts for CISQ-FM Squamish; and a reduction in the percentage of French language vocal music from 95% to 85% for CHLM-FM Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec (in line with a similar reduction to the output of CBC's French-language radio network, La Premi�re Cha�ne, to which CHLM is affiliated).
In Ireland the main activity was the now Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI - formerly IRTC) release of a summary of responses to a call for comments about media ownership laws (See RNW Sept. 6).
In the UK, the Radio Authority has renewed another licence on the basis that the existing licence holder will be providing a digital service on the relevant local multiples; this time it is the Southend/Chelmsford AM licence held by Classic Gold Digital Ltd.
Also on the digital front, the Authority has awarded the Dundee and Perth digital multiplex licence to Scottish Radio Holdings subsidiary Score Digital Ltd.
Score was in competition with Switchdigital (Scotland) Ltd, a consortium whose main shareholders are the Wireless Group and Clear Channel International (See RNW June 24).
Score is proposing seven commercial services in addition to carrying the existing BBC 'national regional' service, Radio Scotland, and the Gaelic language service, Radio Nan Gaidheal.
They are:
* Contemporary and hit radio with information (Tayside & Angus) - Tay FM (provider: Radio Tay Ltd.)
*Chart and classic hits with sport (Tayside) - Tay AM (provider: Radio Tay Ltd.)
*Pop country - 3C (provider: SCORE Digital Ltd.)
*Progressive music - Provider: to be decided
*Soft AC and easy listening (Dundee) - Wave 102 (provider: The Wireless Group plc)
*Music and information (Fife) - Kingdom FM (provider: Kingdom FM Radio Ltd.)
*Community access channel - The Bridge (provider: Bridge FM).
On the analogue front, the Authority has offered the new licence for a small-scale service on the FM waveband to serve the town of Rugby, in Warwickshire, to Rugby Fm (Rugby Broadcasting Co. Ltd.). Rugby FM.
Rugby FM is offering pop music, a combined service of news, features, information and entertainment; it beat off three competitors, Fosseway Radio (Jet Fm Ltd.); The Lion (Lion Radio Ltd.); and Rugby 1 (Rugby On Air Co. Ltd.) (See RNW July 15).
It has also re-awarded the North London licence centred on Haringey to London Greek Radio against competition from Fusion Fm Ltd. (See RNW May 13).
In the US, most attention has been centred on the issues of indecency (See RNW Sept 9), but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has also announced that a US District Court in Virginia has convicted Khalid Kubweza on four criminal counts relating to operation of an unlicensed FM station from his home in Richmond.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 12 and Kubweza could potentially face up civil fines of up to $11,000 per violation, seizure by court order of all radio equipment involved in the operation, and or a court order enjoining the operator from operating an illegal station.In addition he faces possible criminal fines of up to $100,000 or imprisonment of up to one year, or both.
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2001-09-09: Washington-headquartered satellite radio company WorldSpace, which operates three satellites covering most of the world, has announced that it plans to add some ten more channels directed towards India.
Currently the organisation beams 25 round-the-clock radio signals on its AsiaStar satellite, seven of them aimed at India.
It intends to increase the total to around 35 by March next year, targeting most of the additional channels at its Indian audience.
The announcement was made as it launched a new digital audio satellite receiver through a tie-up with Indian electronics manufacturing giant BPL Ltd.
The receivers will be sold under the brand name "Celeste" and will be available soon.
Indian listeners can currently choose news from international broadcasters like BBC, CNN or Bloomberg and global music formats and talk channels from WorldSpace.
Indian broadcasters on the WorldSpace platform include, Radio Mid-Day, BPL Indigo, R M Radio from Asianet group, VRG Spaceradio and All India Radio.
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2001-09-09: Two of President Bush's new appointees to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have hinted that the FCC may have to take more severe measures over policing "indecent" broadcasts unless the broadcasters head off action by keeping their own recordings of some shows.
Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters 2001 Radio Show in New Orleans, Democrat Commissioner Michael Copps pressed for broadcasters to adopt his proposals to keep recordings, noting that some countries already require such recordings.
Copps reiterated a July comment (See RNW July 4) that if something was said on the public airwaves, it should be on the public record.
His fellow Commissioner, Republican Kathleen Abernathy, did not go so far but did suggest that radio stations would be well advised to start taping if they receive complaints about a particular show and then check to see if the on-air talent was going over the line.
Joining the two in concern about the current system for indecency enforcement, which requires a complainant to supply a tape or transcript of alleged indecent broadcasts, new Republican Commissioner Kevin Martin also suggested that the FCC should make broadcasters aware of potential problems by letting stations know about complaints whether or not it was taking action.
None of the three went as far as suggesting recordings be made of all output as is the practice in some countries.
The comments follow a campaign by former Democrat Commissioner Gloria Tristani who left the Commission on Friday and whose comments about the weakness of the Commission over indecency we have frequently reported (for most recent comments see RNW July 4).
In her departure statement, she commented on a wide range of issues.
Under the heading "Broadcast Indecency", she comments that "in fierce competition for ratings, broadcasters are increasingly resorting to violent and sexually-oriented programming.
"The Commission needs to get serious about enforcing the law enacted by Congress to limit indecent material on the airwaves that reaches our children," she continued.
"The courts have repeatedly held that the Commission's indecency enforcement activities do not violate broadcasters' First Amendment rights because our rules are designed to protect children."
"Indecency enforcement can require the agency to make difficult judgment calls regarding language and context, but that is no reason for the Commission to shrink from enforcing the law."
"A good place to start would be making the complaint process more consumer-friendly."
Copps had issued a statement in July concerning indecency regulations in which he expressed concern "about what seems to be an increasing amount of sexually explicit and profane programming on the airwaves and the potentially detrimental effects of this programming on our children."
He had gone on to remark, "The process by which the FCC has enforced these laws places an inordinate responsibility on the complaining citizen."
"It seems to me that when enforcing the indecency laws of the United States it is the Commission's responsibility to investigate complaints that the law has been violated, not the citizen's responsibility to prove the violations" and suggested he was "interested in looking at how the Commission could encourage universal retention of recordings of broadcast programming to aid in its indecency enforcement."
Broadcasters have expressed concern over the effect such moves could have on free speech and the fact that they see them as forcing stations to incriminate themselves.
The industry has not formally discussed any voluntary action with the FCC but NAB President Eddie Fritts has spoken to the commissioners about the idea privately and said he felt that voluntary transcripts would be preferable to "intrusive" action by the FCC.
In his published remarks to the radio show, Copps also brought up the question of the move to digital radio and the issue of industry consolidation, saying that it had brought "efficiencies that allow you to operate more profitably and on a scale unimaginable just a few years ago."
" But they also raise questions about how far combination and consolidation should go," he added.
"Along with the increased opportunities and efficiencies that you have witnessed come increased responsibilities to your communities. "
RNW note: On the issue of keeping records, we note a recent decision by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) concerning complaints made relating to jokes about sufferers of psychiatric disabilities during the morning show on CKX-FM, Winnipeg.
The broadcaster was unable to provide requested logger tapes, although it did provide an excerpt from "The Bull Sheet" from which the comments were drawn.
These were not adequate to make a judgement and the CBSC erred on the side of the complainant and found against the broadcaster both about the complaint and additionally over not keeping the tapes!
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2001-09-08: Attendance at the 2001 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Radio Show in New Orleans at just under 5250 registered attendees is way down on the 7600 for the 2001 San Francisco Show.
This was partly because Clear Channel General Managers and many other executives were in Atlanta for mandatory worldwide company manager meetings.
Chief Financial Officer Randall Mays said the scheduling clash was a mistake and that he had apologised for NAB over the matter.
Registered exhibitors were also down, to 165 compared with 225 last year.
Striking a positive note at the show Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) President and CEO Gary Fries said that July had brought the beginning of the recovery in radio advertising with overall revenues down 4% compared to 2000 but local sales only down 1%.
National sales were down 14%.
On a Year to date basis, local is down 3% compared to 2000, national is down 20% and total business is down 7%.
Fries said that recovery would be based on local sales but he saw no signs of an upturn in national sales.
He said the July performance pointed to a flat September leading to a third quarter pick up and positive start to 2002.
Fries also said that now times were tough a lot of "deadweight" had left the industry and also criticised radio groups over inadequate training of their sales forces.
Also on an upbeat note but with devil in the detail, Recording Industry of America Association (RIAA) President Hilary Rosen, speaking to the NAB Xstream Conference, called for radio to work with the RIAA in settling the dispute over fees for streaming signals.
"Let's get online music out of the courtrooms and into people's living rooms," she said.
"Let's kick the lawyers out and invite the listeners in. Let's pair your delivery with our content to create what our partnership has built for the last several decades: a great music experience for the fan."
"America's broadcasters understand that respect for intellectual property and a framework for protecting it will enable technology, not encumber it. "
Despite the fine words, when it came to the question and answer session, her view on the proper rate for streaming royalties seemed way above that which broadcasters consider reasonable.
She defended payments several times above those paid to composers by saying that the record companies' costs were much higher than those of the composers.
On the matter of industry consolidation, which was made more timely by an indication from Federal judges on Friday that they will end rules capping national broadcast ownership and restricting cable and broadcast cross-ownership unless the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) comes up with strong reasons for retaining them, several radio Chiefs forecast even fewer groups in the US radio of the future.
During the "Executive Super Session", which saw Clear Channel CFO Randall Mays, Cox Radio President Bob Neil, Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey, Nassau Radio Partners President Joan Gerberding, and Radio 1 Inc President and CEO Alfred Liggins on the platform, Dickey forecast that within five years three to four groups would run US radio. He was reluctant to predict which groups but others including Liggins agreed with his continuing consolidation predictions. "If you didn't like what you saw in the last five years," Liggins said, "stick around and you really won't like what you see." He defended the process, saying that it had producer stronger radio programming. On the question of what they'd have done differently in the past with current knowledge, Liggins and Neil both said they'd have bought more stations whilst Gerberding commented that she would have bought more Clear Channel stock. Mays said that, contrary to criticism that its practices had made the company lose touch with local communities said he thought they actually brought more localism and higher quality programming into the market. There was a little more dissent on the question of indecency in broadcasts. Gerberding commented that some of the content that jocks thought funny, especially against women, was appalling and needed to be addressed and Dickey agreed, saying he thought the FCC had been in the right and broadcasters needed to be responsible. Mays however stressed that the broadcasters, not the government, should make the decisions on what was acceptable content.
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2001-09-08: Former BBC Director of Radio, Matthew Bannister, who when at the corporation was responsible for developing and promoting digital radio, now says that he is cynical and sceptical about the technology.
Writing in the UK Times, he notes that both the BBC and UK Commercial radio companies have spent millions on digital radio but with some 80% of the UK public within range of a digital transmission only 40,000 digital sets are in circulation in Britain, 15000 of them Psion Wavefinders, effectively given away free with computers.
"The remaining 25,000," he writes," are high-end hi-fi components or fitted in cars."
"No truly portable sets - the staple of radio - are yet available. The cheapest on the market today costs a cool �299. Others cost between �500 and �1,000."
"Privately, the BBC and commercial radio, " he adds, "are wringing their hands about the failure of digital to take off, but neither can afford to admit in public that a technology on which they have staked their futures may never become a consumer reality."
"The biggest stumbling block for digital radio is the listeners themselves."
"You see, we listeners really believe that radio is free - not just free to listen to, but free to receive."
"Radio sets come free with midi systems, with ghetto blasters, in cars and in Walkmans."
"When we buy them separately, we can get a perfectly serviceable set for a few quid. The average UK household owns five radio sets, scattered around the house or in the car."
"We might just conceivably be persuaded to pay a slight premium to replace one of them - but all five? No thanks."
Bannister also notes that UK Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell is expected next week to deliver her verdict on the BBC's proposals for new digital television and five digital radio services.
He speculates that she may give a go-ahead on the former but curb the latter, concluding, "After all, who would notice?."
Previous Bannister:
UK Times article:

2001-09-08: Not much in the way of US radio business deals this week during the National Association of Broadcasters' Radio Convention in New Orleans. The one big deal was a $34 million cash purchase by Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (HBC) of four Phoenix FMs - KEDJ-FM, KDDJ-FM, KBZR-FM and KSSL-FM - from Big City Radio.
Hispanic says that it expects to close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2001.
It will programme three of the stations with a new Hispanic-targeted format; the fourth station will be simulcast with the Company's existing Phoenix station, KHOT-FM.
Hispanic anticipates operating losses until the end of 2002.
The deal will leave Big City with suburban FMs in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
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2001-09-07: The UK Wireless Group has bucked the trend in UK media and reported increased advertising revenues for the six months to June 30.
Overall, aided by GBP 22.5 million from the GBP 25.5 million sale of Scot FM to the Guardian Media Group (See RNW June 12) the group has reported a pre-tax profit of GBP5 million compared to a loss of GBP 25.7 million in the same period of the previous financial year.
Advertising revenue is up 3.7% on a like for like basis compared to a UK radio industry average fall of 7.2% and operating losses were down by 62%, from GBP 10.1million to GBP3.9million.
Group turnover was up 11.6% to GBP 15.4m.
Within the group, local radio stations reported marginally increased revenues but flagship TalkSport increased its revenue by 9.4% to GBP5.6 million.
Chairman and Chief Executive Kelvin MacKenzie commented that underlying performance had continued to improve. "We are outperforming the market in revenue growth and our cost control has resulted in significant reductions in the Group's losses," he said. He concluded his review in the company's interim report with the comment, "Despite the difficult conditions being experienced in the market place, our stations are continuing to show improvement in terms of advertising revenue. We are attracting an increasing number of listeners to TalkSport which we expect to grow further with the start of the football season and our coverage of the Premier League." During the period, the group arranged with Barclays Bank a new �26 million revolving credit facility together with a �4 million overdraft arrangement.
Previous MacKenzie:
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2001-09-07: As its September 12 commercial launch in Dallas/Fort Worth and San Diego nears, XM Satellite Radio has announced the arrival of radio receiver shipments in the US and further auto manufacturer arrangements.
The company says it is on schedule in all areas and anticipates that a total of 24 different radio models will be available.
It has also announced various developments concerning automobile receivers including moves by General Motors to offer XM radios in more than 20 2003 models in addition to previously announced plans to offer the receivers in Cadillac Sevilles and DeVilles this fall.
The latest announcement is one from Porsche Cars North America, which is to offer a choice of XM or Sirius receivers in 2003 as an option for the Porsche 2004 model year vehicle line.
In the truck market, XM, which has arrangements for receivers to be available in the final quarter of this year in some new Peterbilt and Freightliner models, is to debut its "Open Road" Trucker Channel at the Great American Trucking Show Sept. 7-9.
The channel will feature live broadcasts by trucking radio legend Bill Mack and special guests including fellow XM Artists Family member Dale the Truckin' Bozo.
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2001-09-07: Viacom-owned Infinity Broadcasting has "re-aligned" the top-level management of four of its seven Chicago stations with the bosses of all-news station WBBM-AM taking charge of sports-talk WSCR-AM, The Score.
Left out in the change, according to Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun Times, is Gehrig Peterson, operations director at comedy-talk WCKG-FM.
Moving upwards are WBBM vice president and general manager Rod Zimmerman, who adds the same title at WSCR, and his director of news and programming, Drew Hayes, who becomes operations director at both stations.
Harvey Wells continues as vice president and general manager of adult rock WXRT-FM and comedy/talk WCKG-FM and Jeff Schwartz, WSCR operations director moves to the same post at WCKG.
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2001-09-06: Competitive Media Reporting, the New York-based advertising and marketing research firm, which earlier this year forecast a 2% drop in advertising expenditure in the US for the 2001 year, has now reported that the total advertising spend in all media in the first half of the year was down 5.9% compared to the first half of 2000.
It says a total of USD 47.5 billion was spent in the first half of this year compared to USD 50.4 billion in the same period of 2000.
Worst hit of the 12 media categories it listed was national spot radio, which dropped 22.4%, considerably worse than spot TV which declined 14.7%.
Network radio was down 12.5%: CMR does not record local radio advertising revenues.
CMR web site:

2001-09-06: Honest? Intelligent? Foolish? Whatever may be gut reactions at the action, "Superjock" Larry Lujack voluntarily returned USD 20000 he'd been overpaid by US radio giant Clear Channel according to Robert Feder in his Chicago Sun-Times column.
Feder says Lujack, who came out of retirement to host a weekend show on Clear Channel's than Jammin Oldies station WUBT-FM (now WKSC-FM), discovered the overpayment when auditing his income from the station.
Without being asked, he refunded the money.
Feder also reports that Lujack, whose deal with Clear Channel has ended, is ready to make another comeback and while in Chicago for a wedding last week met various radio executives.
If he does return, he will be broadcasting from a studio near his New Mexico home.
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2001-09-06: The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI, formerly the IRTC), has now published its summary of responses to the then -IRTC's (Independent Radio and Television Commission) call in February for responses regarding its planned "review of its ownership and control policy to take account of the development and expansion of the independent radio sector and the new broadcasting era ushered in by the Broadcasting Act 2001. "
In all it received 34 responses: 15 from commercial broadcasters, 8 from communications bodies, five from statutory bodies and six others.
The Commission says that there was no dissent from the view that pluralism and diversity are important values and goals but there was considerable support for a "lighter" regulatory approach albeit with "very few practical suggestions" as to how this should be implemented.
Amongst the highlights of its summary are:
*Local ethos - There was agreement on the importance of this but a general view that it was not necessarily best preserved by local ownership alone combined with "underlying recognition that some level of regulation of ownership would be involved."
Some respondents felt the "market" would ensure the maintenance of such an ethos for commercial reasons.
The commission also says, "There was widespread support for content regulation centred on contractual obligations and undertakings, which should be closely monitored and enforced."
*Means of Producing Diversity of Content - A wide range of ways of achieving diversity of content was canvassed.
There was particular emphasis on programming as a key means by which to achieve diversity, with programme policy statements and programme schedules also regarded as central.
Further licensing and fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access, were advocated.
*Measuring Media Concentration - Percentages or Other Means? - There was some qualified support for percentages as a means of measuring concentration, but the majority perception was that percentages are too rigid as the situation becomes more complex, and the real issue is direct and indirect influence.
The role of competition law, with the focus on dominance and collective dominance, was canvassed by some respondents, while others advocated limiting the number of licences, national and/or local that can be held.
*Models for Achieving Plurality and Diversity- There was most support for the audience share model, followed by the capital share/broadcasting licence model.
There was some emphasis on "significant market power" and the effect on the relevant market.
The Commission concluded that most of the respondents saw the work so far as the beginning of a consultation process, with frequent or regular review built-in, and particularly necessary in light of convergence and digital services coming on stream.
"While there was some support for a competition law/company law approach," it said, "there was considerable support for the view that this alone would not address the special concerns of the media."
It also said there "was very strong support for the lighter-touch approach to regulation."
The Commission will now meet in the near future and publish its decisions on any changes to be made.
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2001-09-06: The US Labor Day holiday led to a fall in Internet listening according to the latest figures from Measurecast, which says its Internet Radio Index for the week to September 2 fell by 2% although still more than 200 (indicating a doubling in listing this year).
Friday, August 31, the day many people began their holiday, was the weekday with last listening.
There was one newcomer in its top 25, Boston talk station WEEI-AM, which came in at 13 ranked by Total Time Spent listening (TTSL); of the top 25, 15 stations were Internet-only, eight of the top ten also being Internet-only stations.
At the very top, the rankings by TTSL were yet again static: The top 5 individual stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were (with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets):
1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 131433 (132623); CP 39,794 (38950) - Position unchanged, listening down.
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 123,211 (119975); CP 23,731 (21274) - Position unchanged, listening up.
3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 92,865 (97351); CP 14,695 (14462) - Position unchanged, listening down.
4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 75,857 (73420); CP 14,665 (10,572) - Position unchanged, listening down.
5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM TTSL 53,659 (53618) CP 6,709 (6841) - Position unchanged, listening up slightly.
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2001-09-05: Frank Ahrens in the Washington Post speculates that Sean Hannity, who has just signed a long-term syndication deal with ABC Radio (See RNW Aug 30), may be being groomed as an eventual replacement for Rush Limbaugh on non-Clear Channel stations.
Hannity is to start airing on ABC Washington, DC, outlet WMAL-AM on September 10, partly at the expense of afternoon talk host Chris Core who loses the first hour of his show then.
Core, who marks 25 consecutive years on the Washington airwaves on September 13, currently airs from 1600-1845 local, handing over to Paul Harvey for the last 15 minutes of his show.
Ahrens notes that Clear Channel has already started to take Limbaugh away from non-Clear Channel stations and putting him on their stations and he says that this has prompted fears that the same could happen in Washington next year when the current Limbaugh-WMAL contract ends.
Core, writes Ahrens, is not losing financially from the change and says he is generally happy with WMAL but did add, "My only worry is that we've gone from being absolutely local, with local personalities, to a station that now carries eight hours of syndication plus what we do overnight, repeating Rush."
"That's 11 out of 24 hours of syndication. Maybe that's the logical extension of radio today, but that's a big change from when I started."
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2001-09-05: According to the Rocky Mountain News, the US Department of Justice has for some months been questioning potential witnesses as part of a low-profile probe of US radio giant, Clear Channel, for possible breaches of anti-trust laws.
The paper says New Jersey Congressman Robert Andrews requested an investigation formally in July because he had been approached by some constituents in the concert business who expressed concern that Clear Channel was cornering the market and freezing out competition.
Andrews told the paper he didn't know if the allegations were correct but the questions raised were credible and he had asked the proper authorities to investigate them.
Denver-based concert promoter Nobody In Particular Presents filed suit against Clear Channel in August (See RNW Aug 9) and co-owner Jesse Morreale told the paper, "The entire business knows there's been this ongoing investigation."
"We've had discussions with Justice along with everyone else."
A Clear Channel spokeswoman told the paper they were not aware of the investigation.
In another case in August, Washington top 40 station Z104 had to drop a promotion offering tickets, which it had already bought, to the annual Wango Tango Concert in Los Angeles after Clear Channel said only its stations could promote the event or offer tickets to it. (See RNW Aug 27 )
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2001-09-05: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has denied an appeal by KASA Radio Hogar Inc. against a USD15000 fine levied because of various breaches of technical regulations by KDAP-AM, Phoenix, Arizona (See RNW June 10).
KASA had not disputed the violations but contended that the Commission should have taken into account the finances only of KDAP-AM, not of all the licensee's operations.
Its arguments were rejected.
Previous FCC:

2001-09-04: The Kent Messenger Group, whose purchase of Canterbury station CFTM is currently the subject of a "public interest" examination by the UK Radio Authority, has added another Kent station to its holdings.
It is buying Radio Services' 67% share of Neptune Radio, which serves Folkestone and Dover; theMessenger group already holds the other 37% and this deal will also be subject to a public interest test.
If the deals are approved, the group will have controlling interests in three Kent stations, the third being the Thanet commercial station.
Previous Radio Authority:

2001-09-04: Crusading Filipino radio commentator Nolie Ebarle has been reported missing, believed to have been kidnapped, according to the Associated Press.
His employers received mobile phone text messages saying that an unknown group abducted the broadcaster, who works for Radio Mindanao Network's dxBC station in Butuan City and is known for crusades against illegal drugs, violent rebel groups and police corruption.

2001-09-04: The Baltimore Sun, in an article on Lanham, Maryland, based Radio One Inc starts by saying that after a three-year buying frenzy the company has "more than met its goal of dominating the African-American radio market" but is now in for the hard part, that of making its stations pay as the US economy heads downwards.
Scott Royster, the company's chief financial officer, told the paper, "The thing that people don't understand is that buying radio stations is pretty easy."
"There's nothing to celebrate until you've created wealth for your radio stations. We have to make our investors happy." Radio One Inc has grown from Catherine L Hughes' first 1000-watt station, Washington's WOL-AM, bought in 1980 for less than a million dollars (largely borrowed), to own 65 stations in 22 US markets.
In the past year alone, it has added are agreed to acquire 43 stations, the largest deals being the USD 1.3 billion acquisition of 12 stations which Clear Channel had to divest as a result of the AMFM take over and a later $190 million takeover of Cincinnati-based Blue Chip Broadcasting, then the third-ranked African-American broadcasting group (See RNW February 9).
"Now we're really focusing on operations, promotions and the performance of the radio stations," Royster said.
"We're also looking at improving the revenue share."
Analysts say the company has built a reputation for making strong competitors out of under performing stations as well as staying focussed on tapping the African-American market.
Ratings at KKBT-FM in Los Angeles more than doubled this year after Radio One took over and placed comedian Steve Harvey in the morning show and in Washington, Radio One station WMMJ-FM jumped to the top spot for the first time in months when it lured the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show from cross-town rival WHUR-FM (See RNW Aug 8, 2000).
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2001-09-03: A mixed bag of media articles on radio this week with the common factor being individual's vision (if that it the best word in the circumstances) of radio and its qualities and possibilities.
First, comment by Gerry McCarthy, in his UK Sunday Times column, who begins by writing, "All sorts of media and art forms claim to represent the national discourse - the sound of people talking to themselves, telling their own stories."
"But the only form that really does this effectively is live radio."
He goes on to comment that RTE Radio 1's Liveline "is still the authentic voice of Ireland."
"Now that Joe Duffy has returned from his summer break, it is back to its best." After a dig at his summer stand-in, Derek Mooney, who, writes McCarthy "continued to misread and misunderstand his callers up to the last moment", the columnist gives some examples of Duffy's style, one of which we repeat: "Another caller wanted to make a point about pirate radio stations. Duffy went off at a tangent, asking the caller who he was, where he was and what he was doing."
"He proved to be a 27-year-old farmer in Tipperary. When they returned to his original point - that pirate stations were important to people like him, who are big fans of dance and techno music, a surprising snapshot of rural Ireland had emerged."
"John was a full-time farmer who hopes to stay in farming for the rest of his life."
"He was also a serious fan of contemporary dance music. He and his friends regularly drove to Dublin or Cork to attend clubs playing their kind of music."
"As soon as they neared the city, they tuned into a pirate station to get in the mood. Nobody else in radio, he insisted, played so much dance music."
"It was a reversal of the old stereotypes, where farmers listened to country music and were sneered at by hip young urbanites."
"Farmer John, with his fresh air, hard work and techno music, was obviously the real thing - and twice as cool as any condescending urbanite." In similar vein, his colleague Roland White, in his column, writes of appearances on radio, which he takes up fairly frequently and television, which he generally eschews.
"For the simple reason that nobody else could be bothered," writes White, " I have been on the radio to discuss all sorts of things about which I have previously failed to uncover any firm views: why Essex jokes make us laugh, whether Rab C Nesbitt is an accurate reflection of life in Scotland, why the English enjoy bog-snorkelling, why The Archers is rubbish, why The Archers is great, and why I would choose the Scottish football results read by James Alexander Gordon as one of my Desert Island Discs."
"I am a bit hurt, to be honest, that nobody has shown any interest in my views on Gladstone, string theory or the Angevin kings, but as we sow, so do we reap."
"Anyway, my rule in all this has been pretty much yes to radio, no to television. I have been especially firm in this ever since a television researcher greeted my polite refusal with disbelief."
"'But ...' she said, '... but this is television.' Quite. �."
"A couple of months ago, however, a TV producer caught me unawares."
' We're making a programme about children's television,' she said. 'Would you come on and talk about how the progress of feminist thought can be followed through the works of Gerry Anderson?'"
" I thought I could make a convincing case for this, but of course I was terrible."
"No, it's kind of you to say so, but I'm a part-time TV critic and I know a turkey when I see one."
"It's all television's fault, of course. On radio you can get away with so much more."
"On radio, I sound almost authoritative."
"'Crumbs,' a listener might say, 'I don't know who this is but he certainly knows his bog-snorkelling.'"
"On television, he would watch me waving my arms about. He would notice my thinning hair, crooked teeth and crumpled shirt.
"And he would say afterwards: 'My God, that thin chap was irritating. What was he talking about again?'"
"I know this to be true, because I have been that viewer."
To use White's word, "Quite!"
Finally Canada, and a Toronto Globe feature on Sirius Satellite Radio by Simon Houpt, which commences, "The Next Big Thing in radio was born on a rainy Toronto evening in early 1990."
"David Margolese, a then-32-year-old, self-made multimillionaire, was looking out his condo window at the grid locked traffic on Highway 401."
" As dusk took hold, the slowing cars dissolved before his eyes into a long necklace of red and white lights, stretching out to the horizon." "'I saw a million cars moving 10 miles an hour. It was just a beautiful view,' Margolese recalls......I looked at those people and thought: They're going to sit in their cars for another hour and a half, and there's not a damn thing they can do there.'"
"Except be entertained, maybe. It has been a long, strenuous trip since that night in Toronto, but this fall drivers across the United States will be able to tune into the idea it inspired: crystal-clear radio beamed down from thousands of kilometres above the Earth. "The rest of the article is a fairly good summary of the development of Sirius and its competitor XM Satellite radio.
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2001-09-03: Ireland's Broadcasting Act 2001 has now come into force, changing the former Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) into the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).
First on the Commission's agenda is the question of cross media ownership restrictions, which, reports the Irish Times, the country's Competition Authority has said should be eased.
If the BCI, which on Wednesday is to release a summary of the 33 submissions it has received, agrees this would enable Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) to take over Today FM and UTV to take over Cork-based County Sound (See RNW Sept 1).
Reporting on the issue of cross ownership, the Irish Times says that the BCI has to balance conflicting submissions ranging from those (including SRH) who think it should leave such issues entirely to the Competition Authority to others who argue that it should be more active in investigating the influence of individuals and companies in the media.
The Competition Authority itself it makes clear it believes the BCI's rules are outdated and possibly anti-competitive but does not comment on which body should be handling questions of cross media ownership.
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2001-09-02: A reasonably busy week for the radio regulators this week; Only Ireland was quiet.
In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority has allocated one of its two new Brisbane Community licences to Family Radio Limited, which was one of six applicants.
There were four applications for the Community AM licence, each of whom is being asked to give more information before a licence is awarded.
The groups involved are Brisbane Interactive Radio Group Inc. (Switch FM), Silver Memories Community Radio Association Inc., Greater Brisbane Radio Broadcasters Inc. (Pulse FM) and Radio Queensland Inc.
The Authority is also proposing two new commercial licences, four community licences and an open narrowcasting licence in Tasmania (See RNW Aug 30).
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved applications by Standard Radio Ltd. for transitional digital radio undertakings (DRUs) to serve Montr�al and Laval in Quebec province.~
The transitional DRUs proposed will operate in association with CJAD and CJFM-FM and each will simulcast the programming of its associated station, together with no more than 14 hours per week of other, non-simulcast programming.
It has also renewed a whole swathe of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) licences.
These relate to stations that re-transmit the French language channels, La Premi�re Cha�ne and La Cha�ne culturelle, and English language networks Radios One and Two.
Other licences renewed include the Troubador Radio Society Inc.'s CHUG-FM, Stephenville, Newfoundland; Radio T�miscaminque inc.'s CKVM Ville-Marie and its transmitter CKVM-FM-1 T�miscaming, Quebec; CBC's CBFG-FM Chisasibi, CBFH-FM Waskaganish, and CBFV-FM Waswanipi, all in Quebec.
There was nothing of note in the Irish Republic but in the UK, the Radio Authority has renewed five licences automatically because the existing licence holders will be providing a digital service on the relevant local digital multiplex.
The licences renewed were:
*The Central Scotland regional FM licence of Scot FM Ltd., which is the provider of a service on the Central Scotland regional multiplex.
*The Luton/Bedford licence of Chiltern FM whose owner, GWR Group will be providing a digital service on the third Greater London multiplex.
The service concerned is the Storm, to be provided by GWR Digital Ltd.
*The Southend/Chelmsford licence of Essex FM, which will be providing a service on the Southend & Chelmsford local multiplex.
*The Bristol area AM and FM licences, Classic Gold (AM) and GWR FM, whose owners GWR West Ltd. is providing Two services on services on the Bristol & Bath multiplex.
The Authority has also announced that next week it is to advertise a new Independent Local Radio |FM licence to serve the Mid-Ulster area, focusing upon the towns of Cookstown and Magherafelt and the surrounding districts, in Northern Ireland
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission has been in harsh mood about deliberate ignoring of its rulings and fined Alaskan broadcaster Peninsula Communications Inc a total of $140000 for unauthorised use of repeater stations.
It has also fined Mega Communications of St. Petersburg, Florida, $10000 for Mega's failure to exhibit, at two antenna structures, all red obstruction lights from sunset to sunrise.
The offences relate to WMGG-AM, whose antenna structures are located in Largo, Florid.
Red obstruction lights on them could not be turned on when there was an FCC inspection in January.
The employee responsible for monitoring WMGG's antenna structures said that he had been aware of one of the lighting outages and had reported it to the FAA but had not been aware of the other outage.
Mega had not denied the facts but had argued for a reduction in the fine because, it said, it had a record of compliance with regulations and it and its associated companies had never been fined before and had now put into operation new procedures for monitoring its tower lights.
The FCC pointed out that between April 1, 1999, and April 25, 2001, the Enforcement Bureau issued eight Notices of Violation to Mega Communications, L.L.C., and its subsidiaries. It declined to reduce the fine.
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2001-09-02: Rogers Media Inc. of Canada has agreed a 100 million Canadian dollar deal (USD 65 million) to buy 13 Ontario radio stations which belonged to Telemedia Communications Inc.
The deal will give Rogers a total of 43 stations across Canada but is subject to approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) of a June deal (See RNW June 30) in which Standard Radio bought all of Telemedia's radio properties in Ontario, Alberta and British Colombia, but had the right to transfer some of the stations to other purchasers.
The stations to be transferred to Rogers include The Fan sports station in Toronto and three station groups in each of Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, two stations in Timmins and one in Orillia.
In a separate deal, also subject to CRTC approval, Newcap Inc., a subsidiary of Newfoundland Capital Corp. Ltd., has said it had agreed to buy 15 former Telemedia radio stations in Alberta for $39.3-million.
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2001-09-01: Ron Liddle, the editor of BBC Radio 4's flaghship Today breakfast show has apologised to listeners after being taken in by an advertising company's hoax.
But he strongly attacked former strongman Geoff Capes who was involved in the hoax as well as threatening to take revenge.
Capes was interviewed on August 22 in connection with a campaign to save Britain's takeaways from the threat from supermarket convenience foods; in fact they are growing in number and the campaign was a hoax dreamt up by advertising agency McCann Erickson to promote a Nestl� range of snacks.
The giant food company is spending �4 million starting this weekend on a Snack Stop advertising campaign starring Capes.
Liddle, commenting on an item in which reporter, Michael Buchanan interviewed Capes along with a gastroenterologist, Professor Ray Playford, said the Capes interview was "fatuous".
"It was a boring item and he was particularly boring. Even if it hadn't been a hoax it would have been boring," Liddle told the UK Guardian.
He said Today would apologise to listeners but then added about Capes," What a fat fuck that man is! He'd better keep his eyes open because we'll get him back."
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2001-09-01:As we go to bed, listeners to New York alternative talk station WEVD-AM are gathering to stage a candlelit vigil to protest the deal between WEVD's owners, The Forward Association, and Disney/ABC that will see the station become an outlet for ESPN's sports talk service (See RNW Aug 3).
The plan is to gather at 9:30 PM New York time August 31 (01:30 GMT, Sept 1st) outside WEVD's premises in Manhattan with candles which will be blown out at midnight to symbolise "anger and distress" at the demise of the 75-year-old station's format.
Chuck Zlatkin of the SaveWEVD Listeners Group, which was formed six months ago when rumours of an outright sale of WEVD to the Disney media conglomerate began to surface, said the struggle to retain WEVD as an independent, alternative voice will continue.
The group is examining various options including a legal challenge to the Forward Association's fitness to hold or transfer the license.
Commenting on the plan on its web site, SaveWEVD, the organisation says, "The Forward Association is still the holder of the FCC license to operate a radio station at 1050 on the AM dial."
"It has simply made a lease arrangement with Disney with an option to buy the station within two years."
" After months of speculation about an outright sale of WEVD, it didn't happen. Why?"
"Perhaps The Forward suddenly realized that its own legal status as a profit-making entity would have subjected it to a massive capital gains tax liability."
"Perhaps it dawned on them that the any attempt to transfer the FCC license would have opened a king-size can of worms and triggered a major brouhaha, including public hearings and legal challenges."
"Isn't it strange that when they were losing millions, they were legally a profit-making entity, and now that they stand to make a windfall profit on the sale of their major asset, which was already subsidizing their unprofitable weekly newspapers, they want to become a non-profit?"
RNW note: As part of the deal, under which ABC pays an undisclosed sum to air ESPN on the station, ABC Radio has the option of initiating negotiations to buy WEVD for $78 million during the next two years.
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2001-09-01: Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) is openly lobbying Irish regulators for a relaxation of media ownership rules in the Republic as it tries to take control of the Today FM radio station in the Republic.
Under current rules, media groups can only take a 27% share in a radio station but this requirement was relaxed last year (See RNW Nov 24, 2000) when Ulster TV (UTV) bid IRP31.5 million (GBP 28 million) for County Media, which has three stations in the Cork area.
It was forbidden from taking full control and eventually allowed to take 60% of the company.
The Irish Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC), which is now becoming the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), is currently considering more than 30 submissions on media ownership regulations and is expected to complete its review of them in mid October.
It is due to publish a summary of the submissions, around half of which have come from current broadcasting organisations, next week.
SRH, which has a 24% shareholding in Today FM has the backing of other shareholders, who include the creators of the Riverdance stage show and concert promoter Denis Desmond, for its IrP60 million (GBP �47.5 million) bid for the rest of company.
Overall the deal would value Today FM at IRP69 million (GBP �62 million).
SRH chief executive Richard Findlay says he wants to see Irish rules in line with those in the UK and believed now was the time to relax the rules.
If the rules are relaxed, UTV has also said it wishes to buy the 40% of County Media that it does not currently hold, for around IRP15 million (GBP 12 million).
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