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January 2002 Personalities:
Jenny Abramsky - Director of BBC Radio and Music; David Bacon - General manager, 2UE, Sydney, Australia; John (now Lord) Birt - former Director-General British Broadcasting Corporation; Forrest Boyd - former White House correspondent for Mutual Broadcasting Network (deceased); Bubba the Love Sponge -(Todd Clem) - Host on Clear Channel's WXTB-FM, Tampa, station; Nicky Campbell - (2) - BBC Radio 5 presenter; Casper Citron - former New York radio host(deceased); Joseph P Clayton - President and CEO, Sirius Satellite Radio (US); Michael J. Copps -(2) Democrat US FCC commissioner; Daryl Denham - incoming Breakfast hoist for Virgin FM, UK; Paul Donovan -(4) - U.K. Sunday Times radio columnist; Chris Evans - (2) - British broadcaster and former radio mogul; Robert Feder -(3) - Chicago Sun-Times media columnist; Gary Fries - President and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, US; John Gehron - former Infinity Broadcasting SVP ( "laid off" Oct 2001), now Clear Channel Chicago Regional VP/Market Manager (Appointed Jan 2002); Juan Gonzalez - fomer co-host of Pacifica Network's "Democracy Now!" (quit on air went on to lead Save Pacifica Campaign protesting at management actions); Amy Goodman - host of the US Pacifica Network's daily newsmagazine Democracy Now!-- back on air; Terry Gross - host of the US National Public Radio show "Fresh Air"; Peter Gzowski - former CBC, Canada, radio host (deceased): Richard Hooper-chairman UK Radio Authority; Richard Huntingford - chief-executive, Chrysalis Group, UK; Alan Jones -Sydney 2UE breakfast host; William Kling -president of Minnesota Public Radio; Howard Kurtz - Washington Post media writer; John Laws - Sydney 2UE morning host; Rush Limbaugh - Conservative US talk-show host; Dr Avtar Lit - owner of Sunrise Radio, UK; Conor Maguire - chairman Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI); Jim Moir - (2) - controller, BBC Radio 2; Stephen B. Morris - President and Chief Executive Office,Arbitron, US; Erich "Mancow" Muller - U.S. '"shock-jock"; Hugh Panero - president and CEO, XM Satellite Radio; Steve Penk - former Virgin Radio breakfast host(walked out); Colin Reed - Preisdent and chief executive, Gaylord Entertainment, Nashville; Harriet Scott - UK Virgin radio weekend breakfast host; Gary Shapiro - CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association(US); Lisa Simeone - anchor of Weekend All Things Considered on US National Public Radio (stepping down); Clea Simon- writer on radio for the Boston Globe/New York Times; Tavis Smiley- US National Public Radio host; Jeff Smulyan - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Emmis Communications, US; Howard Stern - US shock jock; Kathy Stinehour -(2) -former executive vice president for Clear Channel, Chicago (Ousted); Robert Struble - President & Chief Executive Officer of iBiquity Digital Corporation, US (formerly President/CEO of USA Digital Radio); Chris Tarrant - UK Capital Radio breakfast show presenter;Tom Taylor - editor of US radio trade journal M Street Daily; Gloria Tristani - former Commissioner, US FCC; (Sir) Mark Tully - former BBC Delhi and South Asia correspondent; Chris Wright - chairman and co-founder Chrysalis Group, UK; (Sir) Jimmy Young -(5) - veteran BBC DJ;
Numbers in brackets indicate the number of stories involving an individual mentioned more than once

January 2002
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Dec 2001 Feb. 2002
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 January Comment takes a look at regulation and censorship in view of current US divisions concerning "indecent" broadcasts.
RNW December Comment is our wish list as the year draws to an end.
RNW November Comment looks at our fears for radio in recession.

2002-01-31: New York poetess and artist Sarah Jones has filed suit in a New York federal court against the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) , claiming it violated her First Amendment rights by fining an Oregon radio station for playing her song "Your Revolution" (See RNW May 22, 2001).
Jones is asking that the court rule that the song is not indecent, prohibit the FCC from enforcing its USD7000 fine against public station KB00-FM in Portland and declare that the FCC ruling violated her constitutional free speech rights.
Jones said she was surprised by the ruling because the song was written as a parody cum criticism of the degradation of women in hip-hop; it does not contain words banned by the FCC but it does include sexual references that Jones says are meant to parody misogynist references in rap songs.
The FCC in its ruling said that the song included "unmistakable patently offensive sexual references". KBOO has already contested the fine.
Sarah Jones site -links to lyrics and song. FCC ruling etc

2002-01-31: Chicago talk-station WVO-AM, which is geared to an African-American audience, has become the first institution to be awarded a Studs Terkel Award, named after the Pulitzer-winning author and veteran broadcaster, by the non-profit Community Media Workshop according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The awards are to be presented by Terkel, now nearly 90, at the Workshop's 13th annual benefit on April 10.
The other 2002 Terkel awards, made to honour journalists who cover stories from Chicago neighbourhoods, go to Shirley Jahad, news correspondent for public radio WBEZ-FM,; Curtis Lawrence, reporter for the Sun-Times, and Phil Kadner, columnist for the Daily Southtown.
Chicago Sun-Times report:

2002-01-31: Former KKAT-FM, Salt Lake City, morning show personality Dawn College, who broadcast as Dawn Kennedy, has filed suit against the station's owners Clear Channel claiming sexual harassment, gender discrimination, emotional distress and contract violations.
The Deseret News reports that College says that she was subjected to "blatant computer pornography" in e-mails from Clear Channel employees and upper management; her suit included examples of the alleged pornographic e-mails.
She also says that after the station's three-strong morning team was fired in August 2000, her male colleagues Richard Cano and Rick Shane were offered company help to find new pots and encouraged to apply within Clear Channel but she was expressly told she would not be considered for other posts.
College also says that Clear Channel illegally forced her to sign a waiver giving up her right to sue in order to pick up her final pay cheque.
Clear Channel told the paper its policy is to refuse comment on allegations by former employees.
KKAT, which now calls itself "K-102", earlier this month changed its musical format for a more diverse line-up and now includes more old-style county music.
It launched a new morning show at the beginning of this week.
Previous Clear Channel:
Deseret News report:

2002-01-30: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a USD14,000 fine on Entercom's KNND-FM in Seattle following complaints about a morning drive show that discussed what objects a man would be capable of pulling with his penis (No pun intended!).
The comments were made on the Andy Savage Show in May and June 2001 and Entercom submitted argued that the comments were not inherently offensive since there would have been no comment had they been centred on pulling objects with a nose or finger.
Entercom submitted transcripts of the comments and also argued hat talk of male genitalia was common in today's media; it specifically cited the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal and adverts for products treating erectile dysfunction in support of its case.
The FCC did not accept the arguments and ruled that the broadcasts violated its indecency policy because they were designed to titillate or shock.
Entercom has 30 days to lodge an appeal.
In another case, the FCC Ruled that Clear Channel must pay a USD25,000 fine following what it had ruled was the unlawful takeover of WBTJ ( now WRBP), Youngstown, Ohio.
Clear Channel agreed to buy the station in 1999 from Stop 26-Riverbend and ran the station under a time brokerage agreement (TBA) while its purchase agreement was before the FCC.
The deal subsequently collapsed and Stop 26 tried to end the TBA.
Clear Channel responded with a complaint in a local court alleging Stop 26 had violated the agreement and received a temporary injunction against Stop 26 to prevent it interfering with station operations.
Stop 26 then filed an FCC complaint that Clear Channel had unlawfully taken over the station; the commission subsequently agreed that this was the case under its rules concerning a licensee's rights.
Clear Channel had appealed against the fine to the full Commission, not the Enforcement Bureau as required, and the FCC says that as a result Clear Channel lost its right to have the decision reviewed and must pay up.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Entercom:
Previous FCC:
FCC web site:
2002-01-30: The chair of the UK Radio Authority, Richard Hooper, has told "The Future of Public Service Broadcasting Conference" that the Authority wants cross-media ownership regulations for the UK to be based on an extension of the "'3 plus the BBC rule", now widely accepted for radio ownership.
Under this rule the goal in any locality is a minimum of three owners of local commercial services plus the BBC and if it were extended to the principle would allow a national newspaper or TV channel to own a maximum single Independent National Radio station and a local newspaper group or ITV company would be allowed to own one local radio station in its area providing there were two other stations not so owned.
For some small areas, the rule could be modified.
Hooper said, "The application of the '3 plus the BBC rule' to cross media ownership has the merit of certainty, simplicity and transparency."
"The application of the rule would of course still be subject to competition considerations."
"The rule might possibly also be subject to an exceptional public interest test, but it has to be exceptional not routine."
"We want to get away from the current system of labour-intensive and opaque public interest tests which create considerable market uncertainty."
"The rule might also be adjusted with an "and/or" qualification, i.e. a national newspaper can own either a national radio station or a national TV channel, but not both."
"Media ownership rules are intensely political decisions. Unelected regulators like myself may propose, but elected parliamentarians ultimately dispose."
The 3 plus the BBC rule, he said would "guarantee a sufficient level of pluralism whilst allowing media groups to consolidate - thus the public interest in broadcasting can and should be protected, and balanced with the reasonable demands of the commercial interest."
Previous Hooper:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
UK Radio Authority web site:
2002-01-30: Internet listening has now nearly increased five-fold since January last year according to MeasureCast: its Internet Radio Listening Index, based on 100 at the start of 2001, for the week to January 20 rose to 484, with 18 of the top 25 stations streaming more than in the previous week and ten of them having larger audiences.
Yet again the top five, ranked by total time spent listening (TTSL) remained unchanged apart from some shuffling of position: Four of the five stations increased listening and reach, the exception being Jazz FM whose listening fell markedly as it dropped from first to third spot.
Top five for the week 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: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 243,512 (234,923); CP 43,958 (38,668): Up from second with both listening and reach higher.
2: Listener-formatted MEDIAmazing - TTSL 210,707 (186,257) ; CP 70,024 (59,519): Up from third with large increases, especially in listening.
3: Jazz format Jazz FM - TTSL 177,571 (292,751); CP 63,563 (70,474): Down from first with very large fall in listening.
4: Classical format King FM - TTSL 141,510 (134,721); CP 22,289 (21,197)- Position unchanged, listening and reach up.
5: Sports talk ESPN - TTSL 135,936 (124,115): 25,055 (22,379 ) Position unchanged- listening and reach up.
MeasureCast has also released its 2001 rankings for individual stations and networks; top station for the year was Nazareth, Pennsylvania based Internet-only broadcaster MEDIAmazing, although its ranking was up because some of the other stations were not measured for the full year, and top network was Warp radio, which is comprised of 218 terrestrial stations.
MEDIAmazing streamed a total of 6,394,644 hours over the year and Warp's network 13,421,426 (RNW note - dividing by the quarter-hours in a year this would give a rough AQH --average quarter hour - audience of 182 for MEDIAmazing and 383 for the whole Warp network).
The tope five individual stations ( with hours streamed in brackets) were
1: MEDIAmazing.com (6,394,644):
2: Virgin Radio (4,144,919)*:
3:Jazzfm (3,060,837)*:
4:Radio Margaritaville.com (2,897,064):
5: ESPN Radio.com (2,823,932)
*Indicates station was not measured for full year.
The top five networks ( with hours streamed in brackets- and note that MeasureCast as a station also made the network ratings) were:
1: Warp Radio (13,421,426):
2: CableMusic (7,792,672):
3: ABC Radio (7,781,323):
4: SurferNETWORK (7,727,019)
5: MEDIAmazing (6,394,644).
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:

2002-01-30: BBC Radio 5 presenter Nicky Campbell, who was recently involved in a row when he disclosed that he had been approached to take over veteran Jimmy ( now Sir Jimmy) Young's morning slot on BBC Radio 2 (see RNW Nov 2 2001 ), is trying to get out of his agreement with the talent management company, Avalon, according to the UK Guardian.
The paper says that Campbell, who has now signed a 2-year contract with BBC Radio 5 live worth nearly GBP500,000, feels he was badly advised by Avalon, which set up the interview in which he made the revelation.
It earned him a public rebuke from BBC Director-General Greg Dyke, who felt that the revelations were a breach of trust.
Campbell, says the paper, is arguing that he is not obliged to pay Avalon its 15% fee for the full period of the Radio 5 deal.
Avalon refused to comment on the matter to the paper and it was unable to contact Campbell himself for comment.
RNW comment: So who is spinning what this time??
Previous Campbell:
Previous Young:
UK Guardian report:

2002-01-29: Afghanistan is soon to have a morning radio show modelled on the mix of news, sports, travel, weather and features that makes up US breakfast TV shows.
It will be edited by Afghan journalist Barry Salaam, who has returned to the country from exile in Pakistan, and is being launched by BMC, Scotland, part of the Baltic Media Center (BMC) charity, which is based in Denmark.
Funding has come from around USD215000 from the European Union and its executive producer will be Charles Fletcher, BMC's Head of Training who was formerly a correspondent with London-based Sky news.
Some 20 Afghan journalists have been recruited in Kabul and Fletcher says they have secured an agreement of independence in their operations from Afghanistan's interim government.
The programme will be broadcast an hour a day on Radio Afghanistan, which has been supplied with new studio equipment by the BMC as its old equipment had been stripped out.
In Kandahar, Radio Kandahar is also back on air but this time its output includes music, which was banned by the Taliban when they took over the station in 1994.
They turned the station into Shariat Ghagh (Sounds of the sharia) and allowed it to broadcast only government-approved news reports, speeches by Taliban leaders, and readings from the Koran.
Like many other Afghan enterprises its equipment is old and it is seeking foreign aid to re-equip.
Baltic Media Center web site:

2002-01-29: A tangled tale from California has led to the start of a USD32 million lawsuit against the former general manager of KVON/KVYN in the Napa Valley.
Station owners Moss Entertainment of New York, which owns the stations through CBM Napa LLC, claim that Dale Hendry, former general manager of the stations, his wife Charlotte, and Mapleton Communications, for whom Hendry now works, were involved in unfair competition, interference with contractual relations, negligent interference and conspiracy according to the Napa Valley Register.
Hendry is alleged to have orchestrated an employee exodus that reduced the value of the stations when they were up for sale and his wife is said to have removed her personal Quicken software, which she had loaned to the station, from its computers without notice, thus deleting several years of financial records.
According to the Register's report, Hendry had worked out a deal with Moss Entertainment's owners, Charley and Ben Moss, under which he could buy 90% of the stations for a reduced sum if he remained in his management position; the Mosses would have retained a 10% interest.
This deal fell through after Hendry failed to put together a group to raise the purchase price and the stations were put on the market for USD5.5 million, being later withdrawn from sale when no serious offer was made of this amount.
Hendry subsequently resigned in May last year, foregoing a USD112, 000 bonus he had been promised in the event of a sale, saying he had to do so in order to represent a party who was a potential buyer of the stations.
His wife remained with the station for a while as business and traffic manager but then she also left and along with Andrew Adams, who had replaced Hendry as general manager, joined Mapleton as subsequently did station receptionist Virginia Smith Yee.
The suit alleges that former station owner Tom Young, at Hendry's request, called Moss to encourage him to sell the stations to the Hendrys.
Young told the paper he was "shocked and perplexed" about the action and said that Hendry "didn't even know I made the call." He added that several of those who left the station had been with Hendry at previous stations and it was understandable they would want to go with him.
Previous Mapleton:
Napa Valley Register report:

2002-01-28: For our look at newspaper comment on radio over the past week, we are concentrating on comments on public radio, mainly in the US, but also in the UK, specifically on output that is rare or non-existent on the commercial airwaves of both countries.
In the UK first, an unashamed plug both for Sunday Times radio columnist Paul Donovan and BBC Radio 4.
Donovan recalls his complaint two weeks ago about the "dearth of mighty serials" on the channel (See RNW Jan 14 ).
Radio 4, writes Donovan, has responded by saying that it is currently preparing serials of the Iliad (to be transmitted in June) and The Odyssey (to be transmitted in May, 2003) and also pointed out that it recently broadcast The Aeneid (1999) and Hiawatha (2000) as well as mentioning various other plans.
Donovan in turn responds, "All of that should be warmly welcomed. But will it satisfy those who yearn for forests rather than coppices, oceans rather than lakes? "
"Before deciding, here is a markedly different comment - from David Benedictus, the talented editor of readings on BBC radio between 1989 and 1995, during which time he conceived the idea of serialising the Bible, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained."
"With a limit of an hour on drama slots, the drama repertory company reduced to a paltry number, and the BBC having already got rid of the Christchurch Studio in Bristol, plus budgets being the first consideration, not the last, it's hard to see anyone around with the courage to go back to where we used to be," says Benedictus.
Later Donovan writes, "He(Benedictus) and other critics will feel their complaints are more than justified when they learn that The Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy and of Achilles fighting Hector, will be only two hours long, and that The Odyssey, its epic successor, will be only four hours long."
"Compare that with the Bible (43 hours), the Forsytes (23 hours) and The Lord of the Rings (13 hours)"
He adds, "...without the BBC, radio drama on ordinary analogue radio - which accounts for about 99% of all listening - would be dead. But surely I am not alone in thinking that a spellbinding account of a 10-year voyage round the Mediterranean, involving flesh-eating monsters, sirens and witches, one that is propelled ever onward by one man's love for his wife, would easily sustain not just four weeks, but 40? "
After which hopes, it's a bit down to earth with a bump to consider the offerings of US public radio that have attracted attention, however welcome they are.
And putting them in context, a major consideration for any production, as for the BBC, is the budget but in the US pressures are pushing broadcasters into commercial activities in areas where the BBC is more constrained.
That topic is one raised in a Boston Globe article by Mark Jurkowitz headed, "Can public radio sell fans on Mozart and diapers? "
It deals with the "Public Radio Store" on WBUR-Fm's web site, a venture that expanded massively in November to provide the opportunity to purchase not only such items as books, films and tapes that seem attuned to the station's image but also pretty well everything from sports goods to diapers to antiseptic.
The move was made because of a projected decline in corporate underwriting of up to 35% and the station will get a commission of anywhere from 15-25% of the profits on goods sold.
It's sparked debate over whether it is appropriate to use a public radio site in this manner and also over the wisdom of the business strategy.
The latter is for obvious reasons in view of the failure of so much e-commerce, one element of the former was put fairly succinctly by Kathryn Montgomery, president of the non-profit Center for Media Education.
She told the paper, "''When what has essentially been a non-commercial public resource gets so closely linked with a highly commercialised e-commerce enterprise, it risks undermining its mission. It's your proverbial slippery slope.''
National Public Radio spokeswoman Genny Lawhorn, says NPR has not established guidelines for its affiliates which set up online stores because ''they have that discretion.''
NPR, she adds, is ''watching with interest.''
RNW comment: We were interested to note that no specific mention was made of potential conflicts of interest beyond the commercial one of losing underwriting money from businesses that may see the station's commercial activities as competition to their activities.
To us, one of the essential benefits of a public service broadcaster is the ability to withstand many of the pressures that advertisers put on a commercial station, directly or indirectly.

On therefore to elements of public radio that do fulfil a public service remit not often found on a commercial channel.
The first article we noted also came from the Boston Globe in Clea Simon's column, which looked some of the public stations in the Boston area that offer a different reporting perspective to that found on more mainstream or commercial media.
She singles out ''Radio With a View'', a programme aired for 90 minutes on Tuesday by WMBR-FM.
One of the shows' hosts, David Goodman, commented, "The sources we use are those that are usually ignored or dismissed.''
Goodman says that rather than trying to be "objective" he prefers to involve as many viewpoints a possible.
''Mainstream media can't talk to groups [like these], groups that have agendas: They have this idea that they have to be unbiased. As a journalist I always try to get as many reports as possible. I believe there are five sides to every story, '' he commented.
Co-host Marc Stern added, ''We have a real keen sense of place. Our show ranges from the local to the global, but that's one of the things we actually do: We talk with people who are engaged on the local level.''
RNW comment: We find it slightly disconcerting that it seems to be seen as somehow "non-objective" to report a wide range of views but that may be because, for all its faults, the BBC and its local radio stations, have for many years done this.
Equally we would note that just reporting views can have its disadvantages; there seems to us to be a duty at times to point out as politely as possible that someone is misinformed; Rush Limbaugh may not be up to allowing this on his show but surely radio with a public interest remit should have higher standards.

Finally a New York public radio series, being aired at weekends until the end of February by WNYC New York, (in "The Next Big Thing" -it's also featured in "All Things Considered" on NPR on Wednesdays), and the core of a New York Times article, "On the Radio, Heartbeats of Eccentrics and Troubled Youths" by Julie Salamon.
It deals with a "New York Works Stories on people in vanishing professions, a series of portraits produced by Joe Richman and featuring characters such as Walter Backerman aka "Walter the Seltzer Man" who trades in a bit of everything from his truck.
Also being aired, this time from Sound Portraits, David Isay's radio documentary company, are "Youth Portraits," a collection of short features was reported, narrated and edited by young people from troubled backgrounds all but one of whom has done time at Rikers Island.
RNW comment: Both of these would appear to be series well worth airtime but likely to be totally dependent on a public service remit to get it.
And providing they don't short-change listeners on background and facts, where appropriate,these documantaries will not need further objectivity.

Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous Simon:
Boston Globe - Jurkowitz:
Boston Globe - Simon:
New York Times - Salamon:
*UK Sunday Times - Donovan:

*Requires registration:

2002-01-28: San Francisco public radio station KQED-FM has raised nearly USD115, 000 for New York station WNYC-FM, which lost its transmitters on the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre.
WNYC itself, which has been broadcasting at reduced power from a temporary transmitter, raised a record USD3.1 million in its fall drive but most of that will be devoted to its normal operations.
WNYC needs some USD4 million to build new transmission facilities and other public stations round the US have now raised some USD700, 000 since the idea was first mooted by Minnesota Public Radio.
Previous WNYC:

2002-01-27: Last week was very quiet for the regulators with nothing noteworthy from Australia, the UK and the US.
In Canada, the main licence activity by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)related to licence amendments and there was also a ruling against CJKR-FM (Power 97, Winnipeg) by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC).
This related to a live version, broadcast at 11 AM on the Monday of a long weekend, of the song "Highway Girl" by the Tragically Hip in which lead signature performed a "rant" about a planned but aborted double suicide in which one person dies.
The CBSC ruled that it should not have been broadcast at a time when children were likely to be listening, saying it considered that the language used and the content each rendered the broadcast inappropriate at the time.
The complainant was told by the station that its audience is well versed in what to expect from a Tragically Hip live track2 and that Downie was celebrated for his rants; it said it was sorry the complainant was offended but added that it appreciated that the track "like many contemporary rock hits can sometimes be controversial in nature and not for everyone's taste. "
CJKR added that the song was the most requested over the weekend.
The CBSC in its judgement pointed out that decisions were taken on the basis of the content of a broadcast, not its popularity or the number of complaints attracted and ruled that it should not have been broadcast at the time.
On the licence front in Canada, the CRTC approved a frequency change and transmitter relocation for Golden West Broadcasting Ltd.'s new FM station at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Golden West are also being allowed to increase power from 2900 to 12000 watts and there were objections from Harvard Broadcasting Inc. (Harvard) and Rawlco Radio Ltd. (Rawlco), each of which operate stations in the much larger market of Regina, some 40miles/ 68 km east of Moose Jaw.
The Commission also approved a frequency change and power increase from 2900 watts to 12000 watts for CFBG-FM, Bracebridge, Ontario; it had denied an earlier request to increase the power to 100000 watts since it felt that this high power would have transformed the station into a regional one and jeopardized local programming and negatively affected other stations in neighbouring markets.
In Quebec, the commission has approved a licence amendment for CKUT-FM, Montréal, to allow it to use a subsidiary communications multiplex operations (SCMO) channel for the purpose of broadcasting a South Asian-language radio service in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi.
In Ireland, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has announced that it has now sought approval to advertise for applications for local commercial services throughout the country.
The process arises because the licences of the majority of local radio services in Ireland expire during 2003/2004. Around 20 licences for existing franchise areas are to be re-advertised together with three modified franchise areas and two new special interest services.
The advertisements will be issued in six groups with the first group adverts appearing next month and the final group in January of next year.
Previous BCI
:
Previous CBSC:

Previous CRTC:
Previous Licence News:
BCI web site:
CRTC web site:

2002-01-27: Chicago radio is to lose an adults standards station on tomorrow (Jan 28) when NextMedia Group's northwest suburban station WAIT-AM will move over to talk with a mixture of in-house and syndicated hosts.
The station has cited the success of three current talk shows, which are to be continued, as part of its rational for moving.
Also in Chicago, Robert Feder reports in the Sun-Times that Clear Channel has been culling staff again.
This time the move has come at WGCI-AM, "Gospel Radio 1390", which has dumped most of its on-air talent including its morning and midday teams.
Only survivors, reports Feder, are program director Sandra Robinson, who doubles as host from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Gerald Montgomery, who is host from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays. The station will cover the rest of the time with recorded tracks and will continue to air paid religious broadcasting at weekends.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Feder:
Previous Next Media:
Feder Sun Times report:

2002-01-26: The most significant radio business story in the US of the past week may have been XM satellite radio's growing income- and losses (See RNW Jan 25) but the largest financial deal was the approval by Ackerley shareholders of its take-over by Clear Channel.
In all some 97.5% of votes were cast in favour of the USD800 million deal.
North of the border, Canadian media giant Corus Entertainment reported revenues up 49% to CAD175 million for its first quarter ending November 30, 2001, but most of this was fuelled by acquisitions.
Radio revenue was up 21% to CAD55.6 million and EBITDA was up 12% to CAD15 million.
On a pro-forma basis, however, radio revenues were only up 2% and advertising revenues slowed with local sales up 8% but national sales down 23%.
Montreal-based Astral Media has also reported a slowdown, cutting its earnings forecast following the Canadian Competition Bureau's decision in December to block its purchase of nine radio stations and the remaining interest in two others from Telemedia (See RNW Dec 23, 2001).
It now says it expects to report EBITDA between CAD86-90 million for the full year to August 31, down from earlier forecasts of around CAD100 million.
For its first fiscal quarter, also to the end of November 2001, Astral reported profits more than doubled to CAD22.8 million, up from CAD9.1 million a year earlier, but most of this came from its sale of its stake in the specialty television channel Comedy Network Inc.
Revenues were up 21% from CAD83 million to CAD100 million.
Astral and Telemedia have filed challenges to the blocking of their CAD225 million deal but say that whatever happens they now do not expect it to close before the end of the fiscal year as opposed to its original March 2002 timetable.
In Australia, DMG Radio Australia (DMG) has announced that it has acquired Brisbane AM 4BH from the Australian Radio Network (ARN), taking the number of stations it now owns up to 62. The only financial detail released was that the price was not above AUD5 million. DMG already jointly owns with ARN the new Brisbane FM station that was launched in October 2001. And back in the US, two smaller deals have now been completed. They are James Crystal Enterprises USD2.7 million purchase of KTKP-AM, Phoenix, Arizona, which it was already operating under an LMA, from Mortenson Broadcasting and Skytower Communication's USD1.15 million purchase of WULF-FM Hardinsburg Kentucky, from H.I.C. Broadcasting;
Previous Ackerley:
Previous Astral:
Previous ARN:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Corus:
Previous DMG:
Previous Telemedia:
Previous XM:

2002-01-26: UK Virgin Radio host Steve Penk walked out of the station on Friday morning following arguments with the station management, leaving the show to be presented by his assistant Harriet Scott.
There is speculation over whether he quit or was pushed and whether latest audience figures due out next week will show that the show has lost the 350,000 extra listeners it gained when Penk took over from Chris Evans, who was fired in June last year (See RNW June 29, 2001).
Scottish Media Group
(SMG), which owns Virgin, says that Penk, who has a three-year contract, has not left the company and will be offered another show.
The afternooon drive show seems the most likely.
Daryl Denham, who joined Virgin on January 2, and hosts the afternoon drive show, will take over Penk's weekday slot from Monday January 28 along with his sidekick Trevor Fouracre and Scott will host the station's weekend breakfast show.
Penk, who is said to prefer working on his own, was reported to have been unhappy at the decision to bring in Scott as his sidekick.
Denham, who joined Virgin form Heart FM in Birmingham, won a 2001 Sony Gold Award for hosting Heart's breakfast show; he was described by the Sony panel as "a welcome blast of fresh air" who "also showed a refreshing depth of understanding of the music played."
Previous Evans:
Previous Penk:
Previous SMG:

2002-01-26: Canadian radio veteran Peter Gzowski, host of CBC's This Country in the Morning " from 1971-4 and later of "Morningside" for 15 years from 1982-1997 has died aged 67.
He was one of Canada's best-loved broadcasters and had suffered from emphysema as a result of his heavy smoking.
Toronto-born Gzowski, who ran away from home in his teens but later was sent by his grandfather to a private college, studied at the University of Toronto but did not graduate.
He began in journalism on newspapers, amongst his posts being a reporter at The Daily Press in Timmins, city editor of The Moose Jaw Times-Herald, managing editor of The Chatham Daily News, managing editor at 28 of Maclean's magazine, the youngest person to hold that job and editor of the Star Weekly for the Toronto Star.
Late in 2000 he began a weekly column for the Toronto Globe, which repeats some of his work on its website.
From 1976-1978 he was host of CBC-TV's 90 Minutes Live but he did not make the transition to television successfully and his main success was in the later long sting on Morningside. Asked why he preferred radio to television, he once said, "
"Because you can have pictures in people's minds that are more exciting than any picture that could ever get onto a television set. So when you're working with all the vocabulary of the mind and undistracted by pictures, then it's more versatile."
Gzowski wrote 11 books, won seven ACTRA awards as well as the international Peabody Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting and was a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1999 - on Canada Day (July 1) - he was appointed chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, a post he still held when he died.
Tributes have been paid by a wide range of Canadians including Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who said he was "deeply saddened and added in a statement, "In a country as vast and diverse as ours, he accomplished the singular feat, through his incomparable 15 years as host of CBC Radio's Morningside, of becoming something of a common Canadian point of reference. "
"With his signature gravelly voice, wry wit and unflagging curiosity about, and affection for, the nuances and eccentricities of Canadian life, Gzowski was a welcome part of every day for his legions of fans."
"He also touched the lives of countless Canadians through his tireless championing of the cause of literacy."
Canada's governor-general Governor General Adrienne Clarkson said in her statement, "He cared deeply about Canada, and through him, we listened to voices from every corner of our vast land." "As a broadcaster, Peter Gzowski was magic. Every weekday for 15 years, Canadians welcomed him into their lives ... Engaging and earnest, he introduced us to intriguing people and new ideas, but most of all, he introduced us to each other."
Shelagh Rogers, host of the CBC Radio program This Morning, worked with Gzowski on Morningside ; she said she will "celebrate and treasure what he brought to radio in Canada. We will not see his like again."
Alex Frame, vice-president of CBC Radio said of the loss to Canada of Gzowski : "I don't think it's losing anything. I think he's given it something that it'll always have."
"In the way he worked, the values he held, he gave us the sense of a country worth evaluating, worth appreciating." "People in every corner of Canada felt connected to each other through him. He broke up the sense of isolation by creating a daily national conversation."
RNW note: All the main Canadian newspapers carry obituaries. Search for Gzowski via links below:
CBC News obit:
Toronto Globe and Mail:

Toronto Star:

2002-01-26: The US is secretly funding SW Radio Africa (SWRA), whose broadcasts on short wave from the UK to Zimbabwe give a voice to the country's opposition (See RNW Jan 13), according to a report in the UK Guardian.
The paper says that SWRA is receiving the money from a department of the US international development agency, the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI).
The station's existence has angered the Zimbabwean government and its information minister Jonathan Moyo, has accused the BBC of providing it with studios, transmitters and frequencies.
The BBC denies any connections and SWRA will only say that the funding, some millions of dollars, came from "human rights/media freedom groups" but the Guardian says diplomatic sources say OTI pays for the studios, equipment and three hours a day transmitter airtime.
It hints that these may be Voice of America facilities but the US government has refused to confirm or deny any involvement.
Previous SWRA;
UK Guardian report:

2002-01-25: XM Satellite Radio has reported its first significant revenue in its fourth quarter earnings report.
It said it had USD294000 in advertising revenues and USD245000 in subscriber revenues in the quarter.
Losses were also up, to USD149.8 million or USD2.26 per share compared to losses of USD19.8 million or 40 cents a share in Q4, 2000, and losses of USD70.8 million or Usd1.14 per share in the third quarter of 2001.
For the full year, XM had a loss of USD307.5 million or USD5.13 per share on revenues of USD533000; in 2000 it lost USD201.3million or USD4.15 per share and had no revenues.
CEO Hugh Panero told analysts that in the year XM had gone from being a Power Point presentation to Product of the Year According to Fortune Magazine.
"We have customers in every state across the continental US, " said Panero.
"We have proven consumer demand for XM and answered a very basic question: Will people pay for radio? The answer is a resounding yes."
Panero said that 90% of customers had paid by credit card and, to their surprise, three quarters had elected for quarterly billing advance with a fifth going for six months or a year in advance.
This, he said, would enhance XM's cash flow. Of the customers he said they were equally distributed across age groups and not just techies or early adopters.
So far most had come from the aftermarket installation of receivers but the balance would change as manufacturers fitted the receivers as original equipment.
Panero said XM expected to have 70,000 subscribers by the end of the first quarter of this year, 130,000 in the first six months and 350,000 by the end of the year. Original equipment growth was expected to develop strongly in the third and final quarter as GM offered receivers in 21 models and other makers started to offer receivers in new cars.
XM shares ended the day up 5.73% at USD14.95
Previous Panero:
Previous XM:
XM web site:

2002-01-25: Britain's leading radio station catering for ethnic minorities, Sunrise Radio, is proposing to ban the term "Asian" from its news bulletins in the wake of the September 11 attacks according to the UK Daily Telegraph. The paper quotes Dr Avtar Lit, Sunrise chief executive , as saying that following the September 11 attacks and race riots in Britain in 2001, "we have had a lot of calls from Sikhs and Hindus worried that in many people's eyes the word Asian links them to events involving Muslims."
"In the last three months, especially, we have received many calls from Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis asking us to be more precise when it comes to our news coverage. Hindus and Sikhs feel that Muslims are bringing the Asian community into disrepute in Britain and do not want to be put in the same bracket as them."
Lit added, "It's not just the Sikhs and Hindus who do not want to be called Asian. The Muslim population in the United Kingdom wants to be identified as being Muslims, and there is some justification to it.
"It's a natural process. Fifteen years ago it was blacks and whites, then blacks and Asians, and now the numbers of Asians are large enough to split them into their religious or cultural groups. People do not want to be clubbed together and the time has come to make a further distinction."
He received support, reports the paper, from a number of minority leaders including Iqbal Sacranie, of the Muslim Council of Britain, who said: "It will give a clear recognition of how communities are identified, which is by faith. "We have had in the census 2001, for the first time, a question about religious identity and we are getting clear signals from the Government how important faith identity is, so it is a practical and useful move."
"These days the term Asian has no real meaning."
Previous Lit:
Previous Sunrise:
UK Telegraph report:

2002-01-25: US media research and radio ratings company Arbitron has reported fourth quarter revenues up 9% to USD51.4 million, including a retroactive renewal deal with Entercom that accounted for 2% of the growth and its figures from the RADAR acquisition, which provided 4.1% of the growth.
Earnings before interest and taxes was down from USD11.9 million in 2001 to USD 9.3 million; Arbitron attributed this mainly to increased expenditure relating to RADAR, its Portable People Meter tests in Philadelphia and its web cast measurement developments.
For the full year to December 31, Arbitron 2001 revenues were up 10% from USD 206.8 million for 2000 to USD 227.5 for 2001.
Earnings before interest and taxes were more flat, up 1% to USD75.5 million from USD 74.8 million and net income was down by 19.4% from USD45.3 million to USD 36.5million.with income per basic share down 19.9% from USD1.56 for 2000 to USD1.25 for 2001.
EBITDA was up 1.9% at USD80.6 million compared to USD79.1 million in 2000.
Arbitron is forecasting growth of 9-11% this year and chief executive officer Steve Morris said he expects to announce a formal joint venture with Nielsen for the PPM around the middle of the year.
He also said he expected contract talks with Infinity to continue to the last moment as happened with Clear Channel, Arbitron's largest customer, in 2001.
Infinity is the company's second largest radio client and accounts for around 10% of Arbitron's revenues.
The last year has seen some threat to Arbitron developing from Eastlan Resources, which had been concentrated in the far west and non-rated Arbitron markets.
Its clients include Entercom and Fisher plus Clear Channel contracts in Bozeman, Montana and Fairbanks, Alaska.
In June Clear Channel signed a three-year deal with Eastlan to cover Idaho Falls and Pocatello, Idaho, where it had formerly used Arbitron's custom-survey-area data.
In November Eastlan won Horizon Broadcasting Group's contract for the Bend, Oregon, market, after trials of both Eastlan and Arbitron.
In December it took over contracts for five VerStandig Broadcasting stations in Hagerstown, Maryland and five more in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
At the start of 2002, Eastland had 268 subscribers and earlier this month it announced agreement with Saga to provide ratings for three years in Bellingham, Washington, where Saga has four stations that had previously used Arbitron's custom survey data.
Previous Arbitron:
Previous Morris:
Arbitron web site:
Eastlan web site:

2002-01-25: All News radio stations have had their highest reach for 12 years in the Fall 2001 Arbitron survey according to a study released by Interrep.
It says that in the top ten markets AQH (Average Quarter Hour) listening is up 17% and total listening is up 16%.
Nearly a quarter of people aged above 12 tuned into the format and listening in automobiles was up by more than a quarter as was weekend listening.
Office listening was up 15%.
Previous Interrep:
Interrep report:

2002-01-24: More signs of the depression in the UK radio industry have come in statements from Capital Radio and GWR Group.
Capital said it expects the advertising market to remain depressed for the rest of its financial year.
It added in a first quarter trading statement that advertising revenues in the quarter to the end of last year were down by 9% compared with the same quarter of 2000.
Capital also announced the retirement from its board of Ian Irvine and his replacement as non-executive chairman by Peter Cawdron, the deputy chairman.
GWR in its statement said its revenues for the same quarter were 8.4% down in total and 10.8% down on a like-for-like basis.
National revenues, it said, fell by 19.4% and local ones by 5.7% and is anticipates that revenues for January this year will be down around 6% year on year.
Scottish Media Group (SMG), whose holdings include Virgin FM, is reported to have breached the terms of its banking agreements, which require its earnings to cover interest charges three times over, and be in the process of re-negotiating them.
The company owes some GBP 390 million and a fall in earnings has reduced the interest cover to around double. SMG has called in accountants Deloitte & Touche to review its assets, looking at the performance of each of its businesses and possibly making recommendations for disposals.
The company itself has refused comment, saying a statement will be issued with its annual figures, which are due out on March 12.
Also in the UK commercial radio sector, there are reports that Richard Desmond, owner of the Express newspapers, has approached Chrysalis about buying the media group's Heart FM radio stations.
Desmond held informal talks with Chrysalis chairman Chris Wright but was told the stations were not for sale and its chief executive Richard Huntingford dismissed the idea of a Desmond purchase as "April 1 stuff." Desmond, however is reported to be keen to move into commercial radio and would not be blocked by current regulations were he to make a bid since his Northern and Shell Group has no radio interests.
Previous Capital:
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous GWR:
Previous Huntingford:
Previous SMG :
Previous Wright:

2002-01-24: US radio giant Clear Channel has come under attack from Californian Democratic Congressman Howard Berman, who has written to the US attorney General and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking them to investigate and potentially prosecute the company for possible anti-trust and FCC violations.
Berman, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, wants the authorities to look into Clear Channel's concert promotions division and also its alleged "parking" of radio and TV companies via third party shell companies in Monterey, San Diego, and San Francisco, California; Chillicothe, Ohio; Hudson and Catskills, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Charlotte, S. Carolina; and Waco, Texas.
In his letter Berman writes that Clear Channel's consolidation of its radio and concert promotions activities has had a variety of negative repercussions.
He accuses the company of punishing artistes who refuse to use Clear Channel Entertainments by keeping their songs off Clear Channel station play lists and burying their advertisements.
Clear Channel says it competes aggressively but fairly and stays within the law.
Previous Clear Channel:

2002-01-24: The third London digital multiplex goes on air tomorrow, January 25, with 12 channels including the UK's first licensed lesbian and gay radio station, Purple Radio.
Purple Radio, which was formerly available online, will be launched at a second after midnight during a celebrity party that starts at 2200 GMT today.
Among other stations on the multiplex whose licence was awarded in June last year to the Digital Radio Group (DRG) (See RNW June 8, 2001 for full list of channels) are a children's channel, student station and Young Asian station.

2002-01-24: The University of California, Santa Barbara, has launched a campaign to raise USD3.6 million to purchase classical station KDB-FM and preserve what it terms an "important cultural and community resource."
The station has been owned by the Pacific Broadcasting Company since 1971 and is one of only 29 self-supporting classical music stations in the United States.
Bids have been made by commercial groups, who would change the station format to rock, but the University has an agreement to acquire the station until the end of March.
UC Santa Barbara chancellor Henry T. Yang said, "We want to preserve this rich community asset as a public service to Santa Barbara and Ventura County listeners."
"KDB is an important Santa Barbara asset, one that promotes community groups and their activities, showcases the work of community arts organizations, and provides us with the classical music programming that we have come to appreciate and count on."
The university says it has the support of a coalition of 21 local cultural arts and community organizations in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in its bid to purchase the station.
KDB web site:

2002-01-23: A poll of 6000 listeners by the UK listings magazine, Radio Times, owned by the BBC, has shown BBC Radio 2 morning presenter Terry Wogan to have the most popular male voice on British radio and BBC Radio 4 newsreader Charlotte Green to have the most popular female voice.
63-year old Wogan said, "Those people, to whom I'm a mumble in the background of their morning lives, think enough of me to take the time and trouble to vote. I'll keep talking as long as they keep listening."
Green, whose voice is frequently lampooned on BBC Radio 4's "Dead Ringers" programme, beat veteran BBC Radio 4 Today show presenter Sue McGregor into second place: Natalie Wheen of Classic FM was third.
Green commented, "I like the anonymity that radio gives me, and although I get a large amount of fan mail, I'm rarely recognised." "I'd like to thank everybody who took the time to vote for me. I really love what I do and this is the icing on the cake. I only hope that the News Quiz team don't tease me too much when the new series starts."
In the male rankings, BBC radio 4 newsreader Peter Donaldson was second and another BBC Radio 4 newsreader, New Zealand born Brian Perkins was third
P
erkins featureswith Green in a running gag on Dead Ringers in which Jon Culshaw, portrays a thuggish Perkins and a flirtatious Green
Another veteran, 62-year-old DJ John Peel was voted the most attractive voice on BBC Radio 1.

2002-01-23: Action seems to be brewing over a compilation of tapes of foul-mouthed bloopers by 2UE Sydney hosts Alan Jones and possibly also by John Laws according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The paper says that after a period when the 40-second Jones compilation had been circulating on the Internet, Triple J presenter Francis Leach aired the tape on Tuesday, January 22.
2UE has now told its lawyers to take action and, says the paper, 2UE general manager David Bacon has sacked at least one employee over the matter. Bacon told the paper, "We view the matter extremely seriously - you can quote me on that - and where appropriate we have instituted proceedings. We have instructed our solicitors to pursue everyone who has published it."
He added that the tape was of "very, very , old material" and had not been created for the station's Christmas party as had been reported.
2UE's lawyers had already threatened web site crikey.com.au, making the matter an issue of copyright in the tape (RNW comment: What about fair comment and excerpts for review ??).
Crikey has now stopped web casting the tape, but has posted a transcript of the comments broadcast on Triple J.
Its publisher also says he has access to a similar tape of John Laws' comments.
He's meeting 2UE lawyers today and may yet put the tape on the site.
Previous Jones:
Previous Laws:
Previous 2UE:
Sydney Morning Herald report:
Crikey.com web site:
Crikey com transcript of Jones' comments:

2002-01-23: Latest Internet listening figures from MeasureCast show a 44% jump in the week to January 13, the first full working week of this year, taking the MeasureCast Internet Radio Index to 480.
This indicates that listening has now risen nearly five times since the start of the Index with a base of 100 at the beginning of 2001.
The large rise followed a slow start to the year because of low listening during the holiday period and reinforces statistics that show most Internet listening takes place at workplaces.
At the top of MeasureCast's rankings by total time spent listening (TTSL) there was again no change but listening and reach were well up for all stations.
Top five for the week 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 format Jazz FM - TTSL 292,751(227,020); CP 70,474(63,223) : Position unchanged.
2: Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin FM - TTSL 234,923 (149,500); CP 38,668(30,396): Position unchanged.
3: Listener-formatted MEDIAmazing - TTSL 186,257 (123,629) ; CP 59,519 (48,210): Position unchanged.
4: Classical format King FM - TTSL 134,721 (88,376 ); CP 21,197 (18,758)- Position unchanged.
5: Sports talk ESPN - TTSL 124,115 (80,573): 22,379 (17,717 ) Position unchanged.
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
MeasureCast web site:

2002-01-22: The UK radio industry has launched a campaign on commercial radio to promote digital radio following audience research that showed widespread confusion about digital radio and some traders still selling as "digital radio" clock receivers that have a digital clock.
It will be fronted by veteran disc jockey John Peel and is being funded by the UK Digital Radio Development Bureau, which is in turn funded by both the BBC and the British commercial radio industry.
Digital radio in the UK has been boosted by regulatory measures that give automatic approval to a licence renewal when a company's signal is being carried on the relevant local digital multiplex and the BBC is to launch the first of five new digital channels next month (See RNW Jan 19).
Broadcasters hope that cheaper receivers will come onto the market and boost take-up; most digital radio receivers in the UK cost around GBP300 but a promotional sale in December of 300 sets at GBP99 to mark the centenary of Marconi's December 12, 1901, first transatlantic radio transmission sold out within hours, indicating that demand was there if the price was right.
Currently most digital radio listeners in the UK receive the service via digital TV receivers.

2002-01-22: US radio giant Clear Channel is to offer up to USD3 billion in securities for general corporate purposes including reduction of debt, buying back stock, capital spending and acquisitions if a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is approved.
The filing asks the SEC to allow Clear Channel to sell USD2.25 billion in new securities and also carry forward rights from an older filing to sell USD750 million of securities.
Clear Channel has approaching USD10 billion of long-term debts.
Previous Clear Channel:
Clear Channel web site:

2002-01-22: Jazz FM, whose main shareholders are the UK Guardian Media Group (GMG) and Clear Channel International, has now confirmed that it has begun talks over a possible purchase of London News Radio (LNR), owner of talk station LBC and news station News Direct.
It has not said what its initial offer is but SG Hambros, which is handling the sale of the stations, is asking around GBP20 million.
Others expressing interest include Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH)and Chrysalis.
Previous Chrysalis:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous GMG:
Previous Jazz FM:
Previous LNR:
Previous SRH:.

2002-01-22: Conservative US talk host Rush Limbaugh has now gone public on his show about the success of surgery last December to restore his hearing(See RNW Dec 22, 2001).
Last week Internet columnist and Premiere-syndicated radio host Matt Drudge said that Limbaugh could hear an estimated four fifths of sound in one ear following the activation of his cochlear implants
Drudge said thathis information came from Limbaugh's brother David who had talked with his brother on a cell phone.
Limbaugh was fitted with a microphone and processing device that is worn behind the ear on January 17 and phoned his brother shortly afterwards.
He began his show on Monday by saying, "Greetings to you thrill-seekers, conversationalists, fun lovers and appreciators of medical marvels all across the fruited plain."
"You are listening to - - and so am I -- for the first time in three or four months that I'm actually able to hear this show."
"So I, ladies and gentlemen, am able to join you via a medical marvel, some say miracle."
Limbaugh also commented on his implant being amongst the most successful, saying," They told me about 1% of cochlear implant recipients have total utter failure; about 5% have results that are barely above that, and then 5% have what is considered extraordinary, off the chart results."
"Most of the implant recipients that I have spoken to told me for the first week, that I would probably be unable to distinguish the human voice from any other sound that I heard...and don't even try to watch TV for three months."
"The first thing that happened was a series of beeps were played to me. The audiologist looked surprised I could hear them. I understood the first words the audiologist said to me, as well as my wife Marta, who was in the room with me…Things now sound like a micro cassette recorder, with a slight fuzziness that sounds like a tape hiss. As far as voices and tonal quality, everything sounds like normal. I have been able to use the phone easily."
Previous Limbaugh:
Previous Premiere:
Limbaugh web site:

2002-01-21: This week we look through the eyes of a number of columnists at the issues of what you could term "seemly" or "appropriate" on the radio airwaves or indeed about how you approach getting to them.
Things are put fairly clearly by Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post in his media notes column which, this week, considered the point, albeit indirectly, in an item on Sean Hannity.
"Not long after Rush Limbaugh told the world he had gone deaf, an ABC radio publicist saw an irresistible opportunity," wrote Kurtz.
He continued, "'The burning question is, who becomes the industry's leader among political pundits if Rush Limbaugh is forced to retire?' Rusty Cawley wrote in a pitch letter. 'The heir apparent looks to be Sean Hannity.'"
Kurtz then went on, "Hannity is clearly hot. But he is quick to distance himself from the notion that he's trampling on his onetime mentor."
"'In light of his recent medical condition, he's been performing flawlessly,' Hannity says." "'Rush will be around as long as he wants to be. He's made it easier for guys like me to get into syndication.'"
RNW comment: Maybe it's a question of Hannity's standards, maybe what Hannity, who was named by Radio & Records him Talk Personality of the Year for 2001 considers the best tactics to move on from his current syndication in 100 markets but either way it's certainly an indicator of what will play positively and what negatively.
At the moment Hannity is playing fairly positively with his audience up by two thirds since syndication of his WABC show began on September 10.
Another host who has problems of what is seen to be appropriate is Chicago-based Emmis host, Erich Mancow Muller, subject of a profile in the Chicago Sun-Times.
It would seem to indicate two faces to the character, who is described at one point as "in a word, nice. Well-mannered even."
"Wants to make sure I get enough to eat and that he answers all of my questions thoroughly. Keeps checking on his crew to see that they are entertained. Worries that the waitress gets enough of a tip."
"Exactly the kind of guy who grew up on a Missouri farm and once planned on going to seminary at Temple University so he could become a minister."
"So what's the deal with the sex-and-profanity-laden radio gig? "
Muller himself comments about not taking his show seriously but also expresses a lack of understanding about why it has so frequently been in regulatory hot water. "My show appeals to real people. Real people talk that way. It's hard to talk like a real guy and not use a little profanity," he says.
Muller says he tries to stay aware of the law but takes issue with the complaint that impressionable children might hear his show's off-colour content. "It's not for kids," he says simply. "I would like to take a horsewhip to people who take their kids to see 'The Exorcist,' and frankly, I have the same reaction when I see a 9-year-old kid with a Mancow CD."
"It's not our fault for putting it out there. 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' is on the shelves at the library. Parents are the ones who are supposed to be responsible for this stuff."
RNW comment: The term nice in its current incarnation as meaning "agreeable" is not normally one associated with this particular shock-jock, best known for sexual and ethnic jokes and innuendo although we note that it originally meant stupid and derives from the Latin "nescius" for ignorant.
From the record, we would allow that the current meaning could be applicable but only within a limited context and we certainly think that there's a considerable degree of self-serving or self-deluding comment from Muller in his analysis.
Finally another reference to UK Sunday Times radio columnist Paul Donovan whose column starts off with a list, much of which might spur comment on Mancow's Morning Madness but would certainly do so in a different context to the UK Radio Four soap, The Archers.
"Divorce, delinquency, alcoholism, organic vegetables, animal welfare, fowl pest, homelessness, the price of lamb, mixed marriages, gay cricket captains, agricultural diversity - even those who would like to throw The Archers into a bottomless pit of slurry will accept that the oak of soap has raised an amazing number of issues over the years," writes Donovan.
He then goes on to put the introduction into context:". This is partly to maintain authenticity, as with its fine treatment of foot-and-mouth disease and its aftermath. But sometimes it is to be "positive", to champion a cause, which is a lot more questionable. "
The latest issue on the programme is home birth, he notes and continues," Now, it seems, The Archers is also preparing to do its bit to champion home births (which may be, though are not necessarily, premature)."
Donovan detects in this a whiff of the politically correct although he does not specifically say so. "I hope the NCT's (UK National Childbirth Trust, a charity that has been advising the programme on the issue of home birth) guidance is used simply to make the birth scenes better, and not to promote a particular view in obstetrics - that home births are more desirable than hospital births."
"I hope The Archers will think carefully, at the end of the episodes in question, or in its printed billings, before stating that further information on home births is available from the Radio 4 information line, or its website, or the NCT."
"The programme's senior producer, Keri Davies, told Archers fans on a recent cruise that he did plan such mentions for the future; and it is the evidence of one's own ears that Radio 4 plugs its information line and website at almost any opportunity."
"When I listen to The Archers, I want to feel I am listening to a story - not agitprop.
RNW comment: Indeed so and maybe even more true in terms of a "soap" or programmes that have sponsors rather than talk shows like those of Muller and Stern, or even those of right-wing hosts like Limbaugh whose political stance is no secret, even though at times it would be a fair comment to say they allow advocacy to pervert a fair rendering of what is and is not "fact".
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous Kurtz:
Chicago Sun-Times on Muller:
UK Sunday Times - Donovan:
Washington Post- Kurtz:
Note- Sunday Times requires registration.

2002-01-20: Main news this week on the commercial front came from Australia whilst in the US there was approval of re-organisation and a start to Low Power FM services.
In Australia, the main news was the announcement that the new Perth commercial FM licence is to be auctioned on February 14 (See RNW Jan 17).
Canada was fairly quiet but the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced the receipt of applications for new FM stations in four Quebec locations and sought competing applications.
The locations are Chicoutimi, Montréal, Sherbrooke, and Trois-Rivières.
The CRTC has also sought comments on an application by Houssen Broadcasting Ltd. to amend the licence of radio station CKOE-FM, Moncton, New Brunswick, to remove the condition of its licence that prohibits broadcast of commercials.
Ireland has seen the launch of another new FM station, Red FM in Cork (see RNW Jan 17) but otherwise all was quiet for the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).
In the UK the Radio Authority has been active on both digital and analogue fronts.
On the analogue front it has pre-advertised the licence for Shaftesbury area of North Dorset; the licence currently held by Vale FM is due to expire in June next year.
The Authority has also published its assessment of the re-award to Northants 96 of the FM licence for Northampton and to Classic Gold of the AM licences for the area.
There had been competition from BetterRadio Northants Ltd., which had applied for both licences on the basis that it would not be prepared to accept the offer of just one licence.
In particular the Radio Authority noted, in making the award, the success of the incumbent stations and their local support.
On the Digital Front, the Authority received two applications for the Swindon/West Wiltshire digital multiplex.
These were from Emap Digital Radio Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Emap Performance Ltd., and Now Digital Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the GWR Group plc.
Both are proposing eight commercial services in addition to carrying the BBC local radio service. Emap's planned services are:
Both Swindon and West Wiltshire/Bath
Chart and current hits -- GWR FM (provider: *GWR Group plc- subject to agreement)
*Golden oldies from 60s, 70s and 80s -- GWR FM (provider: GWR Group plc- subject to agreement)
*Dance - Kiss (provider: Emap Performance Ltd.)
*Country - 3C (provider: SCORE Digital Ltd.)
*Easy listening - Provider: confidential
*Rock - Provider: to be advertised
*Adult contemporary music and speech - Provider: to be advertised
In Swindon:
*Swindon local service (classic and current hits) - Swindon FM (provider: Swindon Radio Ltd.)
In West Wiltshire & Bath:
*Bath local service (classic and current hits) - Bath FM (provider: Bath FM Ltd.)
Now Digital's planned services are:
Both Swindon and West Wiltshire/Bath
*Gold - Classic Gold (provider: Classic Gold Digital Ltd.)
*Teen chart - Cube (provider: Capital Radio plc)
*Modern rock - The Storm (provider: GWR Group plc)
*Adult contemporary music/green issues - *Passion (provider: Passion for the Planet Ltd.)
*Dance/pop dance - Provider: confidential
*Easy listening for 45 pluses - Provider: confidential
In Swindon:
*Contemporary chart hit radio - GWR FM (provider: Wiltshire Sound Ltd.) Swindon local mixed service - Swindon Radio (provider: Swindon Radio Ltd.)
In West Wiltshire & Bath
*Contemporary chart hit radio - GWR Bath (provider: GWR West Ltd.) Bath local mixed service - Bath FM (provider: Bath FM Ltd.)
In addition, Now is also proposing to broadcast:
* (19.00-06.00, every day) Student radio - SBN (provider: SBN Ltd) Children's radio for under 10s and their carers
(06.00-19.00, weekends) - Abracadabra (provider: Soundstart Ltd.)
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reorganization plan to combine the Mass Media Bureau and Cable Services Bureau into one office has been approved by the agency's four commissioners.
It now needs approval from the US Congress.
Recently appointed Cable Services Bureau chief Ken Ferree is to head the merged office and Roy Stewart, who has now headed the Mass Media Bureau for 11 of his 37 years at the FCC, will become chief of the Office of Broadcast Licensing Policy.
The Commission has also announced the appointment of Edmond J. Thomas as the Chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET).
Bruce Franca, acting OET Chief since December 2000, and Julius Knapp will continue to serve as Deputy Chiefs of OET.
Stewart made what is likely to be his last presentation in his old role at the FCC's Open Meeting on January 17.
On the topic of Low Power FM he said that the issue of interference with existing stations is likely to be unresolved for quite a while.
Following lobbying by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and National Public Radio (NPR), third-adjacent channel protection was mandated by congress until a study had been carried out.
The Mitre Corporation has been engaged to solicit bids for the study with a winner to be chosen in April.
After the study is completed, a decision will be taken whether it is necessary to continue this level of protection, which the FCC had said was not necessary and which severely limits the number of LPFM stations possible.
R and R says that it has learned that three LPFM's are already on air, although only one has actually been formally granted its licence; the other two have submitted applications but are being allowed to broadcast pending approval.
Their calls signs are KCJM-FM/Alexandria, Louisiana (the station holding a licence), and KEFC-FM, Turlock, and KPFZ-FM, Lucerne, both in California.
he FCC has also red-flagged for market concentration reasons a proposed Alabama deal under which Radio South, which owns four stations in the Tuscaloosa market, is proposing to buy WSPZ-AM from Birmingham Christian Radio.
Radio South already owns Gospel WTSK, Classic Rock WLXY, Urban AC WTID and Hot AC WTSK.

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2002-01-19: South Florida sports announcer Jeffrey ``Jeff'' DeForrest has pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to a Miccosukee Indian Gaming marketing director to ensure that he got the contract to broadcast television shows from its Tamiami Trail casino.
The Miami Herald reports that DeForrest, who joined WQAM-AM's morning sports-talk show in 1997 and is known as "De Fo" has now been suspended by the station; its general manager told the paper that he wasn't sure if DeForrest would return.
DeForrest, who could have been fined up to USD250000 and jailed for five years, was said to have paid up to USD70,000 to the tribe's then marketing director, who is charged with stealing from the tribe, to ensure extension of his contract.
Prosecutors said he received his paychecks from the tribe through the mail and used the money to pay the kickbacks.
DeForrest agreed to plead guilty to a charge of engaging in a scheme to defraud using the mail, under an agreement that removed the threat of imprisonment.
Under the deal, which is subject to court approval, DeForrest will serve three years of probation, the first six months at home with an electronic monitor, must perform 80 hours of community service and will have to pay restitution.
He has already paid back USD18,312 but the final amount to be paid is still to be decided. DeForrest will be allowed to continue working.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 27.
Miami Herald report:

2002-01-19: The BBC's first new digital radio station, Five Live Sports Extra, is to launch on February 2 with a service complementing existing medium wave news and sports station Radio Five Live by giving extra cover to soccer, rugby, cricket, tennis and Formula One automobile racing.
The service is the first of five new digital BBC services to be launched this year, details of which were first announced in September 2000 (See RNW Sept 29, 2000).
The others are Network X, a contemporary black service; Network Y, which will use BBC archives of concerts and interviews to explore music from the 1970s to the 1990s; Network Z, a spoken-word entertainment channel; and the Asian Network which will be a national version of the local BBC Asian network, currently available only in part of the North and Midlands.
The channel will be available on terrestrial digital channels and through Sky TV, which carries more than 50 radio services including simulcasts of established stations and digital output.
A recent survey showed that around 12% of the current radio audience was listening through its television sets, most of them through the Sky service.
Amongst the 15-25 demographic this goes up to around 20%.
Ironically receivers for Sky's digital service, which have been subsidised to encourage take-up, are cheaper than digital radio receivers in the UK.
Previous BBC:
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2002-01-19: Last week was another week when US radio deals were amongst the smaller fry; largest was a completion by Mapleton Communications of its USD10.25 million station purchase from New Wave Broadcasting.
The stations were KBTU-FM, KHIP-FM, KPIG-FM, KMBY-FM and KCDU-FM plus a joint-sales agreement (JSA) for KBOQ-FM.
In Illinois AAA Entertainment is paying USD1.7 million for WBZM-FM, Fairbury, from Rainbow Radio. The deal will bring AAA's station total in Illinois up to 12.
Further east, the Tampa-based Tama Group has paid USD1.5 million in cash for WXQL-FM, Jacksonville, an A-class AC station that has an approval for a class C3 upgrade.
Both the buyers and sellers, Peaches Broadcasting of Detroit, are black-owned groups.
And in the northeast K-Communications has now completed its USD 2.5 million acquisition of WGSM-AM Huntington, NY from Barnstable Broadcasting.
It's to switch the station from a Standards format to an Ethnic one, targeted at the Asian-American population in Long Island and New York City.
For the giants there were no deals but action in the redemption stakes -bonds, that is, not religious.
Clear Channel has announced that it has now completed the redemption of USD141.8 million of its 12.65% debenture notes due in October 2006 and USD half-million of 10.5% notes due in Jan 2007.
Viacom, which owns CBS and Infinity, has also been redeeming notes, in its case USD46.5 million of 11.375 debentures due in Jan 2009.
Previous Clear Channel:
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Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity:

2002-01-18: US Public Radio is moving into the bond market as a means of financing capital projects with the sale of US6.5 million of tax-exempt bonds for Colorado Public Radio's expansion expected soon.
Colorado's bonds will finance last year's purchases of three AM stations to launch a news-and-information network around the state, parallel to its original classical-music-and-news network, and president Max Wycisk is quoted in Current Magazine as saying that, compared to a short-term bank loan, he estimates the network will save USD350,000 to USD400,000 a year
Current says that public broadcasters have 10 to 15 borrowings under review at George K. Baum & Co., the investment bank working closely with non-profit Public Radio Capital, which is shepherding potential borrowers into the bond market.
As well as the Colorado deal, the new non-profit Maryland Public Radio aims to use bonds in its financing of the USD5 million purchase of Baltimore's WJHU and Nashville Public Radio also expects to use bonds in connection with financing its new AM station.
Nashville Public Radio paid USD3 million for WKDA-AM in December and expects to use it for a news/information service to supplement its classical music service on WPLN-FM.
Public Radio Capital managing director Marc Hand told Current that they are also in contact with a major Midwest state university that wants to ease the use of bond financing by asking Public Radio Capital to step in as legal owner of its station and additional channels that it plans to acquire using bond proceeds.
He said the group also anticipates that some public TV stations will use bonds to raise parts of their digital transition capital.
Current says that the bonds have been given fairly strong ratings by Wall Street's three major bond-rating firms and the new situation shows the strength of public broadcasters because they are now felt strong enough to offer bonds under their own credit.
In the Colorado case the bonds are officially issued under the aegis of the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority but they are based on the network's own credit as opposed to previous bonds backed by a state's credit or by bank credit, for which the banks charged a significant fee.
Jason F. Dickerson, a senior director at rating firm Fitch Inc. told Current, "When you talk about [a bond issue by] a public radio station, the instinct of a lot of investment professionals is they couldn't possibly be investment grade," adding that pledge drives gave " the impression that they are more financially volatile than they are in fact."
In the Colorado case, the ratings and comments from Wall Street clearly illustrated this.
Fitch gave the bonds a BBB+ rating last week, near the median for hospitals and just below the ratings attained by many universities.
Moody's in an announcement, noted that the network attracts a 6 percent share of radio listening in the Denver area, earns an average operating surplus of 15.8 percent, has an average listener contribution of $119 a year and can boast steadily increasing listener donations despite economic downturns since 1988.
Standard & Poor's commented on the network's "long history of good operating performance and liquidity."
There is a back-stop for the investors, however: Colorado Public Radio put up its station licenses as a last-resort guarantee and agreed to limits on its finances, promised not to let its cash and investments drop below 20 percent of the outstanding principal on the bonds, and agreed not to go further into debt to a degree that would hurt its bond rating.
Current Magazine report:

2002-01-18: Reports have started surfacing in the UK that the BBC is attempting to tempt Capital Radio breakfast host Chris Tarrant to take over the Jimmy Young slot on BBC Radio 2.
The reports sat that his agent has been approached by the BBC seven times with a six-figure offer to take over at the start of next year when Young moves from his daily show to a new weekend slot (RNW January 17).
Tarrant signed a new contract last July (RNW July 21, 2001) that was said to include performance-rated elements linking his remuneration to the show's advertising revenue and Capital Radio Group's overall profits.
Capital also has an option to renew his contract for another year and it is thought he would put share options at risk if he refuses to let them take up the option and leaves early.
RNW comment: The cynic in us would attribute these reports to an agent's bargaining process as much as any genuine likelihood of a deal.
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2002-01-18: The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which has been holding board meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, now has a record radio membership according to Executive Vice-President John David.
NAB has suffered from the decision by Viacom-Infinity to leave the organisation.
but also had some Asian-languages programming.
Other issues discussed at meetings included the questions of US satellite radio companies' terrestrial repeater stations and various ownership-related issues.
NAB has consistently expressed concern that the satellite radio companies, Sirius an XM, were building a network of terrestrial repeaters that could be used to carry local programming.
It noted that the FCC has been receptive to its insistence on a bar on local programming and local advert insertions by the companies and it to set up an ad hoc committee to meet the FCC on the issue.
On ownership NAB is pressing to keep the eight-radio-stations-per-large-market super-duopoly limit.
This, it says, was specifically mandated by the US Congress, is not subject to interpretation, and has led to increased programme diversity.
NAB also wants the elimination of the current US broadcast/newspaper co-ownership ban.
Previous NAB:
NAB web site:

2002-01-17: The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) is to auction the new Perth commercial FM licence on February 14.
There have been a total of eight applications for the licence.
A reserve price of AUD1 million has been set with actual bids expected to be around AUD70 million (USD35 million).
The Perth auction is the latest of a series which, within the last two years, have seen the new Sydney commercial licence fetch a record AUD 155 million (see RNW May 25, 2000); Melbourne fetched AUD70 million (see RNW Dec 15, 2000) and Brisbane fetched AUD67 million (See RNW May 31, 2001).
Previous ABA:
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2002-01-17: Veteran BBC Radio 2 broadcaster Sir Jimmy Young has bowed to pressure and is to leave his show at the end of the year.
Most favoured candidate to replace him is current BBC2 TV Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine with two others said to be in the running - writer and broadcaster David Aaronovitch and BBC sports presenter, John Inverdale.
BBC radio 5 Live host Nicky Campbell, who sparked a row in November last year when he said that he had been offered the post, forcing the BBC to admit it had been looking for a replacement (see RNW Nov 2 2001 ), is said to be completely out of the running.
The move, presented by the station as "Sir Jimmy Young signs new contract" will see "JY" move from his daily spot to host a new weekend current affairs programme.
In a statement Young, who is aged 80, said, "I've thoroughly enjoyed 28 years of presenting 'the Prog' and I'm looking forward to one more year."
"A high profile News and Current affairs programme at the weekend will be a new challenge for me and I'm confident that it will play a key role in helping set the news agenda."
BBC Radio 2 Controller Jim Moir commented, "Jimmy is one of Britain's most popular and respected broadcasters and I am pleased that his expert contribution to the debate on the issues of the day has been secured for the future. A weekend News and Current Affairs programme hosted by Jimmy will be an appointment to listen and a landmark series for the network. I'm glad that Jimmy will continue to play an important role as Radio 2 evolves."
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2002-01-17: Seattle now has its first all-Spanish station with the switch of KKMO-AM from a Christian talk format to Spanish-language Radio Sol.
Latinos have more than doubled their share of the city's population over the past two decades and were mainly served by KXPA-AM, which was mostly Spanish but also had some Asian-languages programming. .

2002-01-17: Ireland's newest commercial radio station, Red FM, has now launched successfully in Cork.
It's in direct competition with national stations 2FM and Scottish Radio Holdings' Today FM for its target 15-34 market.
The station said its received more than 600 text messages wishing it good luck within the first five minutes of going on air at 8 AM local time on January 16.

2002-01-16: XM Satellite Radio has received another boost with an announcement by General Motors (GM) that it is to offer XM receivers as an option in 23 of its models this fall when the 2003 models are launched.
GM already offered the radios in Cadillac Deville and Seville models; now they will be on various Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac models.
XM estimates that around 15% of GM customers - some 300-400.000 people - will take up the option in the 2003 model year.
General Motors is XM's largest shareholder, which gives it a vested interest in the success of XM.
Rival Sirius Satellite Radio has tie-ups with various automobile manufacturers including in Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo but so far has only announced that BMW s to offer its receivers as an option.
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2002-01-16: Following pressure from fans and country stars, Gaylord Entertainment has shelved further reconsideration of plans it had mooted to change the format of historic classic country station WSM-AM.
Gaylord's Chief Executive Officer Colin Reed told the Tennessean that the company will consider technological and programming innovations to boost WSM's flagship Grand Ole Opry programme.
These include the syndication of the show, possibly on satellite radio and eventually broadcasts on digital AM, and the development of spin-off shows branded with the Opry name.
Reed said that things had to change at the station, which lost USD1.5 million last year, and his goal was to make the changes positive.
''The last two to three weeks were very helpful to me in seeing the potential'' of WSM's classic country format, Reed told the paper.
''I knew it was there. I just didn't know how big it was, and I think it's big.''
A central goal is to restore the stature of the Grand Ole Opry so that it is again an essential part of a country music star's career.
Reed said he wants the show ''in front of every household in this country'' so that artists see playing the Opry as a worthy alternative to a big-city arena show.
WSM currently rates well amongst older fans but is bottom-rated of the five Nashville country stations amongst the younger demographic.
Previous Gaylord/WSM-AM;
Previous Reed:
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Next column:

2002-01-16: The latest release from the US Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) carries an upbeat message that US radio is poised for a slow steady recovery early this year but poor numbers.
For November 2001, RAB reports national advertising down 19% on November 2000, local revenues down 7% and combined revenues down 10%.
For the year to November, national revenues are down 19%, local revenues down 5% and combined revenues down 8%.
On the RAB Index, which equates 1998 to 100, the national sales index for November 2001 was 102.1; the local sales index was 119.7 and the combined index 115.5.
For the year to date the national sales index was 112.8, the local sales index was 125.6 and the combined index was 123.8.
RAB President and Chief Executive Officer, Gary Fries, commented," "Local Radio has steadily withstood the onslaught of this year's sliding economy."
"We can now see that local ad sales have stabilized and national has finally bottomed out positioning Radio for a slow, but steady recovery starting in early 2002."
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2002-01-16: Internet audiences started to rise again as people returned to work after the New Year according to the latest figures from Measurecast.
They cover the week from December 31 to January 6 and the slowest two days were New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the last accounting for only a twentieth of the week's listening.
The increases later in the week took Measurecast's Internet Radio Listening Index up 48 percent, based on 100 at the start of January 2001, to 333.
At the top of Measurecast's rankings, ESPN returned to the top five, pushing out CableMusic's Christmas Classic channel, which had been fourth.
Top five for the week 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 227020 (146575); CP 63223 (55762). Same position with listening and reach up but only listening above two weeks ago.
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio - TTSL 149500 (118480); CP 30396 (28628) - Same position with listening and reach up but still less than two weeks ago.
3): Listener Formatted MEDIAmazing TTSL - 123629 (81560); CP 48210 (45801) - Same position with listening and reach up but each still less than two weeks ago.
4): Classical music King FM TTSL - 88376 (53780); CP 18758 (16866) - Up from fifth but listening and reach still less than two weeks ago.
5): Sports format ESPN TTSL - 80573 (46128); CP 17717 (13145)- Up from seventh but listening still well down from week to December 16 when ESPN was sixth with TTSL of 100715

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2002-01-15: Arbitron has announced that it has begun recruiting for the planned final phase of US market trials of its new radio, television and cable TV audience measurement device - the Portable People Meter (PPM).
Over the next three to four months it expects to recruit some 1500 listeners, aged 6 upwards, for the trials in Philadelphia where results from the first phase of the test indicated that the PPM system is capturing TV viewing and radio listening that is not being measured by current audience measurement systems.
This second and final phase is designed to give a first direct look at individual station ratings for radio and television as well as individual cable network ratings generated by the Portable People Meter with audience estimates.
These estimates will be compared with individual station and cable network ratings delivered by current audience measurement systems.
Eight TV stations, 38 radio stations and 22 cable networks serving the Philadelphia market are participating in the trial by embedding in their signals an inaudible code using the latest generation of Arbitron encoders.
Nielsen Media Research is providing financial support and its television survey research expertise in this trial and has an option to join Arbitron in the commercial deployment of the Arbitron Portable People Meter in the United States.
In the first phase of the trial some 300 people wore the pager-sized meter for trials in the Wilmington market, which is part of the Philadelphia market.
Previous Arbitron/PPM:
Arbitron web site:

2002-01-15: In Ireland, new Cork station Red FM, whose licence were awarded in February last year, goes on air on Wednesday, January 16.
Red FM will provide a music-led service targeted at the 15-34 demographic.
Red FM, backed by Dublin station, FM104, and the Irish Examiner newspaper, beat off competition from six other applicants (See RNW Nov 11, 20000 ).
Conor J. Maguire, Chairperson of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), commented, "We are delighted to see Red FM 104-106 join the independent radio sector and believe that the station will be a worthwhile addition to the increasingly diverse mix of radio services in the Cork area."
"Over two years ago this Commission set out a vision of diversity, variety and pluralism in the independent broadcasting and radio sector - we not only promised this, but we have delivered on these promises."
"We are thrilled to see the hard work of this new station come to fruition, and look forward in anticipation of Spin FM and News Talk FM (RNW note - new Dublin licences) following soon".
Previous BCI:
Previous Maguire:

2002-01-15: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is to hold an open Meeting on Thursday, January 17, to review its operations.
Presentations will be made in three panels that will comprise:
1: the Chiefs of the Mass Media Bureau, the Cable Service Bureau and the Common Carrier Bureau.
2: Chiefs of the Consumer Information Bureau and the Enforcement Bureau.
3: Chiefs of the Office of Engineering and Technology, the International Bureau, and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
The proceedings will be broadcast on the Internet.
Previous FCC:
FCC Real audio site (for proceedings 09:30 ET/14:30GMT Jan 17):

2002-01-14: The question of format changes and the conflict at times between maximising profit and other interests in a community is excising, of all places, Nashville, Tennessee and the centrepiece of our first topic this week.
The format change, which may or may not happen, is from Country to Sport for WSM-AM, the home of Grand Ol Opry and granddaddy of US Country stations.
As we reported earlier (RNW Jan 7) owners Gaylord Entertainment have lost money on the station and are considering a format change for the AM station combined with retention of country on sister station WSM-FM and syndication of the Opry show.
The story has garnered wide coverage and the suggestion has led to protests.
Perhaps attitudes from the view wider than just profit are best summed up in an editorial in the Tennessean.
Headed "Keep WSM country" it says, "Gaylord Entertainment is a business. It makes its decisions based on the bottom line."
"Yet Gaylord must know why its consideration of changing the format of WSM-AM from its classic country music format to sports programming has struck such a sour chord in Nashville."
"The significance of the change wouldn't merely eliminate a listening option for country music lovers, it would seriously alter the sound and the identity of Music City."
"The proposed switch immediately raises concerns about the crown jewel of WSM, the Grand Ole Opry radio show. "
"Speculation has surfaced that Gaylord would move the Opry to its WSM-FM station with plans to syndicate the show nationally."
"But the FM station can't begin to give the Opry the reach of the 50,000-watt AM home it has, going to 38 states… the most attractive option is not to change the station's format, but to capitalize on it with vigorous marketing."
"If that option doesn't appeal to Gaylord, it can sell WSM-AM to someone more in tune with the station's tradition."
"WSM has slipped in the ratings, and format switches can occur in radio at a whirling pace. But WSM-AM is a very special case. "
"To point to the bottom line and treat a change at WSM as just another business decision is an insult to the station's own reputation."
"In its storied history, WSM has included all sorts of programming, including other forms of music, talk shows and sports."
"But when Gaylord bought the country music showpiece, Nashville had every reason to believe country music was in good hands."
"If Gaylord doesn't want to keep the tradition going, it should give someone an opportunity to try. It owes Nashville that much."
The New York Times, in an article by Phil Sweetland says that Gaylord's president and chief executive, Colin Reed portrayed the move as one to gain the Opry an opportunity via syndication to reach millions instead of its current audience of hundreds of thousands.
"One of the reasons we started to look at this whole issue," Reed said, "was because of a notion we have that we think the Grand Ole Opry is in fact very, very precious."
Not that many others seem to buy that notion as being the whole tale but Lon Helton, the Nashville bureau chief and country editor of the radio trade paper Radio & Records was fairly pragmatic about the possibility of a change.
"Format decisions at all radio stations - even legendary stations - have always been driven by economics," he said.
"That is perhaps more the case now than ever. Top 40 legends - KHJ/ Los Angeles, WABC/New York and WLS/Chicago, among many, many others - have all gone through a number of formats since their glory days."
Another radio network that's been around a long time - nearly 60 years compared to the 76 of WSF-AM - but is doing rather better is the six-station Texas empire of LBJS Broadcasting Company, flagship KLBJ-AM, featured in an Associated Press story by Kelley Shannon, which we spotted in the Los Angeles Times article.
The network concentrates on Texas and when ratings are combined leads the pack in its area.
Chairwoman Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of Lady Bird Johnson and the late President Lyndon B. Johnson, commented: "In a day and time where communications, especially radio, has an increasing march toward homogenisation, we have resisted that march."
"We believe that the edge for radio as an entity is being local."
The business was founded by Lady Bird Johnson who bought the first station -then KTBC - in 1942 with USD17, 500 of inheritance money and who at 89 is still on the holding company's board.
She sold commercials and helped clean floors and later obtained one of the first FM signals. Later the family acquired a TV station but sold it and the call letters in 1973, switching the call letters to KLBJ.
At least one industry figure thinks the family has the correct emphasis.
A large corporation with hundreds of stations may benefit from cost savings and efficiencies commented Tom Taylor, editor of M Street Daily, adding that the smaller, private LBJS Broadcasting doesn't have to meet outside analysts' profit projections and can concentrate on serving a niche in a local market.
Finally another look-back, but not so far back this time, from UK Sunday Times columnist Paul Donovan: He starts by noting the re-run by BBC Radio 4 of the 1981 production of "Lord of the Rings", which is being re-issued on tape and CD, describing it as "one of those eerie, spine-tingling epics produced once in a generation. "
His column has a sting in the tail, though, since he praises output of BBC Radio Four in the 80s and early 90s but then asks, "But where has it gone now, the glory and the dream? Where are the blockbusters? There is no shortage of intelligent programmes, and every week brings new serialisations, readings and original plays."
"Yet the heroic impulse, the yearning to produce a mighty piece of radio to enthral the nation, seems to have withered away."
"When, for example, did we last hear Longfellow's Hiawatha, that most hauntingly beautiful of all long poems and one that does more to instil respect for the worth and nobility of native peoples than any number of multicultural think-tanks?"
"What has happened to the Koran, which Radio 4 so nearly mounted in 1993, but that it then rejected because of the sensitivities and difficulties involved?"
"The Iliad does not appear to have been attempted for 10 years, and then it was only books one and two, and what about The Odyssey and The Aeneid?"
"And is the BBC now so timid that it dare not do what nobody has ever done (not even Professor Nevill Coghill, whose Chaucer adaptations were among the first great successes of Radio 3) and dramatise all 24 of The Canterbury Tales?"
"Now that we are all world citizens and have to know about the euro, why not compress either Dr John Roberts's History of the World or Norman Davies's highly topical Ice Age-to- Maastricht saga, Europe: A History, just as Winston Churchill's A History of the English- Speaking Peoples was distilled into the epic series This Sceptred Isle, one of Radio 4's biggest hits of recent years and a runaway bestseller on tape?(RNW note - also currently being repeated at 1945GMT on Sundays) "
"Such a project would make sense for Radio 4 and the BBC's commercial arm alike, and would show that radio, like television, is not just a reliable companion but also, sometimes, capable of seizing the national imagination as well."
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Previous Taylor:
New York Times - Sweetland:
Los Angeles Times/AP - Shannon:
Tennessean web site:
UK Sunday Times - Donovan (requires registration)
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2002-01-13: Another quiet week on the licence news front last week: The main issue was that of indecency offences in the US.
There the Federal Communications Commission has backed down on a fine imposed against Citadel (now owned by Forstmann Little), for playing an Eminem track but upheld penalties against Emmis (See RNW Jan 9).
In Australia, the only radio activity worthy of note was the issuing by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) of a clarification of its definition of open narrowcasting services.
The essential details all relate to limitations which can be matters of coverage area, intended audience or of licence duration.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has approved a corporate re-organisation by Cogeco Radio-Télévision inc. (CRTI), on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated; the addition of a 49-watt transmitter at Les Méchins for CHRM-FM Matane, Quebec; and a new 14,800 watts English-language FM for Nor-Com Electronics Ltd., Nipawin, Saskatchewan.
This will offer a mixed music format: "golden oldies" and older soft "adult contemporary" from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and "classic rock" after 5:00 p.m.
The CRTC notes that in its application, Nor-Com said it would be in a single station market but in fact the Nipawin is located within the service area of CJVR Melfort, which had argued that the north-eastern region of Saskatchewan could not support another local radio station without harming CJVR.
This means that to solicit local advertising a third of station programming has to be local. The station will in this case produce all the programming.
The CRTI re-structuring will involve the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary to which it will transfer the assets of CFGL-FM Laval and its related transitional digital radio undertaking (TDRU) CFGL-FM Laval/Montreal, the assets of CJMF-FM Québec, as well as a 49.99 % interest in Stornoway Communications Limited Partnership and a 20 % interest in Canal Indigo, a general partnership.
There was nothing from Ireland and in the UK, the only action from the Radio Authority was to announce that it had only received one licence for the -re-advertised Greater London AM licence.
This came from existing licence holder London Christian Radio Ltd., broadcasting as Premier Christian Radio.
In the US, the main issue for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as already noted, was the question of indecency offences, a matter being pushed by the Democrat member of the Commission Michael J. Copps.
As well as the decisions already made, the FCC also has an appeal before it from non-profit KBOO-FM concerning a USD 7000 fine (See RNW May 22, 2001).
One issue Copps is particularly pushing is the retention by broadcasters of recordings of their output. Disney has said it will keep such recordings for two months for its ABC owned and operated stations (See RNW Jan 11 ) but no other major groups have followed suit and Emmis has said it will not be doing this.
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ABA web site:
Narrowcasting Guidelines (197 kb PDF)
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FCC web site:
UK Radio Authority
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2002-01-13: Another example of the strengths of radio in reaching over national borders is given in a report in the UK Daily Telegraph on a London-based station that in December 2001 began broadcasting to Zimbabwe where the Mugabe government has control of all broadcast media and has clamped down on any support for the country's opposition.
The station, SW Radio Africa, broadcasts a three-hour daily news programme at 6145KHz on the 49-metre waveband and is effectively the country's only independent station.
Zimbabweans only have the option of listening to state-controlled media or international services such as that of the BBC World Service, whose correspondents have been barred from the country.
The station is run by a group of eight journalists and technicians. It is the brainchild of Gerry Jackson, 49, a journalist with the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation for 13 years until she was sacked for "insubordination" for taking live calls on air from listeners during the 1997 food riots.
She fought and won a legal battle in the Supreme Court in 2000 to set up an independent radio station, Capital FM, in Harare but less than a week after it went on air police broke in and closed it down when Mugabe used his presidential powers to overturn the court's decision (See RNW Oct 10 2001).
The Zimbabwe Supreme Court later found the police officer in charge guilty of contempt of court because he had been served with with a high court order prohibiting a raid until an appeal was heard (See RNW Oct 18, 2001); he said he took orders "only from his superiors, not the courts."
UK Telegraph report:

2002-01-12: Former Infinity Programming SVP John Gehron, who was "laid-off" in a cost-cutting re-organisation in October last year (See RNW Oct 16, 2001) has been appointed Chicago Regional VP/Market Manager for Clear Channel's Chicago Operation.
He will have responsible for Clear Channel's six-station cluster and the surrounding area including Madison and Milwaukee.
Gehron replaces Kathy Stinehour who was forced out last week (see RNW Jan 9).
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder says that insiders also expect Gehron to double as vice president and general manager of Clear Channel's smooth-jazz WNUA-FM (95.5), contemporary-hit WKSC-FM (103.5) and adult-contemporary WLIT-FM (93.9).
Marv Dyson would continue as general manager of the company's three other Chicago properties-- urban-contemporary WGCI-FM (107.5), gospel WGCI-AM (1390) and adult-urban WVAZ-FM (102.7)--and report directly to Gehron.
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2002-01-12: The Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have now announced that, as recommended by RTNDA's executive committee (See RNW Jan 11), the former will hold its 2002 convention in concert with that of the NAB.
RTNDA@NAB will take place April 8-10 in Las Vegas will be at the Las Vegas Hilton whilst NAB's exhibition will be at the adjacent Las Vegas Convention Center.
RTNDA president Barbara Cochran commented: "Holding the RTNDA conference at the NAB convention is a value-added opportunity for our members."
"Attendees can get all the training and networking they've come to expect from an RTNDA conference, plus the chance to shop the biggest and best broadcast technology show in the world."
NAB president and CEO Edward O. Fritts said RTNDA was "the perfect fit for NAB", adding, "We are always looking for ways to expand and enhance our convention. RTNDA is a first-class organization, and we believe our new partnership will be beneficial to both parties."
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2002-01-12: Arbitron's December webcast ratings just issued show four Canadian stations that are new to the ratings came in the top 25 channels, the highest ranked of them being CFNY-FM, which was tenth ranked with a total of 139,500 aggregate tuning hours (ATH).
As with MeasureCast's ratings, holiday programming, which increased its listening by more than a fifth, took Cablemusic Network, Inc. up the rankings.
It was second placed network with 978,100 ATH, whilst its Classical Christmas channel was fourth with 402,400 ATH and Christmas Rock was 17th with 72,000 ATH.
Arbitron's top five channels ranked by ATH were:
1:Adult contemporary Virgin FM with ATH 874300. Previously third with ATH 360600
2: Classical King FM with ATH 473100 Position unchanged but ATH down from 516100
3: Listener-formatted MEDIAmazing with ATH 434100. Down from first place when ATH was 600800:
4: Cablemusic-Classical Christmas with ATH 402400.Up from 16th in November when ATH was 72300.
5: Classical WQXR-FM with ATH 391600. Position unchanged but ATH up from 275000
Knocked out of the top five was Electronica Groove Radio, which was 4th but has now been closed by Clear Channel (see RNW December 19, 2001).
In the network ratings, Clear Channel dropped out as the company has now returned streaming to individual stations.
The top five were, ranked by ATH (Aggregate Tuning Hours):
1:Live 365 with 3847,300 ATH. Position unchanged ATH down from 4654300
2: Cablemusic Networks, Inc. with ATH 978100. Position unchanged, ATH up from 799000.
3: SMG PLC (Virgin radio owners) with ATH 874300. Up from seventh when ATH was 360600.
4: Public Interactive with ATH 704400. Down from third with ATH down from 779300.
5: Classic Radio, Inc. with ATH 473100. Previously third with ATH 787300.
Knocked out were Clear Channel Internet Group and MEDIAmazing, down from fourth to sixth.
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Arbitron webcast ratings.

2002-01-12: The deals side of US radio has been fairly quiet over the past week but there were a few which progressed in the pipeline.
In Bridgeton, New Jersey Radio Partners LLC, are to pay USD20 million in cash for WSNJ-AM and FM from 82-years-old Ed Bold who has been in the town for most of his life and launched the FM in 1992.
Still in the northeast, Antonio F Gois and Helena R Gois have agreed to purchase WSPR-AM, Springfield, Massachusetts, from Edmund Dinnis of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The Gois's already own WACM-AM in Springfield. No figures have been released.
Further south, On Top Communications is paying USD8.5 million for KNOU-FM Empire, Louisiana, an Urban format in the New Orleans market, to JP Broadcasting which bought the CP for the station for USD3.5 million just over a year ago.
In California, Christian oriented Salem Communications has completed two deals in the Riverside-San Bernardino market. It has bought KRLH-AM (formerly KSZZ), which is to broadcast Salem' Conservative News-Talk format, from Entravision.
It sold KEZY-AM to Hi-Favor Broadcasting LLC (See RNW Nov 6, 2001).
Hi-Favor owner is Salem director Roland Hinz, who has been running KEZY in an LMA (See RNW Oct 16, 2001).
Previous Salem:

2002-01-11: Disney-owned and Operated ABC radio stations are to voluntarily keep records of their aired programmes for two months according to Radio Business Report.
It says Democrat US Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps gave the information in a talk to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.
Copps has been active in calling for such archives to be kept and has called for voluntary action by broadcasters and said, "Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, has assured me that Disney for one is now going to retain recordings of its radio stations' programming for 60 days."
"That strikes me as good management and, more importantly, good citizenship. I want to ensure that the Commission investigates rigorously the complaints filed by citizens, and I hope that broadcasters will not impede those investigations by failing to retain recordings." RNW comment: As RBR notes, many stations currently escape action by the FCC when charged with indecency offences because the complainants cannot produce a recording or transcript and US stations, unlike those of many other countries, are not required to keep tapes and have no motive to do so.
We, like RBR, cannot see stations "airing the Howard Sterns, Mancows and Bubbas of the world" keeping log tapes unless required to by law.
If there's to be no such law, perhaps there's an opportunity for some bright entrepreneur to set up a digital recording and transcription system so free enterprise in the USA can provide complainants with evidence for a small fee.

Previous ABC, (US):
Previous Copps
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RBR site -search month's stories for Eisner.

2002-01-11: The full board of the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) is expected to vote today on a proposal from its executive committee that it merge its annual convention with the April Las Vegas convention of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) according to Broadcasting and Cable.
RTNDA was hard hit by the September 11 attacks which forced it to cancel its 2001 show which had been scheduled for September in Nashville, Tennessee (See RNW Sept 13). It says that it has been told that its insurer is to honour its full claim for the losses from the cancellation. If the plan goes ahead, RTNDA would cancel its planned September 2002 conference in Long Beach, California.
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2002-01-11: BBC Radio 1 is to introduce a new system, enabling the station to receive up to 1,000 text messages a minute following overload problems with its current system that have led one major mobile phone operator, Orange, to bar most messages sent to Radio 1 according to the UK Guardian.
Radio 1 is one of a number of media organisations that have encouraged feedback via text messages from mobile phones but, says the report, inadequate technology and the volume of messages sent means that many arrive late or are discarded by the network operators who typically charge 10 pence (around 15 cents) a message, even if they are not delivered.
An Orange network spokeswoman said that it discarded thousands of messages a day to avoid clogging up its network.
"We're working with the BBC and other broadcasters to stop this happening. They need to keep us informed of when they're planning to publicise a number," she said.
The BBC said it was at the mercy of the mobile companies and that Radio 1 could handle 1000 messages an hour but expects to have a new system able to handle sixty times this number operating within weeks.
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2002-01-11: Lisa Simeone is to step down in March as the anchor of Weekend All Things Considered on US National Public Radio (NPR) according to the Baltimore Sun.
The paper says Simeone, who joined NPR on a full time basis in October 2000, feels the post consumes too much of her free time and limits the chance to execute other projects.
She is to continue to file for NPR whose Managing Editor Barbara Rehm described Simeone as having been "been wonderful, magnificent" and added, "She lights up the air."
Simeone commented, "Now, I'll be able to do all of the things normal people get to do on weekends. I want to go out to dinner, go to the opera."
Elsewhere in the US, Minnesota Public Radio(MPR) is cutting back.
An Associated Press report carried in several papers says that it is to lose 13 jobs and trim the growth of its budget in its 2002 fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2001, from an originally planned 15% to six per cent.
MPR President Bill Kling, says the network, which has around 350 staff, is "feeling the effects of the recession" which has hit all media companies due to a reduction of commercial advertising and, in the case of public radio, underwriting of programmes by businesses.
MPR is still to go ahead with a major expansion of its St Paul, Minnesota, headquarters and production facilities.
And in New York, WBAI-FM has resumed production of the political commentary programme Democracy Now! that had been a victim of the internal conflict at the Pacifica Radio Network .
It's now now back on the air again hosted by Amy Goodman, who had been one of the dissenters: The show's former co-host Juan Gonzalez, became the coordinator of the dissident Pacifica Campaign.
Goodman had commented after a settlement was agreed between the dissenters and the Pacifica Board (See RNW Dec 14, 2001) that she hoped WBAI would re-hire people who had been fired.
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2002-01-10: Although the US satellite radio companies' offerings have dominated radio news from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas so far this week, terrestrial digital radio developments are not far behind.
iBiquity Digital Corporation, the sole US developer of digital AM and FM radio broadcast technology in the US, has made a whole series of announcements at the show, including one giving details of its planned initial markets for the commercial launch of its IBOC (In-Band On-Channel) digital radio technology.
The markets selected are Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Seattle
.iBiquity says they were selected on the basis of audience size and potential for receiver sales so as to quickly establish the critical mass necessary for widespread adoption of digital AM/FM broadcasting technology.
Major radio broadcasters including Clear Channel, Infinity, ABC Radio, Cox Radio, Entercom and Hispanic Broadcasting are supporting a launch of the technology this year.
IBiquity has also said that tests of the system, conducted in accordance with US National Radio Systems Committee (NSRC) procedures show that its digital AM system will deliver FM-like audio quality within the current analogue AM system.
The results of the tests have been submitted to the NSRC.
In addition, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a public notice seeking comments on the evaluation of the company's FM system by the NSRC.
Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) commented: "Since the CEA jointly sponsors the NRSC, we are pleased the Commission released the NRSC's test results for comment so quickly"
"Several manufacturers are developing IBOC products and we expect to see IBOC product at International CES 2003," he added.
Robert Struble, iBiquity President and CEO, said: "The successful completion of our AM tests, combined with the NRSC's enthusiastic endorsement of our FM IBOC system in November, keep us on target for making AM and FM digital radio a reality in 2002,"
"We are right on target to launch this technology to broadcasters in April at the NAB show and to consumers at CES 2003 through partnering agreements with receiver manufacturers."
IBiquity also announced that in conjunction with Texas Instruments it is demonstrating the IBOC digital receiver at the show.
The software-based design is being demonstrated at CES by Alpine, Delphi, Harman Kardon, Kenwood, Visteon and others.
On the automobile front, it has announced agreement with the Ford Motor Company to investigate opportunities to deploy iBiquity Digital's AM and FM digital radio technology in Ford vehicles
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2002-01-10: WorldClassRock.com, the Internet-only station that was launched and garnered major publicity as the first terrestrial station to move to the Internet after Clear Channel sold the signal of KACD-FM, Los Angeles, to Entravision (See RNW July 17, 2000) has been quietly dumped by Clear Channel.
The US giant has, however, has left the site up and running but with a re-direction to the streamed signal from its Adult Album Alternative KBCO, Denver.
A notice on the site says," Check out our new stream! There have been a lot of changes here at worldclassrock.com, and we hope this will be the last."
"The originator and pioneer of the World Class Rock format is 97.3 KBCO in Boulder, Colorado, and they are now streaming at worldclassrock.com!"
It then goes on to ask for feedback.
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2002-01-10: Tavis Smiley, the former Black Entertainment TV (BET) host who was fired from his job as a host of a public affairs show after airing an exclusive interview on ABC, has had a strong start with his new radio programme on US National Public Radio (NPR).
The first show at the start of the week featured with a lengthy interview with Harvard University professor Cornel West who is currently involved in a news-making spat with Harvard President Lawrence Summers after the latter was involved in making enquiries about West's political activities.
Excerpts from the interview, the first done by West, were excerpted on NPR news and quoted widely.
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2002-01-09: US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials have backed down from a possible First Amendment court fight and rescinded a USD7000 fine against Citadel Broadcasting Company, licensees of KKMG-FM, Pueblo, Colorado, for airing an edited version of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady"(See RNW June 15, 2001).
Citadel (now owned by Forstmann Little), had appealed against the fine, which followed a similar fine on Clear Channel for airing an unedited version of the song.
At the time the FCC said the edited version still contained "unmistakable offensive sexual references" and described some of the lyrics as containing "sexual references in conjunction with sexual expletives that appear intended to pander and shock."
Citadel responded that the edited version it broadcast made " makes no explicit sexual or excretory references, and is not patently offensive."
The FCC, in reversing its decision, now says that the references in the radio version aired by KKMG were " not patently offensive, and thus not actionably indecent.
It cites them in its decision:

"My bum is on your lips
My bum is on your lips

And if I'm lucky you might just give it a little kiss
And that's the message we deliver to little kids
And expect them not to know what a woman's BLEEP is
Of course, they're gonna know what intercourse is

It's funny cause at the rate I'm goin' When I'm 30 I'll be the only person in the nursing home flirting
Pinching nurses asses when I'm BLEEP or jerkin'
Said I'm jerkin' but this whole bag of Viagra isn't workin."

The decision to rescind the fine prompted a protest from Democrat Commissioner Michael J.Copps, who said in his statement that he believed "the Commissioners themselves, rather than the Bureau, should be making the decision about whether to reverse the initial finding."
"Issues of indecency on the people's airwaves," he continued, "are important to millions of Americans; they are important to me. I believe they merit, indeed compel, Commissioner- level action."
Copps seems to have taken on the mantle of former Democrat Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who had long campaigned over the applications of FCC indecency regulations and a recent report from the US Culture and Family Institute criticised the Commission for having "looked the other way" on this issue (See RNW Jan 6).
The report made particular mention of fines totalling USD14000 on Emmis Corporation for two broadcasts in WKXQ-FM's Mancow Morning Madness, hosted by by Erich "Mancow" Muller, one of which involved a pornographic film actress describing "fisting " (the insertion of an arm into a sexual organ) and the other of which involved asking three women about their sex lives including questions as to whether they swallowed during oral sex. In reference to this case the FCC Enforcement Bureau has rejected Emmis's appeal and says the penalty should stand.
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FCC Citadel case ruling:
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2002-01-09: Emmis Communications has reported third quarter net revenue down 4.5% on 2000 Q3 to USD137.1 million, broadcast cash flow down 16.4% to USD49.7 million, and ATCF per share in the third quarter of USD 0.40, down from USD 0.62.
The company's radio revenues fell 4% to $65.5M but cost cutting allowed it to improve radio cash flow 2% to $30M; this compared with a cash flow fall of 36% in Emmis's TV operations and 26% in its publishing activities.
Despite the figures Emmis Chairman and CEO Jeff Smulyan was fairly upbeat, commenting that Emmis had continued to outperform in its markets for the sixth quarter in a row.
He told analysts that pacings are up for January, but wouldn't discuss February and March. Amongst Emmis's cost-cutting measures have been a 10% wage cut supplemented by a corresponding award of Emmis stock (See RNW Nov 17, 2001), a move that the company expects to save it some USD14 million over the next 12 months.
On performance over the past two months staff so affected have some cause for optimism: Emmis stock fell by 5% on Tuesday but still ended at USD24.30 compared to less than USD15 at the start of November.
Less optimism however for one of Clear Channel's executives: Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Kathy Stinehour, executive vice president of Clear Channel's Chicago market cluster and overseer of the company's six Chicago stations, was forced out on Friday. Feder reported that David Crowl, Midwest regional vice president of Clear Channel, cited a "change in direction" in announcing the move to staffers. Stinehour was one of the holdovers from AMFM, which was taken over by Clear Channel in 2000.
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2002-01-09: Internet listening for the last week of 2002 was down a massive 41% according to Measurecast's ratings for the week from December 24 to 30; the fall took the company's Internet Radio Listening Index, based on 100 at the start of 2001, down to 225.
Slowest day was Christmas Day, December 25, when only 7% of the week's listening was logged but there was a pick-up as Americans returned to work on the Thursday with nearly a quarter of the week's listening on that day.
The fall did not affect the top rankings with only some position changes amongst the top five stations ranked by Total Times Spent listening, (TTSL).
Top five for the week 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 146575 (218650); CP 55762 (65827). Same position but listening and reach each down.
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio - TTSL 118480 (214506); CP 28628 (35774) - Same position but listening and reach down.
3): Listener Formatted MEDIAmazing TTSL -81560 (131475); CP 45801 (67689) - Up from 5th but with listening and reach well down.
4): Christmas music format CableMusic Christmas Classic - TTSL 55344 (138013); CP 16718 (30999) - Same position but well under half the listening and reach also well down.
5): Classical music King FM TTSL - 53780 (145291); CP 16866 (25578) - Down from third.
For the month of December, MeasureCast says the 993 on-line radio stations it measures streamed a total of 13,342,814 hours of music, news, and talk programming to 2,035,838 people worldwide (RNW Comment - this makes the total monthly audience worldwide of MeasureCast stations around a fifth of the weekly audience of BBC Radio 2, Britain's most popular channel).
The top stations were the same as those for the weekly figures for the last week of the month (see above) but two of the November top five, ESPN and classical format WQXR-FM, New York dropped out.
Ranked by TTSL with last month's TTSL and Cume (Cumulative Audience) in brackets they were:
1): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 739651 (367661); CP 99878 (59,057). Up from sixth place with doubled listening and reach well up.
2): Jazz format Jazz FM TTSL 682224 (640076); CP 157225 (196678) - Up from third with listening up only a little up, reach down and both less than in October.
3): Christmas music format CableMusic Christmas Classic - TTSL 506197 (168015); CP 81914 (30143): Up from tenth with large increases in listening and reach.
4): Classical King FM (Seattle) TTSL 474319 (525117); CP 65056 (63959) - Same position, with lower listening but higher reach.
5): Listener Formatted MEDIAmazing TTSL 466349 (676234); CP 176226 (168320) - Down from second but reach was up although listening was down.
Measurecast's top five streaming networks were (Previous rank and hours in brackets where applicable):
1:WARP Radio 1627109 hours (First with 1893827 hours);
2: Cablemusic Networks 1262965 hours (Fourth with 1087657 hours);
3: Virgin Radio 1,013,739 hours (New entrant to top five);
4: SurferNetwork 904670 hours (Second with 1135299 hours);
5: JazzFM 682224 hours (New entrant to top 5);
Previous MeasureCast ratings:
Previous MeasureCast monthly ratings:
MeasureCast web site:

2002-01-08: Sirius Satellite Radio has announced more details of its rollout plans at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and also launched a new website that features free live streaming of all 60 of its commercial-free music channels.
To listen for free, visitors have to sign up on the site to become "Sirius Insiders".
The site also allows consumers to subscribe to Sirius' services and manage their accounts online.
CEO Joseph Clayton, who last week told Bloomberg that Sirius should have a positive cash flow in 2004 and went along with analysts' projections of 150000 to 200000 subscribers by the end of this year, said Sirius would launch its commercial service on February 14 in Houston; Phoenix; Denver; and Jackson, Mississippi.
The launc second phase, which will take the service to the rest of the US in the third quarter, will begin in April or May in Dallas, Tulsa, Albuquerque and Little Rock.
Sirius also announced that it is to simulcast live trial coverage from Court TV, that it will be primary sponsor of a car in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and that it is to run a "The Rhythm of the Road" tour, featuring a custom-built, 65-foot Ferris wheel, the "Wheel of Sound."
Rival XM, which says it has now signed up more than 30000 subscribers, has also upgraded its web site with new features such as dealer location information, subscription management tools, streaming audio of more than half XM's channels and details of weekly highlights.
President and CEO Hugh Panero told a news conference at the show that XM had become the fastest-selling audio product of the last 20 years, outperforming such products as CDs in a comparable period and, according to the Yankee Group, on track to CD and DVD players in the first year of each product.
XM has also announced that it is to pay a dividend on its 8.25% series B convertible redeemable preferred stock in shares of the company's class A common stock at a rate of $1.0313 per share of series B preferred stock owned, with fractional shares to be paid in cash.
On the markets, both satellite radio companies fell back on Monday.
Sirius ended the day at USD9.15, down nearly 8% on Friday's close and XM was down just over 8% on Friday to end the day at USD14.85.
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2002-01-08: UK radio has recorded its highest-ever share of display advertising according to the latest Quarterly Survey of Advertising Expenditure, published by the Advertising Association and covering the period from July-September 2001.
In the period it took 6.8% of total display advertising and increased its share of broadcast advertising revenue to 14.8% compared to 14.1% a year earlier; for the year to September, radio's annual share of broadcast revenue was 13.4%.
Radio did particularly well with automobile and finance advertisers; Toyota was the top-spending brand in August 2001 - ploughing £580,000 into radio ads during the month.
UK Radio Advertising Bureau managing director Justin Sampson commented: "The tough nature of the market is widely understood but there is evidence here that Commercial Radio is faring well."
"The dislocation in the market caused by the slowdown will mean advertisers and agencies are examining the most cost-effective way of having an effect and radio has a very strong story to tell in response to this."
Radio did particularly well with automobile and finance advertisers; Toyota was the top-spending brand in August 2001 - ploughing £580,000 into radio ads during the month.
Previous UK Radio Advertising Bureau:
Radio Advertising Bureau (UK) web site:

2002-01-08: A Dutch student who won an island off Nicaragua, South America, in a competition organised by the Dutch radio station, Yorin FM, in November last year had decided not to take up the prize after all.
Monique de Koning from Waadinxveen near The Hague became the owner of Frenchman's Quay whose area is some 10 acres through correctly answering a series of island-related geography questions on air culminating in a final correct answer at the grand final in Rotterdam where she gave the correct number of islands in the Philippines.
Now however, the 24-year-old student of banking and finance says the "financial risks" of ownership of the island too great. She said she could afford the annual real estate tax of some USD500 but couldn't afford to go there much so would have to rent it out to gain anything and was unsure if it would be rentable.
She said that nobody at the station seemed to know much about her new property, with one person telling her it was an hour from the mainland by boat and another that it was a two and a half hour trip.
Yorin FM has now sold the island back to its original Florida-based owners for an undisclosed sum and negotiations are under way about a substitute prize. The station had attracted some half-million callers for its " paradise island" competition and had promoted the island as the ultimate quiz prize.
It now seems that the ultimate may be replaced by a more mundane cash sum or an ocean cruise.

2002-01-08: Forrest Boyd, who was Mutual Broadcasting Network's White House correspondent during the terms of President Johnson, President Nixon and President Ford, has died of a heart attack aged 80.
Boyd worked for radio stations in Minneapolis, Cincinnati and before moving to Washington in 1960 for a job at Voice of America.

2002-01-07: To start this week's pick of print media comment on radio issues, we join UK Sunday Times stalwart Paul Donovan in a look forward to the rest of the year but commence with, what is a look back as well.
That's because amongst the broadcasts he's recommending is a repeat of the 1981 production of The Lord of the Rings which commenced on BBC Radio 4 at 1430 GMT and is to run in the same slot for the next 12 Saturdays.
Among the BBC anniversaries to be marked this year is the 80th anniversary of the Corporation itself and 50 years of the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Donovan's colleague Stephen Armstrong, who wrote this week's Radio Waves column in the paper, is in less cheerful mood, bemoaning the lack of comedy development at BBC Radio 4; this, he says, some comedy producers and agents put down to the introduction into the BBC system of a layer of commissioning editors.
He quotes Jon Thoday, managing director of the giant comedy agent Avalon as saying, "Radio 4 used to have young producers who really understood comedy."
"You'd get groundbreaking shows like The Mary Whitehouse Experience and On the Hour." "Then they restructured to include a layer of commissioning editors. These editors seem only to commission shows from people they have heard of. But by the time you're well known enough for them, you're attractive to TV, where the money is better."
Unsurprisingly, Caroline Raphael, commissioning editor for drama and entertainment at Radio 4, denies the charges.
She says that with three commissioning editors, two schedulers, a finance director and the controller, the channel commissions 1,300 programmes a year and adds," I would defy anyone to do it any faster."
(RNW comment: Maybe if you have to do things quickly you would go for familiar faces to speed the process. The comment doesn't seem to back up Raphael's argument but with a whole new raft of commissions to be announced within a week, the proof will soon be available).
In the US, there was also some less than happy comment amongst which was that about the demise a classical station of Miami station WTMI-FM by Frank Lambrecht in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Cox Broadcasting switched the station to a techno-dance format (see RNW Jan 4) and Lambrecht comments, "On Dec. 31 at noon, my favourite radio station, WTMI, died a horrible death."
"It wasn't a death rattle -- it was an anguished and tortured scream followed by the most obnoxious rubbish I have heard in a long time."
"Now 93.1 sounds just the same as many of the other stations on the FM band."
Lambrecht goes on to say of the decision, "A question usually arises when a mistake of this magnitude is made: 'How could any sane, rational and thinking human being make such a stupid mistake? The answer is simple: The decision wasn't made by just one person. Mistakes of this calibre can only be made by committee."
RNW comment: Yet again time will tell as far as the commercial wisdom of the decision is concerned with the Arbitrons as ultimate arbiter.
We would however concede that Lambrecht probably has a fairly sound point in terms of the breadth of choice now available to radio listeners in Miami and maybe venture to comment that for a fairly modest annual sum XM or Sirius could fill in the breach.
Should enough listeners do so, the whole economics and programming outlook of US terrestrial radio may yet get a rude shock.

Finally a look back, this time at an individual but also maybe a reflection of the link between times and opportunities and the talent that does or doesn't make it and the qualities of that talent.
This time it comes from a tribute from former Chicago Tribune sports columnist David Israel to former sports journalist and radio host Dick Schaap who died on Dec 21 last year (see RNW Dec 26). ~
The article is worthy of further note as much for the tribute itself as any qualities of Schaap himself, described by Israel as the "McCartney of journalism."
"In the end, it seems," writes Israel of Schaap," he was best known for what may have been the least of his accomplishments -- hosting 'The Sports Reporters,' a Sunday morning talk show on ESPN."
And the other accomplishments?
Israel continues, "I say the least of his accomplishments not because Dick wasn't good at it. He was; he was great at it, maybe the best moderator in contentious talk TV."
"I say it because in my Beatles, Dick was Paul McCartney. You know how Paul McCartney seems so normal, so damn unaffected by it all? "
"How, despite his fame and fortune, his talent and ingenuity, he seems to be us and reflect us and sense us all at once?"
"That was Dick Schaap."
"Dick was the McCartney of journalism. He played every instrument and wrote every tune and was present at the creation of things new and wonderful that changed forever the way we looked at the world."
"At 27, he was the youngest senior editor (you have to love that oxymoron) in the history of Newsweek."
"At 29, he was city editor of the old New York Herald Tribune, ringmaster of the greatest staff in the history of newspapers. He wrote a column for the paper after that."
"He edited Sport and worked for NBC News and ABC News and ESPN and he wrote 34 books."
"In 1960, he drove up to Harlem so he could introduce a kid named Cassius Clay to an aging middleweight named Sugar Ray Robinson."
"In 1964, Malcolm X sent him a postcard from Mecca. And on a Sunday afternoon in 1994 he got the President of the United States to sing "Happy Birthday" on the telephone to his 7-year-old grandson, Noah."
"Dick worked a different side of the street from the rest of us, but he never moved out of the neighbourhood."
Sometimes, it would appear, the medium can be transcended!
Previous Columnists:
Previous Donovan:
Chicago Tribune -Israel on Schaap:
South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Lambrecht:
UK Sunday Times -Armstrong:
UK Sunday Times -Donovan:
*Sunday Times now requires registration.

2002-01-07: "Committed to country... Always have been, Always will be."
Or maybe not if US reports about the future of WSM-AM, Nashville, Tennessee, have foundation.
Since reports first surfaced that station owners Gaylord Entertainment, are considering switching the format of the 76-year-old 50,000 watt from country to sports-talk and ending its ties with the Grand Ole Opry, more than 3000 people, including a number of Country stars, have signed a petition opposed to the change according to The Tennessean.
The AM clear channel station currently reaches 38 US States
The station web site is still headed with the commitment to country and the paper quotes Colin Reed, Gaylord Entertainment Co.'s president and chief executive officer, as saying that no decision has yet been made about any change. WLS lost USD 1.5 million last year and the parent company lost USD150 million in 2000. Reed, who took over last April, has been trying to return Gaylord to profit and has said he will dispose of shed unprofitable assets or ones that don't have good growth potential. WLS-AM was the company's only station to make a loss, although it has also been looking at options for its other stations, country WSM-FM news and sports talk WWTN-FM. One plan would be to switch the AM signal format and move the classical country music, along with the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, to Gaylord's FM station combined with syndication of the Friday and Saturday night Opry shows. Reed confirmed to the paper that the company had talked with ESPN about sports programming but added, '' we haven't a definitive signed agreement with ESPN. It is hard for us to contemplate a future format change without knowing what it is we can put on there.'' The reaction to the possibility of a switch is similar to that some 4 years ago to Gaylord's closure of its theme park, Opryland USA, although Reed told the paper that there were then economic consequences of the former decision to the local community rather than "just emotion." This view was not shared by some local people including J.T. Gray, owner of the bluegrass bar The Station Inn, which has hosted live broadcasts "''I think it's going to have a business impact on people like myself and other places that have country music,'' he said. ''It's exposure for new artists. It gives people a chance to hear a wide range of music." Nashville-based radio industry consultant Robert Unmacht told the paper that WSM-AM would be profitable if the Grand Ole Opry's financial performance was included with that of the station and criticised WSM's sales people, adding that if they made a move and got it wrong they would not be able to undo the action. "''If they screw it up,'' he said, ''they've screwed it up forever and I think the town will hate them for it.''
Ed Benson, executive director of the Country Music Association, the industry's largest trade association, commented, ''I think they will do it, although they're officially still weighing that decision.''
He defended the idea as positive for country music, telling the Boston Globe, "The exposure and the number of people that can hear it on a given weekend will increase dramatically. ''
"But it's a very emotional issue for this city,'' he added. ''People here will bemoan the loss."
Country music historian Robert K. Oermann, however, voiced staunch opposition. ''I think it's very wrong,'' he said, ''650 WSM-AM is what everybody knows as the home of the Grand Ole Opry, and that's been true since 1925."
"There are some things more important than the bottom line, and America's culture is one of them.''
Boston Globe report:
Tennessean report on Gaylord plans:
Tennessean report on petition:
Save WLS petition site:

2002-01-06: Slim pickings for our first look at licence activity in 2002 with the holidays meaning little or no activity; In Canada it was nil as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) remained closed and nothing at all was posted by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) or Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).
In the UK, the Radio Authority has published its assessment of the award of the Inverness digital multiplex to SCORE Digital Ltd. owned by Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH).
SCORE was the sole applicant and disappointment was expressed at some of the plans.
The authority commented: "In making this award to SCORE Digital Ltd. the Radio Authority was mindful of the exceptional nature of the licence area."
"No other digital provision is yet available in the area, and Members took the view that the importance of ensuring that listeners in the most remote and rural areas of the country had access to digital radio outweighed the relative weakness of some of the proposals."
"It was to be hoped that the award might serve to encourage the roll-out of further digital services for the Highlands."
SRH had made proposals that would achieve " outdoor coverage" of less than 40% of the 'Primary Protected Area' (PPA), largely because of the mountainous terrain of the area but also because only one transmitter is promised although SCORE has said it will consider adding a second transmitter at a later date.
There were also only three commercial services proposed, two of which would occupy one channel on a time-share basis.
The Authority commented," Members were disappointed by the limited number of services in the programme bouquet, but recognised that SCORE had found difficulty in attracting other programme providers for this multiplex."
The only other action posted by the authority was a note concerning a re-write and republication of its Ownership Guidelines document that contains no substantive changes to the guidelines themselves.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined Palouse Country Inc, licensee of KMAX-AM, Colfax, Washington state USD8000 for various violations concerning monitoring and control of the station's power; these had come to light when an tests in January 2001 showed that the station was not reducing its power at night as required.
Palouse had not disputed the violations but had appealed against a notice of apparent liability in the amount of USD10000 on the basis that it had corrected the violations and that the fine would cause severe hardship.
The FCC, after looking at figures provided, held that a penalty should stand but reduced the amount to USD8000.
The FCC has also denied an application for further review of a USD17000 fine it had levied on Alan Leonard Brockway of Kalispell, Montana, for operation of a pirate station.
In terms of its actions over indecency offences, however, it is the FCC itself that has come under attack, this time from the US Culture Family Institute and its parent organization Concerned Women for America (see report below):
Previous ABA:
Previous BCI:
Previous CRTC:
Previous FCC:
Previous Licence News:
Previous UK Radio Authority:
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BCI web site
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UK Radio Authority
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2002-01-06: An implicit call for tougher US action against broadcast "indecency",especially on radio, is contained in a special report from the US Culture and Family Institute (CFA).
It says that "Broadcast entertainment has spiralled into nearly non-stop offensive fare while the FCC (US Federal Communications Commission) has looked the other way."
The organisation says that the report, written by veteran news broadcaster Martha Kleder, shows "shows how the FCC has imposed minimal or no fines, slapped repeat offenders on the wrist and ignored many complaints from citizens." and
It adds: "One of the first acts of Bush appointee Michael Powell as FCC Chairman was to excuse many of the still unpaid fines imposed on radio shock jock Howard Stern by the Clinton FCC."
Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women for America, parent of CFA, says it is "time for the strong values of the Bush Administration to be reflected in the FCC "
Radio is described as even worse than television with particular mention of the suggestion on Howard Stern's show that New York prostitutes should donate oral sex to the World Trade Centre rescuers, a comment that led to widespread condemnation (See RNW Sept 21, 2001).
The report opens by noting the release in April 2001 of guidelines on indecency (See RNW April 7, 2001) and that on the same day issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture" (NAL) against Emmis Communications, WKQX-FM, Chicago, for two separate complaints involving Erich Mancow Muller's "Mancow Morning Madhouse."
One involved an adult-film actress who described "fisting" in graphic detail and the other a graphic interview with three women about their sex lives (See RNW April 10, 2001).
Further incidents are then listed, all of them like the Mancow incidents, resulting in fines of the minimum amount of USD7000 for an offence in the FCC's fines schedule.
As well as comment on the level of action taken compared to that permissible by statute, and detailing various appeals and refusals to pay, the report goes on to note that in many cases the stations simply pay the fines and keep the shock-jocks on air continuing in the same vein as before.
It also compares the fines issued in indecency cases with those for other offences and notes the difficulties posed for complainants by the requirement that they provide a recording of the programme being objected to rather than the broadcaster being required to keep recordings.
The result concludes that the FCC has failed in its remit on indecency cases and that The Senate should make indecency enforcement a litmus test in any FCC nominee's confirmation hearing.
It also says the House and Senate should hold hearings on the FCC's lack of indecency enforcement.
Previous FCC:
Previous Mancow Muller:
Previous Stern:
CFA report:

2002-01-06: Seton Hall University station WSOU-FM, which was ordered to change its heavy metal and hard rock format last October (See RNW Oct. 19, 2001)) by the Catholic institution's authorities is now airing its new format, which it has dubbed eclectic rock.
This includes Pop, Christian, Rap, Latin, Alternative, Punk, Soft and Southern, according to a university press release.
The University had said that it wanted programming that reflected its values better and a poll was subsequently conducted to determine the musical tastes of the university's students and alumni and of members of the local community.
Station Manager Brian Westenhiser commented, "This format change was a rigorous task that we, as students, had never faced. A good deal of work went into devising a format that would be important to the students and acceptable to the university and its mission."
Previous WSOU:

2002-01-05: Although the US satellite radio companies have dominated business news about radio this week, they haven't been as controversial as some of the other business-related actions going on, including two cases involving legal action.
In one of them, Royce International Broadcasting, which owns KWOD-FM in Sacramento, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The action is seen by some commentators as a ploy to prevent Entercom from completing its purchase of the station.
Entercom had agreed a USD25 million deal to purchase KWOD, Sacramento's only remaining independently owned rock station, in 1996 but Royce tried to pull out of the deal.
In November 2001, a judge ruled in Entercom's favour, saying the agreement was legally binding.
Entercom had hoped to recoup damages for the delay but that action has been blocked for the moment by the bankruptcy filing.
Royce is also in a fight with his former attorneys who want the bankruptcy claim thrown out as being made in bad faith.
The law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP had obtained a court order to attach nearly USD300000 from KWOD for payment of legal fees.
Stolz says their charges are excessive and says he had already paid the firm USD826000, making the total they want more than double the USD500000 that the firm had estimated as the total cost of the court battle with Entercom.
Morrison & Foerster notes that, at the very least, Stolz has assets amounting to USD25 million; the amount Entercom would pay in cash for the station.
In another wrangle, this time involving Clear Channel and Ohio businessman David Ringer, who is trying to stop the sale by Secret Communications to Clear Channel of WKKJ-FM Chillicothe, the latter has responded to Clear Channel's rebuttals of his claim (See RNW Dec 12, 2001).
Ringer, has contended that the other companies are "fronts" for Clear Channel, and he further contends that they were now presenting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with "facts" that contradict other statements on their web sites and further contradict what they have told their employees.
Ringer makes particular note of details related to the Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Clem) wild boar killing case, which is due to come to trial in February.
Ringer claims that that Clear Channel at first posted on WXTB/Tampa's website pictures of the boar then removed them after public outcry and denied the pictures existence although police later retrieved copies from a local animal rights organization.
"Clear Channel has a policy of concealing information from government authorities," says Ringer, adding that the behaviour of WXTB's management was to lie as a "first response" when there was a criminal investigation.
Finally a fairly straightforward couple of deals: One is the completion by Salem and Clear Channel of the former's USD4.5 million sale of WHLO-AM in Akron, Ohio, to the latter, which already owns WTOU-AM and WKDD-FM in the Akron market.
The other is an agreement by Disney/ABC to buy religious talk format WJIE-AM in Louisville, Kentucky, from Word Broadcasting.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval but if it goes through, WJIE will become a Radio Disney outlet.
Previous Bubba:
Previous Clear Channel:
Previous Entercom:
Previous Salem:

2002-01-05: Long-time New York radio host Casper Citron has died aged 82, more than half of which he spent interviewing the famous and powerful from the lobbies of New York hotels. He spent 10 years on WRFM, then 15 years on WQXR and the last fourteen years on WOF, for whom he recorded his last broadcast on last broadcast. Aug. 28: it was on the safety problems at airports in the New York City area and was scheduled for broadcast on Sept. 15 but was never aired because of the Sept.11th attacks. Citron's nationally syndicated show, in which he interviewed one guest at a time without interruption, allowed serious discussion, attracted serious guests as well as personalities from show business. Over the years he had interviewed such figures as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and artists like the dancer Margot Fonteyn, the painter Marcel Duchamp and the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. Most were promoting books they had written and Citron was known for taking the trouble to read them. The New York Times in its report says he learned this lesson the hard way. In one of his early interviews, he asked Edgar Snow when he had returned from China. "Eleven years, next Tuesday," came the answer. Later, Citron said, "That was the last time I did not read a book on my program."
New York Times report:

2002-01-05: The UK Daily Mirror reports that yet another contender has put his hat in the ring for the BBC Radio 2 Morning slot currently hosted by veteran DJ Sir Jimmy Young who was knighted in Britain's New Year Honours' list (RNW Jan 1).
He's GMTV breakfast presenter Eamonn Holmes, who, according to the paper, says he does not want to renew his GBP1.5 million contract, which ends in June.
The paper adds that Holmes is thought to have held informal talks with the BBC.
It also says that Young is expected to be "phased out" by September.
Certainly, according to the UK Guardian, Young is not in a mood to compromise with the BBC.
It says that when the New Year's honours list was distributed on December 30 to give time for recipients to comment for news bulletins, Young refused to comment.
The matter was referred to his producers with no result and then up to Radio 2 Controller Jim Moir and BBC Head of Radio, Jenny Abramsky. According to the paper they too received "a cheery BOFN (bugger off for now)."
Previous Abramsky:
Previous BBC:
Previous Moir:
Previous Young:
UK Daily Mirror report:
UK Guardian report:

2002-01-04: US satellite radio shares plunged again Thursday in the wake of a downgrading by analyst Armand Musey of XM from "outperform" to "neutral" and an announcement by Sirius that it has priced a public offering of 16 million shares of common stock at USD9.95 per share.
Sirius will raise nearly USD160 million gross from the offering.
It is underwritten by Lehman Brothers, which has been granted an over-allotment option to buy an addition 2.4 million of the shares.
Sirius, whose stock had dropped to USD2.20 in November had leapt up to end last year at USD 11.62, dropped by more than 13% Thursday to end the day at USD9.42.
It is due to launch its commercial service on February 14 according to a notice on its web site, which is currently being re-designed.
XM, whose shares had also leapt from just above 4USD in mid-September to end 2001 at USD18.24, fell by nearly 8% on Thursday to close the day at USD15.705.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Sirius web site:
XM Web site:

2002-01-04: Following last year's death of a major classical music station in the US with a format change of Chicago station WNIB-FM after Bonneville took it over for USD165 million (See RNW March 3, 2001) another long-lived US classical station has now died in the delayed wake of a takeover.
This time it's Miami station WTMI-FM, which Cox Broadcasting took over in July 2000. Cox, which paid USD100 million for the station, was persuaded to try to make classical profitable enough to justify the deal, but has now called it a day and switched the station to techno-dance, ending a thirty-year run of classical music.
Also suffering is country music, a format dropped by 20 stations in the second half of last year although it is still the top US format, accounting for 2,170 of the 10.571 commercial stations operating in the US.
The 80's format has also slipped back in the US according to a report from Coleman's Insights, which says that the format, which aired on 33 stations in the top 75 US markets in Arbitron's Summer 2001 Survey, has declined 6% since its peak in the Winter 2001 survey.
The report says that the format will at best fill a niche, adding that it is now focussed more on 25-44 year olds, split roughly evenly between male and female listeners and does worse when it has a high 80's Modern music content.
Growth formats include sports stations - up from 338 to 371 in the second half of last year, oldies, which went up from 786 to 811 in the same period, and classic rock, which took it, tally from 338 to 362.
Previous Bonneville
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Previous Cox:
Coleman web site (links to report -111 kb PDF)

2002-01-03: Further optimistic predictions about the prospects for US satellite radio are being carried by R& R.
It quotes automotive aftermarket manufacturer, BlitzSafe, whose products include a new line of digital cables for XM's service, as saying it expects 3 million XM subscribers within three years and that it will be able to sell around 150,000 units this year.
Circuit City is also upbeat about its receiver sales, saying that there is high consumer interest.
Previous XM:
R&R web site:

2002-01-03: Although the commercial radio market in India is changing rapidly, it has massive room for growth according to The Times of India which points out that, although its signal reaches 97% of the population with 90% of those it can reach listen to it, it still takes only a very small share of the country's advertising budget.
The major player, state-owned All India Radio (AIR) attracts just two per cent of the country's advertising budget whereas US commercial radio takes some 13%.
Britain, says the paper, has more Indian radio stations than India and even a small country like Trinidad and Tobago has six Indian-oriented stations.
In Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, there are 20 radio stations which take up to a fifth of the city's advertising revenue.
Four major groups are now entering India's FM radio market -- Radio Mirchi (Times group), Radio Mid-Day (Mid-Day publications), Millennium Broadcast, Living Media (India Today group) and Radio City (Star India) - but the paper says that their radio investment will only be recouped in the medium term and there are concerns about the strong competition from the many television channels in the country.
Advertisers are unwilling to commit themselves until the medium has a proven audience and even then will have to decide which stations to favour.
In addition to these problems, stations at the moment feel that the regional variations in India mean that they have only limited scope for economies of scale because tastes are so different round the country that not only the shows but in many cases the musical selections will have to be varied from city to city.
Times of India report:
Previous Indian Radio report:

2002-01-02: After two months in which no complaints were upheld against UK radio stations by broadcasting watchdog, the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC), two were upheld in its December 2001 bulletin; another was partially upheld. In all, the Commission lists 77 complaints compared to 90 in its November Bulletin (See RNW Dec. 12, 2001).
Of these four concerned fairness and a further 73 related to standards although 57 of these were not upheld without even requiring a statement from the broadcaster involved.
In the fairness category no complaints concerned radio; two complaints were upheld, one resolved and one not upheld; Of the 57 complaints in the standards category where no statements were requested from broadcasters, eight involved radio, including one of blasphemy.
Of the other 16 cases where statements were required, eight were not upheld or resolved, including one about the use of the word "shag" on BBC Radio 1 (not for the cormorant meaning of the word!).
Of the other eight, one was upheld only in part; this concerned an edition of BBC Radio 5 Live's Sunday Service where there was a complaint about threatening and intimidating phone calls.
One concerned a leek grower in an item on corruption in sport where the commission held that "whilst some of the apparent 'threats' to the amateur leek grower were ludicrous when listened to carefully, the nature of the call did seem to be persistently and gratuitously bullying and intimidatory."
The BSC did not uphold the other part of the complaint concerning an item on a debt collection agency being prepared to use strong-arm tactics.
Of the seven standards complaints upheld, two involved radio.
One concerned sexual innuendo on Island FM that was held to have exceeded acceptable boundaries for the broadcast in the afternoon.
The other involved TalkSport and related to a listener complaint about presenter Mike Donkin's "racist references to gypsies."
TalkSport defended the presenter as using "hyperbole" to make a point but the commission held that references to gypsies "thieving and peeing and defecating everywhere", and the serious context in which the remarks were made, had exceeded acceptable boundaries."
Previous BSC:
Previous BSC Complaints Bulletin:
BSC web site (Note: This is a Flash 5 site: It links to the report in PDF format-100 kb):

2002-01-02: A recent New York Times profile of Terry Gross, host of the US National Public Radio show "Fresh Air" seems to us to contain some sound thoughts about some of the benefits of radio to head into 2002.
Writer Orville Schell, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that "The most notable feature of Ms. Gross's singular style of interviewing is that she is rarely in the presence of her guests."
He then goes on to praise the separation as a strength rather than a weakness.
"…far from impeding her ability to establish rapport, distance has, " he writes, "counter intuitively, enabled Ms. Gross to create a sense of closeness and engagement that has become a hallmark of what many see as the best interview show in broadcasting."
Gross he says told him in one conversation that she loved "the invisibility of radio" and he notes, "Anonymity can help liberate people from the self- consciousness that inhibits them in more visible forms of public discourse."
"And nothing better illustrates this paradox of intimacy and distance than radio, when it is used in a thoughtful way."
After writing of the simplicity with which such a show can be assembled - just a phone and none of the paraphernalia of television or "the kind of theatrical moments that have become the stock-in-trade of interviews on TV", Schell comments on another important element of Gross's success.
"In any interview, what makes the crucial difference for a guest is confidence that the interviewer has a real interest in the subject," he says."
" Such interest confers a dignity on the whole exchange. And one of the things that draws thoughtful guests to "Fresh Air" is the knowledge that Ms. Gross is among that ever smaller number of broadcasters who is both interested in the world and prepared for her guests."
And for a comment to end on, one from Gross herself:
"I've never seen radio as the minor leagues, where I'm just really preparing to be in the show that really counts, namely, television, which is, I think, what people often assume," she said.
"I've never felt that way. To the contrary, I think I am really lucky to work in this invisible world."
New York Times article:

2002-01-02: As trading starts in the New Year, the debt problem overshadowing Scottish Media Group (SMG) could be forced to sell some of its assets to reduce its debt.
The company is under from its banks to cut its owings to them of around GBP 350 million, which are costing it around GBP21 million a year in interest charges.
If its profits for the financial year to December 31, 2001, fall to around the same amount as some analysts have suggested, it would be in breach of its interest-cover covenants.
Most of the debt comes from its January 2000 GBP225 million purchase of of Ginger Media (See RNW Jan 13, 2000), which included Virgin Radio, from Chris Evans.
Evans was fired as Virgin breakfast host in June and is now suing the company for around GBP9 million comprising foregone share options and loss of earnings. (See RNW Dec 15, 2001).
SMG has also suffered from a fall in the value of the shares it bought in rival Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH); it has taken its holding in SRH to the maximum allowable before it has to launch a full scale bid but cannot take over the company unless and until UK ownership regulations are relaxed.
SMG's shares have rebounded in the last quarter of 2001 to end the year at GBP15.15. up from around GBP10.
It could either attempt to raise more funds from investors or sell assets. Amongst the assets it could dispose of are the 29.5% stake it has in SRH, its cinema advertising arm Pearl and Dean or its ITV franchises.
Previous Evans:
Previous SMG:
Previous SRH:

2002-01-01: Latest Internet listening figures just released by Measurecast show a rise to a new record in the week to December 16 but a fall back in the following week as the approach of the Christmas period reduced listening but still left it above its previous high.
Its Internet Radio Listening Index, which is based on 100 at the start of 2001, peaked at 397 in the year to December 16, showing listening almost quadrupling, but fell back slightly to 382 in the week to December 23.
Christmas listening stayed high in both weeks with Cablemusic Network's Christmas Classic channel holding on to a top five slot.
Yet again there was mainly jostling for position in the top five, although Jazz Fm jumped up from eighth to first rank in the first of the weeks, knocking New York Times Classical station WXQR-FM out of the list: WXQR dropped from third to eleventh rank.
In the week to December 16, 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 218650 (51215); CP 65827 (23286). Up from eighth with listening and reach each well up.
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio - TTSL 214506 (160305); CP 35774 (31647) - Down from first despite increased listening and reach.
3): Classical music King FM TTSL - 145291 (132738); CP 25578 (25064) - Up from third with listening and reach both up.
4): Christmas music format CableMusic Christmas Classic - TTSL 138013 (146283); CP 30999 (33464) - Down from second as listening and reach fell back.
5): Listener Formatted MEDIAmazing TTSL - 131475 (101740); CP 67689 (62379) - Same position but listening and reach up
. In the run-up to Christmas, the mix was unchanged but the Christmas Classic moved back up.
Rankings for the week to December 23 were:
1): Jazz station Jazz FM - TTSL 235500 (218650); CP 6,971 (65827 ). Retaining top slot with listening and reach each up.
2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio - TTSL 206708 (214506); CP 37301 (35774) - Retaining second position despite decreased listening but with increased reach.
3): Christmas music format CableMusic Christmas Classic - TTSL 153742 (138013); CP 38584 (30999) - Back up from fourth as listening and reach rose.
4): Classical music King FM TTSL - 12,137 (145291); CP 23975 (25578) - Down from third as listening and reach slipped.
5): Listener Formatted MEDIAmazing TTSL - 118006 (131475); CP 53884 (67689) - Same position but listening and reach fell back.
Previous MeasureCast weekly ratings:
MeasureCast web site:
2002-01-01: The shares of both Sirius and XM Satellite Radio bucked the trend and rose on Monday as prices in general fell back on the day of 2001.
.Sirius rose to USD 11.62, up 7.59% on the day after above-average trading with nearly 3 million shares changing hands compared to an average of around 2 million; Over the past year, Sirius has ranged from USD2.2000 to USD35.5000.
XM ended 2001 at USD18.24, up 1.62% on the day and having ranged from USD3.8700 to USD21.0625.
The rises in satellite stocks come as the companies go into a year which, to quote the New York Times, is likely to "answer the question that will make or break them: are listeners frustrated enough with mainstream radio programming to pay monthly for a bigger selection, much as they now pay for cable television? "
Other papers also use the New Year as a peg to look at satellite radio prospects including the Cincinnati Enquirer, which reports on the reactions of a number of listeners who were won over by the technical quality and choice from their XM signal.
Reasons for signing up ranged from news and sports channels to the convenience of staying tuned to one signal as they drive all over the US.
Previous Sirius:
Previous XM:
Cincinnati Enquirer report:
Sirius web site:
XM Web site:

2002-01-01: Two BBC radio broadcasters have been awarded knighthoods in the British New Year's Honours list.
They are Mark Tully, former BBC Delhi and South Asia correspondent and BBC Radio 2 host Jimmy Young.
Both have had their problems with the Corporation.
Tully, now 66, quit after denouncing the then BBC director general John (now Lord ) Birt's reorganisation; he is now the main presenter for BBC Radio 4's Something Understood programme ( See RNW Dec 24 ).
Young, who is approaching 80, was recently involved in controversy when rival said the BBC had offered him Young's slot (See RNW Nov 2).
Previous BBC:
Previous Birt:
Previous Tully:
Previous Young
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