Just days after announcing that it had hit the 6 million subscriber mark, Sirius Satellite Radio has paid Howard Stern $83 million in stock after the subscriber numbers well exceeded estimates for year-end 2006.

As a Sirius subscriber, I'm really not surprised to see the growth in the space, for them or XM. They've definitely proven that people will pay for something if they see some real value to it - irrelevant of the companies "making money" yet or not, they definitely have some part of the right idea, especially when it comes to content sans advertising. Additionally, I've gone from seeing one friend who works for Clear Channel go from blowing off the satellite space to realizing that it wasn't going away anytime soon in less than 18 months.

Merger or not between the duopoly, I think that satellite will be around to stay for quite some time. While many believe (I'm pretty much one of them) that IP-based content delivery will end up being how we receive our radio, etc., in our vehicles and at home (a lot of us do that already), I'm one to believe that the space could be "led" by Sirius and XM, especially as they've already set up pretty significant Web presences and ability to listen to the same content they delivery via satellite.

In case you haven't noticed already, or you're wondering what's up, Los Angeles' KKBT-FM, "The Beat," has been changed to KRBV-FM, "V100, the Best Variety of R&B," reports Radio Ink. This change has also brought a new on-air lineup including a local morning show rather than a syndicated show featuring Tom Joyner.

In Friday's Rocky Mountain News, Dusty Saunders writes about an amusing situation about to take place in the city of Denver next week. As it turns out, FOX News talk show host Bill O'Reilly's television show will be up against his radio show - "The Radio Factor" - which Clear Channel-owned KHOW is going to be running on an eight hour delay. Saunders' item is obviously focused on the news of the various movements going on at that particular station, but I've got to say that if this doesn't spell disaster for the "hardcore" fans of Bill O'Reilly then I'm not sure what does.

I know that the talk radio listener isn't necessarily the same as the person who would watch O'Reilly - whose television show probably catches a lot of casual fans or those who dislike him, too - but isn't it kind of a programming oddity to do something like this?

There's been a whole lot of folks showing up here in the last day or two looking for Sid Rosenberg, presumably because he was on Stern on Monday morning. Well, if you are trying to figure out where Mr. Rosenberg is hiding these days, you can find him here at 790 The Ticket down in South Florida.

This Tuesday's Robert Feder column in the Chicago Sun Times ran with comments by Cara Carriveau, a radio personality on WLUP (The Loop), a station in that market. Carriveau was heavily critical of the lack of major personalities on the air in that particular city, although not naming any particular stations or specific incidents.

Radio and Records' Mike Boyle details the situation that ensued following that letter running in the Sun-Times earlier in the week, which culminated in Carriveau being fired from WLUP, but apparently not just for this particular incident. Boyle points out what Feder's followup column from Thursday stated, including the station's VP/GM, Marv Nyren, telling Feder that there were "other incidents" that took place before this one with Carriveau.

Now, to be fair, what Carriveau said really isn't too far off from what most of us who have been ragging terrestrial radio for some time now have to say. It's not like what she had to say was *that* inflammatory, but I'd liken it to what has gone on in a lot of industries, including what we do for my day job. For instance, it's no concern for companies today to "let" employees have personal blogs. Stopping them from doing so, for the most part, will only cause more problems in the public's eye. However, those employees should always try and use their best judgement when being critical of work, or the industry they are employed in, for obvious reasons. Most people are "at will" employees, and something like this would be very easy for an employer to terminate an employee for.

Yesterday, I was tipped off to the story about how Bill Nguyen of LaLa had apparently come in to save what is now WOXY.com. In case you're not familiar, that is what was left of the WOXY that previously broadcast on 97.7FM out of Cincinnati, Ohio.

That does appear to be the case, according to a story in today's Cincinnati Enquirer by Lauren Bishop.

News.com's Media blog has an item by Harry Fuller on Monday referencing stats that AdAge had pulled together regarding Howard Stern's current ad value on SIRIUS as opposed to when he was on terrestrial radio. While Fuller is spot on to say that the ads are obviously costing less for the advertiser, the audience is less, CPM is different, and SIRIUS is also taking into consideration its overall subscriber dollars, which traditional radio didn't have to factor in.

Sure, it means that they aren't commanding the same "pound for pound" rates that Stern garnered before based on his show on its own merit, but is that such a terrrible thing? I guess it'd be very different if we had SIRIUS talking about how much they were ruing the fact that they had Stern and weren't making as much cash - in this argument (we all know they're not) - then this would be a different discussion. But we can't just sit here and ignore the fact that subs are PAYING to listen to Stern in the first place.

Yesterday, I had caught more wind of this story about how Howard Stern was "thinking" about moving back to terrestrial radio from satellite. Of course, this should be completely dismissed unless all satellites happen to be hit with a giant meteor and knocked out or orbit, leaving us all incommunicado. It wouldn't at all surprise me if something similar to what his fellow satellite radio guys ended up doing - Opie and Anthony - where their show is rebroadcast, sans a lot of the things they couldn't say over the airwaves, over various stations because there was a need for some different content, given that two of the bigger shows as far as syndication went were off the air for some time, but that's about it.

On Tuesday, CBS Radio stated that it might sell some of its radio station assets, including four in Cincinnati, two in San Antonio, including one of its "JACK" format stations, and a number of properties in Buffalo, among other cities. The company's official announcement can be found here.

Is there anyone else out there who is actually surprised by the "news" that Howard Stern would be staying put on satellite radio and not moving back to terrestrial? I mean, I *could* see something similar to the Opie & Anthony situation going down, where an OTA station picked up chunks of Stern's show that weren't too heavily edited, but other than that, I just don't see it.

When it comes to the morning talk shows, I'm not sure we'll ever see the likes of what we had in the last two or so decades, with Stern grabbing one huge chunk of the audience, and Don Imus grabbing another sizeable chunk, and the rest going to news and localized programming. Given that, at least in the case of Stern's former show being rehashed with multiple hosts, there haven't been too many great entrances into this market, we might go away from the nationalish shows and stick to more localized stuff as far as mornings go. Sure, it's probably just as costly to hire people on in every single market, but people like local stuff that's customized to them. Just my two cents.

A few days ago, I started hearing that 660AM WFAN out of New York City would be streaming live over the Internet soon, and as it turns out, it's true. On Friday, I received an email from the station's marketing deparment stating that the streaming would go live at 3pm on Tuesday, April 11, where the "Mike & The Mad Dog" show would be broadcast while the New York Mets game would be played over the actual airwaves. (Major League Baseball teams are a subscription-only service through David Singer's favorite online stream, MLB.tv)

I'm psyched mostly that the "Imus in the Morning" show is going to be over the 'net now, because my office location isn't exactly getting me great AM reception, depriving me of my WFAN fix for the day. Considering it's like one of the most widely-broadcast stations on the AM dial, this has some big implications. Now how many streams do you think they'll make available? My bet is: not enough.

Looks like Oprah is, yet again, extending her reach. This time, she's made a deal with XM Satellite Radio to start a new radio channel later this year, according to the Associated Press.

Could the vaunted Red Sox leave their hallowed radio home of WEEI? Seems like it's definitely a possibility - though not at all a guarantee - according to the Boston Globe's Sasha Talcott.

At first this might not seem like a big issue, but after seeing New York's Knicks and Rangers move from their home on 660AM WFAN over to 1050AM WEPN (ESPN Radio), I've got to say it should be a concern. For one thing, WFAN is a clear channel broadcast, and I've heard it as far away as the Carolinas - 1050 barely makes it into the central part of New Jersey, just 30-40 miles away. While ESPN Radio will surely never admit that this has hurt the teams' listenership, I've got to say that purely based on reach, it has to have done so. Hopefully, Boston won't have the same issue.

In Sunday's San Diego Union-Tribune, staff writer Frank Green shares the story of Finest City Broadcasting and its president, Mike Glickenhaus, and how this independent (read: not CBS Radio or Clear Channel) network of stations has grown to become a player in that portion of the country.

Over at The Motley Fool, Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes about the expectations of XM Satellite Radio to kick off its presence at the Consumer Electronics Show with not only a big number as far as subscribers go, but some significant plans as far as video services go.

The Boston Globe's Keith Read writes about the success (?) that SIRIUS Satellite Radio might end up having this holiday season with the move (finally) of Howard Stern to its service. According to some retailers, SIRIUS hardware is moving quite well off the shelves, with one store manager at a Best Buy going as far as to say "This is driving our revenue right now..."

We'll see what kind of sub numbers that SIRIUS throws out there early in '06, but there are probably many a Stern fan who didn't buy in until the last minute, perhaps feeding the dark forecasts that this move made analysts have. At the end of the day, this might not make or break satellite radio, because converts to it have been singing its praises for some time now, but it will probably show how much a draw it has on the general population.

Just heard that Yahoo! will be the exclusive home for video and audio broadcasting of Howard Stern's "welcome" to satellite radio this Friday, December 16, after 9a.m. Eastern.

TVWeek.com's Jay Sherman is reporting Thursday that the satellite television provider will be adding 72 XM stations over its service, with the number of stations each customer getting being based on the level of package s/he subscribes to.

As a SIRIUS subscriber who enjoys the service a lot, it's great to see the innovations that the company has been putting together with regard to hardware and programming. That said, the programming is becoming more and more competitive between SIRIUS and XM, with some exclusive sports contracts moving back and forth between them. While I prefer SIRIUS overall, that's not to say that XM doesn't have some things I'd like to have. Now, as a DirecTV subscriber, I will - well, if what I'm looking for is included in the distribution.

Now, if I could only get some more high definition channels...

Big news this afternoon for hockey fans, especially those who are satellite radio customers. Turns out that XM will also be carrying the NHL's season this fall, ultimately taking on the games exclusively in the 2007-08 season. It'll be interesting to see if the continued "exclusivity" contracts that both XM and SIRIUS have been working up will have the same effect that DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket have on the industry.

Oh my - in what seemed to be a never-ending saga of personal problems and on-air issues, WFAN talk show host Sid Rosenberg has resigned from the station, "effective immediately." His former co-host Joe Benigno made the announcement just as the 10am-1pm midday show opened up this morning. No further details were discussed, and WFAN's "Joe & Sid" page wasn't updated on the station's Website.

More details if and when they become available.

[update 9/13] The New York Post (r/r) has more on the story, which looks like it ended badly over the weekend with Rosenberg's attendance at an event in Atlantic City.

In case you haven't heard all the details about WWL, the AM radio station out of New Orleans that managed to stay on through the dedication of its employees and the assistance of a market competitor, the Wall Street Journal's Sarah McBride sums up how the Entercom Communications-owned station was able to have a profound impact of those on the ground in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last week.

Just caught an item at MediaBuyerPlanner about how the Summer and Fall surveys of markets affected by Hurricane Katrina might be altered because of the devastation.

MediaBuyerPlanner points out a Radio World piece detailing the issues that HD Radio will need to take care of in order to become the next big thing that turns into the next everyday thing.

The Boston Globe's Bill Griffith has details on the end - at least at ESPN Radio - of the career of Chuck Wilson, 20 year veteran of the "Game Night" program heard every evening on stations broadcasting the ESPN shows, just as ESPN Radio enters the Boston market. I came across Wilson while doing some traveling a decade or so ago, when I tuned in ESPN Radio on my car's radio - something I'd never heard before, as WFAN (660 AM) out of New York was pretty much the only all-sports station I'd ever heard. You'd definitely recognize his distinct voice, which was all business and yet all fun at the same time.

Surely Wilson will be picked up by another station or network, as he is recognizable and brings a high level of experience and professionalism that a sports radio station would surely desire. Good luck, Chuck! Hope to hear from you soon!

In a move that might change the way that terrestrial radio has worked over the last few years, Sony's Epic label owned up to what is effectively payola, where deejays and station employees were given trips, sneakers and electronics to play particular songs on the air. The New York Times' Jeff Leeds and Louise Story cover the story, which included one method I'd never even heard of, which was the playing of songs on the air as "commercials," in a way adding spins to a song in a way that listeners wouldn't even know what was going on.

Let's not be naive here, most people these days realize that the 20 or 30 songs heard regularly on the radio aren't necessarily the "best" songs out there these days, and most deejays do nothing but talk and make jokes here and there. They're not all expected to be skilled at putting together a great mix of music for people to listen to - those days haven't been around for a long time now. But will this continue to be the same, going forward, as radio stations have eyes like those of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's closely watching?

The Cincinnati Post's Rick Bird reports on an contest held by First Broadcasting, owner of two radio stations who have gone to a new format that is very similar to Infinity's "Jack" format, to name a couple of their stations. Listeners can go to nameusandwin.com and enter to win $10,000 if their new name / slogan is chosen to be used.

This format is most familiar as one that throws the playlist out the window, and would be like putting 1,000 CDs on shuffle and walking away.

Is it just me, or does the concept of David Lee Roth, among other deejays, replacing Howard Stern not bode well for Infinity's programming schedule?

It looks like another instance of "Jack" striking at a radio station has gotten some people up in arms. The Chicago Sun-Times' Robert Feder places the responses of readers to Infinity Radio's Joel Hollander in his column on Tuesday. Let's just say that most people weren't pleased by the station's format change nor Hollander's reasoning for the move.

Lifting has stung yet another member of the media, this time in the radio world. The San Diego Union-Tribune's Gregory Alan Gross and Karen Kucher have the details on the firing of Gabriel Wisdom from KPBS, where he was responsible for giving commentaries on financial topics. This comes shortly after Wisdom's departure from NPR's "Marketplace" because of plagiarism.

The Associated Press is reporting that Lexington, Kentucky-based WLTO-FM 102.5 is in a bit of trouble after a lawsuit was filed by a listener against station owner Cumulus Media this week. The plaintiff, Norreasha Gill, says she won a contest for "a hundred grand" and was told she had actually become the new owner of, you guessed it, a "100 Grand" candy bar. That article notes that the DJ involved, "DJ Slick," stated that he had left the station on his own volition on his website
- but not without "walking out the door and slamming it behind [him]."

Mediaweek's Katy Bachman suggests that last week's news that Clear Channel Radio was looking for an Arbitron replacement - or at least the way the company currently measures listenership - might be just what the industry really needs to get towards the "portable people meters" that have been much ballyhooed recently.

A couple of weeks ago, word got out that Infinity was ditching the oldies format at 101.1 WCBS-FM for the "Jack" format they've been rolling out elsewhere, due to the demographics for that type of sound providing easier advertising sales. Yesterday, the David Hinckley offered details in the New York Daily News about a planned protest for next Tuesday outside of the station's offices as well as a pointer to finding an all-oldies, all the time feed online at wcbsfm.com.

On Tuesday afternoon, word was trickling out that Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown" program would be returning to ESPN, though not to his famed "SportsCenter" chair that he anchored next to Dan Patrick - though he would be working alongside Patrick again, we think. As of August 5, he'll be on the air during "The Dan Patrick Show," which runs from 1-4 p.m. Eastern. Reports seem to indicate that Olbermann will participate on Fridays for an hour.

Surely, OlbermannWatch will have something to say about this?

The Kansas City Star's David Hayes noted Tuesday that Sprint mobile phones will carry some radio shows from the SIRIUS Satellite Radio service.

On Monday, Clear Channel Radio expressed its displeasure with the state of radio measurement and ratings by putting out a request for proposals for a new system to do a better job. The company cites a recent study by Millward Brown that showed a 49% besting of television ad by radio spots for getting consumers to make a purchase. But it's not just TV that Clear Channel thinks radio needs to go up against - print is included too - as they refer back to a survey from 2004 that showed radio ads that replaced print ads grew brand recall by more than 1/3. Additionally, Clear Channel was kind to the radio measurement industry by saying that the methods used - namely, personal diaries - are not so effective after been seen "under increasing skepticism" recently.

And you know what, they're right. It's kind of crazy that there hasn't been a newish method of measuring listenership, although one would presume that services like XM and SIRIUS would have the ability to keep an eye out for what their listeners had on for what amounts of time - but they "own" the right to transmit to those devices. It's not so easy to do so with the regular terrestrial radios. So what's the solution, folks? It's obviously not an easy one, becuase there's no reason that we'd all be sitting here without one for years and years unless it would be a pain to fix it.

The Lexington Herald-Leader's Rich Copley reports that Kentucky's governor, Ernie Fletcher, has added a radio show host, Dave Baker, to the state's new sex offender task force. Baker discusses general Kentucky issues on his WLAP-AM radio show, but some have expressed concerns about his "connections" to the state while he is a member of the media.

One of the topics I try and keep abreast of for the purposes of this blog is radio station format changes. With satellite radio continuing to grow in popularity and personal playlists a la online downloads and such becoming the norm, it's no surprise that radio stations have to do everything they can (or think they should do) to keep listeners tuned in. It's important to keep in mind that the station's owners aren't usually concerned about what kind of music or content is playing, as they are truly in the business of getting advertisers' messages to listeners. That's all well and good, but the average listener doesn't want to know that - they want to be able to find whatever they want, when they want, commercials or not.

This week, a big move came through in the New York City area - the Friday drivetime welcomed listeners to 101.1-FM WCBS with an all new sound, that of the "Jack" format Infinity Broadcasting has been rolling out in recent months. Listeners to the station, of which I'm only a periodic one, aren't pleased about it. But just as the Star-Ledger's George Berkin points out, it's not about those listeners, it's about getting "better demographics later on," as one radio writer describes.

And I'm not the only one who will miss the station. Michele at A Small Victory harkens back to the days when she grew up with the station on. I, for one, am very familiar with my childhood days of having WNEW on in the car as we went on family trips in the area, and the holidays is always a great time to turn the dial that way when visiting family and friends. Not anymore. I'll also echo Michele's final statement, "It's time to load some doo-wop and 50's rock and roll onto the iPod." Radio stations are concerned about being able to sell advertising in order to operate and get people to listen. What they don't realize is that if all the stations on the dial are essentially the same three or four types of stations, then the gravedigger just got two or three assistants to help dig that six foot hole - and they brought a case of Red Bull.

Billboard Radio Monitor's Chuck Taylor reports Wednesday morning that WFAN sports talk show host Sid Rosenberg has been fired from the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, which is also run on television's MSNBC - but not from his role as host from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on WFAN's midday show.

Unlike with his personal problems, WFAN's Sid Rosenberg seems to have public opinion slanting against him with regard to his actions after singer Kylie Minogue's announced last week that she had breast cancer. Rosenberg made obnoxious comments, on-air, about results of treatment that Minogue would be receiving, leaving fans to wonder what his deal was. The New York Post's Phil Mushnick says that this is just Rosenberg "going too far in his mandate to serve as Don Imus's trained pet pig."

Rosenberg isn't present on the "Imus in the Morning" program this morning on the radio or MSNBC.

[update] NYDN's Bob Raissman reports that Rosenberg has been pulled from Imus' show until further notice, and no additional word on his tenure at WFAN in New York has been made public at this point.

The Press-Enterprise's Lisa McPheron informs that San Bernadino area radio station KVCR-FM, 91.1, will drop its mostly classical music format on the NPR station and shift towards "locally produced news and talk shows and syndicated public radio programming."

Shortly after being removed from the airwaves of 640 AM WMFN, the Detroit Tigers are back on the air, the Grand Rapids Press reports. After a week of stating that the cost of running the games was just too much to bear, the station has apparently decided that it's in their best interest - oh, and they were more or less contractually obligated to do so, anyway.

The Oldies format just can't catch a break on radio stations today. The Baltimore Sun's Rob Hiaasen reports that 102.7FM out of Baltimore flipped the switch from oldies to the "wide ranging," as it is described, Jack-FM format. Along with the entire radio station's staff, popular morning show host Steve Rouse was given no warning before being let go by WQSR's owners, Infinity Broadcasting.

Just read over at Droxy that XM has scored before injury time with their exclusive coverage of next year's FIFA World Cup in Germany.

BBC News' Paul Anderson reports from Afghanistan that the Taliban has restarted their "pirate" radio broadcasts in that country as a way to motivate their supporters "against the government and its supporters, principally the United States."

[via The Agonist]

The AP's Seth Sutel reports that Martha Stewart has signed on to have her own channel on SIRIUS satellite radio. The station will be targeted towards women interested in many of the topics that the Marth Stewart Living publication and overall brand have been about.

Christian and family-themed radio broadcaster Salem Communications Tuesday named former Mondosphere Broadcasting and Emmis Communications executive Jon Horton vice president of operations. Horton will continue to consult on overall programming issues and handle efforts he is currently working on at northwest and Great Lakes area stations.

According to a story out this afternoon, XM Satellite Radio and AOL are teaming up to offer online radio to listeners visiting the aol.com website. Additionally, AOL members will be able to purchase access to a higher end service for a fee.

This morning, WFAN-AM's Sid Rosenberg returned to work after being out for a month in rehab. Rosenberg stepped right back into the "Imus in the Morning" program and took things in stride, as Imus and company threw everything they had at him, but all in good fun.

As the story goes, Rosenberg was in Cleveland a little more than a month ago when everything appeared to come crashing down on him, personally. He was checked into a rehab facility, and FAN personalities regularly kept mentioning that he was doing well and would be back soon. As 10 a.m. rolled around with Joe Benigno and Rosenberg, Sid was the subject of a nice monologue from his partner, followed by Rosenberg proceeding to share a few details about his situation. He admitted his problems with drugs, alcohol and gambling, said that he was turning a corner now, and thanked everyone at the station and beyond for their well-wishes.

Good luck to Sid on a personal and professional level. He takes a lot of heat for being a jerk on-air, but most of it is the role he's paid to play on Imus' show - but he knows his stuff, and hopefully will be able to stay free and clean and on the airwaves.

The Indianapolis Star's J.K. Wall details the situation about how Emmis Communications has had a rough few months in 2005, and that some of the on-air difficulties will probably result in a visible strain on revenue this year.

The New York Daily News' Bob Raissman has the scoop about the firing of ESPN Radio 1050 AM's Wallace Matthews and Tom Keegan from the "Wally & The Keeg" show that had previously been a part of afternoon drive, then mid-days on the station. It seems that the "local" talkers just aren't competing with what WFAN, the longtime sports radio station broadcasting out of Astoria, have brought to the table.

Outside of a shoddy signal that couldn't reach half of the New Jersey listeners, 1050 was attempting to get a mix of the national shows that the parent company put together, including those of Dan Patrick and mornings with Mike Greenberg & Mike Golic. With the voracious appetite that New York sports fans have when it comes to their radio, you would expect that two radio stations in town would be able to make it better for everyone. Apparently that's not the case. It's either a brand loyalty situation where enough people never switched over to 1050's programming - or that the constant mix of national and local kept people from changing the channel because they were only interested in New York sports.

In any case, the fact that 1050's website still has "Now On The Air: Wally & The Keeg" right now is a little disturbing. I think if you let people go you might want to remove the hosts' page and their images from the header.

Additionally, ESPN has added Max Kellerman to their lineup, weeknights from 7-8pm - which will eat an hour into Jim Rome's show that is on the nights when there are no live sporting events.

[Thanks, Jerry!]

Don't think that some terrestrial radio outlets are in trouble these days because of the competition coming from satellite radio, mp3 devices, and the Internet? Think again. The Chicago Sun-Times' Robert Feder has details about an alternative-rock station in that market, 101.1 WKQX-FM, which is jacking its "playlist" up five times over, and saying that is now "on shuffle."

More: WKQX isn't alone in making changes to grab (keep?) listeners.

On Tuesday, Tribune Broadcasting announced that Tom Langmyer would be taking the position of Vice President / General Manager at Chicago's WGN Radio. He leaves KMOX-AM in St. Louis, where he had worked as VP / GM since 1992. (PRN)

Just saw over at the Unauthorized Mike and the Mad Dog Radio Show blog that WFAN staffer Sid Rosenberg is out on leave, according to the New York Daily News. Speculation seems to be around substance abuse, but no specifics have been given by WFAN or Rosenberg himself.

[update] Over the weekend, the Post's Andrew Marchand confirmed that Rosenberg had gone into a rehab program, but whether it is substance or gambling related is unclear at this time.

[update 9/13/05] Rosenberg has since "resigned" from WFAN after incidents over this past weekend caused him to miss his Sunday pregame show for the New York Giants. More here.

Robert Feder reports in today's Chicago Sun-Times that if you're a program director, Chicago might be the place for you right now, as five (at least) radio stations in the area are looking for someone to fill that role.

Hiphop-Elements.com points out the story about a feud of sorts in Los Angeles, where some personalities at Emmis Communications-owned Power 106, a rap and hip-hop station, have allegedly stated that any music artist who records a promo for Power 106 competitor KDAY 93.5FM "will be immediately removed from Power 106 rotation." Hiphopdirectory.com has not released any further details on the story, and it has not been independently corroborated elsewhere.

Emmis Communications and Power 106 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Miami Herald's Christina Hoag writes Tuesday about the format flip that went on in the area in the last few days, with Clear Channel moving its 94.9 WZTA to a Hispanic format. This was quickly followed by a switch yesterday on Cox's Party 93.1 from dance to rock music.

Just catching this now as I read up on what I've missed today. FOX News Radio's Tony Snow has come out to say that he has colon cancer. More here at the Tony Snow Show website.

Thanks, James, for pointing this out. Well wishes go out to Snow and his family from me as well.

On a side note, what's up with this? One article, and it's not even the hed?

[update 3/27/2007] If you're looking for new news on this story, you can go here.

The Star-Ledger's Ralph Ortega writes about how a New Jersey-based Christian radio station went from small potatoes to the bigtime by switching from strictly preaching and other religious programming to primarily Christian pop music. Their listenership effectively doubled, Ortega reports, when a new antenna kicked in alongside the format adjustment during the summer of 2003.

XM Satellite Radio announced on Thursday that it increased its user base by 1.8 million subscribers in 2004, along with $244.4 million in revenues, up from $91.8 million the year prior. While the company had a loss ($642.4 million) that increased, the company's cost per customer acquisition dropped from $137 to $100. This factor should be expected to decrease additionally, especially as XM makes its way into the shopping habits of the mainstream population.

The Albany Business Review reported this week that Clear Channel Communications would be shifting its Albany operations - seven radio stations - from two locations in the city to one by June. No staffing changes were announced, and appears to be a steamlining of just Albany-related businesses.

The Charlotte Observer's Mark Washburn informs that popular afternoon radio personality Adam Smasher has left Kiss 95.1FM's airwaves after a contract impasse. Smasher's page, while empty, was still up on the station's website under "Personalities" as of the time of this post.

[Thanks, Mark!]

Mediaweek's Katy Bachman covers the announcement by ABC Radio Networks about their upcoming Hispanic radio network, the Hispanic Advantage Network. This will be the first time a network has been put together around a Hispanic format, Bachman reports.

And no, ABC Radio has not yet registered hispanicadvantagenetwork.com yet.

The Knoxville News's Carly Harrington reports that Horne Radio Network has taken a different tact gone in a new direction [thanks, Doug] in its radio management plan - selling off "standalone" AM stations, specifically four Knoxville area ones at this time, and looking to run AM/FM combinations out of one operation in other markets.

Over at hiphopmusic.com, Jay Smooth has details on a report stating that Hot 97's Todd Lynn, one of the on-air talent who participated in the "tsunami song," has been fired.

No additional information is available at this time.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Adrian McCoy wrote on Sunday about how the world of radio has taken a few spins on its noggin in recent times, for two major reasons: satellite radio and iPod (really, all digital music players). That's not to say that terrestrial radio owners are packing up and heading home, though.

But satellite and Internet have a long way to go before they can compete with the audience numbers that commercial radio can sell advertisers.

But what might be interesting to gauge is the vociferousness of those who have adopted satellite radio or digital music as their primary (and secondary) forms of audio entertainment. I dare say that the "supporters" of the new technologies would do so at a much higher decibel level than those of regular radio.

CNN/Money's Krysten Crawford wrote recently about the long-term impact that the departure - not on his own volition - of Howard Stern's morning radio program from Clear Channel stations in six cities. Crawford offers details on Arbitron ratings that show "significant" losses of listenership in mornings for those stations. However, it is apparent that it's still a bucket, drop situation for Clear Channel, whose other ~1,200 stations aren't hurting because of this.

Sure, Clear Channel might be blowing it off, but as is pointed out in the article, Infinity-owned stations that Stern will be off of by year's end can at least get a taste of what's in store.

Memphis Business Journal's Ed Hicks reported earlier this week about Air America Radio's entrance into the Memphis market, smack dab in the middle of the so-called "Red States." 680 AM is flipping from the call letters WJCE today to become "Talk 680" under the letters WWTQ. Hicks notes that this is Air America's "debut in the South."

The station's owner, Entercom Communications, is based out of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. They also run two FM stations in Memphis, 94.1 "The Buzz" and 104.5 "The River."

[hat tip: Mark]

After what appears to be a huge amount of public response to the Hot 97 morning radio show's "skit" [discussed here] mocking the deaths of people in southern Asia and India in December, it appears that the station has gone forward and suspended the show's cast members, hiphopmusic.com's Jay Smooth reports this morning. Jay has a copy of the "statement" made around 6 a.m. about the suspensions, but no details are out yet as to how long it will last, whether it is paid/unpaid, et al.

News media across the country have picked up on this story in the last few days, and there has been a response from some of the show's sponsors, including Jackson Hewitt, who withdrew their ads from the station.

On Friday, hiphopmusic.com's Jay Smooth offered up details on a "skit" that New York City rap station Hot 97 had been running for about a week, one that specifically made a mockery of the December 26, 2004 tsunami and the plight of those involved - most specifically, Asians. Included are a bunch of quality links, including one with the audio in question - which the Emmis Communications-owned station has since removed from its website and replaced with this apology. In that posting, the station's program director John Dimick points out that the cast of the morning show involved in the skit will "contribute one week's pay to Tsunami Relief efforts."

So here's the question - is that enough? The New York Post's John Mainelli reports that Asian Media Watch is calling for the removal of the show from the airwaves.

There is obviously still a place in America for parody and amusement, but there are also certain situations wherein some common sense needs to come into play - this seems to be one of them. Sometimes I'm amazed (should I say frightened?) that incidents like this one continue to happen. This isn't about "pushing the envelope," which I'm pretty much all for. I'm a card-carrying member of the Jeff Jarvis "change the channel" club, and don't want any further restrictions and regulations put on various media outlets. At the same time, I think they have to think before they do something.

What's even more surprising is the fact that Hot 97 appears to be a little surprised here, based on their reaction this weekend. Then again, as at least one commenter on the hiphopmusic.com site have pointed out, there is the chance that this was "let go" as part of a ratings or "buzz" ploy by the station due to the return this week of Star and Buc Wild to competitor Power 105.1 [previously discussed here]

Gauging reaction from actual listeners isn't tough these days, as is apparent in this case. The public in general is much more involved in day to day operations of the media that they listen, watch, and read on a regular basis, and tools such as weblogs and forums allow easy mobilization for or against certain things. Considering the volume of comments on the original post Jay Smooth put up, and this update on Saturday afternoon, one would hope that the individuals involved in the skit would have mobilized a little better. Oh, sorry - it's a weekend...guess we couldn't have that. Instead, you can wait to see what kind of ratings you get on Monday morning when you "apologize" in person.

[update] Tim Karr asks if my call for the people to "police" the media "is enough" to make the whole system work to our liking - and with good reason. So I would ask if you have comments on this subject to definitely bring them into the conversation.

On Wednesday, Clear Channel Radio named three more radio stations under its belt that would be flipping to a "progressive" talk radio format. Included are Washington D.C.'s WWRC-AM 1260, Detroit's WXDX-AM 1310 and Cincinnati's WCKY-AM 1530. Claiming that "listeners across the country are asking for more progressive talk radio," president and CEO John Hogan announced that it would continue to push this format across its news/talk stations.

Additionally, Clear Channel-owned WTKS-FM 104.1 fired night-time talk show host Drew Garabo on Monday, just a week after he signed a new contract with the station. The Orlando Sentinel's Christopher Boyd reports about how the station has stated it would be "going in a different direction in the evenings." The station offers up Garabo's "last words" on their website in "Drew's Diary," and he states that he "has no axe to grind," and that maybe he "said all there is for [him] to say on this radio station."

Reuters' Kenneth Li writes Sunday about a new (and logical) revenue stream that both terrestrial and satellite radio services are looking into - music downloads.

Brian Stelter writes Friday that the "Imus in the Morning" show will, according to his source, move (finally) to the MSNBC studios in Secaucus, NJ, on January 31, "but an MSNBC spokesperson could not confirm the date." This has been in the cards for some time now, and it looks like it's finally coming to fruition.

Imus hates the Astoria studio that he's in at WFAN, and makes no bones about saying so - which makes it all the less surprising that this is actually happening. But I'm wondering if he's going to lose a bit of repoire rapport with the other talent on the show, namely Bernard McGuirk and Sid Rosenberg, as well as the rest of the WFAN crew that pop in on the show from time to time.

On a personal level, I hope that this doesn't turn the show into more of a television program, because it's not. Imus has said for years that it's a radio show on the television, so let's hope that MSNBC boss Rick Kaplan has the brains to not mess with that.

In September of 2005, rumors were floating around that embattled radio hosts Star and Buc Wild, formerly of Emmis Communications' Hot 97 in NYC, were looking to make their way back into the Big Apple awhile after being booted out of town. Yesterday, Jay Smooth posted an item at hiphopmusic.com that pretty much confirms they're on the way back, after a convenient one day "suspension" this week. Clear Channel is expected to "shift" the show from Power 99 in Philadelphia to Power 105.1 (original names, I know) on Monday, January 17.

Billboard Radio Monitor's Bram Teitelman sat down with one-half of the dynamic duo that is "Opie & Anthony," Anthony Cumia, to talk about how things are going since the show has been part of XM's satellite offering. Cumia expressed serious interest in taking the slot soon to be vacated by Howard Stern in the mornings, calling the move a "no-brainer to pop us in."

Before even thinking of what kind of contractual kookiness would be involved here, it should be pointed out that Syracuse, NY-based WAQX ran edited versions of the show from the day prior for a two week timeframe in December of 2004 - which could be the beginning of an experiment for the station.

So, let's have it, radio listeners? Would fans of O&A jump at the chance to hear the crew on terrestrial radio again, even if they were a bit "toned down" from their original selves a few years back? What about the fact that XM customers are paying an extra $1.99 fee to hear the show in its entirety. Will the satellite service be able to maintain that going forward if people realize they can hear a cut-up version of the show 24 hours later?

The San Antonio Business Journal has the story about Clear Channel's launch of detailed traffic data through a subscription service utilizing the Audiovox Radio Data System Traffic Message Channel.

TMCnet has the press release from traffic content partner Tele Atlas.

On December 26, Bob Raissman reported (again) that ESPN Radio in New York (1050AM WEPN) would shift talker / Yankees TV guy Michael Kay from the 10a-1p slot to the drivetime 4-7 slot following Dan Patrick's national show, in an effort to snag listeners who might otherwise listen to Mike Francesa and Chris Russo on WFAN (660AM) in the afternoon. That timeframe was previously filled with Wallace Matthews & Tom Keegan, who apparently weren't doing any damage to the FAN's ratings.

On Monday, the change finally happened, with Kay staying on the air from 10a-7p to discuss the change among the usual topics. Newsday's Steve Zipay provides some background, including comments from the station's program director, Mike Thompson, who clarified that it's not just about beating the other show, but keeping 1050 relevant to all listeners during that much-coveted slot. Thompson told Zipay that it was "more of 'The Battle of the Pre-Sets' in the car, in drive time, when you're stuck in traffic."

However, 1050 has two problems - one, their station has serious reach problems, especially into New Jersey, where a ton of commuters trek into New York City on a daily basis. The other is that people who "switch" from the Mike & The Mad Dog show, as WFAN calls it, to other stations like 1050 is because of the pomposity that is expressed there. Sure, it's great to have hosts that have knowledge out the wazoo and can catch a ton of games, but when they come off as know-it-alls, not taking people's statements seriously or whatever, it's very frustrating as a listener. Unfortunately, Michael Kay might just come from the same peapod. He's very bright, has a ton of stats and information to share, but he's definitely a bit stuck on Michael Kay. It's probably because of the massive popularity that Kay garnered when he worked the Yankee radio broadcasts with John Sterling until the Yankees launched the YES Network a few years ago, but it's definitely there. Francesa and Kay are both Yankee guys, and would probably cover baseball at about the same level. While Kay may have "inside" information because he works for the team, it's questionable as to whether he'll be able to put on as well rounded a show for the rest of the year in the spirit of afternoon drive. Perhaps this'll make a dent as Kay's morning listeners will come along and tune in from their cars, this should not be viewed in any way as the cure for what ails 1050 - which isn't doing too bad in the grand scheme, honestly.

But at the end of the day....drop, meet bucket.

Asheville's Citizen-Times has an article by Tony Kiss about the departure of Scotty Rhodarmer from the airwaves of 570 WWNC, where he had been a fixture in the mornings for forty years, and at the station for a full fifty.

Lost Remote's Cory Bergman points out that SIRIUS satellite radio has reached one million subscribers.

While companies like Clear Channel Communications are well within the letter of the law to make acquisitions and changes in their various media outlets, it doesn't mean there aren't consequences that aren't creeping in on us all. This afternoon, I came across an article by Jessica Arsenault in the Herkimer Evening Telegram about a format change on Utica, New York's WARM 93.5. Arsenault writes that WARM is now following Clear Channel's "The River" format, which contains "songs by such artists as The Beatles, Bob Seger, the Eagles, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Santana, John Mellencamp, and the Rolling Stones, but will also include artists who receive little airplay on other stations."

In this particular case, the company cites "local listener feedback" as the reason for the change - which is a good thing. However, "The River" appears to be a simplifying of "no playlist" radio for the company, as the format is cropping up across the country. See below:

100.7 The River - Raleigh, NC
101.5 The River - Toledo, OH
97.3 The River - Harrisburg, PA
The River 105.7 - Salt Lake City, UT
99.5 The River - Albany, NY
105.9 The River - Portland, OR
The River 105.9 - Hartford, CT
107.5 The River - Nashville, TN

That said, I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the concept here - one of the mainstays of satellite radio fans are that they can listen to the same station wherever they are in the U.S., whereas terrestrial radio doesn't have that advantage - in fact, it's a disadvantage. Is it possible that these moves are to create more solid competition in this manner? Obviously you're not banking on people who travel once or twice a year, but I know this is a big complaint by anyone (including myself) who likes taking road trips - you can't find a station you like everywhere you go.

So is it a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of scenario here, or is Clear Channel making a solid effort on behalf of its listenership to improve radio's ability to have good retention numbers?

The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter writes about the end of an era of sorts in the Ohio city, as WLW-AM will have its final helicopter-based traffic report on Friday, signifying a shift to new technology by the Clear Channel-owned station.

What appears to be a major part of the change will be the loss of "color commentary" by traffic reporter - and pilot - John Phillips. Phillips is well known for expressing himself about drivers while looking at a traffic jam - something that is sure to be long gone, as it's a little different to be watching the proprietary camera system that Clear Channel will be utilizing, rather than following from above.

The News & Observer's David Ranii writes about the apparent success that radio stations are finding with an all (or mostly) Christmas music format in recent years. In fact, one station included in the article, 93.9 FM, actually began playing all-Christmas tunes before Thanksgiving.

The Charlotte Observer's Heather Howard informs about the new reach for Hickory, North Carolina's WHKY-AM, which jacked up its transmission signal from 5,000 watts to a big 50,000 this past week.

Billboard Radio Monitor's Paul Heine informs about a statement by Howard Stern on Thursday that he and Infinity boss Joel Hollander are set to meet sometime in January to discuss "how [he] should proceed on the air." Is this the precursor to Stern leaving Viacom/Infinity earlier than his planned departure to SIRIUS a year from now?

In the Quincy Herald-Whig, David Adam writes about Cheri Preston, an ABC News Radio staffer who grew up in the Illinois town, went to the local college, and is now doing "top of the hour" news updates on the national radio network in New York City. Preston offers details on her day-to-day (hour by hour?) role gathering and writing news items, most amusingly the fact that while she works "with" Peter Jennings, Sam Donaldson, and Charles Gibson, she rarely sees them - for they're in another ABC location.

At InsideTheVille.com, Mike Hughes shares some more details on the recent announcement that Clear Channel Communications would place University of Kentucky sporting events "ahead" of University of Louisville games on some radio stations.

The Associated Press reports that Clear Channel Communications will now offer "priority" status for the University of Kentucky's sports teams over the University of Louisville, a reversal of sorts. As of 2007, Kentucky's Wildcats will be featured on at least four stations that feature both schools' basketball and football events.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter writes Friday about Jerry Springer's foray into daytime talk radio in the Ohio city - and he's looking to syndicate the show nationally. I'd say this not only signals Springer's "desire to change his image from trash-TV-show ringmaster to serious political thinker," but makes it look more and more like a true push to go full force (again) into the world of politics.

[via Uncle Horn Head]

The New York Daily News' Phyllis Furman informs us in Thursday's "Plugged In" that ABC Radio has signed Sean Hannity to a new five-year contract for "about $25 million," according to her sources.

Reuters reports Monday that FOX News Radio and Clear Channel have teamed up in an agreement where the FOX network will provide radio news to around 100 Clear Channel stations in the U.S.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Clint O'Connor has been listening to both SIRIUS and XM satellite radio services for the last few weeks, and by golly, he seems to like what he's hearing. O'Connor does an excellent job of pointing out the ins and outs of both services, from the sports packages to stations that compare to terrestrial stations that have since changed format, such as Cleveland's formerly-big band WRMR [previously discussed here] which disappeared much to the chagrin of many listeners.

The Miami Herald's Christina Hoag informs about a $55,000 fine that is pending against WQAM-AM 560 out of Miami. The station is being fined for comments made by Scott Ferrall, a host who had been fired by the station a year ago this month, on a sports-themed show in September of 2003.

And in a development that Jeff Jarvis is sure to love, the fines would be the result of one complaint, filed by Coral Gables-based attorney Jack Thompson (FMQB calls him a "attorney/indecency crusader"). To boot, Thompson is calling for WQAM's license.

So how do we really feel about how complaints and the FCC works - do we think that one complaint should be enough to get a company or individual in trouble? Does there need to be some sort of consensus? One thing is for sure, there's no 'consensus' that what the current system is doing is right.

[ed: originally posted here]

The News & Observer's David Ranii writes about the switchover that Raleigh's 100.7 FM, WTRG, recently went through, when the Clear Channel radio station flipped from an 'oldies' format to 'adult-alternative', without much warning to listeners. Ranii also details the wannabe trickery that station owners go through in advance of the actual format change - when they play various other types of music in order to confuse the competition. I suppose this is so other stations don't go changing their formats on a whim or something.

Earlier this week, the Star Tribune's Deborah Caulfield Rybak detailed the sale of St. Olaf College's WCAL radio station to Minnesota Public Radio. Friday, Rybak confirms that the sale is all done, and that the broadcast will "switch over" to the new owners on Sunday at 10pm.

In mid-August, it was noted that Clear Channel Communications was expressing concerns about an upcoming Rolling Stone article that was heavily critical of the company's place in the entertainment market - that article ran in the September issue. During Thursday evening's "Late Show," Dave Letterman discussed [ed: some details available here - after 11/19 you have to search the archives on the right sidebar] Clear Channel's market share with Howard Stern in a segment about radio - and the company has chosen to respond Friday in public to the statements being made. The following is a letter that was sent by Mark Mays, President and Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Communications, Inc., to Rolling Stone in September.

September 10, 2004

To the Editor:

The errors of fact, knowingly false statements and material omissions are overwhelming in Damien Cave's article on Clear Channel (R&R Special Report, September 2, 2004) -- we are alarmed and deeply disappointed to find more than 30 in its two pages. Equally inexcusable is the fact that no attempt was made by your magazine to fact-check this article with our company prior to its publication, despite numerous interviews over the course of several months. And finally, we are troubled that Rolling Stone chose to present erroneous information from articles and opinion pieces previously published by other media outlets as original reporting, instead of including facts that were shared directly with Mr. Cave by Clear Channel managers. As the leader of a company that includes an award-winning news organization, I find that a particularly serious lack of journalistic responsibility.

Since we don't believe that your magazine is the appropriate forum for engaging in a point-by-point dialogue about our business, this response focuses on only the most egregious errors of fact, material misstatement and omission.

First, we must object to the entire premise of the article - that Clear Channel's "domination of the radio and concert industries has made the airwaves blander and tickets more expensive." Our company has considerable competition in both industries, has been proven by independent third parties not to homogenize play lists and, as you well know, does not set ticket prices.

In reality, Clear Channel Radio owns 9% of U.S. radio stations and represents 18% of the industry's revenue. Neither come close to satisfying any accurate definition of dominance. And our radio division neither "force-feeds audiences the same play lists no matter where they live" nor offers "more of the same songs today than they did ten years ago." Indeed, both of these persistent and erroneous myths were shown to be false by Billboard Magazine in its July 18, 2003 issue. In truth, Clear Channel Radio employs more than 900 enormously talented local program directors -- each with deep expertise in the tastes of their local markets, backed by multi-million-dollar investments in local-market research, and having the "golden gut" that has always been the hallmark of successful radio programming. And we are successful -- the majority of our stations are either #1 or #2 in their markets.

Further, the article claims that New York's Z100's top five songs receive more spins today than they did 10 years ago. The Z100 format changed in 1996 to traditional Top 40 from a heavy alternative-leaning format -- comparing play lists of two different formats is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts.

When discussing Clear Channel Entertainment, the article claims that CCE "has a virtual lock" on the Detroit market and alleges that during the week of July 25th, CCE "controlled" concerts in Detroit "by the Dead, Hillary Duff, Midtown, Hanson, Huey Lewis and the News, Prince and Dra." The errors of fact here are shocking.

First, Clear Channel Entertainment presents less than one-third of the concerts in the Detroit market -- out of roughly 200 shows last year, CCE presented 60. In addition, the word "controlled" is inaccurate on its face -- artists and their managers decide which venues they will play. To say otherwise is nothing short of an insult to artists and to their managers. Next, Clear Channel Entertainment did not promote the Prince, Midtown or Huey Lewis and the News concerts. Again, there was no attempt to fact-check this story with our company. And finally, there are numerous other promoters and national organizations in the Detroit market that have actively presented shows in the past 12 months including Jack Utsick, JAM, AEG, Olympia Entertainment, Palace Sports & Entertainment, Freedom Hill Productions, Joe Neiporte, and the Nederlander Group.

Equally inaccurate are the article's twin claims that CCE has driven up ticket prices and has set fee increases that have outpaced those of ticket prices. Ticket prices, of which artists take 85% to 90% of the gross, rose $7 in Q2 of this year alone. And in fact, Clear Channel Entertainment does not set ticket prices -- artists do by virtue of the fact that they set their guarantees and then take 85% to 90% of the gross. Finally, CCE has been working for the past four years to bring down ticket prices and we have been very public about our efforts here over the past several months.

And thirdly, the article materially misstates the experience of key Clear Channel managers.

Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan has overseen radio programming in addition to operations and sales since moving into management some 16 years ago. Clear Channel Entertainment CEO Brian Becker's music-industry career began in 1984, giving him more than 20 years of expertise in concerts, tours and buildings. In fact, Brian is considered a pioneer in the amphitheater business and headed PACE at a time when that company was one of the few national promoters of its day.

But perhaps most importantly, the article completely and venomously dismisses the contributions of more than 900 program directors, hundreds of event bookers and producers, and scores of other talented professionals who run our company every day. This is an insult to them personally, to our company as a whole, and to the music industry to which these professionals have dedicated their talents and careers.

We take pride in accurately describing basic facts about our company. We would hope that your reporters will do the same moving forward.

[Source: BusinessWire]

On Thursday, ABC Radio Networks announced their premium "Hannity Insider" service for fans of the conservative radio talk show host Sean Hannity. For $5.95 a month, "Insiders" will be able to download Hannity's radio show to their digital audio players, have direct instant messaging right into the studio, and get access to the "Hannity Messenger," a piece of software that combines any of the instant messaging clients you might already be using into one, much like Trillian or GAIM.

The press release also states that "Registered Hannity Insiders will receive SPECIAL OFFERS from Hannity.com advertisers, and will be automatically entered to win surprise giveaways." TMD's request about an "opt out" being available for the 'offers' from advertisers was not returned.

Satellite radio got a big shot in the arm last night, as it was announced that former Viacom boss Mel Karmazin would take the helm as CEO of SIRIUS. I believe that this will help both SIRIUS and XM, the current market leader in the industry, as there is no way Karmazin would get involved if he didn't see it as a viable market opportunity. His success with Infinity (now a division of Viacom) might never be duplicated, but his experience growing that business and moving into CBS when it was purchased in 1997 proves, I think, his overall value.

Check out Jeff Jarvis, Rafat Ali for more.

The Star Tribune's Deborah Caulfield Rybak writes about the sale of WCAL-FM (89.3) from St. Olaf College to Minnesota Public Radio, which appears to be a go as of Monday, when the FCC ruled against a group, SaveWCAL, who opposes the station's transfer.

More information is available here in a FAQ that the station set up regarding the station's sale.

New York Daily News staffer David Hinckley has details on the radio ratings in New York City for the 30-day period ending October 20. During the runup to this year's election, conservative-talk WABC made its way to the top of the chart, with about 1.4 million listeners on average during the week.

On Monday's "Imus in the Morning" radio program (also on MSNBC from 6-9am), host Don Imus hinted at the show being done at a different location in the future. He discussed going out to the New Mexico ranch for some time, and then when he returned that they could be somewhere else. Speculation has been that the whole team would move to MSNBC's studios in Secaucus, New Jersey eventually. Looks like this might still be a possibility.

Rock 'n' roll fans in Houston Texas are bummed at the demise of KLOL-FM as a rock station, as it changed over to a Spanish hip-hop and pop format on Friday - and with good reason. KLOL was a rock station for 34 years, and continued to play songs that just couldn't be heard on any other station in the rock format in the market. Sure, there are tons of rock fans, but what a lot of people need to get used to (note: I didn't say you have to like it) is that media companies like KLOL owner Clear Channel aren't in the business of bringing you music that you happen to like.

They. Don't. Care.

They are in the business of selling advertising to "a" market, whatever that market is - if a Hispanic audience is a solid target for advertisers or something in demand, then it's really not surprising that this would come about. But that doesn't mean it's a good thing.

Bob Raissmann writes in the New York Daily News about Monday's scheduling flip-flop at New York sports radio station WFAN. On again, off again host Jody McDonald is out, and 10a-1p host Sid Rosenberg will now team up with overnight maven Joe Benigno.

For those of you outside of the New York area, Benigno is a good story - he was a caller for years and years, "Joe From Saddle River," who was given a shot after the station saw his dedication and knowhow for what it was. McDonald is off the 'FAN yet again - something that's happened at least one other time. It's likely he'll pop up again in the New York or Philadephia markets.

If they're trying to make a big move in this timeslot, you'd think WFAN would at least get their website updated, but they still have the Mac & Sid page up as of this morning. Then again, the URL for that page refers to another host who isn't on regularly, Suzyn Waldman - so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Radio World Online reports that satellite radio company XM has made deals with two New York City music venues to offer live concerts to their listeners.

The News & Observer's Barry Saunders opines on the loss of Charlotte, North Carolina's two oldies stations to make way for "the malodorous, mind-numbingly homogenized pabulum coming from your radio." Oh, and he's tattling on Clear Channel, too.

The Miami Herald's Christina Hoag reports on a deal between the Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) and ABC Radio Networks wherein ABC obtains syndication rights for three popular radio shows into major markets over the next five years..

The Lexington Herald-Leader features an article Wednesday by Art Jester and Valarie Honeycutt Spears about a hoax gone wrong on a local radio station. It seems that the morning show hosts on 103.3 FM, WXZZ, thought it would be funny to say that "an ordinance banning residents from smoking cigarettes in their vehicles" had been passed in the county - which wasn't true. The city of Lexington somehow had time to explain that they would be filing a complaint with the FCC against the station - being that their phones were tied up all day from incoming calls from irate citizens.

[update 11/11] The Herald-Leader's Rich Copley reports Thursday that hosts Twitch, Mary Jane and Kyle have been "suspended indefinitely."

[Thanks to Mark for the tip]

Eric McErlain leads us to the new spot to hear Tony Kornheiser on the airwaves. He's on WTEM, SportsTalk 980 in the Washington, D.C. area. Go here to listen online.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tim Cuprisin offers details on the slow and steady format change that 1250 WEMP-AM is going through on its way to being a full-fledged sports radio station.

The San Antonio Express-News' Edmund Tijerina calls Wisconsin radio talk show host Mark Belling "a jerk" after Belling's comments about Hispanic voting in one Milwaukee neighborhood prior to the presidential election. Tijerina suggests that "it would be much better if Belling were an unemployed bonehead."

Well, not quite, but close. The Associated Press' Juliet Williams reports Tuesday that Belling's 3-6pm weekday program on WISN has been suspended by the station's parent, Clear Channel Communications, until further notice.

Radley Balko points out that XM Satellite Radio is letting users try out their online streaming service for three days - free.

Kevin at Wizbang! makes an excellent suggestion. Skip the talk radio shows today. I agree - because, as he says, you're only going to hear "You must vote "X"

Spot on, methinks. I'll stick to multiple television coverage, seems to offer more choices, less preaching.

Iowa's KCRG-TV reports that radio DJ Steve Soboroff on Iowa City's KCJJ "has come under fire" for "joking" on the air Monday morning about Election Day voting.

Soboroff told his Monday morning audience due to the record amount of voters, Democrats will vote on Tuesday and Republicans on Wednesday Thursday and Friday.

Sure, it might seem common sensical to think that this was a joke, but combined with the fact that a Democratic county official was on the radio at the same time, and it doesn't look too good. This could be curious to see if the state's election board and the FCC look into the complaint.

[update] My friend Jerry points out that The Onion has a story along these lines, just not necessarily about the same party lines.

I've started to realize more and more how annoying it is to watch or listen to the "Imus in the Morning" show if you're outside of the New York Area. MSNBC was carrying a stack of commercials a short while ago, WFAN on the radio had Rudy Giuliani still talking.

Host Don Imus is still hot on the Kerry campaign today, offering to make a bet of any amount with anyone for charity on a Kerry victory. This is a big swing from his statements of the last few weeks, when he was stating his allegiance with Kerry / Edwards but believed that Bush was going to win because he identified more with the American people.

On October 16, Debbie Gilbert wrote in the Gainesville Times about a format change on a Clear Channel-owned radio station that not only came as somewhat of a surprise to listeners, but to some employees of the station as well. As it turns out, Clear Channel's September 16 announcement that they would be switching formats on up to 20 of their stations to a Spanish-language broadcast had already started taking effect by the time the news hit the wires. On September 15, Spanish music started playing over the WHEL-FM 105.1's airwaves - with management of the news/talk station being told 10 minutes before it happened. And, according to the station's general manager Monika Demuth, "Clear Channel didn't do their homework to see what the demographics were" in the area - which is reportedly under 2% Hispanic.

David Hinckley has the scoop in the New York Daily News about longtime radio host Steve Malzberg's resignation from 770 WABC this week.

More details are available on Malzberg's website, where an announcement will be made Friday, October 29, about his new home on another New York-based radio station.

[update] Malzberg will be on 1600 WWRL as of Monday, doing the 6-10am show with Karen Hunter, a current host on the station.

Kevin Brass at the Austin Chronicle covers the recent booting of radio commercials for wine selling under the "FAT Bastard" brand name on stations in the Austin, Texas area. The curious thing is that the commercials are only being removed from stations where quite a few complaints have been received, not across the board in the market at all stations owned by the same broadcaster.

A lot of the growth of satellite radio as a way to get your music jones fulfilled is absolutely due to the lack of commercials on the stations. Some of the growth, however, is due to the disrespect many music fans have for the programming on their local radio stations. At the very least, we should look at radio and realize one thing - it's called "programming" for a reason. It's not what deejays and people with a feel for music as a whole want you to hear - it's what a playlist contains, and nothing more. Remember - as Clear Channel's previous CEO Lowry Mays said, "If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company. We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products." Radio isn't in the business to give you music. You view it as a means to listen to music or talk. Radio views itself as a channel through which to get you to listen so you hear the advertising.

That said, let's get back to the programming. It's not a new concept that there would be a way of manipulation of how songs make their way onto the airwaves - "payola" was the old-school term, but is since illegal - it also shouldn't be a surprise that similar practices could still be in place to this day.

Michele at A Small Victory writes about the current methods of getting songs on the air, referring to this article in the New York Times where reporter Jeff Leeds describes how New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer now has some major music labels in his sights. It seems that some monies are making their way to radio stations via "independent song promoters" who are paid by music labelsto promote songs. The promoters are paying the stations for copies of playlists, and then recouping those costs from the labels when they "prove" that their songs have made it on air.

The Patriot-News has an item by Tim Leone on Thursday about some issues that fans of the Hershey Bears are having listening to their home team on the radio. The Bears, a minor league hockey team in Pennsylvania, signed a deal with Clear Channel's 1460 AM and 1390 AM earlier this year, leaving behind the FM station they previously were broadcast on as it went through a change in format. According to the article, the AM stations aren't making their way into the "home" market that well, causing some frustration at the beginning of the season.

The Austin Business Journal reports Wednesday evening that Mark Mays, son of Clear Channel CEO and chairman Lowry Mays, has been officially named Chief Executive of the media company. This is not a surprise by any means, as he had been groomed for the position and had held it in an interim fashion for almost half a year. The elder Mays will stay on as chairman, however.

CBS Marketwatch has an item from David Wilkerson about XM satellite radio announcing on Wednesday that they've signed a deal with Major League Baseball wherein the provider will be able to broadcast games on its service for the next 11 years. No further details are available at this time.

While reading this item from Newsday columnist Katti Gray this morning, I began thinking about a few things: the "popularity of vulgarity," the ability for Americans to choose, and those who don't mind having their choices made for them.

I'm not going to address them in any particular order, they're just points to keep in the back of your head as you read this. Last week's announcement that Howard Stern would bring his show on the proverbial road to SIRIUS satellite radio service in 2006 combined with former "shock jocks" Opie & Anthony reformulating their show on XM recently puts the focus on the new radio technology squarely on programming that was previously considered "indecent" by broadcast standards. And perhaps that was an apt description - but to paraphrase Jeff Jarvis, "I can change the channel." That is to say that if I didn't want to listen to Howard Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge, Don Imus, or any other show on radio or otherwise, I can change the channel whenever it behooves me to do so. But the channel has been, in a way, changed for me by the FCC. Some - many, more likely - would say that is a good thing. The public gives the broadcast rights, and the public taketh away.

In the case of satellite radio, private industry has gone out on its own with the plan to give Americans "what they want" - in this case, commercial free music in many varieties and a wealth of talk radio selections. These options are available anywhere, anytime in most of the United States. At the same time, satellite radio operators are able to provide listeners with broadcasts that aren't monitored and held to the same standards that the FCC puts forth for traditional radio and television programming. The ability to offer risque, uncensored material, while perhaps in the heads of those minds that created satellite radio in the first place, is a by-product, not the product driver. Sure, it might sell some subscriptions and hardware, but our need to hear/view materials deemed indecent isn't so big that it's now seen as a market segment, is it?

Channel changers vs. Channel blockers

One of the reasons that radio, and to a lesser extent, radio, has had governmental controls exerted on broadcasting was due to the requests of a segment of the population that asked for it. Television shows were given ratings (you see them pop up in the corners of the screen at the beginning - and sometimes on commercial re-entry), which also interacted with the V-Chip, a technology that became mandatory in new televisions in recent years. The V-Chip allows parents / television owners to program settings to block access to certain shows or content, in order to keep children from viewing objectionable or pornographic content. Obviously, this was put into place as a function of the television being everywhere, including the bedrooms of children. Some might call it an artificial babysitter, but it does serve a legitimate purpose.

Does satellite radio present a problem in this equation, however? Parents have the ability to block programming on their televisions that they don't want their kids seeing. These same parents rely on the FCC go govern what goes over the radio waves. But they have no ability to screen what goes over satellite radio's broadcasts when they aren't around.

With car makers installing satellite radios faster than gas prices have been increasing of late, it's only a matter of time before the head units of your home stereo systems come pre-installed with satellite radio, isn't it? And then the conundrum will begin. Or will it? Could the public's perception be swung away from satellite radio as a positive technological advance due to its inability to hold back potentially objectionable content from some listeners, fueling a new wave of technology? There are industry segments for software that are only there to block websites that parents - or companies - don't want being viewed on computers. This doesn't exist in SIRIUS' or XM's world. If satellite radio were to become as ubiquitous as television and traditional radio, some segment of the population might bring about an outcry for censorship of some form. Thankfully, they can always change the channel.

The folks at Save Radio Now are talking about Howard Stern's move to satellite radio, but not in the same fashion as many who have applauded the change - they're concerned. Saying that "it's going to force you to start paying to hear your favorite talent and music" isn't necessarily off the mark, but there's a big difference between "force" and "choice" - technology always wins, and if we've learned anything in the last few years about the will of the public, then we should realize that we're not on the road to destruction here. The bulk of the people who have been early adopters of satellite radio technology haven't done so because they like paying for music, it's that they're trying to a> avoid commercial overload and b> get some variety in their listening habits.

You can read more about this on the SRN Forums. And while you're at it, be sure and check out the Media Drop forums here.

The Barista tips me off to radio ads currently running on the New York's WCBS 880 radio station from "The People of Saudi Arabia." I hadn't heard them as of yet, but I don't listen to that station for much more than to hear the Yankees broadcasts - during which I'm guessing the ads aren't slotted for. At first I thought it was peculiar, but after a quick search in Google, turns out they're not so uncommon.

And, as a poster on Plastic points out, Saudi Arabia (yes, the country) is advertising on stations in 19 major cities in the United States. You can read more about their public relations campaign here and listen to the ads here (scroll down).

It has been widely reported that Howard Stern's deal with SIRIUS satellite radio is worth $500 million over five years - but that number is in no way his salary, which is buried within that number. To clarify, the company's news release clearly states that "Total production and operating costs for the Stern show, including compensation of the show cast and staff, overhead, construction costs for a dedicated studio, and a budget for the development of additional programming and marketing concepts, is estimated to be approximately $100 million per year."

I followed up with SIRIUS to specifically find out about his salary, and was informed that "Howard's compensation will never be revealed by us." That's not to say that he will never discuss it, but his future employer doesn't plan to.

Also of note: The other figures we're all curious about, short term subscription numbers, will not be released - in the past, the company has periodically released numbers when they reached certain milestones. It is unclear whether we will see updated figures before year end, but it should be kept in mind that the company did announce reaching the 600,000 subscriber mark in early September.

A potential law in Ethiopia would prohibit a company from owning a newspaper and radio station at the same time, the Exchange News Network reports.

According to a news release this morning, Howard Stern is leaving Viacom to join SIRIUS satellite radio as of January 1, 2006.

The statement goes on to say that "Stern only would need to generate approximately one million subscribers in order to cover the costs of the deal." I don't think that's out of the realm of possibilities. I am already a SIRIUS subscriber, love the service, and even listen to their online streaming while I'm away from my radio. Today is the first time I have ever been unable to reach the company's website.

Joe Territo posts some comments from Stern this morning. He says that "This news is as big as Howard hypes it to be."

Jeff Jarvis, over on the West Coast, is up and at 'em and comments here - looks like he's already signing up for SIRIUS. He also speculates that Stern may leave the Infinity/Viacom airwaves even sooner than January of '06.

The Globe and Mail picks up an AP story about Stern's departure, including a quote that certainly expresses Howard's opinions on the subject.

"The FCC ... has stopped me from doing business," Stern said. "... Clear Channel, you (expletives), I will bury you."

Let's think about that last comment for a second - is it possible that Stern could swing enough listenership over to satellite radio as a whole - SIRIUS or XM - that it could dramatically impact the business of Clear Channel (among other radio owners)?

[11:47am] Well, the SIRIUS site seems to be up and running now, and it's got an excellent little slideshow for the Howard Stern announcement.

MarksFriggin.com, a site written by Mark Mercer, has a runthrough of everything said on Stern's show this morning about the big move - some of the best information I've seen so far. [this will be moved to this page sometime today or tomorrow, you'll just have to scroll a little bit right now - just look for "Howard Moving To Sirius Satellite Radio In 2006! 10/06/04. 8:20am"] Looks like Stern doesn't plan to "screw around" with anything on the show, and he might just make it all the way to the end of 2005 - that is, if "Howard said he's going the make the next 15 months the best 15 months of radio they can" means anything. The quote about Clear Channel goes a little further than what was posted above - Mercer writes, "Howard said he just wants to bury Clear Channel and make each of their radio stations worth 3 cents."

One caller said "he'll be turning his FM radio off once Howard is done." Wow. I can honestly say (and I don't have SIRIUS in the car yet) that I really don't listen to FM radio that much anymore, except some very specific shows here and there. I listen to a ton of sports and talk radio on AM, and SIRIUS at home. So it sounds like this has some legs. Jeff Jarvis had speculated that this "is the last nail in the coffin of broadcast as the central medium in America." Howard, according to Mercer, agreed with that sentiment when answering questions from a reporter for New York's WABC-TV on air. Is this the beginning of the end for traditional FM radio?

The American Journalism Review's Carl Sessions Stepp writes an excellent piece describing the ins and outs of not-for-profit newsgathering and reporting groups, including PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," NPR and the St. Petersburg Times. The major theme I got out of it was that staffers don't seem to be worried about covering certain stories, companies, or individuals because of corporate interests or beliefs. While these organizations may not be breaking story after story, they appeal to a segment of the population that is looking for solid reporting and quality journalism. And from the reactions of various members of the "NewsHour" program, they feel that the manner in which they are able to gather information and present a story is much more real than what they had done while working at their for-profit previous employers. For instance:

Terence Smith, "The NewsHour's" media correspondent, joined the show after 13 years at CBS. He says ratings and resource issues dominated meetings at his former network. "The editorial meetings weren't editorial at all. They never had time to talk about how to cover the news. From the day I came here, the talk was about the news, what's in the news, what ought to be on the show."

Obviously using CBS as an example is probably not so keen these days, but it was the best quote in the article - when editorial meetings have nothing to do with the content to be covered, there's a problem. This reiterates a point I made on Sunday, that "it's better to get the news right the first time rather than concentrate only on being first."

Dan Gillmor posts a link to a slideshow of images taken of an FCC bust of a radio station broadcasting in Santa Cruz, California - without a license. The blog, written by Sean Gilligan, is supposed to be about video blogging. If he can pull up scoops like this on a regular basis, then it'll be such a huge impetus on the medium!

Michele at ASV posts some unfortunate news that definitely comes as a surprise. Radio has lost longtime DJ Scott Muni, whose cause of death is unknown at this time. Rolling Stone reports that he died last night at his home at age 74.

On Tuesday, satellite radio provider SIRIUS announced that Wal-Mart would be carrying a Sanyo Plug & Play device that offered the radio service for about $150. Opinions on Wal-Mart aside, can a big jump into an outlet like this give SIRIUS a huge jump in sales by year's end? There are tons of holiday gifts purchased at the store, including many that are outside of big-city America - which has been buffeted with SIRIUS advertising - so it definitely can't hurt.

To close the loop on this, it should be noted that Wal-Mart had been carrying a Jensen product in some locations, but I have not heard that it has made a huge dent in the market.

The Chicago Tribune reports that media conglomerate Clear Channel Communications plans to expand its reach of Spanish-language stations by flipping at least 20 currently-owned stations to that format over the next year or so.

The Associated Press covers an announcement by XM about the launch of XM Radio Online, a subscription-based service where, for $7.99/month, listeners can get XM's commercial-free radio over the Internet. The article also mentions that current customers of the satellite service can also have this option - albeit for a $3.99 monthly fee.

What is not mentioned is that XM competitor SIRIUS has always offered this service on its website - for no additional cost - to subscribers. Quick math says that now, SIRIUS at $12.95/month is actually a cheaper choice when you look at the products as "equals."

The Chicago Sun-Times' Robert Feder discusses the move that took effect on Chicago's AM airwaves today, when WGN's (liberal) Anne Maxfield moved over to WSCR to team up with (conservative) talk show host Mike North.

FMQB.com has details on a bunch of new, exclusive shows that XM satellite radio has announced for its lineup. The programming includes everything from interviews and live performances to shows hosted by artists like Tom Petty and Snoop Dogg.

NCTimes.com's John Maffei writes about Clear Channel potentially changing the format of southern California's XTRA (broadcast on AM 690 & 1150), which would no longer be a sports radio station, and KLAC out of Los Angeles will take over that format. Interestingly enough, XTRA currently carries the Los Angeles Clippers, while KLAC has the Los Angeles Lakers - how will this pan out?

Ex-Hot 97 morning show host Star, formerly of the "Star & Buc Wild" show on Emmis Communications' 97.1 WQHT, is apparently on the Clear Channel roster and wants to be back on the air in New York City, according to the David Hinckley of the New York Daily News. The article details Star's aim to be on-air with New York's Power 105.1, which has emerged as legitimate competition to the Emmis station. Hot 97 has held a pretty solid stranglehold on the New York area's "mainstream" hip hop and rap music listenership for some time.

I particularly enjoy the fact that Emmis is suing the talker for his on-air activities after keeping him in the job for quite a while. That would be like not firing someone for having a horrible talk show on your network, then when s/he finally quits or does something you can't help but get rid of them for, you sue for everything else that was done the whole time you were letting it go. I suppose that's why you get those "the opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the station broadcasting it" statements here and there on television shows....

TCPalm.com has details on the numerous radio stations on the eastern shores of Florida that were knocked off the air this past weekend, mostly due to damage to their broadcast towers. Some stations had difficulties with their studios, but a few were stuck having no way to disseminate their information. There's even a story about a HAM radio operator who helped get a station back up and running because of his frustration with not being able to hear about local news.

Let's hope that things can get straightened out before this weekend, when another hurricane, Ivan, may reach Florida's shores.

As much as they get berated for "ruining" radio, Clear Channel, as a business alone, can't be faulted for one thing - selling advertising and growing their reach. Whether they're doing anything good for the population of listeners who can only find the same stations with different call letters is another discussion. Reason's Jesse Walker details the company's recent entrance into liberal radio, wherein they've launched the Air America radio network on, as of Tuesday, eight of their 1,200+ stations.

Remember - Clear Channel's own Lowry Mays said that the company was in business to do one thing and one thing only - make money. This FORTUNE article has it all - "If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company. We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products."

There's a demand for liberal talk radio, and Clear Channel is looking to meet it, whether or not it fits their usual agenda of what's on-air - because what's on-air is irrelevant to the company's "personal" politics - this should be brutally apparent by now.

Heather Wilson at CBS MarketWatch covers Monday's announcement that satellite radio provider SIRIUS had reached the 600,000 subscriber level. In July, the company signed up its 500,000th customer, and continues to aim for 1 million by year's end.

Last week, news came out that an XM radio subscriber had created software to record audio from the satellite service and save it digitally. A few days later, XM dumped their USB connectable hardware in order to stop this from continuing, at least for customers that don't have it already. Matt Haughey at PVRblog comments on the situation, and points out one thing - XM may have screwed up here.

Radio World has the details on the recent reorganization announcement at media measurement company Arbitron. The effort looks to streamline the U.S. Media Services organization, with overall sales and marketing efforts being more closely matched together, ultimately reporting to one executive, Owen Charlebois. Previously, the groups did not fall under the same leadership.

It looks as if the distribution method that is the Internet has forced some concerns on the part of XM's lawyers. Reuters reports that Scott MacLean, a Canadian XM radio subscriber, has created a software package called TimeTrax that allows for the recording and saving of any music off of the satellite radio service.

BusinessWeek's Amy Tsao gives a review of XM's overall situation vs. that of SIRIUS. While SIRIUS has been doing a great job at teaming up with car manufacturers to get their products included in stock vehicles, their cost of business is much higher than their competitor. The article reports that XM's cost to acquire a customer is just $101 - SIRIUS' is $234 as of Q2/2004.

In early August, sandwich restaurant Quiznos reportedly removed advertising from "urban" radio stations, causing a bit of a stir. On Thursday, blackenterprise.com has an article by K. Terrell Reed that describes how this might change. According to the piece, Quiznos and Radio One, owner of 69 stations in 22 urban markets, are discussing the possibility of the restaurant running advertising over the radio network.

Westwood One announced Wednesday that they would be broadcasting the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 29, over the MTV Radio Network - which is on 165 stations across the U.S. The radio coverage will include pre- and post-show events, performances, and interviews.

The News Journal reports that Clear Channel has purchased WILM 1450 AM, an all-news station out of Wilmington, Delaware. According to the article, WILM is one of a few stations that produce most of their own content, including shows and news - and Clear Channel seems to have agreed to keep the same format.

Tylerpaper.com picks up a primer from the AP on choosing satellite radio service.

Azcentral.com picks up an article that covers an interesting happening in the crackdown on indecency on radio stations in America - a lack of it on Spanish-language stations. And the reason isn't all that surprising - language difficulties. That's right - there are only 2 Spanish speaking FCC employees who look into complaints, and there are 705 radio and television stations in the country, the Los Angeles Times' Agustin Gurza reports.

Nat Ives at the New York Times writes in Monday's paper that Navigauge, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company, is currently testing an in-vehicle device and method for measuring radio listenership. It'll be quite curious to see if any (or all?) of the data provided by Arbitron will be validated or looked at in a different manner, long-term, once these results are made public.

[via The Agonist]

TheSanDiegoChannel.com informs that the Air America Radio network is now on air in San Diego on KLSD AM 1360. It seems that station owner Clear Channel has chosen to mix it up a little, as conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh will be heard alongside their liberal counterparts.

[update] A commenter elsewhere points out that Rush & Al aren't on the same station - just the same market and on stations owned & operated by Clear Channel. The way the article was written doesn't make this perfectly clear, and I didn't check the affiliates myself beforehand. Rush is on KOGO 600 and Al is on 1360.

The Associated Press reports Monday that Clear Channel has sold five of its stations to Aberdeen Radio Ranch, a North Dakota-based company. This move takes Clear Channel effectively out of the South Dakota market, at least as far as ownership goes.

Twice in the last week I wished I could have rewound what I heard on the radio to listen again. Thanks to Delphi, that same wish is possible for XM customers that have the new SkyFi2 equipment. David Wilkerson at Investor's Business Daily has the details.

Eric McErlain over at Off Wing Opinion posts about speculation that popular sportswriter / talk show host Tony Kornheiser could be making his way back on the radio in the Washington, D.C. area sometime soon.

[update 11/10/04] He's back! Details available here.

Bend, Oregon's The Bulletin had an article Sunday by Cathy Carroll entitled "Radio wave," about the state of radio in central Oregon. Not only are the 15 major stations locally owned and operated, but advertising sales increases are moving up in a big way - "nearly double the national average," Carroll reports.

Anyway - the New York Daily News has an item Saturday by David Hinckley about SIRIUS satellite radio picking up a radio show by the Beer Radio Network. This comes just over a week after XM announced it would work with Starbucks to carry the "Starbucks Hear Music" station on its schedule.

[ed: Well, if two companies are a trend, I suppose the title is apt.]

The Indianapolis Star reports Thursday that the FCC and Emmis Communications have agreed upon a $300,000 fine for indecent materials that were broadcast in the past. Emmis, the owner of various publications and 27 radio stations, also stated that the company would be implementing a "zero tolerance" policy for their on-air talent.

L.A. Lorek of the San Antonio Express-News writes Thursday that the next issue of Rolling Stone magazine contains an article that media conglomerate Clear Channel is already ticked off about. However, Lorek reports, Clear Channel contends that "the article contains more than 30 instances of errors or omissions," and the company is waiting to hear what the mag has to say about that.

TheState.com has an article Sunday by Christopher Boyd that describes the "competition" between high-definition radio - which brings high quality sound to your tuner - and satellite radio. Boyd introduces XM and SIRIUS to readers, but gets the figures wrong on the latter - SIRIUS has 500,000 users and counting as of mid-July. I think he's also way off base with his thoughts on competition between the two types of radio distribution:

Yet just as the two companies see hope for a profitable future, new earthbound competition is taking shape. HD radio, a digital format that brings compact-disc sound to FM broadcasts and allows AM stations to offer stereo programming, is now available through more than 110 radio stations nationwide.

The argument to the contrary is right under Boyd's nose. Many people that have shifted to satellite radio for the bulk of their listening have done so for one reason - no commercials. It's worth it for these people do pay a fee every month to keep the ads from reaching their ears. And the beginning of the article makes the argument against competition for the satellite service. “No matter what you want to listen to, you can find it. And there aren’t any of those stupid commercials to interrupt the music," says Sofyan Alif, an interested buyer in satellite service.

Boyd misses yet another point here, and it's embedded in that same quote above - you can always find what you're looking for. Reason #2 (or #1 for some people, I would surmise) is that satellite radio plays a much larger playlist than does your typical pop music station, or even oldies or classic rock stations.

Sure, not everyone wants to - or can afford to - pay a fee for music every month, as discussed in the article. But those people aren't the ones stuck on moving to satellite. The digital sound isn't going to change those people's minds into saying "Gee, you know, my local station owned by media consolidator #3 sure sounds much clearer now, and even though they play the same 11 songs every hour and have 15-20 minutes of commercials I think I'm going to stick with them and not move to satellite radio."

So while HD radio competes on a technical level, it's still apples and oranges in this particular case. Change the way broadcast radio does business, and perhaps people will toe the line a little further. Even the commercials might not eventually be the problem - it's the amount of songs that stations are playing. And when the "competition" is just a button a way on your car's receiver, why would people stick to their local pop station when they can hear eight stations within the genre?

According to this AP report, "shock jocks" Opie & Anthony will be appearing on XM satellite radio this October. Hearing them won't be cheap though - the story states that XM listeners will have to pay $2/month to hear their show.

Elizabeth Green at the Washington Times covers a recent move by Quiznos Subs to implement something called a "no-urban dictate," wherein the advertiser tells its ad buying agency that it does not want to have its wares marketed on "urban" radio stations. Quiznos states that their research "showed that the company should not advertise on those stations," and they are standing behind their decision.

Hey, it's up to anyone to decide where you do or do not want to advertise, but it's kind of funny that this would happen when there are absolutely Quiznos locations in the markets where the "urban" radio stations broadcast into. Obviously there are other stations servicing those areas, but after seeing that this isn't that uncommon a practice, it doesn't look like too positive a move. As a former media buyer (yes, I'll stop saying that eventually), I always took the tactic of advertising in the medium (print or otherwise) that would bring a particular group or groups to use my company's product. Though advertising is not a perfect science, and one might argue that ads don't necessarily affect all parties in a market (which is true), it does seem a little strange if these are the only changes that Quiznos has made in these markets.

CNN's Kathleen Kingsbury and Michael Coren report on the growth of satellite radio in the U.S., including comments from one XM customer who "could not turn it off."

Related: XM and Starbucks have teamed up to offer the "Starbucks Hear Music" station on the radio network starting in 2005, Brandweek reports.

Radio World's "NewsBytes" feature had an item on Thursday about additional programming on XM's satellite radio service. The provider has added a new station, "XM Public Radio," which will have many popular public radio shows such as "The Writer's Almanac" with Garrison Keillor and "This American Life."

Elpasotimes.com picks up an Associated Press item about the removal of a one hour liberal talk show from radio station KNFT in Silver City, New Mexico. According to the story, more than 20 advertisers called the radio station to complain about the show, forcing station owner Matt Runnels to take the program off the air.

[via The Raw Story]

Satellite radio provider SIRIUS announced its second quarter results for 2004 on Wednesday. The company stated a net loss of $136.8 million, $25 million more than the same period in 2003. While the company has increased its subscriber base substantially year-over-year, it has also dramatically grown its marketing expenses. These expenses include various promotions such as rebates and free or low cost systems to new subscribers.

We've all heard the commercials for XM satellite radio that say something to the effect of "It's not AM, it's not FM. It's XM." But just because the company says that doesn't mean that "XM" the brand should be the trade name for that "band" of radio, does it?

Theresa Stahl at the Naples News reports that a Florida-based company, Baxter Technologies, Inc. seems to think so, and has gone to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to state their case. Baxter has a service - which hasn't come to market yet - which will allow its users to dial a telephone number and "identify" songs from a particular group of radio stations the customer previously selects. The songs would then be sent to the customer's email address - for the low price of $.50/song. Baxter states that their product would be called "XM2YOU," and that the currently running radio network would have a conflict with their pending name.

Definitely an interesting way to go at something. Though I would punch one hole through Baxter's theory - if "XM" should be the band - or more specifically, the distribution method - that satellite radio was flowing on, then technically SIRIUS would be using the band as well, right?

This technology brings to mind Sony's defunct eMarker, which allowed you to press a button on the device when listening to the radio and wanted to remember a song later. You would then plug the device into your computer at a later time, and "look up" the songs playing in your particular market at the time you "marked" them. Seemed like a great idea, but Sony abandoned it after about a year of use.

[update] To clarify, by "band," I was referring to the manner in which the satellite transmissions were traveling to your radio from space.

The Daily Sentinel reports on an AP wire story announcing a deal between satellite radio provider SIRIUS and Mazda. The article states that the car maker will offer SIRIUS service in six of its models, including two models as soon as late July 2004.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune picks up an AP article about Howard Stern's return on Monday to some Florida markets. The article describes how at least one concerned Floridian, Mary Ellen Edison, is aiming to make him disappear - again.

While we all understand that people don't like the content on Stern's program, I think she's off base in her plans to derail the return to the airwaves. Edison says that her plans are to listen to his show, keep track of what is discussed and then "contact [the show's advertisers] in writing and let them know what their dollars are supporting." Isn't that kind of silly? I certainly hope this woman doesn't think the folks advertising on Stern's show have no idea what is going on every day on the air. If you want to wage war on the show, then do something productive and boycott the advertisers and get your friends to do so. Sending letters isn't going to help....unless you send them to Michael Powell, that is.

According to an item by Reuters' Michele Gershberg, media conglomerate Clear Channel is making changes regarding their radio advertising strategy. On Sunday, Clear Channel CEO John Hogan announced that the company will actually put limits on the amount of advertising placed on their stations for two reasons: they realize the "annoyance factor" going on with their listeners, and that the glut of commercial space that is currently being offered provides no real value to the advertiser. This "glut" subsequently pushes ad rates down, adversely affecting the financials of radio stations.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio announced on Friday that ultra-popular skateboarder Tony Hawk has joined their lineup to host a show on Faction, an upcoming station geared towards "action sports enthusiasts."

Just-auto.com reports Friday that Hertz has decided to extend the distribution of SIRIUS satellite radio service into more vehicles in their fleet.

While this obviously does wonders for current subscribers of the radio service, as they can use it while "on the road," it'd be very interesting to get a handle on the number of people who decide to purchase SIRIUS after using it in a rental car.

Kevin Washington of the Baltimore Sun states his case for adopting satellite radio (in this instance, XM) as the fix for annoying talk radio or lack of music choice. Just one thing - he forgot to mention that you get no commercials on XM or SIRIUS service.

If political talk is your thing, then you might be inclined to check out the "Imus in the Morning" program on Thursday morning, July 15. Senators John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democratic ticket for the White House in 2004, will be on the air at 7:45am Eastern Time.

You can find affiliate information for the "Imus" show at the WFAN.com website about midway down the page. The show is also simulcast on MSNBC from 6-9am Eastern.

Designtechnica News has an item Wednesday about SIRIUS Satellite Radio's announcement on crossing the half-million subscriber mark. According to the piece, they have 500,749 users as of close of business July 13. The company has a goal of 1 million subscribers by the end of 2004.

This latest announcement reflects a gain of over 100,000 sales in a two-month period, as SIRIUS announced the 400,000 mark on May 11. While doubling their customer base is definitely a tall goal to reach in 5 1/2 months, keep in mind that they had an increase of just over 90,000 for the entire first quarter of 2004.

Mediaweek.com's Katy Bachman covers an announcement by satellite radio provider XM stating that they will add Atlantic Coast Conference and Pacific-10 football and basketball games to their lineup.

The New York Post's Tim Arango covers the latest move by SIRIUS Satellite Radio to add some edge to their lineup. According to Arango, Interscope Records, Eminem, and other artists on Eminem's label will be part of a new hip-hop channel on the satellite radio service.

[via Drudge Report]

Back in February, three broadcasting companies discussed the possibility of bringing satellite radio service to Canadians. On Friday, Radio World Newspaper confirmed that the Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced its plans to hold public hearings this November on the topic. What's even more interesting is that the three companies, CBC/Radio-Canada, Standard Radio Inc., and SIRIUS Satellite Radio are in discussions to form a new company between them to offer the services.

The San Antonio Business Journal reports today that Clear Channel CEO John Hogan has won the Executive of the Year award from Radio & Records Magazine - an award he won in 2003 as well..

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Julie Washington reports today that Salem Communications has finalized a deal to re-acquire WRMR 1420. WRMR has been Cleveland's only station in the "big band" format, which Salem actually sold to another station in that city back in 2001.

On Monday, just six days from today, Salem plans to change the station's format, possibly to something more in line with their company's themes: Christian Teaching/Talk; News/Talk; or Contemporary Christian Music.

[update] The Plain Dealer's Clint O'Connor updates us on yesterday's story about the sale of WRMR 1420. According to this latest article, WRMR will now be known as WHK (which is moving from 1220 on the dial) and will be filled with a news/talk format.

Smartmoney.com has a Dow Jones Newswire story about today's announcement that Howard Stern and Infinity Broadcasting are suing Clear Channel for breach of contract. The suit is for $10 million, and stems from Stern's show being dropped from six Clear Channel stations last February.

Radio Ink reports that Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting has dropped Arbitron for market and ratings information and chosen to work with The Media Audit as of July 1st.

The Star-Ledger's Josh Margolin has an article in yesterday's paper describing how some radio stations in New Jersey have altered their approach to talk shows and on-air banter in order to stay within the limits the FCC has vaguely set for them.

The main example is that of Mary Walter, who is the host for the evening "Passion Phones" show on New Jersey 101.5 FM (ding!). Walter has significantly changed what she talks about on the air, as well as the levels of tolerance for people calling into her show. Margolin reports that there is "a nearly two-page list of topics [Walter] could not go near on the air -- even though she's used some of them before." While some of the content might be risque, the show isn't exactly the locker room. This just goes to show that it's not just Howard Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge, and others that are taking a hit with the recent crackdown by the FCC - it's much tamer shows with audiences who aren't necessarily complaining about the content.

There's nothing I love more about this article from Variety than its first line, where author Jill Goldsmith states that "the strategy of stuffing commercial radio full of ads has backfired."

What should disturb all of us is that it's not as if one radio exec did this - a lot of them did - though I'm sure consolidation of radio stations caused a big part of this problem. So now it seems like that song you think you hear once an hour is actually heard more than once an hour in actual music time, sans commercials - which were reportedly up to 25 minutes of an hour in at times. If people complain about getting a 22 minute program in a half hour slot on the television schedule, what do you think they would do if they got 17 1/2 minutes per half hour slot? That's comparable to what radio programmers have done in the most extreme example.

At least in print advertising (mostly magazines), you can request to not be in a "well" of advertising - that opportunity isn't available on the radio. If the norm stays at 4 minute blocks of commercials, no one is going to want to be in the middle two minutes, because brand recognition is degraded so heavily.

Enter satellite radio. Advertisers don't get the benefit of reaching the audience on satellite radio, but as a medium goes, I think the subscriber growth shows that listeners are willing to pay a $10-$14 price per month for commercial-free radio. Satellite radio does have "reach" issues in some cases and is more affected by weather changes than traditional broadcast radio, so I don't expect your FM station to disappear anytime soon, but something has to be done strategy-wise in order to allow stations to operate while giving their customer what they have tuned in to hear - music, news, or talk. Radio shouldn't have to be a free lunch - but it doesn't have to be the most costly one either.

[via Drudge Report]

According to this article at Reuters, satellite radio provider XM has signed up its 2 millionth customer. This marks an effective doubling of their customer base in just about nine months, and I would expect this to be a hot topic of discussion in "over the air" radio station boardrooms this week.

Michael Bowen from Cobb will be on the air tonight on WCLK radio at 10pm Eastern. The show he's participating in is called "PowerPoint," and he'll be "defending the Reagan Legacy from a black perspective," he states.

It's always great to see or hear a fellow blogger through another medium, and if you're interested to hear what Bowen has to say, you can go here to listen to the radio station's online stream. The "PowerPoint" show begins at 9pm and runs for two hours.

[update] In the comments, blogger Lester Spence from Vision Circle points out that he was part of the panel on the radio show as well - which, from the brief comments Michael Bowen posted on Cobb - went pretty well.

AP's Jill Barton reports that radio host Rush Limbaugh and his wife, Marta, were dissolving their marriage "pending an amicable resolution."

This summer, Sam Adams and three radio station networks have teamed up to bring the "Announcer for an Inning" contest to New England, Chicago and New York.

If you're interested, the Sam Adams website has further details, locations for auditions, and information about what game you might get to call an inning for.

[via BusinessWire]

Last month, word on the street was that men's mag Maxim was talking with both Sirius and XM about having a radio show with the trendiness of the magazine.

Today, the Lexington Herald-Leader picks up this AP story by Seth Sutel that reports on Sirius' "win" in the deal, with the new Maxim Radio channel starting this summer on its network. According to the article, the station will have a blend of music and "conversation starters like items on pop culture, gossip, cool new gadgets and anecdotes from the sporting world."

Felix Sanchez at the Long Beach Press-Telegram is covering the International Satellite Convention & Expo currently taking place in Long Beach, California - specifically reactions towards satellite radio offerings. It looks as if the deals with General Motors and Chrysler have formed with XM and Sirius, respectively, will have a big impact on subscriber growth - especially with dealers offering the product for free at the beginning of a car lease/loan. Also of note is the move by Radio Shack to sell Sirius units and subscriptions in its US stores in 2004.

As these two companies have been making deals with outlets to sell their product, I'm interested to see if the "leapfrog" effect takes hold, with each one trying to best the other with the retailer that begins selling their wares. Adding 7,000 locations for Sirius is great (in their Radio Shack Deal), but what happens if XM were to sign on with, say, Home Depot or Wal-Mart in an exclusive arrangement? I think the more "mainstream" shopping places are the key because a lot of people who utilize specialty car audio shops are well aware of the satellite radio product and have at least tested it out, if they don't have it already. Many of those specialty stores actually sell both products, in my experience, and represent one-at-a-time deals that XM and Sirius would have to make to gain subscriber base. However, these stores were the first to truly adopt the technology and need to have it on hand to satisfy their customers' needs.

Diane de la Paz of the Tacoma News Tribune writes about how problems with the FCC have one radio station, KISW 99.9 FM out of Seattle seemingly "toeing the line" between what the FCC is allowing on the air and what is going to keep them from getting fined - while still keeping their audience interested. Another station, KRWM 106.9 FM out of Bellvue, Washington, takes a completely different tact - and has for years and years now. The article describes KRWM as the station "you won't be embarrassed to listen to while your kids are in the car" - and the station describes itself that way to listeners.

Two stations, two formats, two attitudes toward music and radio. Both seemingly successful in a market up to this point. They seem to be getting along just fine, probably having completely different target markets for listeners. There is a reason why KISW exists - it's for people who don't listen to what KRWM have to offer. And vice versa. Unfortunately, the way the FCC and many large media conglomerates are thinking, having a bunch of KRWMs out there is the "safe" bet. Unfortunately, alienating a lot of listeners comes with that decision, and I'm not sure that radio execs necessarily will fight the change, when it comes down to it.

According to this article by Matthew Daneman at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the University of Rochester's radio station, WRUR-FM (88.5) will be pre-recording their shows. Everything from late night to mid-day (except the NPR audio they run in mornings, mostly) will be taped.

Why, you ask? Well, because they might get fined if something happens on air. So to pre-empt this from happening, all shows will now be pre-recorded and "screened" before going on the air, adding a bit of time lag to the content, but hey - who needs live content when you can play today's content tomorrow!

”The primary focus is the summer, when we don’t have a lot of people here” to monitor and supervise the radio station, said Dean of the College William Scott Green. “It’s basically a response to the heightened sensitivities and the broadcast climates. This is a way to make sure … we’re careful.”

The school may or may not continue this in the fall term, but in the meanwhile - that's the deal.

[via MetaFilter]

Radio World Online reports that XM's satellite radio service has brought its beach traffic reports to additional markets.

Beginning Memorial Day Weekend, XM Satellite Radio will expand its weekend beach traffic reports for Cape Cod; Long Island/North Jersey Shore; South Jersey Shore; Delaware Beaches - including Rehoboth and Bethany; Eastern Maryland Shore - including Ocean City and Orange County and Los Angeles County.

This is one of the best things I've heard - think about it this way - if you're on a vacation and not staying right on the beach - and you're not familiar with the area - you're not going to know the local stations to get this info - XM swoops in and creates a possibly huge time-saver. [ed: I think there needs to be a ";" after Ocean City]

Sirius continues to pull out the stops all over the place in their aim to move up in the market and come neck and neck with XM. According to Reuters, Sirius boss Joseph Clayton has big plans for the company, and I'm not even sure which of the latest developments is the biggest. From wearable receivers to shock jocks, they're continuing to make huge strides. I almost wish the fast forward machine were working so I could see what the books looked like in two quarters.

This satellite radio stuff is no passing fad - the original instance of Iridium was a fad, but it's a way to go in the future, especially for military/corporate communication. Sirius and XM have hit the timing just right, methinks, the way they are.

Radio Ink picks up an article from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle about a lawsuit filed against Clear Channel Communications. The suit states that "announcers called a minor girl derogatory and sexually explicit names after her name was spoken by a caller on the air." The station, 96.7 KISN FM, seems to be the Top 40-ish station in the Bozeman, Montana market.

Slander and invasion of privacy are going to be the least of the worries for this family as this lawsuit moves on. With the amount of interested parties closely following how radio stations and the FCC are making changes to how business gets done, I'm surprised this story hasn't been picked up as the "poster child" (I apologize for the pun) for getting rid of indecency on the airwaves.

The folks over at Stereophile have a piece from yesterday describing the potential of the deal made earlier this month when Sirius and EchoStar signed up to offer Sirius Satellite Radio over the hardware that EchoStar's customers currently have for their DISH Network service.

According to the article, premium DISH users will get Sirius for no additional cost, and other options are available to customers not at the "premium" level. While everyone in the 9.7 million isn't going to sign up for / utilize the service, it does technically give Sirius access to those customers who are subscribed to the "premium" programming - just to show their wares. I'm not expecting a leapfrog effect of Sirius over XM anytime soon, but this deal, combined with some of the car manufacturer contracts signed this year, definitely confirm Sirius as a major player in this duality of a market.

The Washington Business Journal's Tucker Echols reports that Radio One has purchased a radio station on the gulf side of Texas.

While it's not that strange to change formats of radio stations, and even their call letters in some cases, it's strange when you combine those actions with this quote: "Radio One says KRTS is one of the last high-powered, independently owned radio stations in the Houston market." Talk about tabula rasa!

The New York Post reports today that men's magazine Maxim is looking to add some audio to it's visual. They're apparently in discussions with XM and Sirius to offer a whole channel's worth of content to customers of one or both of the networks.

The article, of course, turns into a discussion about the merits of satellite radio - namely that the "shock jockage" quotient is on the way straight up on the medium.

In recent weeks, radio talk shows have been claiming that the acts at Abu Ghraib prison pale in comparison to events like Nicholas Berg's beheading and the random "terror" attacks on soldiers and Western invidivuals in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'll start this off by saying that if Americans don't think that humiliation, harassment, or other torture-like happenings don't occur in every single war effort, they are missing something. It might not be rampant throughout the field, but it does happen. Other countries do it - perhaps a little more government sanctioned than the U.S. does, but it does happen. All we've done is proven that the US of A isn't any better than other countries when it comes to war methods - right or wrong as they might be.

Philip Smucker over at MediaChannel.org states that the commentary by right-side talk show hosts does nothing more than make it seem like "our enemies are far more inhumane than anyone on the U.S. side." Without at all discussing the right of a Sean Hannity or Michael Savage to say such things, let's ask a question - do you think they would state the same case if the Democratic party were in the White House and controlling the House and Senate? Is this just an extension of suspicions by some on the left that the press - including talk radio - are just shilling for government policy?

Or is the popularity of talk show hosts like Michael Savage (whose most recent quotes on the Iraq war can be found here at Media Matters) saying something bigger about the American public? To me, the popularity of Michael Savage and his frequent comments that would probably be categorized as "hate speech" by most people is just continuing to push the fact that what "the people" want to hear, read and see is not at all what the FCC claims is in demand.

[Michael Savage link via CableNewser]

Radio Ink reports that in April, General Motors exercised its option to purchase 10 million more shares of XM Satellite Radio. Now I can't be sure, but since the purchase had an effect on the publicly-traded XMSR stock symbol, I'm guessing it was that class of stock.

And while these holdings are slightly outdated, 10 million shares easily puts GM at the top of the list of stakes in the company.

CableNewser informs us about Howard Kurtz's note in this column about how MSNBC is looking to move Don Imus and his crew out to a studio in Secaucus, New Jersey in order to make it more television-ish instead of their existence in the WFAN studio in Queens.

I have three things to say - 1) Don't do it - ruin this show by bringing it there and out of WFAN and there'll be hell to pay. 2) It'll never happen. While it would be amusing to hear Don complain about travelling to New Jersey instead of Queens every morning, I can't see him kowtowing to the network on this one. 3) Then again, Don has been complaining about the ventilation in the studio forever. Who knows.

Just my opinion, but I think I have an educated guess on this.

From 5:30 this morning until the end of the "Imus in the Morning" radio show tomorrow morning, New York-based sports radio station WFAN will be hosting their 15th Annual Radiothon which benefits a number of charitable organizations, including the Tomorrows Children's Fund, The CJ Foundation for SIDS, and the Imus Ranch for kids with cancer.

It's a great effort put forth by the station, its hosts, and the callers and fans of the 'FAN. Not only can you call in to make a donation, but if you head over to the WFAN.com homepage and click on the banner for the radiothon, you can pledge online - something I don't believe they had available last year.

As Imus has been saying all morning - you don't have to call in and pledge $500 or anything like that - all the donations add up, $5, $10, or whatever. So if it's something you are interested in, head on over and drop some money in their basket. You can also hang on until the 11 o'clock hour this morning (Eastern time) when the "Mac & Sid" and "Mike & the Mad Dog" shows will be offering great sports-related packages up for bid.

Radio Ink reports that Sirius had a 110% year-over-year increase in sales for March.

Onlinejournalism.com's Sogole Honarvar writes about something read on I Want Media about a new site, SaveRadioNow.org. The site was created with the purpose of keeping Americans informed about what the possible outcomes of the decency "crackdown" are, and has links to a petition, information about how to contact your government representatives, and other helpful tips.

Quoted in the article is Fred Jacobs, one of the site's founders. Mr. Jacobs says something that Jeff Jarvis, myself, and others have been talking about for months now -

"There is a large gap between the opinions about indecency that are being expressed by the FCC and Congress and what we're hearing from radio listeners in America."

Bingo.

Motor Boating Magazine's Dan Fales writes a short piece about how many boats are coming off of the production line with Sirius-capable radios installed. But more importantly, he points out that Sirius will have the whole NFL season, 40 NBA, and 40 NHL games - so even out there on the lake you can catch the game. Just be careful with the jumping up and down.

The Chicago Sun-Times Robert Feder writes today about Premiere Radio Networks' announcement that Donald Trump will be taking part in a daily dose of morning radio, entitled "Trumped!" (tm), making its way across Clear Channel stations nationwide June 15th. Mr. Trump will share some views and commentary on various topics, including a reason why he fired the latest "Apprentice"-wannabe on the upcoming second season of his hit "reality" show, "The Apprentice."

[via BusinessWire]

Just read about the advent of E-Auction-Air, a new radio show coming out of 1370 AM in Austin, Texas. The radio show is hosted by Michael Donahue and Bill Crawford, both Austin residents. Mr. Donahue is a "Powerseller" on eBay, and brings his business experience together with Mr. Crawford's media skills to form a radio show from 7-8pm on Sunday nights that's all about eBay and online marketplaces.

Pretty cool idea, I must say. While I'm guessing that they have to beat down the callers who might get on the air (if they take callers!) trying to promote product number 18259010281091580 on eBay, it's definitely something that could be really informative. They reportedly have a title sponsor for the show in Overstock.com, and if their listeners are anything like the hardcore eBay bidders out there, this show could grow very quickly outside of the Austin marketplace.

[via PRWeb]

Okay, howabout they "turned the dial" instead... Jeff Jarvis points out that a radio station in San Diego went from 1st to 27th after dropping Howard Stern from the airwaves. And the statistic that blows them all away: men 18 years and older used to be a 20.6 rating on the station. Now it's a 0.8.

Jeff's summary can't be topped - "The FCC is protecting no one."

The Detroit Free Press' Mike Wendland tried his hand at both XM and Sirius radios, and his thoughts can be summed up quite quickly - "Satellite radio is the best thing to happen to radio since FM."

Take that to the bank store, but not before you read Mike's piece.

[update 10/6/04] Since this post, many things have changed at the competitors - XM has gained the "Opie & Anthony" program, and SIRIUS announced today that Howard Stern would join their airwaves as of January 1, 2006. Will programming continue to be the differentiator in the companies, or will quality of service take hold?

The Macon Telegraph picks up an AP story from this morning that talks about the sudden format change at Savannah's WSOK-AM, which has a primarily African-American listenership. The kicker to the story is that another station in the area, WTKS-AM, which attracts a predominantly white audience, has not had such changes take place.

What are the changes that have caused such an uproar? Well, the WSOK station has been informed that all "talk radio" shows, which primarily talked about local and U.S. politics, will have to be taped in advance, and have no callers anymore. The WTKS station hasn't experienced similar changes to their format. According to the article, Clear Channel says "the two stations have different formats." The station reportedly came in at the top of the Arbitron ratings in the area, which would tell me that it wasn't an issue with the public - the topics discussed on the station, that is.

While there was a potential conflict with one of the political hosts, the format of the station - at least in the eyes of the listeners and State Sen. Regina Thomas, was to be "the radio church of the black community." While Clear Channel is claiming that "personnel cuts had made it too difficult to run the control boards for the mostly nighttime live shows," why wouldn't the issue be the same at the station across town? If anything, that's what makes me feel like this is a little quirky. This isn't a capitalistic move, because if the community was there and listening to the station as the article states, then advertiser dollars should have been there to meet the demand.

Am I calling Clear Channel a racist? Absolutely not. Do I feel this was handled in a strange way? Absolutely.

NewsMax.com reports that talk show host Michael Savage's program on WOR 710AM will move from 7pm to 6pm. It currently runs from 7-9pm in New York, although the show runs four hours in total. In San Francisco, the show has been moved back to 3-7pm Pacific Time.

USA Today picks up an AP story by Ellen Simon that talks about the potential for satellite radio in the future. The primary reason for some of interest in the satellite radio industry? The ability to attract talent that might have been regulated out of business on the regular airwaves - maybe.

Ms. Simon describes the medium as a "radio equivalent of cable TV — a popular destination for racy, raunchy, unregulated content." Which is sort of a good thing, but at the same time I don't think XM or Sirius really want to be known as the source for raunch over the radiowaves. In any case, if Howard Stern has done anything by going through what he has, it's to draw a nationwide eyeball towards XM and Sirius.

Radio Ink points out that recent comments about Howard Stern making his way to satellite radio are just speculation, as his contract with Infinity has 18 months left on it. While valid, I think if it comes down to it, Infinity will have to take some action towards Stern if the FCC levies heavy fines on them for the programming.

Unfortunately, the article has a pessimistic thought towards Howard's audience - or new audience, as it were, saying "Stern would also be speaking to a much smaller audience than he is accustomed. Stern typically reached about 15 million listeners a day; satellite radio has fewer than two million subscribers."

Yeah, until he decided to go. If you don't think people would buy Sirius or XM if Howard Stern moved to one or both of them, get ready for a shock.

Media Life Magazine has a feature in its latest issue about the huge fines going out from the FCC against Clear Channel for carrying Howard Stern's program. The item focuses mostly - and most interestingly - on asking "How long will Mel back Howard?"

If Viacom is hit with a fine in the neighborhood of $1.5 million dollars, you better bet that Stern is going to have some troubles on the stations. Let alone the fact that after Clear Channel and Viacom, there is some number of independent stations and smaller networks that air Howard's show. Eventually, they will show up on the FCC's radar screen - unless they start dropping the show in advance of any fines.

On Don Imus' show this morning, he was responding to the latest fines related to Howard Stern's show and Clear Channel's subsequent "firing" of him from their stations. "It's a scary time in America, boys and girls," he said. "We don't need a bunch of Joe McCarthy's running around," referring to how people are deciding who to go on a witch-hunt after right now in the media world.

The Press-Enterprise picks up a CBS MarketWatch article by Andrea Coombes where she writes that "satellite radio appears poised to sweep up broadcast radio devotees en masse."

Could it be? As the debate has gone on for months about Howard Stern's potential (should we say eventual?) move to satellite radio, and the hardware becomes more prevalent in new car models, I'm not so surprised to hear a somewhat glowing commentary as this.

"Broadcast radio is such junk that there is definitely a real market out there to be tapped, but the big specter is paying for radio."

"Such junk," HA! It's good to hear people tell the truth sometimes, isn't it? But the one thing that disturbs me about the article is the commercial-free aspect - as in that it will go away, at least in part, sometime. Could a growing satellite radio industry handle the concerns of millions (I'm optimistic) of listeners a few years down the road? How would you feel about paying $10/month for radio and then getting commercials anyway? Considering it's a big marketing statement for the networks at this point to acquire new customers, I'd say it would definitely be an issue. And when you open up advertising to your market, you open up the possibility of your content being altered to suit your advertisers.

Do what you've got to do, satellite radio, but don't be surprised if any decision to bring commercials in a big way to your schedules causes a ruckus.

This article from the Houston Chronicle (originally by Jeff Leeds @ The LA Times) talks about how a judge in Denver ruled this week that Clear Channel would stand trial on charges of - now sit down - payola...

Some very interesting evidence is mentioned, such as a particular concert promoter (who is bringing the case to court) stating that whenever artists were booking concerts with them, they were being dropped from the airwaves - yet when the artists did Clear Channel promoted shows, they were given more "spins"...

Reuters' Sue Zeidler writes this afternoon about how the crackdown on indecency could ruin what gains the radio industry has had in recent times. The following quote sums it up pretty well...

If programs get boring and listeners turn off, advertisers might pull the plug on an industry hoping for 6 percent ad sales growth this year compared with a meager 1 percent in 2003, industry analysts said.

I think if we really lived in a place where it was a democracy, rather than democrazy, "people" might have a say in what we want to hear or not hear - see or not see, etc. But we are in a place where not only will our tax code flip flop ever 4-8 years, and our economic situation will flip flop every 4-8 years - but now what we can watch and hear will now be altered every 4-8 years. It's not like the Democrats would come in now and say that what Stern and company say on-air is decent or not - but that we can't have agencies sitting there saying things like "People don't want to hear this," when it isn't the truth across the board. It's like lobbying - he who screams loudest gets ahead.

Our elections aren't going to just be affected by Sterniacs. They will be affected by those of us who see that what the FCC is doing is going a little too far. So while they might be "cleaning up" the industry, they might as well just get out the dustpan, because it might end up in the trash.

With the announcement yesterday that Clear Channel would be fined $495,000 for some content on Howard Stern's morning program one year ago today, the network finally dropped Stern from its stations altogether.

I'm surprised that they chose to put that in any comments they had, since everyone already knew when they "suspended" Stern in February that he wouldn't be back on the air. It was the final straw for them, apparently, with Clear Channel President John Hogan stating, "Mr. Stern's show has created a great liability for us and other broadcasters who air it."

I'm interested to see why other stations aren't being hit with these fines - if they all aired Stern's program, why aren't all stations liable? Were there complaints filed against Clear Channel's stations individually? It just doesn't seem to make sense.

CNET's John Borland reports that next on the FCC's hotsheet is the creation of new rules for the broadcasting and reception of digital radio.

The concerns lie with the ability to receive digital radio because "Its receivers better resemble computers than they do traditional radio," and therefore create an easy opportunity to obtain high-quality recordings of audio "over the air" - once again bypassing digital music downloads online and having high-quality recordings that would be far superior to cassette recordings you made in 1986.

Yahoo! Travel has a page that is being promoted on their main site that talks about an Avis offering where if you rent a Premium or Luxury level vehicle - it comes available with XM Satellite Radio.

That's the first I've heard of the rental agencies having the satellite products installed in their vehicles.

The Detroit Free Press reports tonight that Sirius and Chrysler will be working together to have Sirius' product in 11 models of the 2005 season - with buyers getting a one year of subscription with their purchase.

Sirius is targeting 500,000 subscribers over the first two years of this planned venture.

Katrina vanden Heuvel writes about the upcoming Air America launch on March 31st, where Al Franken and company will take to the airwaves with a leftward lean. She certainly seems excited about the advent of this network....

I expect to see some interesting advertising in the first few days of next week in promotion for the programming going live. And to answer the question I posed earlier this month, it looks like Randi Rhodes will be talking it up from 3-7pm, matching wits against Sean Hannity for the drive-time slot. And I'm sure that Bill O'Reilly is just delighted that Franken's program is currently titled "The O’ Franken Factor".

The Herald-Tribune reports (via AP) that satellite big shot DirecTV is selling its stake of just under 5% of the outstanding XM Radio shares. While it means more shares out there for the rest of us, it doesn't spell good news for XM, at least in the short run.

Hopefully this isn't DirecTV showing us their "true colors" on what they think XM will do in the future.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Eckberg writes today about the recent shift to "wholesome"-ness in the radio broadcasting industry and how it has actually worked out for the best in some instances.

But what I got out of the article was that while the "coveted bracket of men 18 to 34 years old" can be reached by stations carrying adult-humour filled or more risque programming, allowing for "fast-food, soft-drink, and electronics companies, as well as concert and movie promoters" to become mainstays of advertising, changing ones tune can be good as well. The example given is about WRRM 98, which is family friendly and attracts a female audience in the 25-54 age range. This age group has advertisers like "grocery stores, automotive companies and retailers," Eckberg says.

So if by changing formats you aren't generally hurting your station (at least in the long term) when it comes to advertising dollars - you can always get *someone* to promote their company on your station. That doesn't spell good news for the so called "shock jocks" on stations across the nation. If the $27,500 fines start piling up, expect to see some changes on your dial - especially if the stations hit aren't owned by major players in the industry.

Arbitron is looking to roll out testing of a new way to measure trends on listenership/viewership, specifically its Portable People Meter, or PPM. The PPM is a pager-like device you would put in your pocket if you were chosen to participate in their measurement. The PPM would keep track of the broadcast tags that are floating around in the air, and specifically would know what stations you were flipping to on your car radio or what was on in the restaurant you were lunching in.

This could be in a major city this year, and Houston might be the place, according to the Houston Business Journal. The value proposition is measuring all the television and radio signals that a person comes across in a day - in one place - without the user having to keep track manually, like in a journal.

This afternoon, the Chicago Tribune's John O'Dell writes about Howard Stern's recent discussions about moving to satellite radio to avoid the FCC's fine-tuned ears and do his show in peace. Many have speculated that this would be a boon to XM and Sirius, the two companies currently providing satellite radio service. Stern's listenership far outweighs the total listeners on both of the providers, and could translate to new subscribers - but first we'd see if people are willing to pay for Stern.

Hugh Panero, XM Satellite's chief executive, pooh-poohed the possibility, saying he doubted whether XM or Sirius could afford the reported $20 million Stern pulls down a year through his contract with Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting."

Well howabout this idea - Stern goes solo, and both Sirius and XM pick up his feed, giving both systems his show? I think Stern has the clout, knowhow, and contacts to have his show self-produced and "sell" the rights to the stations. If "normal" radio stations wanted to buy in, they could, but would suffer the consequences of whatever Stern had to say. I think the latter is least likely, but why couldn't both satellite radio folks team up on something like this? It's in Stern's best interests to be involved in both if he's truly gung-ho on this idea, so why not give it a whirl?

[update: 10/6/04] It's a done deal.

You know, the good thing about having a million (okay, not a million) radio stations is that, well, you have a lot of radio stations. The bad news is, by having those radio stations, lots of things can go bad.

Like when your 96 Rock hosts Larry Wachs and Eric Von Haessler decide that talking to a porn star, recording it, and playing it backwards to taunt the FCC goes horribly wrong and you leave your microphones on during commercials.

Oops.