Radio BUS -February 26, 2001

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RADIO NEWS

White knights save researcher in distress 2

Amy Vokes and a platoon of familiar industry names have succeededin keeping Kurt Hanson's Strategic Media Research in business

Fool on the Hill? Tristani may make a run for it 2

Radio phone rules latest addition to the Gripes of Roth 2

Arbitron soon to spread its Ceridianless wings 3

What's Rhythmic and Old is new at JRN 3

In praise of the local radio road warrior 7

Big trouble in Binghamton? Hardly 8

PROGRAMMING FOR PROFIT

CRB heads to Music City to talk about Country 9-10

STATION PROFILES

WTEM: Taking a Sporting chance in the Nation's Capitol 11

MEDIA MARKETS & MONEY

Susquehanna garners KGAR for KC cluster 12

The as-yet-unbuilt CP will go to Susquehanna in stages-firstin a JSA this summer, them as an outright sale in three years.

Susquehanna, Regent break out the black ink 12

NJ Coast: I'll Hut and I'll put and I'll blow your LMA down 13

Puerto Rico Class As swap partners 13

Rodriguez makes his Marcos on Corpus Christi cluster 13

Powell & Co. reviewthe FCC's mission

"We have to be a lot morechallenging and creativeabout our own internal re-sources and how we reallo-cate, them," ChairmanMichael Powell said in dis-cussing the challenges fac-ing the FCC he now heads.

In a departure from theusual practice, not a singleitem for action was on theagenda for the FCC's 2/22monthly meeting. Rather, thenew chairman had the chiefof each FCC bureau speak tothe four commissionersabout their concerns,achievements and outlookfor the future.

Television is well alongthe road to digital, but radiois just beginning, Mass Me-dia Bureau Chief RoyStewart told the specialoverview session of the FCC,noting that the Bureau iscurrently reviewing digitalproposals for radio. Discuss-ing the convergence of vari-ous types of media provid-ers, Stewart proclaimed thatwe are standing at a water-shed for traditional broad-casting. "Various media

continued on page 2

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Voice Of The Radio Broadcasting Industry Radio NewsFebruary 26 2001, Volume 18, Issue 9

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previously considered separateand distinct are now offeringcompeting services to the con-sumer," Stewart said. Althoughhe offered no specific proposalsfor how to deal with media con-vergence, Stewart said it is be-coming increasingly importantfor the various bureaus of theFCC to work closely together.

Following Stewart's presen-tation, in which he applaudedhis staff for their dealings withLPFM, two Commissioners gotinto a bit of debate over LPFM."When Congress has to comein and clean up the mess, it isnot an accomplishment for thisagency," said CommissionerHarold Furchtgott-Roth (R).

That prompted Commis-sioner Gloria Tristani (D) todefend the FCC's move to cre-ate LPFM. "Low power radiowas a response to the real needof the American public and theAmerican people to have a littlepart of that spectrum," she said.

Stewart had earlier statedthat approximately 40% of theLPFM applications on file willbe nullified by congressionalaction which reinstated thirdadjacent channel protectionfrom interference. Tristani la-mented the churches and com-munity groups which will notbe able to using whatshe again insisted was "a tinybit of spectrum."

One of the biggest challengesfacing the FCC is staffing. Cur-rently some 30% of the Com-missions engineers are eligiblefor retirement. Both engineersand attorneys frequently leavetheir government posts at theFCC for higher -paying jobs inthe private sector. Powell hopesto attract new employees to theCommission by emphasizing thehigh profile of the FCC's mis-sion. "We are the intersectionof law, policy, economics andtechnology like, I think, noother," he said.-JM

SMR deal closed;

Hanson stays

The deal is done: The buyout ofStrategic Media Research (SMR)(RBR 2/5, p.4) by investmentteam Jimmy de Castro, AlfredLiggins, David Kantor, JeffMcClusky, Gary Slaight andJeff Trumper is final. A federalcourt judge had previously ap-proved the sale (1/30) from ma-jority ownership by ChartwellCapital and SMR President/Founder Kurt Hanson to thatteam which will be lead by SMRSVP Amy Vokes. Strategic filedChapter 11 in early January.

Hanson will be staying aboardin an executive, but not an own-ership, capacity with an as -yet -undetermined title. The com-pany, with $1M in operating capi-tal, is closing in on new officespace in Chicago.

"We're looking forward to put-ting Kurt and Amy back at thehelm of the company they ransuccesfully for so many years,"said de Castro. Hanson is commit-ted to staying on "for as long as ittakes to get Strategic's leadershipposition firmly established again."

Strategic's core businesses in-clude call -out music research,custom research projects, phone -based audience tracking and di-rect marketing services.-CM

Tristani eyeingCapitol Hill?

It's never been any secret thatCommissioner Gloria Tristani (D)regarded the FCC as a steppingstone to bigger things. After pass-ing up an opportunity to run forthe US House last year in herhome state of New Mexico, inexpectation that Al Gore wouldwin the presidency and appointher to chair the FCC (Oops! Slightmiscalculation there.), Tristani isrumored to be preparing the leavethe Commission soon to start fund-raising for the 2002 election. Will

www.rbr.com

file run against Sen. PeteDomenici (R -NM) or Rep.Heather Wilson (R -NM)? TheAlbuquerque Tribune quotedher as being undecided on whichcongressional seat to seek-butdefinitely interested in making a

bid for one of them.If she picks the Senate as

her target, Tristani would needto raise about $5M-so she'dneed to get started soon. IfTristani leaves the FCC soon,President Bush would have agrowing backlog of emptyseats to fill -two that can go toRepublicans, plus one whichwould have to go to a Demo-crat or independent.

RBR observation: Weknow plenty of broadcasterswho'd be happy to make acampaign donation if it willget Tristani off the FCC-justso long as she doesn't actuallywin a seat in Congress! Asidefrom her family heritage(grandpa was US Senator Den-nis Chavez), we can't imag-ine any reason why NewMexico Democrats are so anx-ious to have Tristani run. Herelitist, ivory tower approach togovernment-walling herselfoff from all but a tight innerring of advisors-should makeher an aloof, irritating candi-date. Sharp campaign consult-ants can disguise that in a bigstate campaign waged prima-rily on TV and radio, but that'snot the way campaigns are runin New Mexico. Pressing theflesh, kissing babies, judgingenchilada -making contests andmaking small talk with grizzledranchers and nostalgic littleold ladies would hardly fit withthe personality Tristani hasexhibited in Washington.Could she really be that differ-ent at home? We doubt it. Sen.Domenici is said to be facing atough battle to retain his seat.He might be lucky to haveTristani as his opponent.-JM

2/26/01 RBR

Furchtgott-Rothquestions phone rule

The FCC has affirmed two $4Kfines against Infinity Broadcast-ing (N:INF) for a "Don & Mike"show segment in 1999 in which awoman's phone conversation wasbroadcast without her permis-sion. The FCC rejected Infinity'sargument that it shouldn't be heldresponsible for the airing onKHTK-AM Sacramento, CA, sinceit was owned at the time by EZSacramento, a subsidiary ofAmeri-can Radio Systems-a companylater merged into Infinity. TheCommission also fined the origi-nating station, WJFK-FM Wash-ington, DC, which was and isowned by Infinity.

More interesting, however, isthe concurring statementof Commissioner HaroldFurchtgott-Roth (R), whoquestions whether the FCC hasany business regulating thebroadcast of phone calls. Hesays such complaints could bebetter dealt with under stateprivacy laws. "I believe the Com-mission should re-examine theutility of rules-like this one-that are not based on a specificstatutory charge," Furchtgott-Roth said. He suggested thatrelying on state laws would putbroadcasters on the same foot-ing as other media and thateliminating such rules wouldallow the FCC to focus its re-sources on enforcement of"those areas squarely and solelywithin the FCC's jurisdiction."

RBR observation: Wouldbroadcasters (and nationwidesyndicators in particular) reallywant to have to deal with 50rules dealing with broadcastingtelephone calls, rather than onenationwide rule? --TM

Suleman now CEO

at Infinity

With the completion of Infinity'smerger into Viacom (see page13). Farid Suleman has gottennew titles-President and CEO.He had formerly been Execu-tive VP and CFO of Infinitywhen its stock traded separatelyfrom Viacom.

2/26/01 RBR

Radio News

Viacom President MelKarmazin's right-hand man formore than 15 years, Suleman hadbeen at Infinity since 1986. The twobuilt the small radio group into alarge radio group, then expandedthrough mergers and acquisitionsto create a media empire.

In recent years, Suleman hadassumed responsibilities beyondhis official title for overseeingradio and outdoor operations asKarmazin focused on CBS TVand then Viacom's far-flung me-dia holdings. Now he has a titlethat reflects his actual role. Inaddition to being President andCEO of Infinity, Suleman willcontinue to be Executive VP andCFO of Westwood One.-JM

Arbitron flies solo 3/30

Ceridian (N:CEN) has announcedthat Arbitron will be spun off asa separate company at the end ofMarch. The split-technically areverse spin to create a "new"Ceridian-will have the newshares of the separated compa-nies distributed 3/30 to share-holders of record on 3/16.

As it turns out, Arbitron hasgotten the best possible NYSEstock symbol. American RealtyTrust vacated "ARB" in Augustafter merging with National RealtyLP to become American RealtyInvestors (N:ARL). Arbitron willtrade as ARB on the Big Board,while the "new" Ceridian will re-claim the CEN symhol.-JM

JRN launching RhythmicOldies format

Jones Radio Network is unveil-ing a new Rhythmic Oldies for-mat, "Rhythmic Oldies," 2/19that includes a bevy of talentfrom across the country, includ-ing: Banana Joe Montione(KTXQ-FM Dallas); KathyAparo (WOCL-FM Orlando) andJean Ross (WXYV-FM Balti-more). The launch comes on the

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heels of Jones' recently launched"Body and Soul" Urban AC for-mat. Consultant Don Kelly([Ragan] Henry -Kelly Program-ming Services) and Jones Direc-tor of Contemporary Program-ming Jon Holiday are the shep-herds. 6-10 affiliates are expectedat launch, including CorpusChristi, TX, Muskegon, MI, Alex-andria, LA and Ft. Wayne, IN.

The two say they used therecent Coleman Research Studyon Rhythmic Oldies as fodderfor designing the new format."We've got an opportunity here,as Westwood is discontinuing

their Rhythmic Oldies product.Comparing it to theirs, this ismore of an R&B crossover modelwhere theirs was decidedly Pop -oriented. I think this is a littlecloser to the AMFM model thatSteve Rivers had designed, butcertainly more than 250 records."Holiday tells RBR.

Adds Kelly: "What I did, inconjunction with Jon after welooked over the Coleman study,some monitors of different sta-tions, and some input from dif-ferent stations, was find that thereally successful stations thatseemed to have gotten beyond

Mo' money in Motown?There is good news on the radio revenue front: Detroitradio was able to break out the black ink for the month ofJanuary. Although national business was down 21%, localwas up 14%, more than enough to offset, resulting in a 4%gain for the month.

We have two Hungerford, Aldrin, Nichols & Carter pacingreports for the market, provided by anonymous sources. Onewas taken 2/4 and the other 2/18. The numbers show a mixedbag, but indicate a return to normal business conditions as theyear proceeds. Both readings showed April with slightgrowth, although it slipped a bit on the second report.

Word on the street is that, although Detroit was not a bigdot -corn market, it is taking 40-45 days longer than last yearto get business on the books. If that is true, then pacingnumbers will continue to show improvement the closer weget to run time for the ads. The much -mentioned slowdownin domestic auto ad spending is certainly being felt inDetroit, but foreign manufacturers are picking up someslack, and local dealers still have to move product regardlessof the national posture of their company. The bottom line?Comps, here, are doable.

On the books Local National TotalJanuary +14% -21% +4%

as of 2/4/01

February +10/0 -24% _70/0

March -6°/0 -20% -10%

April +7% _90/0 +3%

as of 2/18/01

February +-10/0 -19% _50/0

March _90/0 -23% -12%

April +8% -17% +10/0

Source: Hungerford, Aldrin, Nichols & Carter, CPA's

3

the initial phase of 'Oh, wow,we haven't heard this musicin a long time,' seemed tohave embraced the R&B andClassic R&B side more thansome of the other stations. Sotherefore, we definitely aregoing to be a crossover danceand Classic R&B type of radiostation."-CM

Tristani rants again

Commissioner Gloria Tristani(D) is again railing at the FCC'sMass Media Bureau for ap-proving a station sale that shethinks results in too much rev-enue concentration. Never

.14

Group heads see lifeafter tough comps

2001 may not be the best yearradio's ever gone through, butunless the US economy reallygets sick, radio group headsare still optimistic that thiswill be an up year-albeit,with most of the growth com-ing in the second half.

"There isn't one major me-dium that's going to thrive in2001-the same way that itdid in 2000-but there is a lotof evidence to suggest that

Kennedy

radio's going to fare betterthan most, if not all, othermedia," David Kennedy,President, Susquehanna Ra-dio, said in a roundtable dis-cussion for investors, arrangedby analyst Jim Boyle of FirstUnion Securities. "The twomajor sources of revenue for

Radio Newsmind that the sale in this caseis a single AM in Binghamton,NY, WINR, for $1M.

Tristani is upset that buyerClear Channel (N:CCU) andone other group, Citadel Com-munications (O:CITC), nowcontrol 91.2% of the revenuesin market #170. "Instead ofsimply granting the licensetransfer, I would have consid-ered other options-e.g., a

us-local and national-basi-cally compete with each otherfor our inventory. In times likethis-and this will probablycome as no surprise to our na-tional reps-we tend to directour efforts locally, to things likedirect business, events and pro-motions. We know that well.We react quickly, efficiently andcost effectively with our adver-tisers. It works for us and itworks for them," Kennedy said.

"None of us are going to beimmune," offered JeffSmulyan, CEO, Emmis Com-munications (O:EMMS). "I thinkradio will perform better [thanother sectors]."

What a difference a yearmakes, he reminded the WallStreet audience. "While we hadall this dot-com spending lastyear, last year at this time therewas also talk that our industrywas pretty much relegated todinosaur status-Internet-onlyaudio was going to wipe us out.If it didn't, low -power FM wasgoing to wipe us out. Low -power FM pretty much got killedin Congress and Internet -onlyaudio is nearly a thing of thepast," Smulyan chuckled. "Whileclearly we think that there arebenefits that we can gain for ourlisteners and our advertisers bystreaming our audio, the notionthat a whole new technologyindependent of our medium willspring up and wipe out our

showing that the Binghamtonmarket cannot support threecompetitors, so the licensetransfer to Clear Channel wasthe only realistic option. Orconsider whether the stationat issue was financially un-likely to survive, and whetherthe current owner attemptedto find other buyers? To myknowledge, such questionswere never asked. As a result,

business is illusory."Rather than worrying about

any new media threats, thegroup heads this year are farmore focused on where theeconomy is heading.

"As we talk to our advertis-ers, we do not believe we're ina recession at this point," saidBob Neil, CEO, Cox Radio(N:CXR). "If you listen to what[Alan] Greenspan said [to Con-gress], he pretty much said thesame thing. As we talk to ouradvertisers in the local markets,we don't sense that. In a num-

Smulyan

ber of our local markets, we'reactually seeing pretty good lo-cal revenue growth. The areathat's the trouble spot now isnational-and that makes sensebecause of the difficult compsfrom quarters one and two oflast year. We're seeing a little bitof what I would call 'buyers'

we may never know if thecementing of a duopoly inBinghamton was inevitable, orsimply another case of regula-tory malfeasance by the FCC,"Tristani wrote.

RBR observation: Sincewhen was abiding by the laws ofthe United States "regulatorymalfeasance?" For a closer lookat competition in the Binghamtonmarket, see page 8.

revenge' here in the first quar-ter. A year ago, pricing wasjust incredibly high and de-mand on inventory putthrough some unrealistic priceincreases. So the buyers rightnow are sitting back and try-ing to let everybody negotiatewith them. By and large,though, I see our inventorybeing used-there's just somebuyers' revenge on the ratesat this point."

"In terms of pricing-noquestion, it's below the fever -pitched levels of the boomperiod," said Susquehanna'sKennedy. "Don't forget, weare in the first quarter here.The pricing platform basicallyremains solid. We're still atlevels above where we werebefore that boom period lastyear. So when you considerthat radio's revenues have beendoubled since '93, I wouldsure hate to think that peopleare being confused by the per-centages that they're seeing inthe tough comps with 2000."

Tough comps. That termwas heard repeatedly through-out the discussion.

"No mistake, comps rightnow are tough," said Kennedy."When you look at numberslike New York, March lastyear was up 68%, San Diegowas up 72%-how do youmatch numbers like that? Few,if any, other industries face

4 www.rbr.com 2/26/01 RBR

OneOnOne gets bigger

Chicago coverage

OneOnOne Sports Network, re-cently acquired by The SportingNews(R131? 12/4, p.12) for $100M,

is getting a much broader audiencein Chicago on WYPA-AM 820 be-ginning 3/1. The clearance comesas the Catholic Radio Network soldthe station to NewsWeb.OneOnOne was cleared on subur-ban rimshotter WJKL-FM Elgin, IL.The move puts OneOnOne in amuch better competitive positionagainst WMVP-AM (ABC/ESPNRadio) and WSCR-AM (Infinity/CBS Radio Sports). OneOnOneSports is expected to change its

comps like that. We see thatcoming to an end sometimenear the end of second quar-ter."

He remains optimistic. "Aswe talk with the advertisers-within our company and as Italk with other people in thebusiness-we're actuallypretty encouraged by whatwe hear. There seems to be nogenuine fear or concern aboutwhat's going on, but there issome confusion-a little bit of'who can hold their breath thelongest' thrown in there. They

Neil

know they can only keep theirpowder dry for so long beforetheir competitors make amove-and for them, marketshare is the name of the game.They've got to maintain it.

They've got campaigns readyto go, apparently. We're hear-ing some new strategies and

Radio News®

name to "The Sporting News RadioNetwork" in late March.

WJKL will also switch (3/1)to Christian "K -Love," producedby Sacramento -based Educa-tional Media Foundation.-CM

Fine reduced inPuerto Rico

El Mundo Broadcasting Corp.has gotten the FCC to reduce a

tactics are going to be used-discount advertising, rebates,low interest rates, that sort ofthing. Anything that will movethat inventory they've been pil-ing up. This is really going tobegin breaking over the nextseveral weeks. That's prettyencouraging for us."

"I was here in 1991, whichwas the worst of times thatradio had seen, and radio weath-ered that storm well" notedTerry Jacobs, CEO, RegentCommunications (O:RGCI),"and I'm confident we'll emergefrom this slowdown a muchstronger medium as we did fromthat period." Regent's mediumand small markets, he noted,are more "recession -resistant"because a larger percentage oftheir revenues come from localad sales, rather than nationalspot. "Unlike the larger mar-kets, our markets never receivedany of the dot-com advertisingdollars," he said. That's savedRegent from those tough compswhich the large market groupsare having to deal with.

"Pacings, because so muchbusiness was placed in advancea year ago, really don't have alot of relevance," Neil said."We're seeing as we go into amonth, where a year ago wemight have been in excess of100% of our budget, we're see-ing a more typical pattern de-velop now where you're start -

$6K fine to $4K-essentially af-ter El Mundo withdrew part ofits guilty plea. The companyhad been fined for airing a phoneconversation without permission5/8/00 on both WKAQ-AM SanJuan, PR and WUKQ-AM Ponce,PR. El Mundo officials later real-ized that the company's LMA ofWUKQ (which it later pur-chased) didn't begin until 5/10/00, two days after the violation,

ing to go into the month at 80%of budget level and more moneyis being added as the monthgoes on than was a year ago."

"We expected it to be a toughfirst half," said Alfred Liggins,CEO, Radio One. "I'm seeingthe large markets get hit par-ticularly hard." Although RadioOne operates mostly in largemarkets, Liggins says his groupis pacing toward growth in thehigh single digits for Q1 and Q2because it has so many recently -acquired stick properties.

"In terms of categories we

Jacobs

see weakening in the first quar-ter, automotive is obviously avery big one that's weakening.Telecommunications and, ofcourse, dot -corn advertiging,"Liggins offered.

"Definitely, I'd put it in the'cautious' category, in terms oftheir spending," Cox's Neil said ofautomotive advertising. "It's not

so the offending call never airedon the second station. The FCCaccepted the revised plea andreduced the fine to the baseamount of $4K.-JM

Guild is goldenInterep (O:IREP) CEO RalphGuild has been named thisyear's recipient of The Interna-tional Radio and TelevisionSociety's Gold Medal. The award

evaporated. It seems, from talk-ing to my TV counterpart, it's hittelevision worse than it has ra-dio in our case, at this point.Generally, if you look across thecategory, automotive dealers arecontinuing to spend. Interestrate reductions bode well."

According to Smulyan, themost important thing to lookat is the long-term battle formarket share-a battle thatradio is winning.

"In five years, newspaper adshare is down almost four points,while radio is up three. If you goback a little further, we're upmore than that-newspaper'sdown from that. And I think themost important thing about thisbusiness-and it's been height-ened because of consolidation,with more professional sellers,more focused companies-isthat we focus on the fundamen-tal weakness of newspapers.That's where the dollars are inthese markets and that's whereour opportunity lies. Newspa-pers even today have 44% of alldollars spent-we're at 16%.And yet most of the retailerswho spend all of those dollars innewspapers target demograph-ics that newspapers don't reachanymore." Smulyan believes hiscompany and the other radiogroups will continue to takethose dollars away from news-papers, making radio a goodlong-term investment.-JM

2/26/01 RBR www.rbr.com 5

to honor significant cAreer-longcontributions to the industry wentto Mel Karmazin yew .indpreviously to) such luniirucille Ball. Walter ronkiie

and Oprali Winfrey. Guild willreceive the IRIS Gold Medal 3/21at a black tie gala :it the Waldorf-Astoria in New Ork.-IM

Microsoft appealto be heard

Building on the victory won inDecember, with same -clay au-dio broadcasts of Supreme Courtarguments (in the Florida elec-tion case), broadcasters will begetting live audio from a federalappeals court this week.

RTNDA is praising the USCourt of Appeals in Washing-ton, DC for agreeing to providea live pool feed of arguments inthe antitrust appeal of Microsoft(O:MSFT). The 2/26-27 audiofeed will be distributed by ABCNews Radio's WAND system andby the network TV pool. Thefirst -ever live audio from thefederal appeals court will alsobe streamed on the Internet atc-span.org, abcnews.com andlikely other places as well.-JM

Napster unveils bevvyof compromises

Napster spent most of last weekmaking offers and compromisesto the record industry in an at-tempt to settle the whirlwind oflegal problems it has encoun-tered since the recent 9th USCircuit Court of Appeals deci-sion (RBR 2/19, p.4) upholdingan injunction for copyright in-fringement. Napster announcedit is making progress on a new'technology that will enable anew membership -based businessmodel that it hopes will be sup-ported by the RIAA and musicindustry. Label partnerBertelsmann AG's subsidiaryDigital World Services is the tech-nology provider, working withNapster for months now on thenew system that enables "secureadministration of transferred fileswithin a peer to peer structure."

In exchange for settling legal

Radio Newgdisputes and injunctions fromrecord labels for copyright in-fringement, Napster offered $1Bto the labels suing the company.Napster CEO Hank Barry saysthat sum will be broken clown to$150M per year to the big five,with another $50M going to otherlabels. The record companiesimmediately denounced the of-fer as inadequate.

In its latest offer du jour, Napsterunveiled a plan to charge a $5.95-$9.95 fee for service. The monthlyfee would include unlimiteddowloading. Additional fees maybe charged for burning songsonto CD, the company said.

Meanwhile, Senate JudiciaryCommittee Chairman OrrinHatch (R -UT) said 2/14 he wouldhold hearings to look into the 2/12 9th US Circuit Court of Ap-peals decision (RBR 2/19, p.4)upholding the RIAA injunctionagainst Napster for copyrightinfringement. Hatch is concernedthat the decision, which will ul-timately shut Napster down as afree music file sharing service,will just send users elsewhere toother similar and harder to con-trol sites. "I guess my feelingabout this 9th Circuit decision isa gnawing concern that this legalvictory for the record labels mayprove more pyretic and short-sighted froth a policy perspec-tive," Hatch said in his 2/14Senate floor speech.

Barry applauded Hatch andsaid he would work with theJudiciary Committee, record part-ner Bertelsmann AG and theRIAA to arrive at an agreementthat can keep Napster alive whilebenefiting all concerned.-CM

Coleman releases '80sInsights Report

Nearly 100 radio execs partici-pated 2/15 in ColemanResearch's industry -wide con-ference call on '80s format, launchedon dozens of radio stations within

the past few montl is. The call \\the first of Coleman's "Insiglitscall"series and featured findings of the'80s Insights report and a Q&Aperiod with participants.The full '80s Insights report,available for download(www.ColemanInsights.com), in-cludes an analysis of Arbitron andmusic monitor data for 20 '80s sta-tions in America's 54 largest radiomarkets. Among the findings: The format's primary salesdemo is Adults 18-49, with the25-34 age cell serving as its"focal point." Men and women account forroughly equal portions of theformat's audience. The airing of the format onmany weak signals is limiting itsperformance. On average, '80s stations havenot maintained the audienceshares they achieved in theirdebut ratings periods. Most stations in the format aretaking very similar music ap-proaches, with Flashback andRock material making up themajority of their music mixes.

"It should be stressed that thisis a very early look at the format,as more than half of the stationswe looked at weren't even in theformat until midway throughArbitron's Fall 2000 survey pe-riod," said Coleman VP WarrenKurtzman. "However, we be-lieve that by tracking these sta-tions early on, we can have anobjective basis for assessing theformat's performance in the fu-ture. We also believe that byidentifying what makes somestations succeed and what makessome fail, we can develop stron-ger programming and marketingstrategies for '80s stations."-CM

United Stations acquires"hardDRIVE" from JRN;

more to come

United Stations Radio Networkshas acquired weekly long -form

www.rbr.com

"liardDRI i mil] Jones RildidNetwork (2/19). USRN assumesall distribution, production andaffiliate and advertiser sales lorthe show. Hosted by LouBrutus (WRQX-FM Chicago),hardDRIVE features previewsand interviews of new bands inthe Rock and Alternative Rockgenres. USRN picks up approxi-mately 60 hardDRIVE affiliates.

The show was originally withSW Networks. USRN had wantedit even back then. "A.s a com-pany, we've built ourselves onserving niches, from House ofBlues Radio Hour to the Jazzshows we do to the Christianshow. It's Hard Rock program-ming. We didn't have somethingservicing that," USRN VP Pro-gramming Andy Denemark tellsRBR. "We actually tried to acquireit when SW got rid of their pro-gramming. It ended up withMediaAmerica and then Jones.They called us to ask if we wantedit-I guess it don't fit into whatthey're doing right now."

hardDRIVE writer/producerRoxy Myzal also joins USRN asExecutive Producer, Rock Pro-gramming. Denemark adds thatMyzal will oversee more USRNRock programming acquisitionsin the near term: "I thinkthat this kind of nicheprogramming...you may seesome other announcementspretty soon-we're doing evenmore of it."-CM

Clear Channelto consolidate 11San Diego stations

Maybe the biggest yet-Clear Chan-nel is embarking on an 11 -stationconsolidation project for its SanDiego stations. The stations arecurrently located in facilities acrossthe area and are all headed for onebuilding that will include all newequipment and an ampitheater.The project is expected to be com-pleted in March.-CM

2/26/01 RBR

1

GREAT LOCAL REPS AND

THE RADIO -EYE

By Franklin Raff

After advertising legend DavidOgilvy got the Rolls-Royce account,he emerged from three weeks ofresearch and ideation with a fewsimple facts. One of these factsbecame his famous headline: "At 60miles an hour, the loudest noise inthe cabin of this new Rolls-Roycecomes from the electric clock." Thatinsight, retained from the wealth ofknowledge he collected from jour-nals, factory employees - and per-sonal experience - is a principal

t. reason why we still venerate thebrand, forty years later. Ogilvy

1 once wrote: "When I advertised)!, Rolls-Royce, I gave the facts- no hot

i air, no adjectives. [...) In every casesales went up dramatically - on

1, peppercorn budgets." ThoughOgilvy was an agency man, his fact-

: finding, documentary abilities wereakin to those that distinguish a fewextraordinary radio reps. For thesake of analysis, these exceptionalqualities deserve an equally uniqueif somewhat obscure - name: Ra-dio -Eye.

Not long after the Russian revo-lution of 1917, leaders of theburgeoning soviet filmmaking in-dustry began plotting revolutionsof their own. Among them wasDziga Vertov, the founder of theKino-Eye, or "Cinema -Eye" move-ment in filmmaking. Adherentsof Kino-Eye, or Kinoks, rejectedfictional and narrative films,which, they felt, were slaves inboth form and content to theaterand literature. In their place,Vertov crafted a purely docu-mentary cinema whose purposewas to monitor and record inminute detail the facts of every-day life. According to Vertov andthe Kinoks, it was only throughthe use of the movie-cameraisunique attribute, its ability todocument life in motion, thatcinema would emancipate itselffrom the tradition of dramaticand literary fiction. Vertov glori-fied the movie camera itself, theKino-Eye, which he described asan intrepid and omniscient agent.From vast banks of documentaryfootage, Vertov's Kinoks retained

the most remarkable and fasci-nating images for their films.

We, and our best sales reps, seekfor our own careers and for radio ingeneral what Vertov sought for cin-ema: independence, originality, andtrustworthiness. In our case, weseek independence from the com-mercial reign of other advertisingmedia. We seek original ways toturn listenersinto customers.We want to useradio's powerin an honestand account-able manner.We need con-sistent sales in-

creases, andfrankly, weneed to find meaning in our work.Local reps our most valuable war-riors - may come closer to achievingthese objectives by employing Ra-dio -Eye. Radio -Eye can be thoughtof as an objective agent - an imagi-nary movie camera if you will -which emanates from the mind ofthe radio sales rep. It arises from hisdesire to sell for his clients, and itscontribution to his career can bealmost revolutionary

Good local reps take pleasurein using both sides of their brains.They like to think creatively, andthey like to do the numbers. Yet,because they have such singu-larly extensive personal contactwith our clients'businesses,they have an-other distinctiveability. Radioreps have theunique poten-tial to lift dustylayers of stan-dard business Franklin Raffand advertisingpractice to uncover and docu-ment striking and extraordinaryfacts. The power of a great rep isthe power of applied knowledge.

If a local rep believes that hisclients' commercials constitute the

Dziga Vertov

most important sales calls hemakes, he is a credit to our indus-try and again, we call him - aRadiok. As a salesman he hasovercome the overwhelming ten-dency to be self-centered. Heunderstands that the fundamen-tal aim of our business is not tosell to our clients, but to sell forthem. He spearheads creative be-

cause he.1 I knows his cli-

ents - andtheir clients -best . Youmay call himan ear -leaserinasmuch asyou may callErnestHemmingway

a typist. Radioks understand thatRadio is only a medium, that it isuseless and possibly detrimentalas an advertising tool withoutcompelling commercial content.

Claude C. Hopkins, one of thefounding fathers of modem ad-vertising, believed "every adshould tell a story." Radio's inti-macy ensures its power in thisregard. But our local reps mustknow enough to tell the story.Radioks know why their listenersshould buy from their clients. LikeVertov's movie -camera, they havedocumented the facts. They donot crawl from door to door sniff-ing for the 'broken bones' that will

justify theirnext solu-tion -ori-ented pro-posal.Rather, theRadiok en-gages hisprospectsand clientsnot as a

hungry closer would, but objec-tively, and in a documentary fash-ion. Persistence comes naturally:it is necessary, and usually wel-comed. The Radiok seeks to knowthe character of a business. He

asks about wholesalers, suppli-ers, distributors, and company his-

tory. He asks: Why would I buyfrom you, and not your competi-tor? He notes potential marketingbridges such as a peculiar loca-tion. He studies trade magazines,but also asks about a least -favoritevendor. In his trust -building study,the Radiok has the gentle inquisi-tiveness of a new employee

Though the Radiok may not beprimarily driven to sell radio, youmay find he ultimately sells moreradio, with less difficulty, thanthose who measure their successin time -orders. Radiok thinking isprofoundly service -oriented. Ev-ery local business has a compel-ling and persuasive story. TheRadiok finds it. And with the Ra-dio listener, as with our own pros-pects, a compelling story, toldcreatively, commands more at-tention and sells more effectivelythan any cliched pitch, transpar-ent call -to -action, or canned close.

Perhaps influenced by a popu-lar song in the fledgling days ofhis now renowned agency, LeoBurnett likened the creative pro-cess to "trying to get hold of - fora moment - one of those hot,unreachable stars." For the Radiok,it is reaching for the stars whilemining for facts, and holding abusiness conversation: a feat thatleaves little room for minor closes.That, perhaps, is why Radioksseem to be a little more trustwor-thy, why they seem to work a littleharder, why if nurtured - theyultimately earn higher billings, signbigger clients (and agencies), andkeep them.

If you don't have a Radiok, youmight wish to grow your own. Ifyou find he doesn't care much forcash prizes, cost -per -points, or thecompany Christmas party, take it asa good sign. Let him slip for a month

or two if he's prospecting high butnot meeting goals. You'll noticehers laid out his clientsi creative forthe whole year: that's Radio -Eye atwork. He might come in dead last

for the Holiday Greetingstelemarketing promotion, but heillupsell and secure next years' annu-als by the end of Q3. Maybe heshies away from carpet -bomb cold-calling, and sometimes he placesunfair demands on the productionguy. Keep him all the same. Chancesare, if you lose him, you'll lose hisclients, too. Let him stay late. Whenhis advertisers buy big on compet-ing stations and run your creative,hers probably advised it. You'll getyours, and more of it, and moreconsistently. Keep a growing Radiokaway from blitz marketing pack-ages, fire -sales, free remotes, addedvalue gimmicks, and middle -man-agers: in this regard the Radiok is acanary in a coal mine. They'll killhim long before they kill us.

We are commonly preoccu-pied with the question of howRadio can claim a greater share ofthe wealth bestowed on othermedia. This can be achieved, ona local level, by emphasizing in-timacy, intelligence, indepen-dence, and creativity: the basicattributes of the Radiok. Someshort-term thinkers are inclinedto believe that local creative isrelatively unimportant. They canbe identified by their enthusiasticapologies: "it's important to getyour name out there", "we've gota new promotion for your mar-keting director, whatever hisname is", -we're number one inso-and-so", etc. The Radiok is adifferent animal. He does notthink of his work as a -number,game", which is why his clientdo not feel like numbers. H,consistently drives his clientbusiness, because he consistenthfinds interesting and truthful reasons for his listeners to buy. H.upsells with good reason, andwhen appropriate, he guides orders and creative in other mediaHe is anchored, deeply and krt.vocably. in the sales efforts of hi,clients. They are, after all. hi -

employers. In the end. a Radio{.the Rolls-Royce of radio repsmerely uses us. and the mediunof radio, as a means to multipl \his own sales efforts.

Franklin Raff is the PresidentCreative Director of Raff Radi,Marketing Group, Inc. He ma'she reached at (703) 925 - 5921

8

Radio AdBiz

RBR News Analysis

Should Tristani fine-tune Binghamton?

FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani is opposed to a $1M deal which would sendBinghamton, NY's WINR-AM from Titus Broadcasting to Clear Channel (N:CCU) (RBR 9/18/00, p.25). In a market where Clear Channel and Citadel (O:CITC) dominate, she thinks thiswill be the death -knell of competition in the market, making it more unlikely that there willbe a third radio competitor.

Here is the only fact one needs to know. The signal of WINR, as of 1/1/97, was overlappedby 18 other stations. That puts it squarely in the six -station cluster tier according to the lawof the land, without any engineering sleight-of-hand. That is the end of it, as far as the FCCshould be concerned.

Ms. Tristani should not be worried about this in any case. As the chart below shows, there areample outlets for advertisers to choose from. Besides, according to the most recent info we haveavailable, WINR accounts for only 2.2% of the market's radio revenue, and with TV andnewspaperconsidered, it accounts for less than 0.5% of market revenue. Hardly a make -or -break station underany circumstances.

What's necessary for Tristani's fantasy of a third major radio operator to become reality? First,the WINR deal must be undone, and then four independent owners must come together somehowand merge into one company. Its total revenues would come in just behind Smith's TV station(which is an LPTV, by the way, the best NBC can do for a Binghamton affiliate).

However, it is ludicrous to deny Titus Broadcasting the opportunity to liquidate its assets viathe legal sale of its station, in a market full of competitors, because it is just possible, if all theplanets line up and the correct tarot card is drawn, that media ownership in the market willconform to one commissioner's ideal.

The newspaper estimate below is extrapolated from Duncan's Radio Market Guide-itis probably far below the Binghamton Press & Sun -Bulletin's actual revenue. Other stationrevenues are from BIA's Investing in Radio Market Report 2000 and Investing in Television MarketReport 2000. Radio ratings are from Arbitron, and station lineups are from the RBR Source Guide& Directory database.

Estimated media revenues

Owner Nwsp AM FM TV Est 99 Rev Fa99 Fa00

Gannett 1 0 0 0 S20.000.000Gateway 0 0 0 1 $10.000.000Citadel 0 2 3 0 $6.500.000 40.0 33.1

Northwest 0 0 0 1 $3.500.000Clear Chan 0 1 4 0 $2.575.000 30.8 37.3

Ackerley 0 0 0 1 $2.500.000Smith 0 0 0 1 $1,200.000WEBO 0 0 1 0 $450.000 3.3 4.7

WATS 0 1 1 0 $300.000 0.0 1.3

Titus 0 1 0 0 $225,000 3.3 4.0

Equinox 0 0 1 0 $150,000 2.3 1.7

L_

Sources: BIA, Arbitron, Duncan, RBR Source Guide

Bigger and brighterthan ever:

Paul Allen on CRB and the

32nd Annual CRS

PaulAllen is Country Radio Broad -:asters' (CRB) Executive Director.We caught up with him in themiddle of finalizing last-minutedetails for the 32nd Annual Coun-ty Radio Seminar (CRS) in Nash-ville: February 28 -March 3. Theevent draws not only Country'sbiggest stars, but radio's too.-CM

Tell us your history withthe industry.Some years ago, I was trained by

I., the military to manage a radio andTV station for American ForcesRadio, which is kind of whatsparked my interest in being a partof the radio business itself. I wentinto commercial radio for a while,

, programming radio, and then pro -I; grammed an NBC TV affiliate ini West Virginia. I then moved to1. Nashville and went into govern-

ment here. After that I bought aradio station. There I learned thatseven -day -a -week management ofa small -market radio station wasway more than what I was readyfor. So after a couple of years ofthat, I sold my property to a musicindustry group here in Nashvilleand was invited back into govern-ment to manage campaigns forsome candidates and managedsome political issues for folks-and almost had a full career there.And when that came to an end, thefolks at Country Radio Broadcast-ers invited me to be their ExecutiveDirector and I've been here goingon six years now.

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Programming for Profit Tell us about CRB and theyearly CRS seminar.Country Radio Broadcasters ini-tially began as the Country RadioSeminar, intending to bring Coun-try radio and Country music to-gether for a series of brief businessmeetings in an effort to promotethe format and to strengthen theformat. It gave both a chance tointeract and to share ideas andfind ways to strengthen. That be-gan in 1970. Now, 32 years later,that has grown from a handful ofabout 60 or 70 people who wereat that first Country Radio Seminarup to around 2,500 people whowill be here in Nashville.

Country Radio Broadcasters bydefinition is an organization thateducates people-folks in themusic business and the radiobusiness-with an eye towardsstrengthening the Country radioformat as a major entertainmentmedium. That's part of what wedo. The other part is providescholarships for people who arestudying radio. At the end of thisyear, CRB will have given over$250K in scholarships to deserv-ing young people to further theirstudy in the profession of radio.

We understand Country mu-sic recordings were down lastyear. What do you hear wasthe reason?Year-end sales for Country as agenre of music last year was downby about 3-4%, while the majorityof recorded music was up by about4-5%. What I hear here in Nashvilleis, in part, some of the reasonCountry sales are down is becausetwo or three of the marquis acts ofthe industry did not have newalbums out last year, for exampleGarth Brooks and Shania Twain.Something else that the peoplewho analyze this more than I do tellme is that it appears Country actsthat appear toward the top of thechart most frequently are those thatare selling more individual unitsthan those that are towards the

www.rbr.com

bottom. So the stronger acts seemto be getting stronger and thereseems to be less and less opportu-nity for the newer acts to sell asmuch as some of the others.

As a format, Country is stillat a plateau while radio hasseen 12% growth over the lasttwo years. What are your com-ments there?You're right-radio is doing ex-tremely well. This year it becamenearly a $20B industry, which ishuge. Country as a format stillremains extremely strong so faras the number of stations thatprogram it. Of the 11,000 com-mercial radio stations, 20% ofthose still remain as Country.Country's gross audience sharesaren't in the 12's and 13's that wewere experiencing back in themid 90s. It's cut down and heldjust under 9% nationally. As aproduct of consolidation, radiofinds itself niching smaller andsmaller to where the pieces of theformats showing a four and fiveshare are great in a lot of markets.So having a nine share in somemarkets is not too bad.

What can you tell us aboutthe present state of Country-the pros and the cons that willbe discussed at the CRS panels?Is the format too Pop or is theformat too Country? We have apanel session set aside just forthat discussion. That was a verypopular session last year and stilla concern of a lot of people. Themoderator for that session is go-ing to be TV's Judge Mills Lane.So while it's a very serious sub-ject, we asked Judge Lane tocome in and be the moderator tokind of put a light side to it so thatfolks don't take it so seriously thatit becomes an emotional thing.So Judge Lane will do a great jobof keeping things in check, buthe'll also do a great job of makingsure that he encourages the de-bate that's necessary.

So any meal or food at thatpanel session will be usingall plastic utensils?Ha, ha, ha...Guaranteed-therewill be no food fights!

What future goals is CRBfocused on?We want to provide a forum thatwill let our program supplier,which is the Country music in-dustry, provide a forum for thisquasi -partnership to talk issuesand to discuss ways that we cangrow our audience share. Thefour days we spend here in Nash-ville is a great chance for thenetworking discussion and toprovide the forum to allow bothof those two industries to findways to grow and to strengtheneach of their goals.

CRB does several things torecognize local radio stationsof all market sizes-the RadioHumanitarian Award, the Ra-dio Promotional Award andthe Air Personality Award. Tellus how each one is awarded.Among the things that we hold astenets of our organization is thatwe hold as high ideals thosestations that are the most profes-sional and we try to bring that toour organization as well. We alsorecognize those radio stations thatprovide for a better quality of lifefor everybody, and that is theheart of our Humanitarian Award.Each year we award a RadioHumanitarian Award to a large,medium and small market stationthat has done the most, based ontheir market sizes, to add to thequality of the life experience intheir communities of license.

The other thing we like torecognize is those that are themost creative in getting into theircommunities through radio sta-tion promotions. I think one keyway to see the level of profes-sionalism at a radio station is tosee how creative the folks at thestation are to deliver great pro -

9

motions that help to add to thecume as well as impacting thecommunity. So we award Pro-motions Awards for small, me-dium and large markets.

And we also began two yearsago to recognize air personalitiesthat are unique to the Country radioformat. And so this is our secondyear awarding air personalities ofsmall, medium and large markets.

Tell us about the CRB Coun-try Music Hall of Fame.There are two halls of fame, actu-ally. There's the Country Music DJHall of Fame which has beenaround since the early 70s. It was afoundation operated by anothercompany, and four years ago CRBtook over the responsibilities ofthat foundation and now it is a partof what we do. The Country MusicHall of Fame recognizes announc-ers who have been on the air for atleast 25 years in the Country formatand who have made a significantcontribution towards the growth ofCountry Music as an artform. Eachyear we'll induct 2-4 announcers ata formal ceremony held here inNashville each Summer. At thesame time, we will recognize aCountry artist for having madesignificant contributions to Coun-try music over the years and alsorecognize somebody in the broad-cast industry with our CRBPresident's Award. At our websitewww.crb.org, you can go to theHall of Fame web page and find aphotograph and bio on each ofour Hall of Fame members, andfor, about half of them, we alsohave airchecks.

Tell us about the CRB Schol-arship foundation with theNAB, and the silent auctionthat's held for it.Our scholarship program, by thetime we finish the end of this year,will have awarded nearly $250K inscholarships over the last 30 years.But this year, we stepped up thepace of our award to over $40K.We're awarding several thousanddollars to some local universities inTennessee and 10 scholarshipsthrough the BEA, which is an armof the NAB. It's an independentorganization that awards scholar-ships for the NAB, as well as for

Programming for Profitother organization people likeShane Media. The BEA screenscandidates for us and recommendsthem for award of $3,000 annualscholarships, which is a nice amountof money for juniors and seniorsto help finish up their work inradio broadcasting.

Tell us about the CRS semi-nar later this month.This CRS seminar holds itself outto be probably one of the biggestones on record. Overall, we willhave 30 sessions, beginningThursday morning, 3/1, runningthrough the close of the daySaturday 3/3. The sessions areranging in topics from Too Pop/Too Country to the state of theTouring industry, which is goodin some respects for radio peoplebecause many of the radio folkspartner with some of the acts thatare touring to have concerts thatare made in association withradio station itself.

Our keynote this year is goingto be Sam Donaldson from ABCNews. He will speak to us forabout an hour, and my under-standing is that his message tothose of us in the radio broadcast-ing industry is very much like amentor. Other sessions includelooking at how to better mesh theprogrammer with the promotionsside of the record industry. Theresometimes seems to be a collisionbetween what the record industrysees as a viable product vs. whatthe programmers see.

We're also going to have ses-sions that look toward satellite ra-dio, with folks from XM and Sirius;folks from the world wide web totalk about non -terrestrial broadcast-ing; research presentations fromArbitron, collective contesting, man-agement sessions and much more.

Tell us about the artists tap-ing sessions for stations. Whois doing it this year and howmany stations typically get IDsand liners done?

The list is still being compiled,but it would be safe to say if youwent to the charts, probably 80%-90% of the people that are in theCountry Top 50 are going to be inthe artist taping session.

Wow. You see so manyartists in Country dedicatedto the format and industry'ssuccess. You don't see thatwith other formats to thisdegree. Why?There's no other radio conven-tion that can draw genre -specificnumbers of radio pros and musicpros as the CRS. I'm not sayingthat to take any credit for it-somebody a lot smarter than mecreated this organization a lot ofyears ago. I'm kind of the care-taker for it in my time here. it's justphenomenal. You have the larg-est folks in the industry participateand showcase, as well as a bunch

heard of whowill be in their own time, becomemajor acts. The event itself almosttakes on a life of its own. Peoplelook forward to it, it's almost likea homecoming for a lot of people.

Describe the "SuperfacesShow." Is it with Travis Trittthis year?He is our Superface this year, andlast year we had Alan Jackson.On Wednesday at CRS, we'll havethe artists taping session in theafternoon and then that evening,we'll have a welcome reception,which is the first time a lot ofthese folks have seen each otherin a year. We'll have dinner pro-vided by the Country Academyof Music and by USRN and TravisTritt will sing for us.

What stars will be presentthis year at the panels?Loretta Lynn, Brad Paisley,Clint Black. Colin Ray, BillyRay Cyrus-those are just some.Our session panelists are handsdown some of the best peoplethat you will find anywhere in

the radio -record business, andnot necessarily specific to ourown format.

Give us a run-down of someof this year's CRS events.Yes, before Sam Donaldson, wehave Billy Gilman, the 12 -year -

old singing sensation from SonyMusic. He will be singing the na-tional anthem for us. And followingthat, Clint Black will be around topresent our Artist HumanitarianAward-to a Country artist whohas yet to be made public. Weknow who he is, but we won'tknow until that morning publicly.

At noon on Thursday, TrishaYearwood performs on theRMCA-sponsored luncheon. AlsoGary Allen on Friday; At noonGarth Brooks will be perform-ing at the ASCAP luncheon for us;On Saturday at noon, the CountryMusic Association sponsors ourluncheon and what they're goingto do is celebrate 33 years of theCMA Song of the Year. They planto put video highlights of some ofthe songs and then the personthat sang those songs will comeout and sing them. So there willbe perhaps a half dozen perfor-mances by people over the last 33years who actually had the CMAsong of the year. Saturday after-noon, we have a "guitar pull,"where a songwriter sits in anacoustic setting and plays songsthat he or she has written. Wehave four great songwriters show-casing their talents, including PamTills and Keith Urban.

And to close out or conventionSaturday night, we have our "NewFaces" show, the 32nd presenta-tion. It begins with a formal sit-down dinner and leads into atwo-hour showcase of these actswhich will include Phil Vassar.Sara Evans, Trick Pony, TheClark Family Experience andChris Cagle.

So, a lot of information, a lot oftalent and a lot of fun through theentire week.

10 www.rbr.com 2/26/

;tation: WTEM-AM4oniker: "SportsTalk 980":requency: 980 kHzWeb adclress:SportsTalk980.com3ity of License: Washington, DCvlarket served: Washington, DC'ower/antenna height:10,000 watts day/5,000 watts nightFormat: Sports Talk)wner: Clear Channel Corn-nunications21M: Jim Weiskopf-Station Mgr.,3ennett Zier-Market EVPDps Dir: Tod CastleberryMarket Dir: Mark LapidusiM: Steve BrennanIlnternetContentMgr: Matt Engellitreaming provider: Yahoo!Broadcast

Weiskopf

How would you describeyour format and program-ming? Any unique shows?(all Weiskopf)SportsTalk 980 is an enter-taining, informative and con-troversial talk radio stationwith a focus on sports. Ourprogramming is a combina-tion of the best available na-tionally syndicated program-ming and locally producedsports/talk shows. Most im-portantly, we provide our lis-teners the Sports Updates theycrave, every 20 minutes.

Additionally, we carry manyplay-by-play broadcasts.SportsTalk 980 is the home ofthe Baltimore Orioles for theWashington D.C. market; TheWashington Capitals; TheWashington Wizards; Univer-sity of Maryland football;Georgetown University basket-ball; and UVA football and

!/26/01 RBR

Station Profilesbasketball. Although we donot broadcast WashingtonRedskins games, we have builtour Skins fan base by creatingaward winning pre and postgame shows.

We have several uniqueshows on 980. Our "SportsReporters" show features lo-cal and national sports jour-nalists from print and broad-cast. The show airs weekdaysfrom 5p to 7p and is hosted byAndy Pollin and SteveCzaban. (Andy appears na-tionally with Tony Kornheiserand Steve fills -in for Jim Romeregularly). These discussionsabout the hottest daily sportstopics are fast -paced and in-tense. During the NFL seasonfrom 6p -7p, we air a specialversion of the program called"Redskins at Six." Last season,we were the official station ofRedskin's Training Camp. Thisallowed us to take the fansbehind the scenes with all themajor players.

How would you describeyour listeners?Upscale. Decision Makers.They're 30-54 year old menwho are affluent and highlyeducated. They are guys withstrong opinions and they lovetheir sports.

Describe any local eventsyou sponsor.As you can imagine, we get a lotof requests to sponsor charitysporting events. We're involvedwith more than 10 charity golfevents each year. The biggest ofthese events is "The BobbyMitchell Hall of Fame Tourna-ment" which raises over $250Keach year for Leukemia. Thisyear will be our 10th year spon-soring the event.

SportsTalk 980 is also amajor partner for the SpinaBifida Association ofAmerica's Annual Celebrity

www rbr com

Roast. The last two years,we've roasted Don Imus andDan Rather. Attendees haveincluded John McCain,James Carvell, AlanGreenspan, Ben Bradlee,Andrea Mitchell and manyof the most influential peoplein Washington.

Tell us about your local ad-vertiser base.There are two revenuestreams that are unique tothe Washington, DC market:political issue advertising andbusiness -to -business advertis-ing to the high-tech commu-nity. We do very well in bothof these areas. Automotive,financial and upscale retailare all big for us.

Who is your national repand what percent of youradvertising is national?We had been represented byEastman since 1992. With ClearChannel's national reorganiza-tion, Eastman became the ClearChannel's Emerald Division andthey continue to work withSportsTalk 980 today. About 25%of our business is national.

What is the maximum num-ber of spots you would runin an hour and why?With local talk programming,we will not run more than 16units an hour. The othertimes on the station are dic-tated by our syndicatedshows and play-by-play spotload. We look for everyopportunity to give our lis-tener an extended uninter-rupted listening experience.

Describe your website andstreaming strategy.Sportstalk980.com was one ofthe first sports radio sites inthe world. The whole site isset-up to be true to our mis-sion of being "1st With Scores

by Carl Marcucci

& Breaking Sports News." Wedo our best to keep the con-tent localized so we can offerunique information not foundon the national sports sites.

Sportstalk980.com has hada full-time webmaster fornearly two years now. We'vebeen streaming audio sincethe beginning with the com-pany that evolved intoyahoo.com. Last year, weeven carried The Ken BeatriceShow as an internet-only pro-gram when Ken was bumpedby play-by-play. His fansloved it.

Now that Enigma Digital ispart of Clear Channel, we arepoised to become one of theleading sports web sites inthe country.

Tell us about the station's im-aging and on -air talent.SportsTalk 980 has made aconcerted effort to be "1stWith Scores and BreakingSports News." We dominatethe sports image in Washing-ton by providing sports up-dates every 20 minutes. Tobe true to our mission, weinterrupt talk programmingwith breaking sports newswhenever necessary. Our talkshow hosts work closely withour sports update anchors tomake certain we are provid-ing comprehensive coverageof the most important localand national stories of theday. 980's imaging is edgy,topical, and always consis-tent with our position.

What do you think aboutyour station adding a digi-tal broadcast signal, shouldthe FCC approve it?I am excited about anything wecan do as an industry to en-hance the listening experience.If the FCC approves IBOC andthe receivers make it to market,we are all winners!

11

KIIS is tops

BIA agrees with Duncan'sAmerican Radio that KIIS-FMLos Angeles was the nation'stop -billing radio station in 2000.They even agree on the fig-ure-$65.5M. The rankings(with slight differences in dot-lars) are identical throughoutthe top ten, except for 8th placelwhere BIA says ABC's KGO,AM San Francisco ($48.1Mand Duncan's says Infinity'KTWV-FM Los Angeles ($48M)1. KIIS-FM LA, Clear Ch.

2. WFAN-AM NYC, Infinity

3. WXRK-FM NYC, Infinity

4. WLTW-FM NYC, Clear Ch.

5. WINS -AM NYC, Infinity

6. WHTZ-FM NYC, Clear Ch.

7. KROQ-FM LA, Infinity

8. KGO (BIA)/KTWV (Duncan's)

9. WKTU-FM NYC, Clear Ch.

10.WCBS-AM NYC, Infinity

Source: Duncan's, BIA

12

Media arkets a One',TTM

Kansas City move -in joinsSusquehanna in steps

Kansas City is about to get a newradio station. KGAR-FM will signon this summer at 105.1 mHz.The unbuilt station is allocatedto Garden City, MO, but it'sgotten approval for an upgradeto Class Cl on a tower site rightin the heart of Kansas City. That'smade it a valuable commodityand owner Frank Copisidas iscashing in-but without givingup all of the upside.

In a complicated two-stepdeal, Copisidas is selling a 40%interest in licensee Jesscom toSusquehanna Radio for $10M,along with a three-year JSA.

Copisidas will program thestation with his own staffat a facility separate fromSusquehanna's three stations,while Susquehanna's sales staffsells the inventory.

"It was mutually beneficialfor us," Susquehanna RadioPresident David Kennedy toldRBR. The new station is ex-pected to sign on in June.

At the end of the three-yearperiod, Susquehanna will buythe remaining 60% based on afair market appraisal.Susquehanna entered the KCmarket just last year with itsacquisition of KCMO-AM & FM& KCFX-FM as spin-offs fromEntercom (N:ETM). Brokers:

Chris Devine, President, of

Marathon Media

has agreed to transfer the assets of

KLCE-FM, KCVI-FM and KECN-AM Blackfoot, IdahoKICN-AM, KFTZ-FM, KOSZ-FM and KBLI-AM Idaho Falls, Idaho

KUNF-AM Washington, UtahKREC-FM Brian Head, Utah

.for

$14,500,000to

Craig Hanson, Chief Executive Officer, of

Simmons Media

KStarMediaGroup, Inc.

"Radio's Full ServiceFinancial Specialists" TM

5080 Spectrum Drive, Suite 609 East Addison, TX 75001 (972) 458-9300

www rbr corn

by Jack Messmer

Mike Bergner, Bergner Co,(Copisidas t; Larry Patrick &Terry Greenwood, PatrickCommunications Susquehanna)RBR observation: No one issaying what the format will befor this new station, but it's apretty good bet that it will fitwell demographically withSusquehanna's Oldies KCMO-FM and Classic Rock KCFX-FM.

Susquehanna updouble -digits

Susquehanna Media, which haspublic bonds, reported that Q4revenues rose 14% to $87.7Mand EBITDA gained 11% to$35.2M. For Susquehanna Ra-dio, Q4 revenues rose 14% to$61.1M. Broadcast cash flowrose 14% to $27.4M.

For all of 2000, SusquehannaMedia (radio and cable) saw rev-enues rise 18% to $320.6M andEBITDA gained 19% to $121.7M.Full -year radio revenues grew19% to $220.9M and broadcastcash flow shot up 30% to ti-) +.9M.

Regent up triple digits

Acquisitions propelled RegentCommunications (O:RGCI) totriple -digit growth rates for Q4,but the company also postedstrong double-digit growth on apro forma basis.

On an actual reported basis,Q4 net revenues rose 124% to$14.3M and broadcast cash flowgained 321% to $4.8M. Full yearrevenues jumped 85% to $44.1Mand BFC gained 152% to $13.9M.On a pro forma basis (stationsRegent owned in Q4 of both '99and '00), Q4 net revenues rose17.4% to $4.1M and BCF in-creased 31.4% to $1.1M.

Regent said it has purchased$5.6M worth of its own stock-a total of 1,088,600 shares-under the $10M buyback pro-gram its board authorized lastsummer. CEO TerryJacobs told

2/26/01 RBR

gall Street to expect Q1 revenues of $11-

1.2M and BCF of $2.4-2.6M.While Regent, like other groups, has expe-

ienced a slowdown in national business inome markets, its smaller markets get a higher)ercentage of their revenues from local saleshan do operators in large markets. "It has notlad the negative effect on us that it has had)n some others," COO Bill Stakelin assurednvestors and analysts.

Regent puts a special effort on pre -selling21, which is traditionally one of radio's,lower quarters. The company says pro formaevenues were up 2.5% for January, with7ebruary pacing 4-5% ahead and March 6%.We have been resisting, especially in first4uarter, as we do each year, the temptation to;imply lower the rate base on our radio;tations to get 'X' revenue in the door,"itakelin said, adding that "the folks who arevery quick to drop their rates and destroy:heir basic foundation rate structures...have avery hard time [getting their rates back up]."

LMA to O&O on Jersey Coast

k three -year -old LMA is being converted toDwnership in the Atlantic City -Cape May,NJ market. Bill Hufs Coastal BroadcastingSystems is paying $1.4M-minus nearly$300K in LMA payments-to acquireWWZK-FM. The cash -for -stock deal willhave the Coastal partners-Huf, EdwinRosenfeld, Scott Wahl and CharlesPessagano, operating as WZK LLC-buyall of the stock of Marc Scott Communica-tions. The sellers are Marc Scott and hismother, veteran broadcaster Faye Scott. Ina related deal, prior to closing, Marc ScottCommunications will spin off its otherstation, WJNN-FM North Cape May, NJ, toanother entity controlled by Marc Scott.

Swapping in Puerto Rico

Arso Radio, one of Puerto Rico's largestradio groups, is swapping a San Juan rim-shotter to boost its presence in Mayaguez.Arso will trade off WBRQ-FM Cidra, PR toNewlife Broadcasting for $400K cash and

WFDT-FM Aguada, PR. Both stations areClass A. The swap partners have been LMAingeach other's station since November.

Corpus Christi cluster conveyedEquicom's Corpus Christi, TX trio of KOUL-FM, KRAD-FM & KLTG-FM has been LMA'd

by Rodriguez Communications, with a salepending for $6.75M. That will leave EquicomPresident Jim Ray running stations in Bryan -College Station, TX and five unrated Texasmarkets (a deal last year to sell those fivesmall markets never closed). Equicom hasventure capital backing from Equus II, LBJ

Capital and the Texas Growth Fund.Marcos Rodriguez has been growing

his group again after big cash -outs last yearof some of his largest stations.

Joyner nabs South Hill

Tom Joyner has a history of owning stationsin rural areas of North Carolina and Virginia,so it's no surprise that he's buying WJWS-AM& WSHV-FM South Hill, VA for $1.05M. Theseller is Norm Talley's Old Belt Broadcast-ing Corp. As always, we have to point outthat this Tom Joyner is the long-time stationowner from the Carolinas, not the nationallysyndicated morning show host who is basedin Dallas. Broker: Greg Guy& Terry Green-wood, Patrick Communications

Viacom/Infinity merger complete

Infinity Broadcasting's stock closed forever on2/21 at $31.50. Immediately after Infinity share-

holders voted to approve the deal, the longpending merger was completed. Under thetax-free deal, Infinity shareholders received59.2% of a Viacom Class B (N:VIAb) share.

Cost cutting boosts WW1

Westwood One (N:WON) grew operating cash

flow by 13% in Q4 to $54.7M, while netrevenues gained only 1% to $156M. To achieve

that cash flow growth, WW1 cut operating

expenses by $3.9M and chopped $790K offcorporate overhead. 'We watch our costs everyday," CFO Farid Suleman assured analysts.

For the full year, WW1's net revenues rose 55%

to $553.7M and operating cashflow gained 82%

to $165.6M. Net income rose 77% to $42.3M.

Both Suleman and CEO Joel Hollanderrebuffed concerns that Clear Channel Commu-nications (N:CCU), which owns Premiere RadioNetworks and has its own traffic service inseveral markets, could pull all of its stations outof affiliations with WW1 and its Metro/Shadowtraffic operations. Hollander noted that quite afew Clear Channel stations took WW1's recentSuper Bowl coverage and had signed on for theGrammy Awards. He said WW1 has a goodrelationship with Clear Channel and that they'llcontinue to do business with each other be-cause it is in the business interest of bothcompanies to do so.

For the current year, *WW1 is projectingEBITDA of $183-188M. The company is notproviding a revenue estimate yet, althoughSuleman said full -year growth of 6-8% , withsingle -digit growth in Q3 and something higherin Q4. For Q1 and Q2, he said, it's "hard to say."

The RadioIndex TMDown it goes...and stays.The Radio IndexTM slipped1.433 for the week to close2/21 at 158.297.

185

175

165

155

IS

Radio Business ReportVoice Of The Radio Broadcasting Industry'

1/31 2/7 2/14 2/21

WHOO-AM, Orlando, Floridafrom Cox Radio, Inc.

to ABC, Inc.for $5,000,000

Charles Giddens and Elliot Eversrepresented ABC.

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Read about thesetransactions and more

at rbr.comThe place for

leading industrynews and information

Transaction Digestby Dave Seyler R Jack Messmer

The deals listed below were taken from recent FCC filings.RBR'sTransaction Digest reports on all deals that involve assignment of a station license (FCC Form

314) and substantial transfers of control of a licensee via a stock sale (FCC Form 315), but not internal

corporate restructurings (FCC Form 316). All deals are listed in descending order of sales price.

$2,000,000,000 207 stations, 100% stocksale of Citadel Communications (O:CITC)and its license -holding subsidiary, CitadelBraodcasting Co., from Larry Wilson andthe company's public shareholders to FLCCHoldings Inc. (Ted Forstmann, SandraHorbach, Thomas Bell, Gordon Holmes).$26 pershare, plus debt assumption. Exist-ing superduopolies. The acquiring com-pany will also assume a few pendingcontracts to buy additional stations.Broker: CS First Boston

$10,000,000 WFFX-AM, WJDQ-FM,WMSO-FM, WZKS-FM & WYYW-FM Me-'ridian MS (Meridian -Newton -Union -MarionMS) from Broadcasters & Publishers Inc.and Apex Broadcasting Inc. (HoustonPearce), part of the Radio South group, toClear Channel Broadcasting Licenses Inc.(Lowry Mays), a subsidiary of Clear Chan-nel Communications (N:CCU). $10M cash.Existing superduopoly.

$3,600,000 WBRQ-FM San Juan PR (CidraPR) from Arso Radio Corp. (Luis Soto) toNewlife Broadcasting Inc. (Juan Carlos MatosBarreto, Ana G. Velez Montes). $400K cashand WFDT-FM (below) LMA since 1/11.

$3,200,000 WFDT-FM (formerly WNNV)Mayaguez PR (Aguada PR) from Juan CarlosMatos Barreto, Ana G. Velez Montes andDominga Barreto Santiago to Arso Radio

Corp. (Luis Soto and family). Transfer aspartial payment for WBRQ-FM (above).Duopoly with WIVA-FM Mayaguez-Aguadilla PR. LMA since 1/11.

$2,025,000 KMXU-FM Salt Lake City UT(Manti UT) from Sanpete County Broad-casting Co. (Douglas Barton) to Mag MileMedia LLC (Bruce Buzil, Chris Devine,Andrew Barrett). $75K escrow, balance incash at closing. Superduopoly withKOVO-AM, KYKN-FM & KWKD-FM. Nocontour overlap with KUUU-FM, KFVR-FM or KOTB-FM. Note: The seller willretain KMTI-AM Manti UT. Broker: MediaServices Group

$1,500,000 KLTD-FM Killeen -Temple TX(Temple TX) from KenCannon Communi-cations Ltd. ( Ken Williams) to CumulusLicensing Corp. ( Lew Dickey Jr.), a subsid-iary of Cumulus Media (O:CMLS). $250Kdownpayment, balance in cash at closing.Superduopoly with KTEM-AM, KOOV-FM, KUSJ-FM & KOOC-FM. LMA since 1/10.Broker: Media Services Group

$1,475,000 KLVW-FM Odessa -Midland TX(Odessa TX) from Educational Media Foun-dation (Richard Jenkins) to Tommy R.Vascocu. $375K letter of credit as escrow,$1.25M in cash at closing, $225K note.Duopoly with KQRX-FM. Note: The buyermust relocate this station's tower.

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