John Gorman's Media Blog

Radio: SoundExchange - Men of Steal

2009-07-09T17:08:00.016-04:00

I’m not in love with it but this shotgun wedding of the RIAA and webcasters makes more sense than the prior proposals.

I’d said it right from the beginning. Royalty payments should be based primarily on a percentage of an Internet radio station’s earnings.

If politics is the art of compromise - and considering the players involved, chances are that this is the best deal that could be done for webcasters. At least some webcasters can afford this. It won't do much for future Internet radio start-ups. Those that'll benefit are the existing for-profit webcasters. I don't see a problem with that since they've been fighting this fight for years.

For that shark tank known as the RIAA, it’s not the haul they were hoping to pull off – but it’s still a helluva steal.

Do you want to know how Internet-only radio stations will break to the masses?

When it creates its first air personality.

You want to know how Internet radio will become vital to the labels and artist management?

When it breaks it first million-selling artist without terrestrial radio's support.

In the interim, webcasters with skin in the game will pay the freight and wait.

Let’s get straight to it. The deal with SoundExchange deal defines and establishes three separate classes of what they call pure-play webcasters.

Those are Large, Small, and the ones that have “bundled, syndicated or subscription services.”

Large webscasters are defined as Internet radio stations making over $1.25 million in annual revenues. They’ll be on the hook for either 25 percent of total revenues or a gradually increasing per-performance rate – whichever is higher. The minimum payment to SoundExchange is $25,000.

Small webcasters are Internet radio stations with revenues under $1.25 million – who also have fewer than 8 to 10 million listeners per month. They’re on the hook for a percentage of total revenues based on a sliding scale of 12 percent of the first $250,000 and 14 percent over that - or 7 percent of expenses, whichever amount is highest.

Bundled, Syndicated or Subscription Services will be obligated to pony up the same ludicrous rates the NAB, while under the bass-ackwards leadership of David “Fumbles” Rehr, negotiated in February. Though the rates are a few cents lower than what the Copyright Royalty Board requested, SoundExchange walks with a percentage of the total amount of terrestrial radio station revenues – not just what may be earned on-line.

All of the above classes must keep detailed records of every song played and when – and must adhere to the rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

SoundExchange offers a two-fold microcaster such-a-deal.

Internet radio stations that generate no revenue and have few listeners, which make up the overwhelming majority of webcasters, will have to shell out $600 – and will be exempt from keeping records.

For small Internet radio stations with listeners but revenues under $50,000 – you’ll be hit with a minimum $2,000 annual cost of doing business.

Beyond that, it gets complicated and you can bet that only the lawyers will get rich. Click here for the breakdown, takedown, and shakedown.

It could have been worse, it could have been better.

Pandora rushed out their update the moment the deal was done. Heavy users will have to pay-to-listen if they go over a certain allotted time.

So SoundExchange, the collection agency wing of the fee-aholics at the RIAA, which represents labels with notorious reputations for gypping artists out of their owed royalties, will do the collecting and allegedly pass fifty percent, minus administrative costs, to the artists.

We'll see. Like Bob Dylan said, "Money doesn't talk, it swears."

Does it matter what really happened? Not really. Somewhere along the way the RIAA realized they weren't going to sell their pay-for-play schemes to webcasters - and that their original proposed fees would've put the very stations that would expose the most new music out of business. That's when compromise was reached.

Don't fool yourself into believing this is a win for webscasters. What we have here is not the result of democracy but of a kleptocracy.

Radio: Paralysis by analysis

2009-07-06T16:03:00.016-04:00

If everyone’s a research expert there are no research experts.

Traditional media, radio included, suffer from a severe case of paralysis by analysis.

If one research study shows radio time spent listening down, counter it with another study that “proves” radio’s reach and frequency continues to expand.

It’s the path of least resistance. Most gravitate and believe research that tells us what we want to see and hear.

It’s called believing your own hype – and it’s lethal.

It’s why many conservative talk show hosts are successful. The converted love being preached to.

That’s where the research business has gone south. No one wants to be proven wrong.

Research loses credibility when it stops asking the right questions at the request of its clients.

There are few things easier to do than manipulate research results. Just ask misleading questions and avoid those too obvious or controversial.

It’s so uncomplicated to generate an eye-opening, smack-you-across-the-face research study to make one believe it’s essential that the consultant or research organization that did it be hired to save the business.

Radio confuses what it wants with what is probable and when in doubt it goes for mystification, not perfection.

These researchers don’t care about the facts. It’s just like guilt is not as common as most people believe. Killers and radio researchers probably laugh as much as anyone else.

I used to enjoy going to industry conventions and gatherings where you’d actually leave with more knowledge than you had when you arrived. It’s not like that anymore. Over the summer, we’ll have a few of those warm-up gatherings like the Conclave that’ll take your time and money, leading up to the big shebang NAB Radio Show convo in September. The usual suspect researchers and consultants will once again team up to present their latest research “findings” for radio. Let me predict. They’re going to tell you what you want to know and what they want you to believe. I didn’t say they’d be factual.

The radio industry purged nearly all programmers, managers, and even CEOs that achieved success with a dose of their gut instincts. There are chains where those challenging on-hand research are considered precarious and insubordinate – even if it’s old, dated, or from another market.

I have another word for these guts and glory programmers and managers. Futurists. They possess the skill to connect dots that haven’t been connected yet and they’ll often go against the grain of traditional research.

Not all industries dislike futurists. The Silicon Valley nurtures them. Steve Jobs locks them up in a room and says, “Create something! Create anything!"

You can’t measure futurist gut and instinct with research. The latter deals with what already was - not what is to be. Gut decisions are supported by running proposals and objectives by those you’ve surrounded yourself with – your colleagues, mentors, and support staff. Gut is measured with competitors and reality checks. Instinct is derived from your knowledge, passion, and – of equal importance – pride of product.

Researchers are terrified of them. Futurists use research as a map – not the end-all. They reference research like MapQuest – making sure they don’t miss a twist or a turn on the way to their destination.

Misleading research also damages the reputation of the radio industry. Take last week’s Media Post headline: Radio Tops with Teens.

Now, read this line circumspectly: Nielsen found that 16% of teenagers around the world consider radio their "primary source" of music, with another 21% identifying it as a "secondary source" of music. But the numbers lag far behind MP3 players -- identified by 39% of teenagers as a primary source of music -- and computers, preferred by 33% of teens.

Around the world. Catch that?

Looking for teens listening to the radio in the U.S.? Try low-income families. Those that cannot afford other means of music delivery have no choice other than free terrestrial radio. They can’t afford an iPod, iPhone or some reasonable facsimile. Prove me wrong.

Who did the research for the NAB and RAB's lame Radio Heard Here campaign? Is there even one person gullible enough to fall for these new promos?

You’ve heard the latest NAB joke, right? There are radios in the heaven of the NAB but no NAB in the heaven of radio.

Who came up with the research that HD Radio on the new model Microsoft Zune will break that medium to the masses? Do you know anyone that owns a Zune?

The headline in yesterday’s on-line daily Ad Age said it best: Jackson's Death Marks Turning Point for Media Players. Radio didn’t deliver the news – or even advance rumors. It broke on TMZ.com and spread on Twitter. By the time radio got around it – that is, figuring out what format to carry the breaking story on and how to interrupt the voice-tracking – it was old news.

It comes down to this. Radio-oriented research has become so tainted and so implausible that it’s not taken seriously by anyone other than those in the industry that want to believe in the improbable.

If radio’s so brilliant why are a half dozen, maybe more, chains in a budgetary black hole and thisclose to bankruptcy?

Maybe the radio researchers are banking on the old saying that even liars, thieves, bankers, politicians, and whores become respectable if they stick around long enough.
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Denny Sanders video aircheck from 1985

Radio: Performance royalty lax

2009-06-28T16:36:00.020-04:00

Mr. Smyth, Mr. Jacobs.

We are the anti-Performance Royalty Fee police.

Please stand up. Hands where we can see them. We are not going to ask you again.

Now, back away from those computers.

Do what we say and maybe radio won’t get stuck paying that performance royalty fee.

We don’t need another web site.

We don’t need another slogan.

We don’t need another contest.

And we certainly don’t need another hero – and if we did it wouldn’t be you.

If the Coot read his own research he’d know that consumers have grown weary of run-of-the-mill heroes.

The way your attempt to battle-position radio and the labels is like India vs. Pakistan. And you’re Pakistan. That’s why, as the song goes, your way will not survive.

Radio permitted this to happen. Where were the NAB and Peter Smyth and the Coot when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was sailed through Congress without opposition?

Can you blame the RIAA and the labels? If it was that easy to bluff radio the first time, of course you’re going do it again and again and again.

Look over the archives of the daily on-line radio trades. Just six months ago, the Performance Royalty Fee wasn’t even considered to be a major threat by the radio industry.

Fred, we know you have personal reasons why you don’t want it. Your own monthly fee and whatever services you may offer your clients will become expendable if radio’s forced to pay that premium. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. You must really pine for those days when the label guys lined up in your lobby to kiss the ring, among other things. No wonder why you’re trying to get in the apps business.

It’s bad enough, Fred, you did that imprudent “Go for the Gold” promotion that had radio stations send photos of their lobbies filled with gold and platinum album awards to “prove” that radio sells music.

Yes, if only the labels didn’t have requests – some in writing, no less – from certain high profile station managers and programmers asking for more of them.

Here’s the other part of those awards you don’t understand – but should. Regardless of format, would you not want acts on your playlist to mature into superstars or do you prefer playing artists that can barely fill a club? Your call. You remember your original conception of the Edge? We do.

Just keep biting the hands that have been feeding you content for over sixty years. Smart.

You are in denial. You don’t want to accept that radio listeners are smart and savvy and know when they’re getting played. Like I say, if you want me to agree with you that the masses are asses then you have to agree with me that even asses know when they’re getting kicked, Capish?

Now we have Greater Media’s Help Save Radio web site.

Let me ask - do you really believe this is motivation material?

Mr. Smyth, instead of hiding behind reams of false prophet research go directly to your front lines. Go to your air talent, your street teams. Go to those that you never talk to. Those who interface with the public.

If you promise not to kill the messengers, they’ll tell you how much ground your losing – and how quickly you’re losing it. You have met the enemy. You.

The Smyth site asks listeners and clients to join their fight. Stop here for a moment. Step outside, breathe the same air as the common folk and let's assess the damage.

This is not the Summer of Love for radio and the labels or radio and its listeners for that matter.

And your clients have their own tribulations. They don’t need to hear about yours. Like the print media, these “save our industry” campaigns are only convincing clients to pursue other avenues of exposure.

Clients want to advertise on platforms that aren’t problematic. You're saying, "Our ship is sinking. Join us."

One PD told me over the weekend that the one positive that came out of Michael Jackson’s death was that many sought the instant gratification of hearing Jackson’s music. A large percentage did not have his music on their iPods – so radio became their prime destination for their Jackson fix.

What should that tell you? Radio’s not dead. Just dormant. If it programmed what potential listeners wanted to hear they wouldn’t be “potential.”

Of course, we had to deal with the bareboned Clear Channel, Cumulus, and other chain stations - in addition to Sirius XM - that were on autopilot and unprepared and unmanned to deal with Jackson’s sudden death. That’s what happens when you voice track a prime daypart a day or two in advance and lack a plan B.

You and I know that your “save our radio station” web sites, contests, and “go for gold” campaigns are not going to win this war. You have no one’s sympathy.

Anyone reading this should ask every service industry person you come in contact with between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five if they still listen to the radio. Just ask that one question. Do it for one day, one week. I don’t care. Then ask the second question. One word. Why?

Now, if you really want to fight the performance royalty fee for radio, please take the advise of rational minds.

Leave this campaign to the artists who see through the ruse of this performance royalty fee. It’s regrettable that your stations weren’t talking directly to artists and managers about this a few years back. This performance fee campaign didn’t just materialize yesterday. The threat had been on the table long enough for the radio industry – with or without the NAB – to do something about it.

Have you read Moby's (he's a recording artist, Fred) opinon on the performance fee on his web site? Did you hear what Dave Stewart (Eurythmics and solo artist, Fred) said about labels and royalties?

The labels are looking for a bailout and radio’s lack of organization makes it an easy tap.

I’ll make it real easy for you.

Most recording artists would rather not chance the six-figures that it cost to audit their label. Those that can afford to do so are most likely to be multi-platinum acts or their estates. The Beatles, the Stones, and Led Zeppelin are among those that audited their labels and found royalty payment improprieties.

So here’s the deal. I’m asking for any artist whose management audited their label and found absolutely no financial discrepancies of any kind to come forward to say the labels are on the level and can be trusted to equitably and adequately distribute royalties due.

I suggest that the radio industry make the same offer to all recording artists.
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Michael Jackson and rock radio

Radio: Mercury Awards in retrograde

2009-06-15T16:54:00.018-04:00

Let’s cut right to the chase. Did you hear the latest one from the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB)?

They finally did something that made sense. No, really.

I know I’ve been rather critical of the RAB and its leadership. They’ve backed all the wrong horses from David Rehr’s laissez-faire version of the National Association of Broadcasters to their ineffective Radio Heard Here campaign and supporting Lyin’ Diane Warre n and the HD Digital Radio Alliance.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe we’re in the majority when we scream bloody murder that the RAB has done absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing to help radio advertising since deregulation – until now.

This past week the RAB circuitously announced that it would not present a Mercury Award in the radio station category this year.

A sales manager called me this morning to grouse that this decision was undeniably the worst message the RAB could send to the ad community.

I said it’s the other way around. The decision came from the ad comm unity . The RAB’s fifty – yes, fifty – judges came from agencies, production companies, and – how about that – radio stations. They did the first round of adjudicating. From there, fourteen judges reviewed the second – and final round of spots, which were tallied on a numerical scale.

The judges had discretion to reduce the number of categories and prizes if the quality on entries didn’t meet specified standards. Believe me, if you’ve heard some of the spots that made the cut in prior years – and you can find them on line - you’d realize we’re not talking brilliance here. It’s not a tough room. This year the radio spots were that bad.

Please take note of that. Now, move along. There’s nothing worth hearing here.

In addition to radio produced spots, political, public service announcements, and student-produced spots failed to make the cut.

If anything, I respect the decision makers at the RAB for being candid and blunt in backing their judges’ decision.

And, believe me, your clients and the ad agencies already know most stations can’t produce a saleable radio spot. That’s why so many of them aren’t buying radio time.

Don’t hit me up with economy as an excuse. You and I know that many radio clients left the medium long before Wall Street caught up with reality.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Have you heard how dreadful and futile most radio spots sound these days? The industry that was once called “the last great illusion” no longer has a clue on how to play on one’s imagination with creative, illustrative writing and production.

There is no gold standard for radio spots. Just tin. No, cardboard.

Consider the RAB’s decision as radio’s intervention.

Your own ad bureau’s judges said you’re producing crap. Is that frank enough for you?

Understand that this is only a minor symptom of a profound disease that is crippling the radio industry. Its ethos of conceit and entitlement influences all aspects of several struggling, almost bankrupt radio chains.

Those in the business can easily to rattle off the names of at least three or four former production directors in your market who were let go because they couldn’t produce the tonnage. It’s not about creativity. How do you measure creativity on a P&L? It’s all about output. Content doesn’t count.

I’m surprised they didn’t set up a makeshift morgue at some stations to accommodate all the production and creative talent that was gutted.

And guess what? Most are making more money now as independent contractors by being creative. They’re voicing and producing spots and promos for TV, cable, and on-line now – and lovin’ every minute of it.

Back at radio, who cares if the same voice is heard on three spots in a row? Who cares if the spot-writing is right out of some Radio Spot Writing for Dummies book. You should be thankful to have three spots in a row. Hopefully, they were cash up front.

Let me tell you something. You could have a ten-share, when that actually meant you had a lot of listeners, and if your local production was crap – you didn’t sell your clients’ products.

The production director and the copywriter are as every bit as important as your air talent. Oh, that’s right, Mr. Hogan, Mr. Dickey, and Mr. Suleman. You don’t have air talent anymore.

I’m not ready to say Jeff Haley finally earned some respect with this decision. I’m sure RAB members will put the screws to him. If he hangs tight and doesn’t vacillate from his decision, I’ll be on his side – and supporting his brutal honest assessment of radio advertising content in 2009.

Haley’s not out of the woodshed yet.

The RAB also sent the next-worse message to the ad community last week. Except this one’s a blunder. Those attending last week’s National American Advertising Federation convention in Washington received an expensive and utterly wasteful 48-page mini-book promoting radio with pictures of mostly old fashioned transistor radios on the left page and one liners on the right, proclaiming the attributes of “that wondrous little box.” To make matters worse, almost all the radios shown were sporting non-commercial frequencies.

You’d think by now the RAB would know what side of the dial one sells. Or at least tries to.
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Remembering Peter Schliewen

Brian Chalmers 1955-2009
Michael Jackson and WMMS

Media: Drag me to Zell

2009-06-09T17:30:00.033-04:00

It’s my retort to those who would rather be lucky than good.

The problem with luck is that it eventually runs out.

Just ask Sam Zell.

This is your life, Sam.

You will be forever known as the culprit that bankrupted the Tribune Corp.

You incurred $13 billion in debt – most of it from taking the company private.

That’s almost as remarkable as the Bain Capital/Thomas H. Lee deal for Clear Ch a nnel.

They’re in hock for what? $19 billion?

We’re talking billions and billions. Where’s Carl Sagan when you really need him?

Sam, you’ve splintered the former Tribune empire – the L.A. Times, Newsday, the Cub s and the Wrigley Field they play in – and the real estate – the Trib tower, the L.A. Times building. Now they’re all for the taking.

Too bad commercial real estate’s in the commode, Sam.

If your lenders and investors end up owning the Trib, do you think they’ll want to keep the guy who expedited their financial problems to run the joint?

Sam, you’re being figured out. When you sneeze, everyone else dies from your flu.

How about your one and only radio property? Is it true that at least one of your hires has yet to unpack his belongings and make Chicago home?

Sure, the wind may change direction and you could find a way to cling to your folly for a while longer – but will anyone take you seriously?

That’s the difference between brilliance and luck. A brilliant sales person knows his or her close. You, O lucky man, do not.

Not having a greater fool in the wings to pawn the Trib Corp. to? Imagine that.

How about Randy Michaels and his Gang of Bore? All that kink’s horses and all the kink’s men couldn’t put you back together again. At least he’s consistent. He did the same thing for a newspaper chain as he did for radio.

Sam, had you forgotten that his resurrection of Jacor was of smoke and mirror? Mediocrity usurping talent.

Consider it a blessing that Zell and Michaels didn’t get into the art museum business. They’d take a highly crafted Impressionist painting and slap a coat of Sherwin-Williams on it.

Sam, I see that you’ve already dropped Lee Abrams’ Total Recall 2070 “eyes logo” from WGN America. That’s the one that reminded him of Duran Duran. How and why? It was his mind excursion, not mine. What does Duran Duran have to with television? Now, that’s asking too many questions.

And what regional fifties fast food restaurant you rip the new WGN logo from?

You know that Zell must hate not having a greater fool to pawn the Trib to. That’s what happens when luck runs out. Of course, your bad luck is shared by your employee stock ownership plan. They're the ones that got the full measure of your royal scam. And how about that? Your e.s.o.p. is now being audited by the IRS. If you have any more bad luck you'll be humming Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes.

We shall not shed not a tear for you, Samuel Zell. You and the Gang of Bore have golden parachutes in place. You always do.

The real losers are your own Tribune employees – those on the front lines that write, produce, print, and distribute the papers. They did not deserve to be forced to live in the bubble of your ego.

We know you’ll have another extravaganza next year for you and 800 of your closest friends. Your last one was integrated a private performance by the Eagles. According to the rate card I have their performance alone cost you between $6 million and $8 million. Maybe your next one’ll have Fleetw ood Mac. Austerity, you know. Christine McVie quit the band awhile back. Maybe you can get a discount.

Radio: Performance royalty fee - the video!

2009-06-07T16:49:00.018-04:00

Are you as embarrassed of this video as I am?

Try not to let it diminish your faith in the veracity of the radio industry.

This is what was put forth on YouTube as radio's entreaty against the proposed performance royalty fee.

It’s from House Judiciary Committee Chairman and Häagen-Dazs aficionado John Conyer’s “Awareness for Fairness” town hall meeting on June 2nd at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

Martha Reeves, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, George Clinton, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, and Dionne Warwick represented the recording artists.

Rev. Al Sharpton represented radio. Why?

He’s a has-been. He’s jumped the shark. He’s over. He’s last century. He’s not even worthy of a cameo role on a we-play-everything Jack format.

Is he still on Radio One’s payroll?

Radio One CEO Cathy Hughes was invited to be on Conyer’s panel but declined.

Kathy Stinehour, VP/GM of Radio One Detroit; John Gallagher, market manager of Greater Media, Detroit; Debbie Kenyon, market manager of CBS Radio Detroit were the only radio managers in attendance.

First, the Reverend Al cited an alleged Congressional conspiracy to silence “black radio, talk radio and free radio,” followed by a fictitious anecdote about Prince, claiming that his former label “owned” his name.

The only black radio I know of that’s been silenced is in Pittsburgh – and it was done by a black-owned company, Sheridan Broadcasting.

And Prince? Dropping his name for that symbol was his decision – and he did it while he was still on his label, Warner Brothers. He returned to using the Prince name in May 2000 after his publishing contract with Warner/Chappel expired.

The cause against a performance royalty fee for radio may be right but Sharpton chose all the wrong reasons for defending it.

In fact, Sharpton fell short of fully endorsing radio’s side.

While Sharpton pontificated, a drove of sloppy-dressed, out of shape white kid interns and assistants in the upper balcony cheered him on.

Is this the video the radio industry wants everyone to see?

Come on, you had to realize that when nearly every music station that mattered lined up behind pay-for-play/legal payola demands that the labels would eventually seek revenge.

Sure, the labels offered the payola…but radio took it and then asked for more and more and more….

I keep telling you that the Record Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) is getting even while you’re getting odd.

By now, you’ve heard the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) claiming a major victory over the performance royalty tax.

Last week, the NAB, evidently still haunted by the ghost of David Rehr, congratulated itself for collecting 220 signatures from House members.

What the NAB didn’t tell anyone was that those signatures are non-binding and those that signed are not obligated to support radio’s cause. What the NAB did do was provide the RIAA with a list of those who need to be swayed to their side.

In the past decade, the RIAA has been very persuasive on Capitol Hill. Radio has not.

Shall we count the number of times the NAB was caught sleeping on its steps?

There’s the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. How about the Family Entertainment Copyright Act? Need I continue?

If this performance tax is that imperative for radio’s future, where were its leaders?

I didn’t see Mark Mays at this meeting? Where was Peter Smyth? Dan Mason? Lew Dickey? Okay, he’s excused for professional voyeurism – more on that in a moment.

Why weren’t they representing radio at this “town hall” meeting?

Were they too busy working on own exit strategies to be concerned with another financial burden that’s about to be levied on radio? Why be bothered if it’ll be someone else’s problem?

We know Lew Dickey’s been preoccupied with the new surveillance systems he’s installing at all the Cumulus properties, so he can spy on his station managers and account executives.

The economics of our industry may be merciless these days, but still it’s disturbing to witness Dickey’s cannibalistic routine.

To paraphrase Gnarls Barkley, does that make him crazy? Unquestionably.

I’m still trying to hit upon an upside to this video. Maybe Greater Media Detroit market manager John Gallagher can parlay it into a TV reporter slot at one of Detroit’s TV stations. Or perhaps not.
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The Buzzard invades Parma

Radio & Records 1973-2009 R.I.P.

2009-06-03T17:22:00.008-04:00

They should have renamed it Downloads and Streaming.

Maybe it would’ve had a fighting chance. On line.

Let’s remember Radio & Records for its many achievements.

It was the publication for both the radio and record industries.

Nothing was more imperative to the record labels than an add and chart position on top 40 radio.

The format played its currents in high rotation and sold product.

In the days prior to electronic monitoring of stations the trades were dependent on “honor system” reports from top 40’s.

One problem. There wasn’t a set airplay chart for the labels and radio to agree on. You had a dozen influential trades – all kept in business by full-page label ads.

Both the radio and record industries wanted one reference chart.

Radio & Records gave it to them along with a new moniker for the top 40 format – Contemporary Hit Radio. CHR.

It weighted stations by market size and ratings – the Parallels: P1’s, P2’s, and P3’s.

It took a format that was nearly impossible to chart and categorize, gave it a new name, and tamed the beast formerly known as progressive rock radio into Album Oriented Rock. AOR.

For decades R&R sold full-page ads to the labels as an extension of the vinyl slingers’ and indies’ pitches.

R&R had the best writers, reporters and industry coverage. They could afford to.

There were years where it was R&R and everyone else. R&R was the trade; the others were tip sheets.

Two words: Street Talk.

Its annual conventions – particularly during the '70s and '80s – will never be duplicated. Not all the stories you heard about them were true. Just most of them. Well, maybe close to all of them.

What killed Radio & Records? In this brave new hyper-competitive market, competency is expected and only flawless execution is tolerable. But here’s the problem. That’s not enough. Today, the decisive competitive advantage is passion. When is the last time you heard that word to describe the radio and record industries?

It wasn't R&R that changed. It was the industry it served.

I feel bad for everyone connected with Radio & Records, especially for those format editors who have spent the past few years talking to and trying to help those who had lost their jobs. Now, they’ve lost theirs.

For those in the crippled consolidation radio and record industries, be afraid. Be very afraid. There are few things worse than being forgotten but not gone.

Let’s visit two other mediums – books and film.

The novel The Last Days of Pompeii by the Edward Bulwer-Lytton featured characters that presented a contrast from the decadent culture of first-century Rome with both older cultures and coming trends. It could easily be rewritten for the contemporary radio and record industries.

We’ve gone from the days of lines and noses to The Days of Wine and Roses. There’s that scene where Jack Lemmon says to Lee Remick: "I walked by Union Square Bar. I was going to go in. Then I saw myself, my reflection in the window, and I thought, 'I wonder who that bum is'? And then I saw it was me. Now look at me. I'm a bum. Look at me! Look at you. You're a bum. Look at you. And look at us. Look at us. C'mon look at us! See? A couple of bums."

Radio: The Bigot is back!

2009-05-31T18:24:00.008-04:00

Peter Smyth is the Chairman and CEO of the Boston-based Greater Media.

I’ve never met him. What I know of him comes from reading his radio-as-a-victim blogs.

I’m familiar with his stations. He has two of the best rock radio PDs in the business on his payroll.

I hear he allows managers make their own decisions and, for that reason, has a low turnover. Some say he's loyal to a fault.

I’ve read his bio. Spending most, if not all of his adult life in Boston and being in the radio business he has to know first hand that in the past half century the market has produced some of the best talk radio hosts in America: Jerry Williams, Larry Glick, Paul Benzaquin, Ken Mayer, Bob Kennedy, Peter Meade, Paul Sullivan, and David Brudnoy.

Just short of a year ago, Peter Smyth asked an open question in his monthly blog: “How in the world did we become the bad guys?”

It was in reference to the imminent Sirius-XM satellite radio merger.

He defended terrestrial radio by claiming, “Local, free radio represents every demographic and every community in the nation. We employ hundreds of thousands of dedicated and talented individuals, from every city and town in America. We deliver local news, weather, traffic, and sports updates every hour, every day, 365 days a year. We raise hundreds of millions of dollars every year for local and national charities and people in need.”

Exaggerated? Certainly. We know of many markets that don’t have a single radio station that provides those services and we can count on one hand the number of stations that do so every hour, every day, 365 days a year.

But let’s get back to that “bad guy” question. Specifically, what makes you a bad guy, Peter?

Is it your forgiveness of hate on the public airwaves?

Is it your support of a vile bombastic xenophobe named Jay Severin who does afternoon drive on your WTKK-FM in Boston?

This clown makes Michael Savage sound moderate by comparison.

Like you, I support the First Amendment, which safeguards speech from state restraint.

I won’t dispute the fact that you have the right to fill every one of your radio stations with vicious, bigoted commentary if you so desire.

And you do have the autonomy to pay Jay Severin a million dollars-plus a year to call Mexicans “criminaliens,” “leeches,” and disease spreaders.

Once, when a caller defended Muslims, Severin replied, “I have an alternative viewpoint. It's slightly different than yours. You think we should befriend them; I think we should kill them.”

And what exactly does he mean when he says President Barack Obama must be “stopped at all costs?”

You, as the CEO of a privately-held company, also have to right to terminate an employee for “just cause.” I’m pretty certain Greater Media, as a private sector employer, established specific guidelines to follow when disciplining or terminating employees.

I have to ask. What exactly was it that he said that made you to pull him off the air for a month?

Before I go any further, let me make it clear that this is no liberal versus conservative rant.

My concern is that when a talk show host uses words like “kill” and “stop at all costs” responsibility becomes compromised.

I'll credit you for shrewdly manipulating the media just enough to keep Severin's name in the news nearly every day in May.

Since it’s apparent that Severin has enough clients willing to market to his bottom-feeding hate mongering audience you now feel he’s worthy of keeping on the public airwaves and deserves every penny of the million a year plus bonuses you’re paying him to spew his racial rhetoric.

Just because it’s not illegal makes it right.

So what if Jay Severin, the dogmatist formerly known as James Severino, has a checkered past?

He didn’t really lie about having a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University. He just forgot he didn’t have one.

When he claimed he won a Pulitzer Prize? Come on, we know he was only kidding.

Severin also claims to be a former Republican Party political consultant, who “worked” on the presidential campaigns of George H. W. Bush in 1980 and Pat Buchanan in 1996. Exactly what he “worked” on remains ambiguous.

One fact Severin declined to reveal is that among 25-54 year olds, his show is Arbitron People Meter rated 15th place. That’s pretty bad for a station whose slogan should be “Race bait and ye shall receive.” His conservative talk archnemesis Howie Carr on Entercom’s WRKO is in fifth.

On Saturday, the W T TK website announced that “On Tuesday June 2nd, at 3 p.m., Jay Severin will return to the weekday afternoon timeslot on Boston's Talk Evolution 96.9 FM-WTTK. Jay regrets the remarks for which he was suspended and understands that his comments were indeed wrong and hurtful to the Mexican and Mexican-American communities. Accordingly, we feel it is time to end Jay's suspension and welcome him back to WTKK. All of our hosts have strong opinions and talk radio is a format for open and spirited debate about the many issues we face in Boston, New England, our nation and our world. There will no doubt be times when you disagree with Jay - and our other hosts too - but our ultimate goal is to maintain a level of conversation that is entertaining, compelling, and thought-provoking, yet civil and respectful. While we will not always succeed in walking this line, we will continually strive to do so.”

“There’s 10 years of context here of me . . . and because of my extraordinarily strong relationship with my colleagues and with (Greater Media chairman and CEO) Peter Smyth, I was confident - with a commitment to do the kind of show that they want me to do and I think the audience wants me to do - that this would be worked out,” Severin told the conservative Boston Herald yesterday.

And that’s "how in the world" some people become bad guys.

Radio: Hogan's Zeros

2009-05-27T17:06:00.024-04:00

Clear Channel Radio CEO and Crypt Kicker John Hogan is for those of us who want to reform radio what Sarah Palin was to Saturday Night Live. We have assurance that there’ll never be a shortage of material coming from his San Antonio compound.

How about his tasteless, mindless “Get A Job” promotion (or is that one being written off as, ahem, public service), where twenty-one participating Clear Channel stations will offer the unemployed a “chance” (his word) to nominate themselves for one of five weekly on-air slots? The "winning" jobseekers will get thirty seconds of fame to pitch for work on the stations. Sick.

The press release is here. In it, Hogan quoted recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but declined to mention the thousands of Clear Channel employees he selected to be added to the ranks of the unemployed.

I haven’t heard the promo on the air yet. My guess is that it’ll include a disclaimer that reads: “Former Clear Channel employees are not eligible.”

Did you hear the new one about John Hogan? Remember when he announced an “impressive new level of commitment to local community affairs that will define a new, higher ‘minimum level of service’ for all markets,” and added, “We believe when radio focuses on serving local communities, it is radio at its finest?”

No, that wasn’t a punch line.

“Clear Channel Radio has long led the industry in both the quantity and breadth of community-service programs at the local, regional and national levels.”

That wasn’t either – but it should’ve been.

Actually, none of it was intended to be a joke. It’s from an authentic April 15 press release issued by Clear Channel, which announced their - get this - nationally-driven commitment to localism.

Their pledge for change resulted in more firings and fewer local programming hours.

The last time I checked most Clear Channel stations are still running the same identical public affairs program at the same time.

Here’s more Hogan: “We are materially increasing our commitment to community programming, increasing our accountability, and broadening our public-service contributions in every local market we serve.”

Question, Hogie. Isn’t every market you serve local? Just asking.

Finally. Forty-four days after these commitments were made and ignoring the possibility that Clear Channel could be bankrupt within a couple of months, Hogan announced the appointment of two managers that will lead the company’s new initiatives, how ever ephemeral they may be.

Meet 36-year old Senior VP of Programming Darren Davis. He’s assuming the newly created post of Senior VP of Premium Choice.

I hope it’s a position they plan to keep around for awhile. You don’t want to go down in the record books as the John Paul I of Clear Channel.

His job is not to change the litter box but to “…improve program quality for all dayparts.”

Translation: Replace local talent with voice tracking. In Clear Channel-speak the word improve is defined as eliminating a salary.

He’ll also oversee the quality control of localism pronunciation. An outside-the-market voice tracker for their Kiss station in Boston will be taught that the suburban city of Quincy is pronounced Quin-zee – not Quin-see as in Quincy Jones and that you don’t pronounce Worcester as Wor-chester.

Let’s get to know Hogie’s second appointment of the day - Clay Hunnicut. He’s Senior VP of Programming for Clear Channel’s “East Major” region (don’t ask me where or what it is) and will take on additional duties as – Hogan loves slogans and titles – Community Engagement Director. The job title sounds like something that would put a stain on a career.

At Clear Channel, there’s no such thing as wearing too many hats until you tip over.

Though Hogie wasn’t specific about Hunnicut’s job definition, we have to assume that it has something to do with making sure those twelve promised PSAs-a-day run between 6 PM and 6 AM.

Should a group of close friends have an intervention with Hogie? At least tell him that no one is buying this crap?

If you wore glasses that made you look cross-eyed, wouldn’t you want to know?

You may ask how can Clear Channel pull off live-and-local – and do personal appearances - when most of their dayparts and just about all of their weekend hours are voice-tracked or syndicated?

Let me introduce you to the new Clear Channel National DJ Replicator. It’s brought to you by the same people that gave you other Clear Channel innovative programming breakthroughs like Premium Choice, Less is More, and the Format Lab.

Now, every market can have their own Ryan Seacrest and Elvis Duran. Or Steve Harvey and Kid Kraddack. Maybe you prefer Big Rig, Doc Reno or John “the B-Man” Beaulieu.

The Clear Channel in-person voice-tracking National DJ Replicator is a lifesize, full color cardboard stand-up of your favorite Premium Choice Clear Channel voice-tracked personalities. They come complete with movable arms and legs and a place for a local intern insert his or her lips to lip sync to pre-recorded introductions.

For example, the Ryan Seacrest Replicator comes complete with a customized voice track: “(station) thanks you for coming to our (name) event today. I’m Ryan Seacrest. Ryan Seacrest-dot-com.”

The National DJ Replicator allows you to create personal appearances with your designated Premium Choice DJs.

Don’t laugh. I fear that I just gave Hogie an idea.

I was going to suggest that Hogie consider taking Clear Channel’s radio division non-profit – until I realized that it already is.
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A true story in comic form

Radio: Sympathy for the devils?

2009-05-25T15:23:00.015-04:00

Please allow me to introduce you to these men of wealth and waste. A $19 billion - with a b - waste. Debt, to be precise.

I’ve always defined Clear Channel’s post-deregulation radio acquisition business plan as “buy ‘em up now and figure out what to do with ‘em later.” Here’s the rest of it: “We’ll just keep shafting our shareholders and they’ll just keep taking it.”

That didn’t work. Neither did the buyout that followed. That’s what happens when there are no heroes, just villains.

Always being so certain about everyone else’s attentions is a surefire system of failure.

It’s been nine months since private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee privatized Clear Channel in that lethal $27 billion leveraged buyout.

Now, the good ol’ devils are making their implausible claims. Have you heard the one about them remaining in good standing with the terms of its senior loans?

Now, let’s pay a visit to CreditSights, a leading independent credit research company. They’ve heard that one, too – and they’re not buying.

According to their findings, Clear Channel will most likely overreach its debt limit later this year, which will force those poor bastards into bankruptcy.

According to Jake Newman of CreditSights, as revenues and EBITA deteriorate, Clear Channel will surpass covenants that limit its secured leverage to 9.5 times EBITA this year.

The latest impediment occurred when Clear Channel’s largest senior lenders rejected a debt exchange proposal by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee, in their all but ineffectual juggling act to restructure the company’s debt before July. If unresolved, terms of the loan agreement will be violated, which, in turn will almost certainly bankrupt Clear Channel.

The senior lenders were allegedly offered in part an exchange of some of their $15 billion in debt for $2.5 billion that is owed to the company from Clear Channel's billboard business.

Though Bain and Lee could pump more money into Clear Channel to avoid bankruptcy, it will do little to stop its fiscal hemorrhaging.

That rumbling and crumbling sound you’re hearing in San Antonio? You guessed right.

Clear Channel’s billboards are someone else’s problem. I’ll focus on the radio side.

We won’t have Clear Channel radio CEO and slogan snatcher John Hogan to kick around anymore.

I’ll give him points for his characteristic concept of stealing slogans and attempting to create programming notions around them.

Let’s get right to it. Hogie, come on down.

You lifted “less is more” from a turn-of-the-last-century proverbial phrase by architect Ludwig Mies Van Rohe. Its original meaning was that simplicity and clarity lead to good design.

You resurrected the phrase to define reducing commercial load time without decreasing spot load by selling shorter-length spots for a higher rate. You managed to convince both the silver spoon Mays kids and yourself that it would result in an increased time spent listening.

One problem.

Clients refused to pay more for less and you neglected to take into account that your pitiable programming content wouldn’t hold listeners.

Then there’s your just-announced Premium Choice – a name stolen from a cat litter brand - to describe your neither local-nor-live voice-tracking and syndicated content, which has replaced local programming and content at most Clear Channel stations.

Hogie, Ryan Seacrest will never be Dick Clark. Stop repeating that. It's annoying.

Like everything else this King Midas in reverse initiates, Hogie’s method of modern programming was a dizzying decent into irrelevance and a bitter catastrophe for the radio industry. Hub and spoke = Broken wheel.

Even worse. Many of Hogie’s programming conceptions were copied by other radio chains, which- you guessed right - suffered the same disastrous results.

The danger with any monoculture is that one single failure takes everyone down.

Thanks in part to Hogie’s predecessor and tutor, the forked tongued and ever-loathsome Randy Michaels, Clear Channel ruined the sixty-year relationship between radio and the labels in just one decade. Now, every music-formatted station will be penalized with an unwanted and costly performance royalty fee.

Clear Channel led the way in making radio an also-ran in advertising revenue. Ask anyone under forty-five if they even have a favorite radio station anymore. You gave away mornings to TV and afternoons to personal choice. That so-called captive in-car audience found other mediums of captivation.

And if radio listening is being challenged by everything from iPods to satellite, why are NPR’s numbers up?

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. The view from Clear Channel’s San Antonio offices was that the “masses were asses” and its audience would take whatever it gave them. It failed to take into account that even asses know when they’re getting kicked.

And how about that? Now, the shoe’s on the other foot.

I’d like to say that I hate to say I told you so, but I won’t. I don’t have to.

Actually ,the only thing that’s missing is an end card from one of those old ‘50s or 60s B-movies – “The End.”

Radio: The RIAA's performance royalty glee

2009-05-19T16:32:00.013-04:00

So here we are.

If the streaming audio rates the NAB negotiated for terrestrial radio stay remain in place and the Performance Rights Act bill is passed, music radio will be history.

How many times do they have to be told? When content sharing is becoming part of most online media business plans, why is the radio industry allowing itself to be pushed and shoved in the opposite direction?

Radio invented it. When radio stations started playing records after World War II – it didn’t own the content – but playing music on-air provided its owners - the artist and the label - free exposure to the court of public opinion – the radio listener.

It’s the same principle as Google’s search engine. They don’t own the content that’s searched.

Did you see the score on Capitol Hill last week? The labels v. terrestrial radio: 21-9. Radio? Drop it likes it’s hot.

And what did the NAB have to say about radio’s slaughter?

What say you, NAB mouthpiece Dennis Wharton?

“Lawmakers are growing increasingly skeptical over record label claims that this legislation is about helping artists. And given the historic abuse of artists by the labels, who can blame them? The sad truth is that a performance tax will cripple an artist's number one promotional vehicle, free radio airplay, and it will transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from America's hometown radio stations into the coffers of foreign-owned record labels."

Dennis, when the NAB board fired Fumbles you were supposed to sack his speechwriter, too.

The NAB - S.O.S./different mouth. Denial, denial, denial.

You don’t get it - do you, Dennis? That vote verified that radio’s credibility with consumers is even shoddier than the labels.

Wharton’s quotes would have you believe radio’s winning. It’s not. Not even close. Short of a miracle, there will be a performance royalty fee on terrestrial radio broadcasts soon. David “Fumbles” Rehr gave that one away when he tried to play tough and the RIAA publicly tweaked his nose.

Right about now we should add that some of the best new music to be released over the past few years is coming from independent labels and direct-to-consumer sales that aren’t card-carrying members of the RIAA.

The labels’ ethical cirrhosis that used to infect radio stations has now spread to Capitol Hill.

Here’s your elected officials capitulating to clientele that combine the sobriety of Lindsay Lohan, the savoir faire of Michael Vick, and the vocabulary of any character in a Quentin Tarantino movie.

We’re talking about the music industry here. These are people that will hold a golf tournament for charity except that they forget to name the charity, because it always begins at home.

This is a business where an artist is most likely to receive royalties due after a label audit.

You were expecting maybe honesty? Integrity?

Rep. John Conyers, Jr., sponsor of the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848) says, “that the needs of small, minority, religious, and non-music broadcasters are taken into account as he and other Members of Congress continue to work on the legislation.”

Read between the lines here. He’s helping the RIAA divide and conquer.

I’m not defending Clear Channel, Citadel or Cumulus. Come on, how long do you think they’ll be around? I’m saying you can’t run with multiple rule books. One law must fit all sizes – and any law that forces radio to be extorted by the labels is wrong.

This tiered payment system, based on revenue, has stations with annual gross revenues – remember that word gross, we’ll get back to that - of under $100,000 paying a flat fee of $500 each year.

Stations with gross revenues between $100,000 and $500,000 will shell out $2,500 a year.

Stations that bill between $500,000 and $1.25 million gross will send the RIAA a $5,000 kiss annually.

Stations billing over a million and a quarter gross will be required to negotiate royalty fees with the RIAA’s SoundExchange collection wing with the wiser-than-you-think judges on the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), the government body that sets royalty fees. According to the bill the CRB will settle disputes and weigh the value of music to a station and its promotional exposure to the labels.

What’s it worth to be a fly on the wall in one of those meetings!

In all honesty, it’s still too early to tell the good guys from the bad on this one. You’re not dealing with a bipartisan issue here. This one? It’s all about the money – and that’s where it gets precarious.

Now here’s the good news. Stations grossing $5 million will be exempt from the fees for three years and those grossing over that amount will be exempt for fees for one year. Such a deal!

Now, lets get back to those gross revenues. That’s defined as all revenue earned – including those three worlds that have come back to haunt radio time and time again – non-traditional revenue. It’s all gross – not just time sold on the air. It’s all gross.

They’re not just stealing the stove. They’re coming back for the smoke.

Did you sell station merchandise? Did you put on a job fair? Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

My guess is that your best bet of getting V.I.P. tickets to any of this summer’s major tours is to either have an in with someone on the Copyright Royalty Board or be a fellow Congressperson or major contributor to one who’ll cozy on up to Rep. Conyers. If you want V.I.P. U2’s – you’re talking premium. You’ll need an in with someone on the Copyright Royalty Board for those ducats.

Remember the old RCA-Victor logo with the dog and the Gramophone – His Master’s Voice? Just cut and paste Rep. Conyers’ head on the dog. One picture is worth a thousand words? That one’ll be worth the entire Performance Rights Act bill.

Radio: Broom and gloom in Pittsburgh

2009-05-18T07:20:00.004-04:00

Did you hear that David “Fumbles” Rehr is still coming to work every morning at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)?

Here’s the clown that carpet-bombed the radio and television industry out of any hopes to achieve parity with new media in the twenty-first century – and he’s still allowed in the building?

Come on, Fumbles. This is broadcasting. Capishe?

There are no fare-thee-wells. When you’re out, you’re out.

Just ask the thirty-five former employees of Sheridan Broadcasting’s three radio stations in Pittsburgh.

Unlike Fumbles, who botched nearly every NAB assignment on Capitol Hill and knew his days were numbered, the employees of WAMO AM and FM and WPGR -AM had no such advance warning that last Friday would be their last day.

They were called into a mandatory meeting late that afternoon.

WAMO-FM’s Hip Hop/R&B format was consistently Abritron-rated top ten – and placed eighth in 12+ total audience ratings in the Winter ’09 Arbitron with a 4.5 share – up from a 4.0 in the Fall ’08 survey.

Both WAMO-AM’s Urban AC and WPGR’s gospel formats were syndicated and had ratings lower than whale excrement. WAMO-AM, 1,000 watt day/830 watt night and licensed to Millvale, PA, placed eighteenth with a 1.2 12+ total audience share while WPGR, 5,000 watt day/1 watt night, and licensed to Monroeville, didn’t even show.

The WAMO call letters, which have been in continual use in Pittsburgh for sixty-plus years, signify the city’s three rivers– the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio.

At the meeting, employees were told the stations were sold to an unidentified company.

Those that qualified received a severance package.

Employees were asked to clean out their lockers, turn in their keys and ID and were wished well on their future endeavors.

Following the meeting, Sheridan contacted local news media and released information that the station’s new owner, St. Joseph Missions, would change the three stations’ formats, leaving market number twenty-four without a formats serving the Pittsburgh African-American community. Arbitron estimates Pittsburgh's African-American population at 8.2 percent.

No information was provided nor could be found on-line regarding the identity or background of St. Joseph’s Missions, which purchased the three stations for the such-a-deal fire sale price of $8.9 million.

Rather than answer questions about the sale, Sheridan hired a spokesperson, Russell Bynum of the Pittsburgh-based Bynum Marketing and Communications, who referred to St. Joseph Missions as "religious-oriented.”

"This was a difficult decision for the owners, but it was a necessary situation for them," he added. "When we look at Sheridan, we are looking at a strong organization that has had to make these changes to adapt to the movement and the changes in the marketplace."

Translation: It takes money to make money but Sheridan was obviously not making enough of it.
*
Sherdian Broadcasting, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh, is the principal owner of the American Urban Radio Networks group, the only African-American network group in the U.S. American Urban runs three networks, which they claim reach an estimated 20 million African-American radio listeners. The company still owns radio stations in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Buffalo – at least for the moment.

Sheridan Broadcasting owner Ron Davenport Sr. bought WAMO-FM and AM in 1973, His son, Ron Davenport Jr., is the general manager. The company purchased WPGR-AM in 2001.

"This is a business decision," he said. "That's the reality of the marketplace. The marketplace determines how businesses go, and industries have to change with the times."

Fear of the future – specifically, the insurmountable obstacles following NAB’s botched negotiation with the RIAA’s SoundExchange on streaming audio royalties and the forthcoming almost-certain-to-happen performance royalty fee were the unofficial reasons for Sheridan’s decision to pull out of station ownership. Arbitron’s people meter ratings and their effect on urban formats was also rumored to be a deciding factor.

Regarding its decision to abandon the African-American radio audience in a market it’s headquartered in, Bynum claimed that Sheridan tried to find minority buyers for the Pittsburgh stations but – no surprise here - none were able to secure financing.

He added, "I believe someone will fill the void."

That’s more than one can say about Fumbles, whose continued relationship with the NAB should just be voided.
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vintage video aircheck from 1985

Radio: Give us 22 minutes and we'll give you commercials

2009-05-12T18:14:00.011-04:00

Come on, admit it.

You can’t help but chuckle every time someone from Clear Channel opens his or her mouth.

Ever since Thomas H. Lee co-president Scott Sperling sputtered, stuttered and fell all over himself a few weeks back on CNBC when asked the question, “Is the Clear Channel deal going to blow up?” it’s been one misstep after another at the Double C Ranch.

Another one? John Hogan. Forget about the swine flu crossing the border. Hogan’s showing severe symptoms of foot and mouth disease. He’s been planting his foot in his mouth every time he opens it.

Local? Live? Is he for real?

Back to Hogie in a moment.

Let’s start with silver spoon CFO Randall Mays and his just-released memo to his employees.

“We’ve had some questions relating to speculation about the health of our business,” he wrote. “Any such speculation is just that.”

Master Randy was countering a New York Times article on Clear Channel in their business section a few weeks back. It didn’t speculate on whether Clear Channel was in financial breakdown. It did speculate on the time frame of when the company will collapse.

So Randy, inquiring minds want to know if they do math differently in San Antonio. You’re saying that total revenues are down 23 percent in the first quarter – and you projected that in your Q1 forecast? That’s a question, Randy, because I don’t recall Clear Channel issuing such a statement.

What we have here is the sibling adaptation of good cop, bad cop. CFO Master Randy plays good brother while CEO Mark is the bad-ass.

Master Randy thanked his employees in his memo, adding, “The most important thing we can all do is turn our full attention to improving our competitive position and continuing to generate revenues. The entire management team is doing the same.”

The same….what?

Come on down, silver spoon CEO Mark Mays. What say you?

“Our companies (radio and outdoor) performed well on a relative basis in a difficult economic environment and weakened ad market,” sayeth the Markster. “We commend our employees for their ongoing efforts to engage their audiences, customers and communities through our strong brands, high-impact mediums, and great portfolio of properties.”

I know, I know. Call for the hip boots.

True, Markie didn’t identify what his strong brands, high-impact mediums, and great portfolio of properties are. Do any of us have a clue? No.

Strong brands? Does he mean Rush? Does he mean Ryan?

High impact mediums? HD Radio? Their soft-core porn rock radio web sites?

Great portfolio of properties? You mean your 70-odd radio stations in cash-strapped Ohio?

We do know that when Markie thanked his employees, he was thanking close to 2,500 fewer of them this year over last.

I’d like to tell the silver spoon brothers that every time they downsize Clear Channel they’re firing their listeners.

Now, put your hands together and let’s give a big Texas style welcome to Mr. Live and Local – our voice is Premium Choice – Clear Channel’s radio CEO John Hogan.

And what has Hogie been up to for the last couple of weeks?

Since introducing his vocal-not-local programming initiative for Clear Channel’s radio group, John Hogan, man of slogan, has increased the spot load at his radio stations to a minimum 22 units per hour, which must run in two spot breaks, twice per hour. Not three. Two.

Not counted in those 22 units per hour are station promos, contesting, unpaid HD Radio promos, unpaid “Radio Heard Here” announcements, and those twelve “local – Clear Channel cares about the community (fill in market name here)” public service announcements that Hogan promised Capitol Hill he’d carry.

It also doesn’t include sponsored news, weather, traffic reports, or studio sponsorships (You know – the “Joe’s Hardware and Tackle” studio mentions) commitments.

That means Clear Channel’s music format stations will not be playing music for over one-third of every hour.

Let me put it another way. Hogie’s swapped less is more for more is less.

Imagine being the client whose spot is the eighth, ninth, tenth, or eleventh in the cluster? If a spot runs and no one hears it, should you really get charged for it?

Like everything else at Clear Channel, Hogie would have you believe that the decision to run 22 spots an hour in two breaks is up to the “local” manager and program directors. That may be true. Just don’t expect managers and PDs to continue under the employ of Clear Channel if they dare to disagree with Hogie.

There’s another provision. Say, Hogie calls and tells managers to drop their draws and take whatever dollars they can to fill avails– and they get enough clients take ‘em up on a dollar-a-holler offer that stations end up with too many spots and not enough inventory.

What does a good local manager decide to do if he wants to stay employed?

Run them. See, it’s a minimum 22 spots per hour. There is no maximum.

That also adds up to more savings with Clear Channel voice-track talent. Fewer live breaks means it shouldn’t take as long to voice-track dayparts.

Or maybe this is Hogie’s way to save more money? If over a third of every hour is dedicated to non-music elements on his music format stations that means the station will be playing fewer songs per hour, which translates to lower-than-expected performance royalty fee payments to the labels.

Or maybe not.

You see, Radio & Records unceremoniously dropped seventeen Clear Channel stations from reporting status since their music is no longer programmed locally. Expect more to follow as R&R and other trades identify even more stations, which are programmed from San Antonio –not their city of license. That means labels will no longer service or call on those radio stations. As far as the labels are concerned, except for paying their performance royalty fees, those stations do not exist.

The same holds true for those that used to listen to those stations.

William Burroughs wrote in Naked Lunch of a frozen moment – a flash in time when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork. John Hogan, you are so close to yours.
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The Taurus Party at 34

Radio: Fumbles, Yourrrrrr OUT!

2009-05-06T17:25:00.016-04:00

David "Fumbles" Rehr, you’re out!

Fired.

Officially, it’s a resignation that was asked of you to make.

I hear they had to pry it out of you with the Jaws of Life.

You could say I’ve been predicting your downfall for years.

But I did call it on April 12. By then you were at the point of no return.

So many disasters in so little time.

Considering the irreparable damage Fumbles did to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) it’s hard to believe that he was in that post for less than five years.

Just to put it in perspective, his predecessor Eddie Fritz held the same position for 23 years.

Sure, I’d like to take some credit for the campaign to kick his ass out of the NAB – but I can’t. It was all Fumbles; all self-inflicted.

Now, he’s an accident going somewhere else to happen.

Fumbles joined the NAB as President and CEO in December, 2005 just around the time his left his former employer, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, for health reasons. They were sick of him.

Fumbles sold himself as an insider – as one who had the ear of then-President George W. Bush. Within a few months it was evident that Rehr knew Bush better than Bush knew Rehr.

He sold himself as a savvy lobbyist but proved to have absolutely no skill on Capitol Hill.

When the phone didn’t ring he knew it was FCC Commissioner Boy Kevin Martin. The Boy never returned Fumbles’ phone calls, e-mails, and letters even though they shared the same party and ideology.

In fact, Boy Kevin even went right over Fumbles’ head and mandated DTV transition PSAs when it was apparent that the NAB had no plan of action to promote the change from analog-to-digital. television transmission.

Fumbles, you leave behind a charred legacy of failure. Where does one begin?

Your failure to achieve multicast must-carry rights for TV stations?

Your failure to block the Sirius-XM satellite radio merger?

Your failed “white space” initiative to open up the broadcast spectrum for shared use by on-line devices?

Your failed campaigns to save radio from itself? Radio Heard Here? Radio 2020? Need I add more?

The botched streaming audio negotiations with the RIAA’s SoundExchange that gave the latter even more royalties than they asked for by 2015?

Let me add three more words: Performance royalty fees.

I’m running out of space. If you want more and have an hour to kill, go to the top of this page where it says “Search blog” and type in “Fumbles.”

Believe me. By the time you finish reading the rest of Fumbles’ follies you’ll be asking the same question: What took them so long?

Fumbles, you’ll be forever known as the one who escalated a business that was stuck in the past to go backward.

Your “resignation” comes with collateral damage.

Where does this leave your professional coat holder Dennis Wharton?

How about RAB CEO Jeff “Ka-Ching” Haley? How fast can that bum kisser get his head out of your butt?

And what of your digital radio buddies like iBiquity CEO Bob “Booble” Struble and poor Lyin’ Diane Warren of the HD Digital Radio Alliance? Is that demented party finally over?

I heard that your thisclose buddy Fred Jacobs took the news hard and spent the entire afternoon sobbing uncontrollably.

It remains to be seen if the NAB can ever recover from your lack of leadership.

Will the NAB board, which is dominated by old-line major market broadcasters, be able to identify a new CEO with the essential attitude and perception to lead old media into the 21st century?

The economics of the radio and television industry are remorseless, but I believe there are opportunities to marry old media to new and develop a 21st century “side door” revenue stream that will become highly beneficial to both our consumers and clients – and it will happen with or without the NAB. It’s up to that association to face up to today’s challenges or form another that will.

Let’s hear how Fumbles announced his departure.

"I have enjoyed leading America's broadcasters through this time of change and challenge," sayeth Fumbles in his shovel-ready farewell. "Our efforts to educate America about the digital television transition have been enormously successful, and our effort to reinvigorate radio through the Radio Heard Here campaign is positioning radio broadcasters well for the future."

Denial. From beginning to end.

P.S. Take your box of stuffed ducks and…. you know the rest.

Radio: Cat Litter Channel

2009-05-04T18:06:00.013-04:00

Say what you want about John Hogan but at least credit him for the honesty he delivered amid all the swirl of misinformation and panic Clear Channel forced on its employees last week.

Come on. Admit it. Don’tcha just love it? Premium Choice.

Hogan named his “not local but still vocal” voice-tracking and syndication sector after a brand of cat litter.

It’s true that Hogan’s having a rough start launching some of the new Premium Choice shows. Cats keep covering them up.

Insert your own joke here.

In Greater Cleveland, where in some parts of the market three separate Clear Channel KISS branded stations can be heard – all were playing the same music and using the same voice-tracking.

How desperate is Clear Channel?

They’ll consider themselves lucky if not in bankruptcy by year’s end.

The New York Times, itself a victim of trustafarian inexperience and greed, said, “it’s too soon to say who will be the biggest loser among media companies in this recession. But Clear Channel Communications is vying for the title.”

The accolades are coming in. They’re been pegged as the Terri Schiavo of media.

This is the end result of a decade and a third of reckless spending to buy up radio stations, regardless of size, market, or price – just for the bragging rights of owning the most of them. Today, they’re in two categories: worth less or worthless.

Let’s take a gander at Ohio. The downturn in the economy has devastated that state. Clear Channel owns a total of 72 radio stations of all shapes and sizes there – and overpaid for every one of them. There’s that radio business plan again: Buy ‘em now and figure out what to do with ‘em later. One problem. Later is now.

They proved Bob Sillerman’s greater fool theory when they bought SFX Concerts, renamed it Clear Channel Concerts, which they later sold at a loss. You know of the greater fool theory, right? It’s knowing that someone will pay even more than you did for something you paid too much for.

This is the end result of a decade and a third of Clear Channel buying up radio publications, rep firms, and manufacturers.

I always wondered why Hogan, who likes to put names and labels on everything, didn’t try to come up with a new one for Prophet, the voice-tracking automation system Clear Channel bought from Prophet Systems of Ogallala, Nebraska.

See, I said they should’ve renamed it the Terminator – because that’s exactly what it did to most of Clear Channel’s live air talent.

Even after their original architect of doom, Randy Michaels, who was provided the blank checks to buy anything, buy everything, was unceremoniously removed from the premises for impersonating the expense account of a Mays family member, Clear Channel continued on with half-baked, unthought-out projects like bland social networks and format labs, which went nowhere fast.

Last week Clear Channel employees got to read one of two Orwellian statements.

For the 590 no longer under its employ, it was: “Clear Channel is reducing the number of people it employs due to economy and the strategic direction of the company. We have decided to end your
employment as of today.”

For those surviving the latest purge, it was a personal message from Napoleonic CEO Mark Mays, which read in part: “While we can’t predict the future, we now believe we have determined the right structure and staffing levels for the current economic environment,” which is a reworking of a previous personal message he released after the January purge, which claimed 1,850 jobs.

And the trades were sent a statement issued by Lisa Dollinger, the Minister of Propaganda for the San Antonio silver spoon brothers, which read: “Like all media companies, Clear Channel has to adjust its business to the realities of the current economy.”

Clear Channel doesn’t cut to the chase. They just cut.

Since current is defined as the “here and now” you can expect more herd thinning, most likely after July 30 when Clear Channel will no longer be under obligation to the Security and Exchange Commission to provide a specific severance package. That was a pact they were forced to make with the SEC in order to win their approval of the private equity firms of Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee’s privatization of Clear Channel, which will go down in history as both the biggest and dumbest leveraged buyout in the media business.

Warren Buffett was right when he put private equity firms front and center with mortgage issuers, accusing them of committing “a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions.”

Clear Channel also added that it would be suspending its 401(k) match for all employees for the rest of the year; adding that if the company hits 90 percent of the budget goals at year’s end, the matches will be retroactively restored. Can we agree that neither will occur considering that Clear Channel’s revenue plunged by 23 percent in Q1 and cash flow fell by 47 percent?

Buying time on radio is like the story of a man who approaches a woman and asks, “Would you spend the night with me for $1,000?”

She pauses, then tells him, “Yes.”

“How about $100?” he asks.

Incensed, she replies, “What the hell do you think I am?”

“We’ve already established what you are,” he says. “Now, we’re just negotiating your price.”

Why are people worried about the Swine Flu? I’m more concerned about the Clear Channel ethical cirrhosis that’ll spread to the other monkey-see, monkey-do chains.

And, no, I can’t tell you why those other chains haven’t figured out that following Clear Channel’s lead is akin to suicide.

And as Bain and Lee are learning the hard way, suicide’s not painless.

----

Video: The Filet of Soul with Captain Kenny Clean and his Beater Soul Meter

Radio: Only 590 people nationwide

2009-04-28T17:21:00.018-04:00

Click here. A new Facebook page for former Clear Channel employees.

“I mean, Jesus, John. It’s only 590 people nationwide, including corporate people this time,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “There’s no need to do a hatchet job on us. This wasn’t an ‘Obama thing,’ not even close.”

I didn’t realize that January 20, 2009 - the day C lear Channel terminated 1,850 employees, which coincided with Barack Obama’s Presidential inauguration, would be formally referenced by that company as the ‘Obama thing,’ but I digress.

The voice on the other end of the line belongs to someone whom I promised would remain nameless. He does, in my opinion, represent Clear Channel Communications. He’s paid by Clear Channel and has a high level management position in a market, which I gave my word, would not identify.

I wasn’t going to explain the math. 1,850 plus 590 equals 2,440. In 99 days Clear Channel eliminated 2,440 jobs from the 900 or so stations it still owns.

The manager called me because, as he put it, “Some of our clients started reading your thing after it the magazines and newspapers picked up on it – and sometimes they give me crap about the stuff you write.”

“I’m just asking for you to put everything into context. I mean, everyone is firing everyone these days. Not just us.”

“I’m going to miss some of those people, for sure,” he added. “Some were good people.” I didn’t ask him whether he was referencing the programming talent or the back office people or both who were unceremoniously let go in the past twenty-four hours. My guess is that he never got too close to any of them. It’s like those kids growing up on the farm faced with the realization that the cute little lamb they used to play with would be tomorrow’s dinner.

“But, I’ll be honest, you and I should be more concerned about General effing Motors closing between 1,000 and 1,200 dealerships by the end of this year,” he continued. “Do you know how many effing radio and TV spots that are going to just disappear? All that effing revenue lost. That’s the real shame and that’s what you ought to be writing about ‘cause it’s going to end up costing jobs at CBS down the street and Emmis and Citadel and the rest of them.”

It’s all about point of view.

True, GM shuttering over a thousand dealerships by year’s end creates a nasty chain of events from even more people than Clear Channel fired on the street looking for work to far less dollars being spent on media in many markets.

My former programming assistant was among those terminated this morning.

She’d already been working at the station when the company I was with bought it. I just had an e-mail conversation with her a couple of weeks back. She was proud to say that she’d been with the station – her first major job – for almost twenty years.

When I read casualty figures of 590 or 1,850 news like this hits harder because we share the same business. Whether it’s a program director, an air personality or one who handles billing – we’re all interconnected.

Remember when Clear Channel radio CEO John Hogan said he was leaving it up to the program directors to decide whether to go with Premium Choice, their fancy name for voice-tracking and syndication – or stay live and local.

We now know the identities of the PDs that wanted to stay live and local. They’re the ones who are no longer under the employ of Clear Channel.

In at least one market, the entire staff was fired in favor of John Hogan’s Premium Choice.

I have a sounder for new e-mails. It’s been making noise all day. I’ve been on and off the phone three to four times more than usual. I’m hearing from those people you never hear from until they either lost a job or know someone who did and want to vouch for them.

Where am I going with this? Not far.

It does make me realize what a shallow company Clear Channel has become. It’s even worse under Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee. Think about it. They tried to orchestrate a positive p.r. fest about Clear Channel in advance of the firings they ordered John “I’m only following orders” Hogan to handle. Too bad they were lousy liars.

From Scott Sperling on CNBC to the insensitive and transparent Hogan press releases – Clear Channel showed their true color, Yellow.

These economic times will weed out the weaker chains, stations. Only a quality product will stand the test of time. That doesn’t say much for Clear Channel's future.

The people who were let go today are not those who destroyed this industry. They were the ones trying to save it, preserve it, and make a living from it.

Radio and records: the Lost Worlds, Part one

2009-04-27T16:33:00.016-04:00

Specifically, terrestrial and Internet radio and what we still refer to as the record labels.

Don’t they remind you of two dinosaurs locked in a deadly battle? One problem.

Like the dinosaurs, the equivalent of a large meteorite is about to strike earth resulting in instant extinction for both.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s start with the major labels. They’ve been consolidated down to four companies – Sony, EMI, Universal, and Warner.

The labels used to be a business made up of trained ears and crafty minds. After consolidation, the ears and minds were fired, or bought out and replaced by automatons.

instead of attracting people who were born to be in the business,it’s now run by deaf beancounters or know-nothing trustafarian music business wannabees like Heirhead Edgar Bronfman, Jr., who buy their way into the business.

You can spot them a mile away. They resemble fermented rock stars.

They don’t even drop names anymore. They want to be the name.

Since consolidation, the labels would rather have one act selling ten million copies of an album than ten acts selling a million each.

Artist development is a myth in this quarter-to-quarter world. Don’t confuse the labels with the fact that overnight sensations that sell ten-million copies of an album vanish just as rapidly.

The labels cozied up to Best Buy and WalMart. Not long after, many independent record stores found the big boxes selling albums for less than they could buy them at wholesale.

And they were still expensive. Half the stores’ DVD selections were priced lower than the average CD.

How long did it take for the big boxes to fall behind in paying their bills…90 days, 120 days and longer?

About the time it took to put the record stores, like Tower and independent stores under.

The labels had to keep the big box stores in business and continue stocking them because they were the only go-to retail outlets left.

Around the same time, the labels and radio concocted legal payola with the sole purpose of controlling new music radio playlists, which, they believed would convert to sales. It didn’t because the music they were paid to play was not what their listeners expected to hear.

Consumers stopped buying CDs at retail, and peer-to-peer file sharing, which the labels ignored because they insisted on inventing their own failed technology, became the new ground zero hearing and procuring new music.

Being consumer-controlled, illegal downloading supplanted radio as a source for new music. And right behind and coming up fast is Internet radio.

The way consumers listen to, use, and perceive owning music is changing and evolving rapidly.

Not just new generations – but all generations are accustomed to getting certain services free and on demand (search engines, audio, video, and print), and in real time (news, weather, sports and traffic). Those that refused to accept change – like the labels and the movie industry, it doesn’t really matter. They’ll continue to play a game of catch-up they will never win.

Believe it. The labels and film industry spent millions to target, search, destroy, then legitimize Napster. That gave rise to the next generation p2p’s Kazaa, Grokster, and Morpheus. By the time the labels and film spent more multi-millions to secure a favorable decision from the Supremes to silence them, Bit Torrent technology came into play.

Just last week, the owners of the leading Bit Torrent site, Pirate Bay, which is based in Sweden, were found guilty by a court there for promoting copyright infringement of others – though they haven’t shut the actual site down yet.

And those scurvy pirates may still end up victorious after all. It was revealed last Friday the judge who fined the Pirate Bay owners – better known as the PB4 - Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundstrom (no, I can’t pronounce their names and neither can you

)$3.6 million and sentenced them to four years in the hoosegow is a member of the Swedish Copyright Association and sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. Attorneys for the PB4 are appealing the decision.

No matter what the outcome may be, you already know the rest of the story. Someone’s invented the sequel to Bit Torrent delivery and we’ll be hearing about it any moment now. By the time labels and film shut that down, they’ll be another and another.

Take it one step further. Where does social networking end and file sharing begin? Aren’t they becoming one and the same?

Most importantly, we have evolved into a society where the consumer is in control?

Where does terrestrial and Internet radio fit into this mess?

Smack-dab in the center of it. Stay tuned.

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After completing this piece, I received news that Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee ordered its Grim Reapers to initiate thinning the already skeleton-crew herd at Clear Channel. The first victims fell yesterday - mostly afternoon drive talk sidekicks and producers. It’s likely that morning show support staffs, off-air PDs, air talent, and smaller market engineers will be notified this morning that they won’t be partaking in John Hogan’s new localism policies.

Those terminated today are still eligible for the severance deal as promised in Clear Channel’s privatization deal with the SEC from May 21 2007. It reads, in part, that anyone who is “…actively employed at the time the merger is completed, and involuntary terminated without cause during the following one-year period is eligible for the benefits..” For the record, they are “Less than 6 months - 1 month of Base pay; At least 6 months but less than one year - 3 months of Base pay; One to less than three years - 6 months of Base pay, and Three years or more -- 9 months of Base pay.

“Base pay’ means, in the case of a full time employee, the employee’s applicable base benefit rate in effect at the time of termination or, in the case of a part time employee, the employee’s average base wages over the immediately preceding twelve week period.”

As I've mentioned before this also means that any Clear Channel employee surviving today’s purge gets fired on or after July 30, 2009, “nobody’ll owe you nothin’.”

Radio: The NAB - if it wasn't for bad luck....

2009-04-21T17:29:00.016-04:00

Poor David “Fumbles” Rehr and his battered and bewildered National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).

It was bad enough when CNBC ran a brief piece titled Clear Channel or Static Interference on CNBC’s Street Signs where host Erin Burnett asked a direct question – “Is the Clear Channel deal going blow up or not?” to the usually unflappable Thomas H. Lee co-President Scott Sperling, whose reply channeled Porky Pig on a b-b-b-bad day.

It wasn’t exactly the positive spin the radio industry was counting on from Clear Channel as a lead-in to the NAB show.

Sperling’s appearance was to also serve as a morale boost for the beleaguered Clear Channel market managers who were summoned to San Anton io for their latest herd thinning orders.

It only got worse when CC radio head John Hogan released the most unconvincing, conniving press release, which all other disingenuous press releases will be measured against for the foreseeable future. It declared that Clear Channel born again of fresh new initiatives that would show its commitment to the wants and needs of their cities of license.

Hogan even sent a rewrite of this terribly-written press release in letter form to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which you can read here.

It did nothing other than humiliate the entire radio industry. When the company with the most number of stations commits a faux pas of that scale, what message does it send to everyone from the ad community to the government on the way it conducts business?

Can you imagine a conversation between Hogan and Fumbles?

Fumbles: Oh, you speak bullshit too! Hogan: It's like a second language to me.

Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam Zell conveyed more discomfiture when he told Bloomberg TV that his leveraged $8.2 billion deal to buy that company, including its radio and TV assets, was “a mistake.” His quote, “If you bought something and it'snow worth a great deal less, you made a mistake and I'm more than willing to say I made a mistake.” He could’ve been speaking of the “buy now, figure out what to do with them later” business plan the radio industry followed post-deregulation.

At least Zell sidekick Randy Michaels’ reputation as king of all tosspots is secure. He’s now done to newspapers what he already did to radio and TV.

Want more? There’s plenty. The Scranton Standard-Speaker reported last Friday that Citadel’s WARM-AM, licensed to that city, had gone silent two days earlier – and its corporate Chief Operating Officer Judy Ellis, knew nothing about it. Quoteth Ms. Ellis, “You would have to call those at the station in Scranton.”

They did – but itsgeneral manager Bill Palmeri didn’t respond to calls and e-mails to his office on Wednesday and Thursday.

Citadel – where accountability is optional, at best.

The Standard-Speaker also contacted the FCC. ““They have 10 days to (officially) notify us that they’ve gone silent and, after 30 days, they would need our authorization,” said FCC spokesman David Fiske. “They’ve got to come to us with facts and they have not said that they’re going out of business.”

A notice on WARM’s web site stated that the station was off the air for “unexpected transmitter maintenance” but the web site was temporarily removed following the Standard-Speaker story.

The paper deserves credit for finding the one person in Scranton who knew what Citadel didn’t about its own radio station. Meet the Saturday host of a barter show, Polka Weekend, Sam Liguori. Sayeth he, “Unless someone with a lot of money buys the license, WARM will say dark.”

On Friday evening, Scranton’s WNEP-TV reported that WARM had shut down “a few weeks ago” and that employees at the station were told, “it was too expensive to repair the transmitter.” If that’s the case, Citadel is negligent in its reporting to the FCC.

Before its transmitter died, WARM was carrying the Citadel-syndicated True Oldies format in hours it didn’t barter out.

Like Clear Channel, Citadel feels beholden to no one but itself; least of all its listeners, its clients, and the FCC. It parcels out information on a "need to know" basis. Unless you’re Farid or Judy, you don't need to know – and even they didn’t know that one of their Scranton stations went dark.

When the FCC was F-Troop under Kid Michael Powell and Boy Kevin you could get away with anything. But it’s a different FCC now. The days of ‘if you see a chance – take it’ are over and perhaps Citadel, as we know it, will be, too.

It’s been said that the omens are plentiful at this spring’s Vegas bash.

Concomitant with the NAB convention opening, came news of a filing Clear Channel Communications parent CC Media Holdings Inc. made with the SEC, which revealed its whopping 23 percent loss in revenue during Q1 2009 compared to the same quarter last year - from $1.56 billion to $1.21billion.

Clear Channel did make one top ten list. It joins Univision, Rite Aid, Six Flags, Beazer Homes USA, Harrah’s Entertainment, MGM Mirage, United Airlines, Ford and GM as one of the ten most bankruptcy-endangered companies in the U.S., according to MSN Money.

While we’re at it, how about the report that many chains are shutting down their HD Radio stations to cut the additional $3,000 to $5,000 they add to an annual electric bill? Just think. If the HD Radio Alliance got their way and the HD stations went full power, that annual bill would jump to around the $30,000 to $50,000 range. Of course, that doesn’t include the extras HD Radio is siphoning off the bottom line like license fees, maintenance, and those darned overheating problems.

It seems like the only trade reporting on good vibes at the NAB convo is the same one that commended John Hogan’s new initiatives – Inside Radio. Yes the Clear Channel owned and operated Inside Radio. It’s to the radio industry and the NAB what Pravda was the old Soviet Union.

I’d be remiss if I left out U2’s Bono and his poorly timed (for the NAB) comments

on the proposed performance fee royalties for terrestrial radio stations with music formats.

Just a few weeks ago, Fumbles was falling all over himself with praise to Bono for thanking radio for helping U2 achieve superstar status.

Yesterday, Fumbles went bipolar. Turns out Bono’s in favor of the performance royalty fee for terrestrial radio. R ead his statement here.

Now, let me tell you about Bono. He’s probably the smartest and most fiscally responsible rock star since David Bowie.

Bono also has a pretty good memory and can recall when the band released “Beautiful Day” in the fall of 2000 from their forthcoming album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. He was told that radio in America had changed – and the band would now have to pay to receive airplay on pop and rock stations. And since U2 had a long lag time between albums – it would cost the band at least double the going rate to get "re-established at radio."

Bono – and every other artist looking for radio airplay - learned that a couple of years after deregulation, Sam Zell’s drinking and strip joint buddy, Randy Michaels, who had maneuvered himself as CEO of Clear Channel’s radio division, came up with the radio equivalent of clean coal – legal payola.

When Clear Channel marketed its new pay-for-play rate card – the other radio chains fell in line like the penguins they are. The radio industry pitched legal payola as an example of that non-traditional revenue stream that Wall Street was becoming skeptical about.

U2 paid the freight, got airplay, and a hit single and album that followed. But Bono never forgot that he had to pay for something he used to get for free – and knowing that payment was deducted from directly from the band’s royalties bothered him even more. Things like that don’t sit well with an artist who probably still has his First Communion money hidden in his shoe.

He’s not getting mad. He’s just getting even.

If a frog is dumped in boiling water, it leaps out and lives to see another day. If it’s dumped in cold water, which is heated slowly enough, it gets used to heat and is boiled alive.

Dead boiled frogs. That’s what the radio industry has become; so immune to the crises facing it that its participants don’t even notice they’re drowning in it.

David “Fumbles” Rehr, this is the industry that you represent and it’s your show.

Enjoy.

You may resemble Buster Poindexter but you always remind us of Dr. Kevorkian.

Radio: Cheap thrills

2009-04-15T22:14:00.024-04:00

It didn’t turn out the way Clear Channel planned.

Clear Channel’s spin week spun out of control right from – as they say in Mays-ville – the git-go.

Amid the dismal radio news about declining revenues and revised lower expectations, this was the week Clear Channel was supposed to put a positive spin on the industry by acting-out a part quasi-transparency and part-mea culpa to the business community.

Wouldn't it be nice for the radio industry to have something to combat the bewilderment at next week's N.A.B. show in Vegas?

Clear Channel kicked it off Monday afternoon with a well placed, well timed, and heavily advance-promoted live interview with Thomas H. Lee co-president Scott Sperling by Erin Burnett on CNBC’s Street Signs.

THL is one of the two Boston-based private equity firms that took the Titanic of the radio industry private.

Don't get me wrong. Sperling's one of the best at this. He's mastered the game face of being open, calm and contented. He usually gives the appearance of someone who has accomplished what he had set out to accomplish in his life.

Sperling was primed – or so he presumed. Fresh from a $250 Newbury Street salon haircut and sporting a $500 Louis of Boston dress shirt and Brioni tie, he freeze-framed a confident grin on his Eric Carmen-goes-Wall Street face. He was ready to play his role of king of all spinmeisters.

But it was all downhill from there. In fact, it got ugly. It was kid sister Erin beating up big brother Scotty - live on CNBC.

Over 200,000 watched Scotty trip, stumble, and fall.

The piece was aptly titled: Clear Channel or Static Interference.

Erin dropped the bomb on him in the first ten seconds, “Is the Clear Channel deal gonna blow up or not?”

Scotty went from Eric Carmen on a good day to Eric Burdon during one of his bad years.

“We, y’know, can’t talk about, uh, uh, specifics on the, ah, performance of Clear Channel ‘cause we’re in, uh, a quiet period as we going to be releasing numbers in the near future.”

When he finally got around to answering the question, he said, “We don’t have an expectation that it’ll blow up.”

Throughout his brief appearance on CNBC, he uh-uh’ed more times than a college radio dj opening the mic for a first show.

Don’t take my word. Watch the disaster footage here.

One can only imagine Scott getting pulled over by the cops.

“Officer, honest. It’s not my fault. I didn’t see the recession coming.”

Sperling’s moment in the sun on CNBC coincided with a Clear Channel manager’s meeting, which had shepherd John Hogan herding his flock back to San Antonio.

I’ll spare the comic relief about the Kremlin and the Politburo - and the Borg, for that matter.

Clear Channel “leaked” the alleged results of the meetings to the press in the form of two separate press releases, which were, for all the wrong reasons, so transparent they should’ve printed on Saran Wrap.

The version of the wrap-up press release – the one Clear Channel wants in the trades this morning – claims that local program directors have the autonomy and, in John Hogan’s own words, “total choice and flexibility” to do what they feel is best for their market. They will have, we are to believe, options to choose either nationally –produced programming like Ryan Seacrest, Elvis Duran, and Steve Harvey, among others, or keep their programming local.

Hogan will have you believe it’s the opposite of “I’m only following orders.” But it's not.

Clear Channel also promised to do a minimum 12 public service announcements per day and increase its committed-back-when-it-paid-its-payola-fines obligation to support local talent on appropriately programmed channels.

On the former, only twelve? Those could be rotated in the overnights. I wonder if they'll continue to run the same public affairs programming Sunday mornings on all of their market stations at the same time?

On the latter, this I have to hear. Certainly, Clear Channel can claim they're already playing lots of local artists at their New York, L.A., and Nashville stations.

Shall we put the Clear Channel press releases into the English translator?

Clear Channel Radio Launches Plan to Improve Program Quality for All Day Parts

Plan Includes New Channels, Premium Choice for Local Program Directors, and Sophisticated Talent Analysis

SAN ANTONIO – April 15, 2009 – Clear Channel Radio today announced a multi-point plan to raise the bar for radio programming across all day parts and platforms, including online and mobile. The plan includes the launch of new programming and makes programming and on-air talent that’s proven to be most popular with audiences, available more broadly to local program directors in all markets for all day parts.

Translation: We will be firing more announcers and replacing them with more voice-tracking and syndication – in all dayparts.

“Our programming objective is to increase audience size and engagement across all day parts and all platforms,” said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “At the same time, we face a particularly difficult economy that makes it extremely challenging for some local stations to invest in developing the highest-quality programming and talent. Despite the difficult economy, we see enormous long-term opportunity in investing in things that immediately improve the competitive situation of our stations.”

Translation: If we have fewer announcers on more stations we’ve automatically increased the surviving air talent’s audience size – and it will allow us to put smaller markets on full automatic pilot. Farm teams We're dealing with the here and now. Forget tomorrow!

Local Clear Channel Radio program directors will have total choice and flexibility in choosing the Premium Choice programming elements. They can elect large portions, single pieces, or none of the offered programming. All of the Premium Choice elements were determined in full consultation with the company’s most experienced and trusted programming and operations managers.

Translation: I’m sorry. Did I leave out the words “in your budget?” Sure, you can go 24/7 with whatever you want provided you have the budget to do so. And you don't!

“These improvements have been part of the company’s long-term strategy to strengthen its competitive position,” added Hogan. “We’re accelerating these pieces because of the undeniable competitive opportunity presented by this market,” he said.

Translation: Our sales and collections are so bad we that have to do another trimming of the herd now. We haven't forgotten about downsizing our traffic and billing ops. We're just waiting for the next three-day holiday.

A primary element of the plan is “Premium Choice,” an ongoing, rigorous analysis that identifies Clear Channel Radio’s most effective content across music genres and on-air talent and presents significant expansion opportunities for both. Content and talent are selected for the program based on the evaluation of new PPM-based audience-measurement reports and data produced by Clear Channel Radio’s proprietary talent performance tool.

Translation: Think of the stink of human as money wasted. If you put our Premium Choice (sounds like an off-brand coffee) and Localism on the scales of justice - come on - do I need to tell you which way the scales will tip?

Over the past two years, the company has rigorously evaluated all of the programming at every station across every day part. Based on tests of the programming elements, audience growth and ratings have grown dramatically.

On Air with Ryan Seacrest increased audience share in San Francisco by some 86% within three months of beginning its broadcast there; and the show increased audience share in Denver by some 46% in the same timeframe.

Similarly, Steve Harvey has improved ratings in all 10 markets into which he’s expanded.

“Alongside music artists, on-air talent contributes enormously to the quality of an AM or FM broadcast,” added Hogan. “Now, local talent can be rewarded for extraordinary success.”

Translation: Being live and local? It's so overrated. Radio listeners? Screw 'em. They can't tell the difference.

Clear Channel’s performance analysis tools evaluate a wide range of variables connected to a broadcast program and/or specific on-air talent and identifies properties with significant potential to succeed in other markets. The company believes it is the most sophisticated tool of its type in broadcasting. The performance analysis tool and the Premium Choice program will combine to build the careers of lesser-known talent that consistently outperform their peers.

Excuse me, I have to reboot the translator.

Translation: I’m still trying to figure out what this one means. Anyone speak Hoganese out there?

The press release continues....

* Creating new channels, by genre and by personality

Also central to the plan is an expansion of the programming currently being created for the company’s online and on-demand broadcasting platforms. The new channels will focus on either a specific music genre or specific on-air personality.

Launching imminently in the genre category are Country Road and Soft Rock. They join existing channels including erockster, Pride, smooth jazz, slow jams, and others.

In the personality-driven side, new channels for Kidd Kraddick and Lex & Terry are on tap, joining already successful channels focused on AT40 (Ryan Seacrest), Elvis Duran and JohnJay and Rich.

As with the existing online and on-demand channels, this new programming will be available directly to audiences during a testing phase via the three platforms: Clear Channel Radio’s local-station Web sites, the iheartradio mobile broadcast application for iPhone and BlackBerry, and the company’s HD2 multicasts.

Translation: Our Format Lab was a stiff. We’ll just continue to pretend it wasn’t and fill up our on-line and HD radio channels with recycled programming. Do we think people will use their i-Phones and Blackberries to listen to Clear Channel stations? Don’t ask.

* Important opportunities for new, local and unsigned music artists

The third element of the program is the expansion of the company’s already industry-leading programming showcasing new, local and unsigned music artists. Select AM and FM stations will add to existing new-music shows (e.g., urban, some country and some rock), and some stations will also develop customized shows.   In addition, the company will expand its highly acclaimed NEW! program for new, local and unsigned artists available to its highly successful mobile broadcasting application, iheartradio. More than 15,000 new, local and unsigned artists have been promoted to millions of online and on-demand listeners through the program. NEW! is currently available on hundreds of local-station Web sites.

Most recently, iheartradio has seen astounding success on both the iPhone/iPod Touch and BlackBerry platforms.

Engagement among users with the iPhone/iPod Touch is dramatically better than with most AppStore applications. Weekly unique users continue are up by some 43% and the application saw more than one million downloads in just 20 weeks.

And earlier this week, the company disclosed that its BlackBerry App World version rose to the #2 position among all BlackBerry applications, achieving the #1 position among media apps of any kind. The BlackBerry version is on track for astounding success, having been downloaded more than 250,000 times in less than a month.

Also coming soon to iheartradio: traffic-on-demand expands to 10 markets and the company’s highly regarded NEW! program. Since its inception, NEW! has showcased more than 15,000 new, emerging and unsigned music artists to millions of listeners.

Translation: No, we can’t qualify any of those figures – but you have to admit that they look impressive. Would you like to see the hat I pulled them out of?

“This year is a level-setting year in which we’re taking responsibility for the health and success of our company,’ concluded Hogan. “We will continue to actively evaluate economic and market conditions and our competitive position. We’ll also continue to make adjustments throughout the year so we are best poised to take advantage of the upturn as soon as it occurs.”

Translation: We're going out of business. We're just not there, yet.

Clear Channel could’ve saved the expense of drafting this press release by just using a quote from Pete Townsend, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Even better: Business as usual - with fewer employees. File under: Musical chairs.

Do you smell smoke?
----

The Buzzard turns 35

Radio: NAB - Changing crimes

2009-04-12T17:05:00.010-04:00

I just realized what world leader David “Fumbles” Rehr of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) reminds me of.

North Korean President Kim Jong-Il.

Like Kim Jong-il, Fumbles runs the NAB like a one-party state.

When that North Korean test missile fizzled out over the Pacific Ocean, didn’t it remind you of the present condition of the U.S. radio industry?

Consider the similarities.

Most of North Korea suffers from food shortages and lack of electricity. Its archaic industry is at a standstill. It has isolated itself from most of the world.

Most of the radio industry suffers from revenue shortages and lack of time spent listening. Its archaic formats are lackluster. It has isolated itself from most of its listeners and clients.

Let me put it another way. A house united cannot stand.

When you never disagree or appraise an optional viewpoint, Fumbles, you suppress any opportunity to move forward.

Fumbles, you’ve been reprocessing the same old promotions and campaigns over and over since you joined the NAB after the beer lobby sent you packing for doing the same thing,

How many new campaigns for HD Radio must you launch before you realize the product is terminal?

How many variations of that Radio Heard Here campaign must you introduce before you realize that no one except NAB members ever see them?

So, what’s it going to be, Fumbles, when you address the NAB in Vegas? Will you reprocess still another variation of your same old song and dance?

Even your GOP buds are beginning to recognize that, in actuality, you’re a political Bolshevik in drag who refuses to face the challenges of the 21^st century.

Is there anyone that truly believes the NAB cut a good deal for radio’s streaming audio fees?

If you think he did, let me know. I’ll call you back in 2012 – unless you don’t plan to be in this business.by then. Thought so.

That’s the dilemma with Fumbles and his closed-door negotiations with the RIAA’s SoundExchange.

Did the labels really bushwhack you, Fumbles – or did both of you agree that those outrageous per song, per listener costs will be someone else’s problem in the future?

The NAB cut a pact that evokes the one the UAW and the Big Three cut many years back when both sides shook hands and concluded that those pensions and payoffs would be someone else’s quandary in the future.

Fumbles, you’ve managed add more devalue to every radio station in America – well, at least the ones that haven’t gone news and talk or fire and brimstone.

Yes, I hear your tough talk, Fumbles. We’ll charge the labels to play their music. Keep saying that and you’ll be reliving 2001 – the year radio’s pay-for-play playlists starting losing touch with popular culture. That’s when the kids – and a sizable number of adults - abandoned radio and went elsewhere to find their musical soundtrack.

You see, that’s the problem with popular culture. The artists and labels that consent to paying the most money to get their songs played aren’t necessarily what listeners want to hear.

Add social networking to the mix and you’ve got a no b.s. zone that pay-for-play radio can’t penetrate.

Here and now, when the great convergence to the Internet escalating, do you think it’s wise to stop streaming when that’s the method of delivery more radio listeners?

And how about those three deadly words, Fumbles: Performance Royalty Fee.

Fumbles, you gave the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol a free meal and he’s sticking around to lick your plate dry.

Though the Internet is getting the credit for the new free market system it was radio that invented it by playing music it didn’t own as programming content following World War II.

It’s time for a NAB insurrection – and, Fumbles, it’s about time you know your close.

Radio: Same old song and dance

2009-04-05T18:09:00.018-04:00

Back to reality.

The annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum induction ceremonies were held in Cleveland this past Saturday.

The inductions capped off a full week of revelry and promotions in advance of the main event.

I ran into music industry people I hadn’t seen for years because the only time I ever run into them are at events like this, which, these days, I don’t go all that often.

This was the first time in twelve years the induction dinner was held in the city where the Rock Hall resides. This one’s special. We worked hard and politicked non-stop to get that Hall of Fame built here. The inductions will now be held in Cleveland every third year. And I’m all in favor of anything legit that brings more money into this region than it takes out.

That used to be true about radio in this market. Today, Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Salem, and Radio One funnel every penny they bill out of the market to service their massive debts. There’s no reinvestment to their city of license.

Cleveland, like all Rust Belt cities, has its well-deserved insecurities. It’s a city in dire need of reinvention and has tripped, stumbled, and fallen in its challenge to come to grips with the twenty-first century.

But Clevelanders do care about its reputation, its future, and new leadership is emerging.

That’s more than I can say about the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).

When the press release from the NAB arrived on Wednesday, I thought it was an April fool’s joke.

But it wasn’t.

It announced three new members of the NAB board. I’ll focus in on one name: Cumulus Media Chairman, President and CEO Lew Dickey.

Let me say it again. I couldn’t make these stories up if I tried.

Before you ask – yes, it did mention his bachelor's and master's degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard University. It just stopped short of saying “always the smartest man in the room.”

You know his m.o. – once you get past conscience, the rest is a cinch.

I guess it takes a narcissist to know one. Isn’t that right, David “Fumbles” Rehr?

Stashing Lew Dickey in the NAB as a board member, Fumbles? Correct me if I’m wrong. Aren’t board members supposed to bring some measure of credibility to an organization or company? Lew Dickey? The guy who flies to his hometown to personally demotes his sales manager on a whim?

Who did Dickey beat out for the third board seat? Farid Suleman?

Maybe Fumbles is betting on Citadel going south before Cumulus.

Or maybe Fumbles wants to know how Lew pulls off b eing on his own board so he can pay himself a lucrative bonus even when his company’s on a highway to hell.

Look, it’s bad enough Fumbles completely blew the streaming audio deal for the radio industry.

Could someone please tell Fumbles that only losers say, “it could have been worse” when defending a botched negotiation?

Even a narcissist like Fumbles realizes he’s death on legs at the bargaining table. So, now he’s telling the RIAA that he refuses to negotiate the performance tax fee for terrestrial radio – even after Congress told him, “Go away, kid. Don’t bother us. Work it out.”

Last week, Fumbles even dropped an “over my dead body line” regarding the fee to the press.

Brilliant. You want to write your obit, too, Fumbles?

I’d rather be proven wrong but with each passing week, Fumbles is losing what little Capitol Hill support he had for radio to keep music programming free.

Fumbles doesn’t have the fight in him. He whines. He cries. It’s not fair. He’s so bewildered at this juncture that he’s even greasing the wrong palms.

Let’s cut to the chase. Here are the facts. We have a lot of stations that will be going dark soon. We have a lot of broadcast companies that are bleeding red ink – and some just missed their Q1 payment.

While Fumbles fiddles and fuddles the industry his organization theoretically represents, the RIAA is close to locking up the Congressional support it needs to force Fumbles into the ring.

Fumbles response with an anti-tax campaign puts radio solidly in a defensive mode. With Fumbles leading the charge, believe me – radio has no defense. And the RIAA has no shortage of offense.

Many of the panelists at last week’s SNL Kagan broadcast finance seminar admitted a loss of faith in the NAB’s ability to block the performance fee.

So what’s Fumbles’ next move?

The NAB is pitching D.C. radio stations to run promos in support of their “anti-tax” campaign. Come on, Fumbles. Who are you playing this ruse for? You know Capitol Hill. You’ll see a lot of under 50’s. They’re the former 18-34’s from the last decade - the demo that radio ignored. They’re on Blackberries and iPhones.

I don’t have to tell you that the labels don’t need radio anymore. They’re looking for a bailout. RIAA head Mitch Bainwol sees himself as the cat and you as the mouse. Radio was important to the labels when it used its playlists for its sales staff to pitch record stores and other retail outlets to buy product based on airplay.

Been in a record store lately? How about Best Buy and WalMart? Is it your imagination that their square footage dedicated to selling CDs shrinking?

The convergence to on-line is escalating rapidly. The TV networks know that. One word: Hulu. Recording artists know that. That’s why the acts making money are marketing themselves on line rather than rely on a label. The only one who didn’t know that was Fumbles when he stuck radio with streaming royalty fees that it can’t afford.

Oh, yeah, Fumbles. Almost forgot. Who needs radio on-line when you’ve got HD Radio?

Putting HD Radio in the same league with streaming audio is like saying there’s no difference between a Yugo and a Lexus because they both have steering wheels.

Once again, Fumbles. Brilliant.

Radio: In search of truth serum

2009-03-29T11:57:00.022-04:00

Do you often wonder what alternate universe the radio industry exists in these days?

Let me introduce you to Scott Sperling, the co-president of Thomas H. Lee, one of the two equity firms (Bain Capital being the other one), that ponied up $17.9 billion to take Clear Channel private just moments before radio stocks fell into the incinerator.

Last Wednesday, he told Reuters that Clear Channel and another Thomas H. Lee media investment, the Hispanic network Univision (a $12.3 billion deal in 2006) are "inherently great businesses" and that the recession in the ad market would reverse.

Now let’s visit with BAI Financial Network VP Mark Fratrik, who researches broadcasting and related communications industries. Last week, he revised his original radio revenue forecast he issued last December. Based on his most recent studies, he now foresees 2009 radio revenue to be worse than he initially projected with no improvement in 2010.

So whom do we believe?

The BAI study is little more in-line with the latest study from Pulse Research, which in a study prepared for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), shows that over seven out of ten or 71 percent of US households believe that the economy is heading toward a depression. 53 percent of US households are doing less shopping, 52 percent are eating out less, 51 percent are taking fewer vacations, and 50 percent are attending fewer concerts and theatre performances. The study also showed that most are not willing to give up broadband and cable TV.

(I’ll buy the broadband part – but not cable. Just this past week, three people – unsolicited – told me they were downscaling their cable channels – and one intended to drop cable service entirely due to increased use of Hulu and other TV on-line, on-demand services.)

We're also hearing that in the future rounds of Clear Channel cuts even some of their hard-core, brown-nosing bum-kissers will be getting the axe. It’s not just the billing and traffic departments that are living on borrowed time. Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned or a loyal-to-a-fault Clear Channel manager being told that the elevators are at the end of the hall.

That’s like calling sewage perfume. You can actually call it anything you like but you can’t prevent its stink.

The more I hear and read comments like “we have to contract before we can expand” from Clear Channel execs and their private equity suckers, the more I’m convinced that the last batch of Kool-Aid they make will be for themselves.

Lyin’ Diane Warren at the HD Digital Radio Alliance churned out still another press release, this one announcing a “major milestone.” According to the Alliance statistics (yes, a flag was just thrown on the field) there are now “1,000 multicast stations” broadcasting and 100 various HD Radio models “now available at retail.” The Alliance also announced still another new ad campaign (yes, another flag on the field), which will be carried at no cost “on over 700 stations in the top 100 media markets.” They called it “extending the broadcasters' commitment to promoting the technology to 42 months.”

Allow me to translate Lyin’ Diane-speak into truth: To be precise, that's 1,000 HD stations that few will ever hear and 100 receivers on warehouse shelves gathering dust.

The new campaign “will combat the mistaken perception by many consumers that they already own an HD Radio.” No, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. An unidentified spokesperson for the Alliance adds that the new flight “will continue educating consumers that they need a new receiver to enjoy the HD experience,” and will word-up their slogan, which will go from “It’s time to upgrade” to “If you don’t have an HD, you’re not hearing HD.”

True genius.

Let’s, of course, not confuse iBiquity and the HD Digital Radio Alliance will the facts.

Sure, iBiquity’s failed miserably in new product development resources and expertise.They followed that with a series of flawed marketingresearch, sales, distribution, advertising, and promotionalresources and skills.

Have you seen any HD Radio marketing assessments other than Alliance’s own? Did you see even one independent, impartial market evaluation since the deficient product was introduced? But I digress.

How about radio still hawking those Internet radio ratings, which claim CBS Radio and Clear Channel to own the lion’s share of on-air listening?

The only one buying that hype is the radio industry. No one that counts in new media believes that misleading hype. Read Ken Dardis’ current Audio Graphics for specifics.

As long as hypocrisy is in the forefront of radio pitches, the medium will continue to loose ground.

We live in a transparent world. You can’t avoid it. The consumer is in control. Facing up to the reality will be your first step forward. Deal with it.