Radio: How Rush Beck-oned the media

What must it be like to be Rush Limbaugh’s babysitter?

When that Baby Huey kicks his high chair in Palm Beach, the aftershocks rock Clear Channel’s death star headquarters in San Antonio and their puppeteers Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee in Boston.

The last few months have found Rush in the awkward position of playing second fiddle to rival conservative hatemonger Glenn Beck, who happens to be another high priced piece of Clear Channel property.

While Rush was basking his ego as being more popular than Michael Steele in the Republican party, Beck was perfecting the old crying evangelist trick - dabbing Vicks VapoRub just below his eyes, and bawling for America.

Beck, who also hosts a show on Fox News one-upped Rush on July 28 when he called President Barack Obama “racist” on the Fox and Friends show and accused him of having a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."

That led to a number of advertisers, including Proctor & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, and Lawyers.com, pulling their spots from Beck’s 5 PM show.



Some radio advertisers also pulled off Beck’s Clear Channel’s Premiere Network syndicated show.

So what if some sponsors temporarily exited Beck’s Fox and Clear Channel shows?

They’ll be back. Liberals will tire from the torture of monitoring his show.

But the real crisis for Rush was Beck’s newfound publicity. Every media outlet was hammering Beck while Rush was just being Rush.

See, Rush always viewed himself as the Beatles and Glenn Beck as the Dave Clark Five. Now he feared that Beck could pull off the staying power of the Rolling Stones.

And have you seen what all the Beck publicity has done to the poor portly Rush?

He got his oink back.

Some news just sucks all the air out of everything else in the media. This was one of those cases. It was all Beck all of the time. It was if the king of all mean-spirited, racist, nativist, xenophobic radio hosts had been robbed from Rush and fenced to Beck.

The stress of being yesterday’s news had that porker packing on the poundage.

Rush has his addictions. Among them is to always be lead dog. He didn’t take well to Beck’s hindquarters blocking his view.

It’s not just about the money. Clear Channel pays him enough to buy controlling interest in Purdue Pharma.

It’s Rush’s insatiable ego that joneses him to get more media mentions than any other conservative shock talker.

So, he “leaked” news that he had joined a group of investors who were already negotiating to buy the 0-5 St. Louis Rams.

The group is headed by SCP Worldwide Chairman Dave Checketts, who owns the 2-2 St. Louis Blues NHL team.

The deal came with a somewhat convincing hook. Rush was spawned and raised in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which is roughly 100 miles and change from St. Louis.

Rush played Checketts, the NFL, and African-American NFL players and spokespeople like a Stradivarius.

Knowing he’d be a lightning rod for objections, owing to his past negative and racial comments on the NFL, he went for it.

Remember this charmer from a January 2007 broadcast?

"The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”




In 2003, Limbaugh talked himself out of a Sunday commentator role on ESPN when he called Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb "overrated,” adding “What we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback can do well—black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well."

The Rams revelation permitted Rush to position his adversaries right where he wanted them.

NFL Commish Roger Goodell said, "I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about. I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position within the NFL."

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay claimed he’d vote against Limbaugh as an owner because of comments that were "inappropriate, incendiary and insensitive."

Professional race card players Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson fed the media their predictable, recycled, blah, blah woof, woof, over-the-top protests.

Several African-American NFL players insisted they would not play for or against a team owned by Limbaugh.

Not wanting to be in the middle of a racial war of the words while trying to close the Rams deal, Checketts dumped Rush and e-mailed a statement that read, “It has become clear that his (Limbaugh’s) involvement in our group has become a complication and distraction to our intentions. We have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion."

And now Rush is playing his own card - the conservative card.

Here’s his pontification from Wednesday: "This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me. This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.

"Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we're going to have."

If you’ve forgotten why Rush kicked off this grandstand play in the first place - here’s two words: Glenn - who?

Had Rush not made that McNabb comment he still wouldn’t have had a chance to own a piece of an NFL team. There’s that little problem he had a few years ago when he got caught buying OxyContin on the black market. The league has a no tolerance policy with ex-druggies.

And even though the golden age of radio is long gone, the golden age for rampant buffoonery on the radio shows no sign of decline.
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The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Radio (No) One

You’re Radio One. You’re trying to make ends meet with 53 radio stations in 16 markets - and it’s not going so well.

Ever since those no good, rotten bastards at Arbitron rolled out the Portable People Meter (PPM), your urban formatted stations have gone into a ratings free fall. Since your ad rates are based on Arbitron data, the lower your ratings are, the lower your ad rates will be. The lower your rate, the more challenging it is to service your massive debt.

You’re Radio One and you’ve called for Rep. Edolphus “Eddie” Towns (D-N.Y.) to take care of your business on the Hill.

See, Rep. Towns as head of the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed the Media Ratings Council (MRC), an independent industry org that certifies media ratings, to turn over audits of Arbitron’s PPM system to his committee.

After reviewing their findings, he accused Arbitron of “persistent problems” with their minority sample.

Let’s take a peak at their study. Towns’ committee issued a statement saying the subpoenaed documents proved that Arbitron recruited a sample audience of 5,400 people in New York - but only 2,700 — half of the sample — provided actual data.

His report stated that “the radio listening habits of over four million ethnic minorities are represented by only 500 Arbitron recruits” - and that similar sample problems are occurring in Arbitron PPM rated markets nationwide.

No one will argue that Arbitron's PPM isn't flawed. It's a slight improvement over the diary, which has been in operation for how many decades? Still, it's a 20th century flop. Had it been introduced in the late eighties or early nineties, it would've had its decade of fame. But what might've worked a twenty years ago isn't going to measure up in 2010. Not when you're selling against on-line, which can provide up-to-the-minute detailed data.

In research and information, methodology is vital. The manner in which data is mined circumscribes the results. The PPM is already old and in the way.

Some media experts believe that urban radio listening is down for the same reason that rock, alternative, and Triple A formats are taking it on the chin. Who's going to carry around an object that makes them look like they're being monitored by their probie?

Then you could also argue that urban format listeners - like those rock, alternative, and Triple A formats suffered audience erosion because most aren’t programming what their potential audience want to hear - and they can get what they really want on-line, on satellite radio, or listen to their own music on an MP3 player. .

The way radio is formatted today, an active and seasoned listener is least likely to listen to terrestrial radio. There are better options than formats as dated as the PPM's technology.

The contemporary hit format is racking up numbers because its tween and very young teen audience, still in their musically instant gratification current music phase, which terrestrial radio satisfies with tight high-rotation playlists. There are exceptions, of course, though very few, and they tend to be the few stations independently programmed for the market they're in.

Classic Hits does well because it's the new old fashioned adult contemporary - music for passive people who don't care about music that much but want to hear something in the background at work - in settings where terrestrial radio is still present.

You’re Radio One and faced with declining numbers you must be certain that every penny of potential revenue gets on the books.

Or do you?

The competition is always intense, but today, we have a new Dumbest Radio Rule to add to the never-increasing list of terrestrial follies.

Let’s visit this Radio One market’s policy. I don’t want to give away the market since I don’t know if the decision originated there or from the corporate office.

Here’s part one. If you don’t get your weekend and first-of-the-week spots in by Wednesday, they won’t run. No exceptions.

When spots don’t run, Radio One loses money.

Part two, should your Radio One account exec be on a forced, unpaid “furlough day,” on a day you want to buy time - forget it. You can’t. Add this. Just like those restaurants you never go back to - there aren’t any substitutions allowed. You can’t ask for another AE to write up the order.

I’ll say it again. When spots don’t run, Radio One loses money.

It’s another dollar chasing a dime. Maybe you’re saving some production o.t. and a few bucks with your unpaid furloughs. - but it’s not worth the business you’re not writing.

But wait. Let’s go back to Rep. Eddie Towns. Was he not part of a group that also included House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) and that met with senior Obama administration officials this past August, demanding that minority broadcasters - including Radio One - be on the receiving end of a government bail out? Did Towns claim the station owners had a right to tap into the Troubled Asset Relief Program?

(There was a mayoral candidate in Cleveland named Bill Patmon who said on a Sunday morning TV political show that the government should bail out Clear Channel. Maybe he was gunning for an endorsement.)

Do you think Radio One should start saving their properties by having systems in place that insure that clients who want to advertise on their stations can advertise on their stations?

Just asking.

Last time I checked, that's the way commercial radio still made its money. Selling time.

Radio & TV: WTF?

F-bombs, wardrobe malfunctions, nipple slips. BFD.

Communications lawyers have made millions from it.

It’s allowed a whole lot of bureaucrats at the FCC with too much time on their hands and who knows what on their minds to pretend to look busy.

But can anyone answer the question – What is the FCC supposed to be protecting us from? Words? Nipples?

On February 1, 2010 we will be celebrating the sixth anniversary – yes, you read that right – of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Janet Jackson nipple-slip wardrobe malfunction.

I’ll bet the broadcast barristers will still be racking up billable hours from it on that date and beyond.

On any given Sunday you’ll see more breasts flashed at a NFL game than all 44 Super Bowl broadcasts combined. And that’s still only half as many as you’ll see at a KISS concert or a foam party.

You’ll hear at least a dozen f-bombs drop at any NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL game. If you’d prefer to limit your load to, let’s say, a half-dozen, try sitting in the bleachers at a Little League or kid’s soccer game.

That’s life. That’s how all the people swear.

The latest media-generated F-bomb of note occurred a couple of weeks back on a Saturday Night Live skit, “Biker Chit Chat.” The script had SNL newcomer Jenny Slate using the word “frickin,” – a good dozen times before her brain short-circuited causing her to accidentally blurt out the f-bomb instead.

“You frickin; just threw an ashtray of butts at my head. You know what, you stood up for yourself and I fuckin’ love you for that,” she said.





Just a few days before the SNL gaffe, WNYW-FOX 5/New York news anchor Ernie Anastos, did his own pardon-my-Greek gaffe.

It started with some innocent, playful banter with meteorologist Nick Gregory.

Anastos: “It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast, Nick."

Gregory, looking confused, replies: “I guess that's me."

Anastos: “Keep fucking that chicken.”

It’s the second most overused current catch phrase (the first being “inside baseball”). Loosely translated it means, “keep up the good work.”

The video is here. The best part isn’t Anastos’ use of the word. It’s the facial expression on co-anchor Dari Alexander.



Pardon my s-bomb but shit happens.

We’re nearly a decade into the 21st century. Don’t you think it’s time to legalize nipples and decriminalize f-bombs? WTF!

In 1950’s TV sitcoms married couples slept in separate beds.

In early 1962, after taking a continual beating from NBC ratings leader Bonanza, the ABC-TV series, Bus Stop, toughened up its dialog, taking liberal libertirs with the words “hell” and “damn.” It marked the first time on TV that someone other than a priest or evangelist used those words. An intolerant FCC ordered ABC to cut the cursing and the show was cancelled.

In April 1963, the Kingsmen, released “Louie Louie,” a poorly recorded cover of a Jamaican folk song. Within weeks, rumors that the unintelligible lyrics were sexually explicit – including liberal use of the f-word - spread across the U.S. and the FBI also embarked on a futile 31-month investigation into the alleged lascivious lyrics.

In September, 1964 when ABC-TV premiered the then-controversial Peyton Place series, based on Grace Metalious’ scandalous 1956 novel. Though the TV show could’ve been subtitled Who’s Pregnant and Who’s to Blame, the network censored the word “pregnant” for the first few episodes.

By the late sixties, previously profane on-the-radio words like “bitch” and “ass” were desensitized and worked into the mainstream lexis.

Even the f-bomb managed to escape non-trained ears on album rock radio in 1978 with the Who’s “Who Are You.” In 1991, Van Halen released their For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge titled album. Some historians claim the f-word is actually an acronym for those words.

Last year, Tori Amos had a Triple A radio format hit with “Big Wheel,” where two minutes and twenty seconds into the song she described herself as a MILF – repeatedly.

The first time I recall hearing the f-bomb in a song was in 1965 on the Fugs’ “Supergirl” from their first album, The Village Fugs.

My parents rarely cursed. I never heard my mother swear and my father’s were limited to the garden variety of “Lord’s name in vain” words. Knowing the neighborhood and the words I was bound to hear, I was taught at a young age that swearing exposed a limited vocabulary.

The first time I heard the f- word was in the first grade from Frannie Hart. His father was a hard-drinking longshoreman, who could easily drop three f-bombs per sentence.

Fast forward to today. It’s a profane insane world. Tweens and teens regularly text the f-word through Internet-driven acronyms.

The CW network, an equal partnership between CBS and Warner Bros., marketed last season’s Gossip Girl with the acronym OMFG, which is OMG with the f-bomb included. Rick Haskin, the chief marketing officer at the CW, told Advertising Age that he used the F-word reference because its tween-to early 20’s viewers used the same phrase in their own personal conversations.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney dropped an f-bomb on Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the Senate floor when he asked him to perform an anatomical sexual impossibility.

Not long after that confrontation, Cheney, while being interviewed live on CNN and MSNBC, was asked to do the same from an off-camera protester. The reporter, realizing the request was audible, asked Cheney, “Are you getting a lot of that, Mr. Cheney?”

Most linguists believe its origin is from the Middle English word fucken, which means to strike, move quickly or penetrate. The origin of that word comes from the German word, ficken, which has the same definition.

In 2005, director Steve Anderson released his documentary, Fuck, which examined the history and impact of the word.

Fuck, as a word, is infused in every aspect of our culture. It’s a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, pronoun, and interjection. IMFAO, it’s time we desensitize, decriminalize, and once and for all disarm the f-bomb. If radio and TV can get away with freakin’ and frickin’, what’s fuckin’ going to do? Communize us? Enslave us?

Like I said. BFD.

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More blasts from the past

Radio: The NAB Radio No Shows

Do I have to come right out and say it?

When something doesn’t sell, you stop manufacturing it. When something doesn’t draw, you cancel it.

By now you’ve heard the attendance figures for the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia a couple of weeks back.

2,507 showed. Give or take, plus or minus 700 paid the full registration fee. That means an estimated 1,807 attendees were provided either a discounted rate or were comp’d.

The final tally was written in red ink. The slogan for the convention should’ve been: “We feel your pain.”

Question 1 - If the NAB is imprudent enough to risk another NAB Radio Show next year?

No answer.

Question 2 - Has anyone bothered to speculate on how many radio chains will be in receivership by this time a year from now?

No answer.

Question 3 – Okay, let’s ask an easy one. So what was learned at this year’s NAB Radio Show?

Answer - Denial remains the single most common cause of the radio industry’s demise.

Hey, that answers the first two questions, too!

The NAB Radio Show 2009 was a top tier affair. By day one, everyone knew that if you weren’t a designer brand radio CEO, you were a caste away.

You rarely spotted Mark Mays or Lew Dickey walking amongst the common folk.

No, they were perfectly content to remain isolated in the safe harbor of their luxury mink prison suites.

Most attending the NAB Radio Show never even saw them.

Except for a rare appearance at the Dickstein Shapiro wingding, they were invisible.

What they don’t realize is that being invisible is not the same as being invincible, which they are not.

Did anyone not notice that the only time the Radio Show felt claustrophobic was when their egos inflated that room well beyond capacity?

And how about their communal deafness affliction? They could only hear themselves speak.

Their blinding intellect lit up the room like a ten-watt bulb.

Most attending the Dickstein Shapiro raced to the showers afterward to wash off the conceit, contemptuousness, and hubris they were sprayed with from this group.

My favorite story was about a certain radio CEO who pulled a “Do you know who I am?” routine to a trade paper editor who’d asked him a point-blank question in Four Seasons lobby. The editor’s replied, “Yes, but what’s your problem? Alzheimer’s?”

How about the radio industry realizing that the majority of those in it are the prime demo for A Touch of Gray?

Just think it only took the industry thirteen short years to figure out that it’s alienated generations from the medium.

Thirteen years of no mentoring. Thirteen years of not giving young people the opportunity to be creative and innovative.

You don’t buy a dog and bark for it.

Friends, like new media, became enemies and enemies, like the old guard that dragged you into this mess – namely those who have dominated the trades for the past decade, became your closest friends and advisors.

Smug is not a workable business plan. Neither is buy ‘em now and figure out what to do with them later.

Here’s an industry that, for the most part, employed a top-down management where national programmers delivered hard drives to market managers saying, “This is your format, these are your call letters, and cut budgets by 50 percent."

Now they’re doing a 180. They funneled profits from the communities they were supposed to serve and used the locals only as slave wage board ops. Now, they’ve lost time spent listening, younger demos, and have been forced to lower revenue, lower payroll, have fewer do more for less, and are now stuck in a downward spiral they can’t get out of.

They got what they preyed for.

No, they’re not admitting to their reckless and ruinous mistakes. They’re doing a 180 only because nothing else has worked. Believe me, they don’t know where they’ve been or where they’re going.

It can be turned around – but don’t expect to see those hogging the spotlight this year to be among them.

The only successful people in the radio business are those that know that the definitive competitive advantage is passion.

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The Agora, April 1980

Radio: The flap on apps and Spotify spice

The buzz at both the NAB Radio Show and Public Radio programmers convention was the need for stations to have smartphone apps.

Creationists and evolutionists can debate the chicken or the egg but you can’t argue app before content.

So what, besides Fred Jacobs and other brilliant salespeople whispering in your ear to buy, does an app do for a radio station’s listenership if its programming content just plain sucks out loud?

Too many stations are rushing their apps without having the content to back it.

There’s a huge difference between public and commercial radio. Public radio has content people want and can’t get anywhere else.

Let’s do the math. At this moment we have 85,000 apps in 20 different categories. The iPhone’s limit for apps is 148 – spread over 9 pages. What page do you think your radio station will be on?

There’s more. This week iPhone app downloads hit 2 billion. Do competing new app storefronts even have a chance? Android and BlackBerry’s apps aren’t even close to Apple’s tonnage.

Now, ponder this. The money this industry tossed on HD Radio could’ve gone to fighting the RIAA to be on line and able to play music on main and multiple support channels on the Internet and mobile – where everyone lives.

Instead, that money was thrown away on expensive licensing fees, transmitters that overheat and cost a ransom to run, and other miscellaneous costs that will never be recovered.

HD Radio isn’t showing growth. It’s a tumor eating away your revenue.

Here’s iBiquity’s Bob “Booble” Struble trying to snake-oil sell digital delivery by claiming your AM will sound like FM. You can accomplish the same – and reach a real mass audience – with your stream.

You want to get real creative? Put surround-sound on your stream. HD’s never going do that.

The smartest stations are those that didn’t fall for the hype. If you’re counting on that iBiquity IPO, keep counting and counting and counting….

HD Radio, otherwise known as the political machine grafted onto to the radio industry, is AM stereo in drag.

While those in radio best defined as clueless cheered for Apple’s new fifth gen iPod nano – FM radio included – none were aware that Apple also approved apps for RealNetwork’s Rhapsody and the Swedish-based Spotify.

Both operate free, on-demand music-streaming services. Those I polled in radio know of Pandora. Those I talked to who work for CBS Radio have working knowledge of Last.fm. A few knew Rhapsody – but fewer knew what it was – and absolutely no one had a clue about Spotify.

To the radio-radio people; those drinking the Kool Aid and believing everything they read from the NAB and RAB on the "success' of the “Radio Heard Here” campaign, let me explain.

Both Rhapsody and Spotify are fee on-demand music streaming sites. You can hear almost any song you request any time you want to.

Those I know who are not in radio – but know the net were surprised – no, shocked - that Steve Jobs and Apple would allow apps for both services – especially Spotify – even though it hasn’t launched in America yet.

See, 70 percent of all digital music sales come from iTunes. That adds up to around $958 million and change in Q3 alone. 74 percent of all digital music players are manufactured by Apple. And that’s not counting the iPhone. You want figures? The iPhone accounts half as many sales as all iPods combined – but its sales are growing in triple-digit percentages.

So ask yourself the question. Why would Steve Jobs cannibalize his own iTunes store? For the same reason a dog…never mind. Because he can. And because it makes sense.

Yes, initially it may cut into iTunes’ sales – but not really. Users of these on-demand services, which also include Ineem and CBS’s own $280 million acquisition Last.fm, also buy more paid digital downloads than non-users. Some of those instant requests translate to songs consumers buy from iTunes.

Remember, back in the old media days when terrestrial radio could break and sell music? Same thing. Well, not exactly. The one difference is that requests are usually songs you already know and want to hear.

Radio’s added value now and in the future will be to – paraphrase Tom Waits – give ‘em a little somethin’ they can’t get at home. If I have to explain it, you don’t belong in the radio business – or the entertainment business.

Back to Spotify. This is the one to watch for. It’s a next generation music streaming site. It’s more reliable (it’s less likely to deliver a re-record or different version of an original hit) and can deliver music as fast as most digital music players. It’s already the rage in Europe with 5 million users and scheduled to hit our shores by year’s end. Spotify already collected over 100,000 e-mail requests from potential U.S. users. It’ll come in two versions – free, with advertising and a commercial-free $16/month Premium.

Yes, media are changing rapidly. There is more to learn than any one person can assimilate. Attempts to control this new leviathan are beyond any one person’s capability.

Earlier generations had to master the evolution of old media. Today’s generation will master new media. They’ll need mentoring and guidance.

Therein lies a dilemma in attracting young people to the radio industry. Can we trust the mentoring of the next generation by those running radio today?

If you have to ask….

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The Buzzard Movin' on up

Radio: Triton the titan

I’m a firm believer that radio’s future lies with streaming and mobile – not HD Radio.

But I must preface that by voicing concern with Triton Media Group’s recent acquisition of Ando and Spacial, which were announced in a one-two punch just prior to the NAB Radio show convo and the RAIN Summit in Philadelphia last week.

These mergers provide Triton a vested interest in companies that control all aspects of producing revenue to on-line radio.

Triton’s backed by Oaktree Capital Management.

I’m curious how one company can legitimately provide streaming radio (either through hosting or software), sell advertising and also be an on-line ratings service.

The way I read it, these mergers provide Triton a vested interest in companies that control all factors of producing revenue to on-line radio.

That’s a lot of power and control for Mike Agovino, the CEO of Triton and following these mergers, the Capo di tutti capi of on-line radio.

Agovino’s been in the radio biz for 25 years and is a former resident of the Clear Channel-owned Katz Radio and Katz Interactive, COO of Clear Channel Radio Sales, and co-COO of Interep National Radio. Small world.

Keep in mind that those under the Triton umbrella worked out a collective deal with the Record Industry

Association of America’s SoundExchange with rates they can afford.

And this is strictly the Triton cartel we’re dealing with here. I said it in July and I’ll say it again.

Only the largest independent webcasters will survive: Accu-Radio, Radioio, Pandora, and Digital Imported/Sky FM.

SoundExchange, which is the collection arm of the RIAA takes 25 percent of webcasters’ gross revenues – not net - and their take is not limited to just what is earned on-air. If a webcaster sells merchandise, whether it’s T-shirts, coffee

cups, or hats –25 percent gross – right off the top – will go to SoundExchange/RIAA.

The big four label groups – Sony/BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Universal Music Group, through the RIAA will own a 25 percent equity with independent Internet radio stations that play music controlled by the RIAA.

Pay-for-play, payola and other shady deals to manipulate airplay are not illegal for Internet radio. The Big Four will be free to cut side deals – like buying blocks of time for airplay.

It’ll be the RIAA’s version of green - recycling dead presidents.

Follow the money. It always leads to more money.

Now, I’m not saying that Triton would put the lean on the right people to insure that its competitors stay – or become – obscure, so as not to be a hindrance.

But it could easily do so if it wanted to.

If that’s the ticket, the future of Internet radio in the U.S. – particularly independent stations – and start-ups yet to come could be slim to none.

Like Michael Corleone said to his brother Sonny in The Godfather, “It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."

If you have an edge in business, you take it. I would. You would.

I’m not sure if this falls in the category of smooth operator or shrewd operator or both. Agovino saw the opening and went for it.

I know, I know. You could say Triton’s not a monopoly. There’s TargetSpot. Okay, I said it. Let’s

move on.

While terrestrial radio wallowed in its self-inflicted misery at the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia last week, Agovino’s Triton and the new Internet radio cartel were plotting the future.

Terrestrial radio’s streaming audio has already been screwed, blewed, and tattooed beyond recognition by the damaging deal done by David

“Fumbles” Rehr on behalf of the NAB with the RIAA. They ate Fumbles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And they handed terrestrial radio the tab.

But let's not worry.

Now we have Gordon Smith.

If the taxaholics at the RIAA get their way, they’ll tack on a performance fee for music broadcast on traditional AM and FM, too, which will lead to a whole lot of new news and talk formats.

Back to Triton. If I’m reading this deal the wrong way, I’d like to know – but I don’t think I am.

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More 1979 interviews from Radio Music Report