Radio Wires (May 25, 2002)

Radio & Records (includes Arbitrons)
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Record-Industry Coalition Asks Capitol Hill For Radio Reforms
A letter signed by 10 trade organizations, including RIAA, AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians and the Future of Music Coalition, has been sent to the FCC and Congress urging legislators to look into questionable promotion practices by such radio companies as Clear Channel and calling for widespread changes in an industry called "anti-artist, anticompetitive and anticonsumer." According to several news reports, the letter will be formally released tomorrow and challenges, among other things, the independent promotion industry and how airplay on a certain record is tied to a radio station's annual promotion budget. The Los Angeles Times reports a good portion of the letter focuses on Clear Channel, which the organizations claim has centralized station playlists and has used its dominant position in the marketplace to coerce acts into playing at its radio station concerts and company-owned venues. By presstime Clear Channel representatives had not returned R&R ONLINE's call seeking comment.

Russ Feingold Readies Bill Seeking End To Questionable Radio Practices
As part of the campaign waged by the trade groups, the Wisconsin senator as early as next month will present a bill that seeks to abolish or curtail procedures that he says lead to homogenized radio programming that excludes all but the most heavily financed acts. "It is striking the range of people that radio deregulation has affected negatively in different parts of the music industry and the economy," Feingold tells the Chicago Tribune. "It's a sign of how offensive this system has become." He says he has placed the matter high on his agenda because of how it has affected artists, consumers, labor groups, concert attendees and every person who listens to radio. "This is an antidemocratic trend, because a free society is made up of a variety of voices. To have music homogenized and controlled by a few big companies is a significant issue in a democracy and a culture."

XM Repeaters Come Under Fire From Lawmakers
House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Billy Tauzin and fellow committee member Rep. Gene Green have written to FCC Chairman Michael Powell saying the capability of the satcaster's terrestrial repeater network to provide local programming is "raising some unsettled questions." Tauzin and Green argue the technology in the repeaters could essentially allow XM to convert their repeaters into low-power radio stations, and they implore the FCC to take an extensive look at XM's repeater network before issuing permanent rules on repeater operations. "The FCC should ascertain the exact location of every repeater, the interference issue justifying its existence, and an explicit statement acknowledging that said repeaters will never be utilized to feed locally differentiated programming," the lawmakers write. The House members' concerns echo those of the NAB, which has filed similar statements with the commission. Both XM and Sirius are currently operating their repeater networks under temporary FCC authority.

Study: Consumers Won't Pay For 'Net Services Or Content
A new report from Jupiter Media Metrix says that 69% of U.S. consumers would not be willing to pay for improved versions of the file-sharing, e-mail and instant messaging services they're getting now for free, and 63% won't pay for online content. Enhanced e-mail, at 12%, was the leader among services online adults would agree to pay for, followed by job sites, at 8%, and enhanced instant messaging, at 6%. The study paints a bleak picture for services like Yahoo! that are trying to make the move from free to fee for their services and information. The report also says that if consumers had to pay, 47% would be most comfortable giving the money to their present ISPs. Portal sites like Yahoo come in a distant second in that category, at 16%. Jupiter VP David Card says, "There is no obvious killer app that consumers would pay for" and recommends that providers bundle related services and sell them for less than $30 a year.

KaZaa Quits Legal Fight, File-Sharing Rolls On
Napster folded under the financial pressure of its own legal troubles earlier this week and accepted an $8 million buyout from Bertelsmann, and now the Dutch company that started KaZaa has told the court it cannot afford to continue its court battle against all five major label groups, several major film studios and other rights-holders over copyright infringement and will accept a default judgment. Such a judgment will almost certainly mean bankruptcy for the small company. Meanwhile, KaZaa-based file-sharing goes on as before: The system is in the hands of the Australia-based Sharman Networks, which has yet to be sued. The FastTrack peer-to-peer system on which the network is based, however, still belongs to KaZaa. As of R&R ONLINE's press time, the KaZaa website is claiming its software had been downloaded more than 80 million times.

Clear Channel Merges Radio, Concert Sales Depts.
The local and regional Music Group sales teams of Clear Channel's Entertainment division unite with the sales teams of the company's U.S. radio division to provide "unprecedented access for our advertisers to the unique opportunities of our radio and live-music advertising platforms," Clear Channel President/COO Mark Mays remarks. The merged teams will report to Clear Channel Radio President/COO John Hogan, who will also oversee the company's new Clear Channel Advantage, a cross-platform advertising plan that provides what the company calls "single point of contact" ad packages that incorporate Clear Channel's TV, outdoor, entertainment and radio assets.

XM Reaches 100,000 Subscribers
Though no official announcement has been made by the satcaster, company sources indicated yesterday that that milestone had been reached. The number is right in line with the company's earlier subscriber forecasts: It had more than 76,000 subscribers at the end of Q1 and has forecast 130,000 by the end of Q2. XM predicts it will sign up 350,000 users by year's end.

Most Recent Wayback Machine Playlist (May 25, 2002)

wayback@independent.fm

WAYBACK MACHINE
PLAYLIST 5/25/02

 
wayback@independent.fm

the playlist:

CLASH - GARAGELAND
CLASH - JAIL GUITAR DOORS
CLASH - THE SOUND OF SINNERS
THOMAS DOLBY - AIRHEAD
TONES ON TAIL - GO!
ROLLING STONES - WINTER
SINEAD O'CONNOR & SHANE MACGOWAN - HAUNTED
SINGLE GUN THEORY - TAKE ME BACK
MADONNA - JUSTIFY MY LOVE
FRANK ZAPPA - DIRTY LOVE
NEW ORDER - CONFUSION
MADNESS - NIGHT BOAT TO CAIRO
TRASH CAN SINATRAS - THRUPENNY TEARS

REM - DON'T GO BACK TO ROCKVILLE
VIOLENT FEMMES - AMERICAN MUSIC
U2 - ZOOROPA
SPLIT ENZ - ONE STEP AHEAD
PAUL WELLERN - HEAVY SOUL (pt.s 1 & 2)
LULU - TO SIR WITH LOVE
JASON & THE SCORCHERS - ABSOLUTELY SWEET MARIE
MORPHINE - HONEY WHITE
MORRISEY - BILLY BUDD
MIDNIGHT OIL - DREAMWORLD
NENEH CHERRY w/ MICHAEL STIPE - TROUT
STIFF LITTLE FINGERS - WAIT AND SEE
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS - DON'T LET'S START
SQUEZZE - IN QUINTESSENCE

SHRIEKBACK - NEMESIS
PIXIES - DEBASER
WANG CHUNG - WAIT
TALKING HEADS - HOUSES IN MOTION
MOTELS - TOTAL CONTROL
NIRVANA - SLIVER
SUPERGRASS - IT'S ALLRIGHT
JAMES BROWN - SUPER BAD
LA STYLE - JAMES BROWN IS DEAD
PORNO FOR PYROS - PORNO FOR PYROS
ELVIS COSTELLO - DADDY CAN I TURN THIS?
XTC - STATUE OF LIBERTY
LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH - DANCE WITH ME
CLASH - LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET

KSON News (May 23, 2002)

I hope your Spring has been as fun as ours has been! Fresh off the KSON CountryFest starring Alan Jackson and 5th Annual Tony & Kris Celebrity Golf Tournament, you're probably looking for your next dose of great live country music. Well there's a show coming to town that will cure that ailment.

As you may have heard.Kenny Chesney, Montgomery Gentry, Jamie O'Neal and Phil Vassar will be coming to town next Wednesday, May 29th to Coors Amphitheatre. There are plenty of tickets still available for $42.50, $33.50 and $25.00 (plus service charges) at all Ticketmaster locations. If you're still planning on going to the show but haven't bought your tickets yet, get ready to be happy! For a limited time, we're going to offer you an unbeatable price for RESERVED SEATS to the show.

Beginning Thursday, May 23, through this Saturday, May 25, you'll be able to buy a reserved seat to this unbelievable show for the low price of $9.73!! And to save you even more money, the Coors Amphitheatre box office will be open all 3 days from 10:00am to 4:00pm so you can purchase your $9.73 tickets with NO SERVICE CHARGES!! This discounted ticket price will also be available at all Ticketmaster outlets, over the phone and on-line BUT the usual service fees will be charged. You must get your tickets at the Coors Amphitheatre box office to avoid the service charges!

Join Kimo Jensen and KSON at Coors Amphitheatre tomorrow (Thursday, May 23rd) at 10:00 a.m. as we kick off this special discounted ticket promotion and buy your reserved tickets to the show for chump change! While you're there, you might as well register with us to win PRIVATE box seats to the show! If this deal were any better I'd have to include a set of steak knives! Have a great rest of the week and we'll see you Thursday at Coors! To get to Coors Amphitheatre, take Interstate 805 to the Main Street/Auto Park Drive exit. Head east approximately two and a half miles.

North County Times "San Diego Radio Static" - Randy Dotinga
Star 100.7 Sacks Dr. Lori's relationship advice show last week. The Star 100.7 Web site doesn't say a word about what happened to "Dr. Lori," and she's had to create her own Web site (http://www.drlori.net) to keep her listeners up to date.

A syndicator distributed Pollick's show to about a dozen stations around the country, a number that sounds significant but is actually quite tiny. Star 100.7 general manager Tracy Johnson said the station pulled the show when the syndicator decided to drop it.

Star 100.7 replaced Pollick's show with music. The station appears to be feeling the heat from My 94.1, a new rock station that is trying to steal its highly coveted female listeners by focusing on music instead of talk.

While her agent has high hopes for Pollick's show, it's not clear if she'll find a spot on the dial in San Diego. She'd be a good fit on My 94.1, but it might want to stick with an all-music format. Over on AM, the main talk stations here appeal to grumpy old men, not exactly Pollick's core audience.

P.1 Spring Arbitron Ratings Released (May 22, 2002)

Not much excitement happening in the San Diego Outland radio market. KOGO is #1 as usual. KIFM dips by a full point (wonder if the listeners found some real jazz elsewhere). My Mix is on the rise. KPOP bounces back with music. KFI rises to a competetive rating level, and it's from L.A.! Premium 92.1 rises at 91X's expense (Independents rule). B94.9 flops down to dangerously-low level, so low that a format change is inevitable. The Spanish K-Love is bombing. Sets and KGB continue their downward slides. Hot Country just can't get up (now that it's in Clear Channel's control, will they really stick with this failure even if the company uses its resources to cross-promote it?)

In the zero rating pool: Radio Dismal 1240, Exa 91.7, KFSD-AM, XEMM (soon to be ESPN Radio), and the other K-Love 100.1. Is anybody listening to these stations in the Outland?

World Music Radio To Morph Into World Music Webcast (May 22, 2002)

Thanks to all of you who helped by contacting your federal representatives.

This means that we can FINALLY go forward with projects that have been stalled: our long-awaited new website will finally be completed and put online. And that we can continue our search for new program hosts. And advertising dollars. And SO MUCH ELSE. Tomorrow, you will find us right there where you left us. At www.worldmusicwebcast.com on the (so far) FREE World Wide Web.

Our next step is to organize opposition to, and suggest amendments for, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We will keep you posted.

 
Michael-Leonard Creditor
Coordinator of Programming
World Music Webcast
(Formerly World Music Radio)
3636 Fifth Avenue, Suite 101
San Diego,  CA.  92103
office: 619-325-4411
studio: 619-325-4410

Radio Wires (May 24, 2002)

Radio Wires (May 23, 2002)

Radio Wires (May 21, 2002)

Updates: Clear Channel Swallows San Diego Califormula Stations (May 22, 2002)

Updates: Clear Channel Swallows San Diego Califormula Stations (May 21, 2002)

Roger Hedgecock Flashfax Excerpts (May 20, 2002)

**ROGER'S LIVE REMOTE on Friday at the Escondido Charter High School was a monster success. We're still beyond amazed that Coach Dennis Snyder and his folks are building a multi-million dollar public school campus without a tax dollar beyond the regular ADA that Coach gets normally. HUH? How is this possible? No 1.5 billion dollar bond issue? No new property tax levy? No hike in the cigarette tax or car tax or flatulation tax? Amazing. A great show, and we started raising some private funds to help with phase two of the campus.we need 3-million bucks to get that part done (a gym, theatre complex etc).ROGER kicked in 5-thousand dollars (which will be matched by the Bell family, making it a tidy 10k) the local bank kicked in 5k and a burger firm kicked in another one thousand dollars. (We'll post the names of all the contributors in a future flash).if you have five or ten dollars (or a tad more?) give us a call at HQ (858-715-3348) and we'll give you "how to make the check out," details. This school rules!! (we'll have digital pix on ROGER'S website by mid-week)

**AUDIO ARCHIVES ARE UP AND RUNNING.American Digital Network has bypassed all the legal hurdles and put ROGER'S show on line with streaming audio that allows us to archive each days radio show within minutes of each days conclusion. Already you can reprise last Thursday's show (The Otay Water Board debate.too fun).and ROGER'S live show on Friday from Escondido Charter High. Each show will stay up for 30 days. Not much that American Digital cannot do..if you have a computer at home or at work it's worth a call to see how they can save you money or make your job easier and more efficient.details on contact below.

**AB 1058 UPDATE.word we get is that the Assembly may attempt a vote on the dreaded Car Killer Bill today. Fire up those phones folks or you'll be riding horseback on the I-15. And please note that SD Councilman Jim Madaffer has made good on his pledge to ROGER.he has asked council for a "reconsideration," on it's resolution to support AB 1058.(the reconsideration will be heard on Tuesday May 21st) Jim contends that only the green wackos on the council realized that the bill will raise gas prices by 50-cents a gallon, introduce a miles driven tax and boost the price of a California Car by 35-hundred dollars. Thanks Jim.

**TODAY ROGER SUBS FOR RUSH..So faithful local flock get a double dose. The boss deals with national and international issues from 9a- 12noon (gotta do some Dufuss stuff too) and then back to hometown issues from 3p 6p. Might lay in some extra rations of Pepto and Night Train.

Updates: Clear Channel Swallows San Diego Califormula Stations (May 21, 2002)

MASSIVE CHANGES AT Z90!!!!... From AllAccess: It looks likes new XHTZ(JAMMIN'Z90) PD Rick Thomas has made major changes; The entire Califormula staff was let go with Sonny Alvarez brought back for afternoons, Trey for evenings and Imaging Dir. Alain jumps into middays for now. Many of Z90s' Mixers were brought back. Stay tuned for more changes at Z90!

Also on allaccess.com...(errors included) CLEAR CHANNEL business partner JOHN DETMOLD's XETRA COMMUNICACIONES, has finally negotiated a deal to purchase CALIFORMULA RADIO's Top 40/Rhythmic XHTZ (JAMMIN' Z90), and Country XHCR (HOT COUNTRY 99.3)/TIJUANA-SAN DIEGO. CLEAR CHANNEL/SAN DIEGO VP/Market Mgr. FM Stations MIKE GLICKENHAUS told ALL ACCESS, "Unlike some others that have wrongly published information, we do not own XHTZ or XHCR, but have worked out a licensing agreement through Mexican business partner JOHN DETMOLD's XETRA COMMUNICACIONES to provide programming and sell advertising for them, similar to how CLEAR CHANNEL operates Sports XTRA-A and Alternative XTRA-F (91X). XETRA COMMUNICACIONES is based in Mexico City with offices in ROSARITO, MEXICO. The ROSARITO-based manager is EDUARDO LIANO." CLEAR CHANNEL-operated sister Urban Oldies XHRM (MAGIC 92.5) PD RICK THOMAS will add Z90 PD duties replacing longtime PD LISA KARSTING, and XHCR PD STEVE SAPP has been replaced by MIKE O'BRIAN, who was the PD/morning man at KMSX (MIX 95.7) which moved to 94.1 and eventually became KMYI (MY 94.1).

E-Mail from David Gleason

re: "Bob states that the new owner (the real person who can legally own the Mexican-owned radio stations) of the "Z90" and Hot Country transmitters is John Detmold, chairman/ceo of Banca Quadrum in Mexico City. He also has a residence in Rosarito Beach. In Mexico he's known as John Detmold MacPhee."

reply: This is because in Mexico one's paternal last name is followed by the maternal surname. If I am John Smith, and my mother's maiden name is Jones, In Mexico I am John Smith Jones. Smith is the principal surname still. Mr. Detmold is definitely not using a different name or an aka, just the proper local form.

E-mail Reactions:

From Bruce Josephson... The Dark Side of the Force further engulfs San Diego with its shadow in an almost total eclipse of radio creativity. San Diego radio has gone so far downhill that I like many workfriends play the MP3s through the intercom instead of dealing with the radio stations with narrow view of music and endless ads for cars and wireless phones and insurance and back to cars again. Clear Channel could legally run every TJ station and program seven different versions of adult contemporary and try to convince me that they all sound different. What's the difference between hearing Cher from 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, or 2000? None! They all sound alike! Welcome to homogenized commercial radio. Long live KKOS, the best late radio station in San Diego.

From William Beckett... The sad state of San Diego radio has gotten even worse with the elimination of Z90 and 99.3 from the non-CC side of radio. Now they have joined the enemy due to their shortsightedness in programming relevantly to its diverse American and Mexican audiences. Mexicans don't care for Adult Contemporary Country 99.3; it's not their culture. Califormula blew it on 99.3 big time with their country format that basically never generated any immediate interest. I agree that 99.3 should have gotten the dance songs Z90 isn't playing; I can't stand rap music; I prefer real music with non-repetetive sampling melodies and singing, and dance music is it!

From James... Z90 should have evolved into something like More-FM's Rewire mixed with 93.3's Digital Groove as Euro style dance is a global culture phonenomenom. Hip hop had its day in 1992 or 1993 and dance music has long supplanted the overhyped hip hop rap genre that has basically no appeal for music fans after age 25. We Americans are way behind the global music curve; it's still 1994 in San Diego while Italy is well into the third millenium with what I believe are 16 dance radio stations in a popular given city. When 99.3 went English, I would have liked to seen that station become an easy listening instrumental station for relaxing to. Califormula blew it big time. Cya Z90!

Radio Wires and Bytes (May 20, 2002)

From Cliff Powell: I've noticed some letters covering radio stations and their formats. Have you ever listened to KOGO/AM 600 news traffic reports? They insist on using a phony background soundtrack. It's obvious that the reporter is not on the road, but they still use this annoying traffic sound. I've e-mailed KOGO asking about it, no answer. Am I the only one who finds this soundtrack bogus?