Also: Happy Hare, Former Radio's Coe Lewis Breaks a Record, Ted Leitner's Rants, Bears oh my, and more!

Radio Wires (October 12, 2002)

Cox Radio Severs Ties With Indie Promoters... Once their current contracts with independent promoters expire, the company's radio stations will begin dealing directly with record companies on promotions, concerts and other opportunities. "The record companies have expressed a desire to work directly with the stations, and we are granting them their wish," Cox Radio President/CEO Bob Neil says. "It is our hope that the record industry will show its commitment by forging even stronger ties directly with our stations." Stations affected by the new policy are CHR/Rhythmics WBTS/Atlanta, WBHJ/Birmingham, KXME/Honolulu, KTHT-FM/Houston, WPYM/Miami, WPYO/Orlando, KCJZ/San Antonio and WHZT/Greenville, SC; CHR/Pop WBLI/Nassau-Suffolk; Alternatives WDYL/Richmond and WSUN/Tampa; AC KRTR/Honolulu; Rock WBAB/Nassau-Suffolk; and Active Rock KRTQ/Tulsa. No other Cox Radio stations have agreements with independent promoters.

From another source: Helms Serves Corporate Broadcasting Lobby, May Send Internet Services to Bankruptcy

Helms Blocks Webcaster Royalty Bill... A bill that could potentially save Internet radio stations from bankruptcy brought on by royalty fees failed to clear the Senate after Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina raised objections. According to the Los Angeles, Helms blocked The Small Webcaster Amendment Act of 2002 at the request of "unidentified over-the-air broadcasters," effectively delaying any further action on the Senate's part until they reconvene on November 12. The House of Representatives had already approved the legislation, but both the House and Senate must approve identical versions of the bill. Unless Helms unexpectedly withdraws his protestation, there is a significant chance that the bill will not be considered by Congress following the elections. With Webcasters currently scheduled to make payment on Sunday (10/20) totaling four years' worth of back royalties, companies such as Live365 are awaiting an expected ruling from the Copyright Office on Friday (10/18) that will decide their fate.

Kurt Hanson
The Small Webcaster Amendments Act of 2002 (a.k.a. H.R. 5469), which would have provided webcasters a "percentage of revenue" option to the "per-performance" rate determined by the Librarian of Congress, failed to reach the Senate floor on the final day of the Congressional session -- reportedly the victim of a "hold" by an unnamed Senator.

Some of RAIN's Washington sources say the holdout Senator may be North Carolina Republican Jesse Helms.

Read this story now in "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter," online now.

The failure of the Small Webcaster Amendments Act in the Senate last night does not mean an automatic death sentence for Internet radio. Today in a RAIN Editorial, Kurt Hanson suggests some possible ways webcasters and the record industry can work around the bill's failure, and create a "win-win" situation for Net radio and music.

Read Kurt's editorial in today's full issue of "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter," online now at http://www.kurthanson.com.

Also in RAIN today:

-- Sunday is the official due date for retroactive royalty payments. We examine some of the realities of "October 20th"...

-- Updated coverage of yesterday's developments in the Senate.

RadioDailyNews
Cox Radio plans to sever its ties with independent record promoters to distance itself from a payola-like practice that runs rampant in the music business (read) http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/business/1002/18coxradio.html

The noise big radio conglomerates are making about digital radio is likely to drown out community radio stations -- dashing small broadcasters' hopes that new technology would boost signal http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,55757,00.html

Webcasters worry and wait for Senate action on royalty rates: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/27923p-26554c.html

RadioDailyNews
(this segment repeated in L.A. Radio News section)
Radio People of the Day ... Dr. Demento (www.drdemento.com)

Emmis Communications said it plans to tell listeners about its business ties to rapper Shade Sheist whose heavy airplay on station KPWR-FM has drawn media fire http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=entertainmentnews&StoryID=1595633
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-emmis16oct16.story

News Wires (October 12, 2002)

Jay Posner - TV/Radio Sports - The San Diego Union
(http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/fri/sports/news_1s11media.html)
San Diego is Missing The Big One (College Football Game, that is), AGAIN!...also, NFL pay per view blues and baseball rants and raves. Good column. Check it every Friday.

ESPN Deportes is now available on Time Warner digital, and Cox will add the Spanish-language channel to its digital tier at the end of the month. The channel only has Sunday night football, baseball and boxing now, but it will go 24/7 in the third quarter of 2003.

John Maffei - North County Times TV/Sports
The Answer Man for Playoffs...Question: Why did last week's baseball playoffs air on ABC Family instead of ESPN? Answer: because nobody watches ABC Family. Question: Why did Fox choose to air both the Angels-Twins and Giants-Cardinals games at the same time on two different networks Wednesday? Answer: because the TV programmers are idiots!

Ain't this just Ducky The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who for the past several years, had their games broadcast on XTRA radio (690 AM), have switched to KPLS (830 AM) in Anaheim. The Ducks and management at Clear Channel ---- XTRA's parent company ---- couldn't come to an agreement. Clear Channel wanted to delay all East Coast and some Midwest Ducks games. The Ducks, who paid Clear Channel about $300,000 a year to carry their games, wanted all games live. So the Ducks and Clear Channel agreed to disagree, and the Ducks ended up at 830, which will carry only 55 of the team's games because of conflicts with USC football and basketball. The good part for XTRA listeners is that Lee Hamilton and John Kentera are no longer pre-empted by a boring, last-place hockey team.

There is no local TV of Saturday's Utah-San Diego State football game. Waahhh! Yeah. Right. Like we care?

Radio Wires (October 12, 2002)

(Christian Science Monitor) The ability of millions of music lovers to obtain songs free on the Web, versus paying $10 or more for a CD at their local retailer, continues to rankle the recording industry. But it's a phenomenon the industry may inevitably have to join, rather than fight. Yes, the prototype of online swapping services, Napster - which popularized the free music option - was vanquished by an industry legal offensive. And the drive to protect copyrighted works of art from online "piracy" has strong legal and moral underpinnings. But that drive has to somehow merge, not collide, with the Internet's unstoppable ease of distributing music, words, and images.

The industry's lawsuit tactics are increasingly problematic. Consider KaZaA, one of the services now in the recording companies' legal sights. Unlike Napster, it keeps no central index of its user files. Thus it's harder to prove the service has any control over the song-swapping of individual users. Instead, KaZaA's software allows patrons to directly access and download music files available on each other's computers.

Beyond that, the service is incorporated in the Pacific island of Vanuatu, run from an office in Australia, and the creators of its software have no known address. The service claims its business is global, and that US courts have no jurisdiction over it.

KaZaA, moreover, is only one of a number of popular swapping services. Given the technological trends, the industry would be smart to work harder at adapting to the Web instead of spending millions to resist it. Online music services that charge a fee are one option. Some of them are starting to show an increase in patrons.

One thing seems certain: the next generation of music lovers will demand access to vast numbers of songs cheaply and quickly. New ways of generating revenue online - perhaps by tapping the music service's potential as advertising carriers - will have to be found. A substantial part of any such income must go to the artists who, after all, remain the fountainhead of the whole enterprise.

rronline
Small Webcasters Amendment Act May Not Pass This Session... The legislation is being held up in the Senate by a single senator, reports RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter, as the NAB tries to get language added that would clarify that the bill's terms cannot be used as a precedent by any future Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel. If the Senate changes the language, the bill must go back to the House, which is now set to meet only once more, on Oct. 15, before adjournment. The NAB's position that broadcasters should not owe webcast performance royalties for web simulcasts of AM and FM signals is unchanged, but that issue is still pending in federal appeals court. If no bill is passed, all back webcasting royalties will come due on Oct. 20.

Grass-Roots Effort Underway To Support Media Limits... Among the first parties to file comments in the FCC's review of media ownership limits are 467 people who have signed their names to individual copies of the same letter, which urges Chairman Michael Powell to "strengthen - not repeal - the few remaining rules that prevent near-total concentration of ownership in the clutches of a few corporations." The letter goes on to say that the media limits are "crucially important if we are to protect out nation from the very real dangers of media monopolies." It's unclear if there is a particular group leading the letter-writing campaign.

Mexico Sets New Rules For Radio, TV... Mexico's government and broadcast companies agreed yesterday to revise the process in which radio and TV stations are licensed, overhauling a system in place since 1961 that many criticized as secretive. Reuters reports that Mexico's equivalent of the FCC, the CIRT, established new rules that set 12-year periods for radio and TV licenses, which CIRT President Bernardo Gomez says is an international norm. Under the new system - which Gomez says abolishes the old "quid pro quo system" in which all radio and TV broadcasters gave the government three hours of airtime each day in exchange for tax breaks - broadcasters will pay taxes like all other businesses, with the government getting 65 minutes a day from radio stations and 48 minutes a day from TV stations for public service messages.

Kurthanson.com News (October 11, 2002)

Small commercial webcasters, possibly sensing that the legislation designed to enable their survival won't pass in the Senate as it did the House, have issued an open letter to Senators pleading their case. The Voice of Webcasters, an organization representing small-business commercial webcasters, released the letter to the press.

The Small Webcasters Amendments Act of 2002, called H.R. 5469 in the House, granted special royalty consideration for small commercial webcasters who felt they couldn't survive under the Librarian of Congress's July determination for the industry. The bill, the result of strenuous negotiations guided by the House Judiciary Committee, passed the House of Representative in a suspension vote Monday.

However, the bill is rumored to face opposition in the Senate, where it requires unanimous approval before reaching the President (and with his approval, becoming law).

With the Congressional session ending Friday, and the bill for royalties for music played dating back to the fall of 1998 due October 20th, if this bill is not passed, small commercial webcasters will be subject to the Librarian's determination.

Many say this means bankruptcy.

The letter, reads, "Many of these webcasters have been broadcasting for years, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in royalties under the Librarian's rates, but are just now approaching audience sizes where they can attract substantial advertising revenues. If the bill is not passed by October 20, the crushing burden of these retroactive liabilities will put many of these small webcasters out of business. THE SENATE MUST ACT BEFORE OCTOBER 20 TO AVOID KILLING THIS NEW INDUSTRY BEFORE IT HAS TIME TO DEVELOP."

The letter is signed by small webcasters like Jim and Wanda Atkinson (3WK), Ron Rubin (BoomerRadio), Robert Ottaway (Classical Music Detroit), and Bill Goldsmith (KPIG and RadioParadise).

Read the webcasters' open letter here.

http://kurthanson.com/webcaster_senate_letter_101002.asp

Visit Voice of Webcasters here:

http://www.voiceofwebcasters.org

Radio Wires (October 11, 2002)

A: Actually, I have no clue as to why a station would drop some of the oldest FM call letters in the city just to sound trendy. Everyone knew that KLON played jazz, and I sincerely doubt that the new name will attract new listeners. Personally, I think calls like that are tacky, especially when replacing well-established calls with a good image. As to the student issue, that is a pet peeve of mine. It drives me nuts that colleges run radio stations on their campuses staffed by professionals and shunning students. In the case of KLON/KJAZ, the purchase of the station by Cal State Long Beach back in 1981 totally destroyed one of the best radio laboratories in Southern California by forcing student-run KSUL off the air. My own personal belief is that colleges that hire professionals to run their stations should have their licenses pulled.

Pirate to Plunder San Diego (October 10, 2002)

News Wires (October 10, 2002)

Also: Star 100.7's Jeff Elliott, Jerry St. James might be building a horse stable at Little Tommy Sablan's home ... if they can't trade their horse in. Yesterday's Tradio, the morning show exchanged a pregnant horse in exchange for kitchen work. Little Tomny writes: "We got the horse. NIGHSHADOW is the latest TRADE in TRADEO.....We've gone from a pencil to a horse? We're not done yet. TOMORROW/Thursday we'll have THE owner of the horse tell us about NIGHTSHADOW.........THEN Friday Tradeo resumes and we'll try to trade the horse for something cool and to someone who has a suitable home for the horse. The horses new home is a priority. If we can't find a trader, then the horse is OURS for keeps." Wow, how do you like them apples!

Industry notes: Has Disney made the move to unload their radio properties? Street Buzz [actually jack-hammer noise] indicates that the Mouse-House has reached a deal to unload the radio division. Suitors include Viacom ... the owners of Infinity Radio who have KyXy and KPLN radio. (editor's note: that could pose a problem for Viacom/Infinity/CBS as even before then, they have to divest one of their seven radio station properties since they bought KCAL 9 from Young Broadcasting. Is KLSX-FM on the selling block?)

Slated to begin broadcasting this week from a clandestine location is a station at 96.9 FM. It's not legal, it's a bonafide pirate radio station. (editor's note: there's been two other pirate stations operating on 96.9 FM in 1997, one of which reaired KPBS-FM's signal). The website indicates they will be in the south-bay area of the metro area, and equipment from Europe to finish the transmitter and antenna facilities are in place. FCC mandates that illegal transmission in the public airwaves ... face stiff action and severe financial fines. The station wants to broadcast Mississippi blues to fusion ... The free form radio station is known as Free Radio San Diego and the URL is Pirate969.org Stay Tuned

News Wires (October 10, 2002)

Paul Palmer, a staple for more than 25 years in the San Diego radio community, was selected as the Lifetime Achievement Award winner while STAR 100.7's Little Tommy Sablan, of the Jeff & Jer Showgram, received the Public Service Award, as voted on by the 2002 A.I.R. Board of Governors.

Chris has the rest at the website above.

News Wires (October 10, 2002)

North County Times - Ann Zivotsky
Readers speak up - and they're not happy... The new television season is less than a month old and already some readers have spoken ---- and they're not happy.

A 40something reader wrote that he misses the variety shows of past decades and good-natured sitcoms. He laments that sports and David Letterman are the only shows viewers of all ages can enjoy. I hope he's not referring to young children staying awake past 11:30 on school nights to watch Letterman. The reader has sworn off prime-time network viewing.

Another reader complains that he has 62 channels and finds only programs that show extreme violence. This reader understands that TV programs stay on the air because of ratings, but he finds it sad that that's what people are watching. He wonders why more stations don't pull tapes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Johnny Carson out of the vaults.

When I've flipped through more than 100 channels and still can't find anything to watch, I understand these readers' feelings, but their responses are also a reflection of how the structure of television itself has changed.

Variety shows still exist on television, but they're a world away from Ed Sullivan and Carol Burnett. "Cedric the Entertainer" is a variety show airing at 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays on FOX, but it reflects the tastes of a hip-hop artist, not Chinese acrobats, which Sullivan favored. Long-running "Saturday Night Live" and Fox's "Mad TV" are edgier and more political than variety shows of the past. And while those shows appeal to a younger audience, KPBS has had great success in running repackaged repeats of "The Lawrence Welk Show" for an older audience, although critics pan the station for it.

One of the longest running variety shows is "The Grand Ole' Opry," still airing on CMT at 5 p.m. Saturdays. At 10 a.m. weekdays on KUSI, there's "The Wayne Brady Show." TV Land and Nick at Nite air comedies from past decades, such as "The Cosby Show," "The Brady Bunch," "The Munsters," and "I Love Lucy." "The Andy Griffith Show" is still one of the most syndicated programs.

ABC likes to think that with shows like "My Wife and Kids," "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter" and "Dinotopia" airing at 8 p.m. weeknights, they've created an hour of family viewing that the other networks don't offer. Whether families are actually sitting down to watch these shows remains to be seen, although "8 Simple Rules" has been given the green light by ABC for the remainder of the season.

The way television is structured is dramatically different from what we watched in the '70s or even '80s, when cable began to grow.

Specialty channels such as Nickelodeon dominate young children's viewing. ESPN has redefined sports programming, as CNN redefined news. While HBO can offer programming that is far better than what the networks offer, HBO only has to worry about its subscribers. The networks ---- CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, WB, UPN ---- still must appeal to the largest and broadest group of viewers, but even they specialize to some extent. The WB is growing its family-viewing franchise ---- "7th Heaven" and "Everwood" ---- and FOX is focused on 20something viewers.

So viewers who like to watch comedies with less sexual innuendo, or crime shows without bloodletting, will definitely want to make sure TV Land is programmed into their television.

Letter: "Where has quality television gone? I have a beef about the scarcity of great entertainment on television. I have access to 62 channels. Counting the hours from 7 to 11 p.m., multiplied by 62 channels, that equals 248 hours of evening television programming. That's 248 hours, folks. And you know what? Some evenings I'm pressed to find anything worth watching. Unless a program doesn't show someone having their brains blown out, a girl being raped or some moronic sit-com, then it doesn't rate airtime. I guess this catalog of bad taste is based on ratings, which, in turn, ties into viewer response. God help us. Whatever happened to the taped shows of Sinatra, Streisand, Dean Martin, Johnny Carson, Hollywood Palace, etc? There was true entertainment with a commodity rarely seen today ---- true talent. Network producers or celebrity estate custodians, if you are hoarding these tapes in some dusty enclave, you should be utterly ashamed of yourselves." - JOHN LLEWELLYN, Oceanside

Cox Changes in North County

If you're a Cox subscriber and are a fan of ESPN Classic, you'll have to upgrade to digital cable. On Oct. 29 the channel, available on Channel 68 in the North County, is moving to the news and sports package (CNNfn, ESPNews, Fox Sports World) of the digital channel lineup.

On that same day, Speed Channel will move to Channel 68 and The History Channel will move to Channel 70 on Cox's North County lineup.

News Wires (October 10, 2002)

Radio Wires (October 7, 2002)

"Both Mike and Rand are talented guys, but the format had flattened out in the ratings," Astor said of the adult alternative playlists.

"I want us to get closer to the old Mix," he said, referring to the hot adult contemporary format under former program director Craig Powers.

"We want to reach out to the age 18-to-49 and 25-to-54 demo. I think these modifications will make a difference," he said. Most recently, 94.3 FM was averaging a 0.4 share of the Los Angeles- Orange County audience.

The name "Cool Radio" will remain, but the programmers will be Rick Rome, the morning man on 92.1 FM in San Diego, and Rick Savage, the music director and afternoon personality on 92.1 FM.

The 94.3 FM lineup is the same except for afternoons, where Jason Daniels has replaced DeWitt.

Me Like Hockey: (also from laradio.com) KPLS/830 AM Vice President and General Manager Alan Fuller was in a giddy mood this past week and for good reason - the Orange station is the new flagship for the Mighty Ducks.

Ducks waddle home: KPLS/830 AM was named the flagship station for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' 2002-03 hockey season. "KPLS is thrilled to be working with the Mighty Ducks and to support a professional team in our community," e-mailed KPLS General Manager Alan Fuller.

Lycan on the Web Update: This column is available again online. Go to ocregister.com, click on "Columns" on the left-hand side and it will be there. Thanks to all of you who called and e-mailed for your patience.

STATION BREAKS KRLA/870 AM has replaced Briem with infomercials - Johnny Jacobs at 7 p.m., Terry Anderson at 8. Former O.C. broadcaster Larry Grannis says he likes the new adult standards format on K-Surf 540 and 1260 AM. "The on-air guys do a really good job of adding just the right amount of talk and info to otherwise just good music." The Web site is 540thesurf.com.

From laradio.com: Ron Foster, former news anchor for KIIS (1977-80) and news director at KPRZ (1980-85), died Oct. 2 of cancer. He leaves his wife, five children, and eight grandchildren. Ron had no medical benefits, and he had no life insurance. His family needs donations. You can help by donating: Foster Family, 2685 Winery Ave., Clovis, Calif., 93612.

Obit: Don Wells (October 3, 2002)

Wells' death came as the Angels were one win away from capturing their first postseason series in franchise history.

A Sacramento native, Wells went to broadcasting school on the GI Bill after returning from service in World War II.

He was covering White Sox and Cubs game for WCFL in Chicago when he was hired by Angels owner Gene Autry as the voice of the expansion 1961 Los Angeles Angels.

Through 12 seasons with the Angels, he worked with several announcers including Dick Enberg and Dave Niehuas.

Wells left the Angels after the 1972 season and announced sports and general news for KFWB in Los Angeles until his retirement in 1988. He later moved to Switzerland to be with his son, Christopher.

News Wires (October 6, 2002)

Kimberly Hunt, who recently left KGTV/Channel 10 after serving more than a decade as one of the lead weekday anchors, is heading over to KUSI on Oct. 21 to co-anchor the 6 p.m. newscast with Susan Lennon.

Lynda Martin is leaving XETV/Channel 6's "Fox6 News" and moving to KSWB/Channel 69 on Oct. 14 to anchor "WB News at Ten." She'll co-anchor the show with Jeff Powers.

Brian Christie, who moved from CNN to KUSI/Channel 51, and then back to CNN, started at XETV/Channel 6 on Monday. He co-anchors the 10 p.m. newscast.

Beth Shelburne recently joined the 5 a.m. KFMB/Channel 8 newscast. She comes from the Fox affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla.

A reader asked where Don Teague, a reporter and anchor at KFMB, went. He moved to Atlanta in August to work as a reporter for NBC news from that Southern bureau.