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National Radio Wires 6-20-03Inside RadioSenate move could threaten some Clear Channel and Infinity clusters.... The Senate Commerce Committee has approved a rollback of the media ownership rules changes approved by the FCC. It voted to force break-ups of grandfathered clusters over the ownership cap. The ban on cross-ownership would also be revived, forcing TV and radio clusters to be split apart, as well as radio-newspaper clusters owned by companies such as Tribune.
More on Senate Panel OKs Bill on Media Ownership:... The Senate Commerce Committee voted Thursday to restore ownership restrictions that limit how media companies can merge and grow, aiming to counter a June 2 Federal Communications Commission decision to relax the rules earlier this month. The proposed legislation would roll back changes allowing individual companies to own television stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers and combinations of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same city. The bill also would change radio ownership rules in a way that could force companies, such as Clear Channel and Infinity, to sell stations. Clear Channel owns seven stations in San Diego plus runs five from Tijuana. "I would like the FCC to start all over," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who supported reversing the rules. She said they are "potentially dangerous to media diversity in this country." While passed by a bipartisan majority on the committee, the bill faces an uncertain future in the full Senate and a big obstacle in the House, where Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, supports the changed media rules. FCC Chairman Michael Powell and the two other Republicans on the five-member FCC relaxed several media ownership rules on June 2 in a 3-2 party-line vote. Lawmakers are planning other congressional tactics to overturn the changes. Even without new legislation, legal challenges to the rules are expected from consumer groups seeking stiffer restrictions and media companies wanting even more deregulation. Gene Kimmelman of Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, called the Senate committee's decision "an enormous victory for consumers." The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., would roll back the national ownership limit so a company can own TV stations reaching only 35 percent of U.S. households instead of 45 percent. The bill passed by a voice vote. News Corp., owner of Fox, and Viacom Inc., which owns CBS and UPN, benefits from the higher cap because mergers have pushed the media giant above the 35 percent level. The News Corp. companies could be forced to sell stations if a new law is enacted and upheld in court. The amendment involving radio passed 12-11 and would expand the FCC's new, stricter radio ownership rules so they apply to stations a company already owns. If enacted, the change could force companies like Clear Channel, the country's largest radio chain with 1,200 stations, to sell stations in markets where they exceed ownership limits. "This is an attempt to single out one company for being successful and punish them for playing by the rules," said Andy Levin, a Clear Channel vice president, predicting the measure will be defeated later. The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents smaller broadcasters and favored the bill when it only rolled back the national TV cap, said that because of the amendments it now opposes the measure. ON THE NET Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov Los Angeles Radio Wires 6-18-03Richard WagonerDaytime-only AM radio stations are all but extinct. KRTH has canceled Ask the Professor.
San Diego Radio Wires 6-17-03Arbitrons: San Diego You can see the progress XPRS has made in a short time, while Clear Channel's XTRA Sports Los Angeles on 690 does an impression of the Titanic: sink! Also: Planet-FM sinks, losing nearly 50 percent of its ratings since last fall! XHCR 99.3 gains basically NOTHING in its four year life as a country station (see more). The new Alternative rock 94.9 gets its highest ratings in two years.
Randy Dotinga
Country 99.3 Tijuana: A Failure 6-17-03Califormula put country music on FM 99.3 with the handle of "Hot Country 99.3" back in June of 1999, hoping to make a dent in the legendary KSON-FM audience with a mix of older country music and the best of the newer country songs. It didn't work. Last year, Califormula gave the reins of 99.3 to Clear Channel, who rechristened it "Bob 99.3" last year, and made it more contemporary, more like mainstream country. It's still a failure.Meanwhile, in the past four years, the popularity of dance music has grown with the rise of MP3 file trading and Internet radio, as well as several dozen stations streaming the dance music of various flavors off of live365.com. All this without the precense of an all-dance or electronica radio station in the listener's hometowns including San Diego, which gets some dance music only through occasional weekly remix shows locally. Califormula couldn't make a second country music radio station work on 99.3; Clear Channel can't do it right either. Nationwide Broadcasting couldn't make country last longer than three months from late 1996 when it once owned KUPR 95.7. They might as well give up trying. The San Diego Radio Dial Continues To Be Behind The Curve 6-17-03Meanwhile, with the radio dial full of overplayed oldies nobody cares to not miss, current music stations that play only rap, emo, chick pop, grunge, and soft music, the niche for uptempo dance pop and electronica on a full-time station in San Diego that can reach a wide swath of audience young and old goes unfulfilled. Think about it.Also: KPLN 103.7 should conside reformatting its classic hit station into an adult album rock station and start playing tracks from the excellent "A Mighty Wind" soundtrack, heard nowhere on San Diego radio, except perhaps KPRI 102.1 I suppose, among other newer track that appeal to the discriminating music fan, jettisoning most of the annoying rock crap such as Foreigner and Journey in favor of music for the thinking fan, playing some humorous current folk songs on occasion. Magic 92.5: 100,000 watts. Old school is getting old. Times have changed. Put on a dance mix similar to the BPM channel on XM 81! My 94.1: Evanessence does not freaking belong on a soft pop radio station! Whoever wrote this downbeat song should be shot by an execution squad in Denver! Grunge rock: so 90210 generation. Get rid of it. Nobody cares about it ever since Kurt Cobain blew his brains out nearly 10 years ago! Corporate rap: boring! Where's the humor? Chick pop: who is Kelly Clarkson and why do radio programmers think she's so good? Jewel: why doesn't 91X and 94.9 play any of her songs? Hers is the best alternative rock album of the year! Sure beats the hell out of Linkin Park and its crappy grunge clones! Go deep and play her album tracks! They're both missing out. |