The Wires - Nationwide (May 29, 2004)

Capitol Hill Staffer: XM Subscribers 'Seem Confused' About Legislation... A page on XM's website urges subscribers to contact the offices of Reps. Charles "Chip" Pickering and Gene Green - who co-sponsored legislation aimed at investigating whether XM and fellow satcaster Sirius' local traffic and weather channels violate the provisions of their FCC licenses - to speak out against the legislation, but Pickering's press secretary Brian Perry tells R&R that the many of the approximately 85 people who have called Pickering's office don't fully understand the bill's intent. "Once callers realize it's not meant to disrupt the service, they seem OK with it," Perry says, saying some callers believe the bill aims to shut down satellite radio altogether. Perry says the bill seeks only to prohibit satcasters from inserting local content via their terrestrial repeaters and directs the FCC to study whether XM's and Sirius' existing locally focused channels violate the intent of their licenses.

All Access (registration required)
As he's insinuated several times before, HOWARD STERN says he's out if MEL KARMAZIN's out at VIACOM- the syndicated WXRK (92.3 K-ROCK)/NEW YORK morning man said on THURSDAY's show (5/27) that he thinks that when CEO SUMNER REDSTONE retires from VIACOM, daughter SHARI REDSTONE, who he called "difficult," is "gonna run the company, not MEL," and that he, WXRK GSM FRANK FLORES, and longtime salesman SAM BENRUBI will quit as a team if KARMAZIN is forced out. STERN chastised station GM TOM CHIUSANO for not joining the resignation pact.

Broadcast stations, check your mail for an official looking envelope from the FCC. If you have one, you've won yourself a random EEO audit. The Commission sent out the first of the random audit letters FRIDAY (5/28); about 5% of all licensees and multi-channel program distributors are chosen for auditing each year.

New Format "Oiled and Ready" (May 28, 2004)

reaction in radio-info SD
Posted by: MGD4Ever

"Why do I feel like this format change is going to land with a flying yawn? We are all building this thing up in our heads and whatever happens will never live up to the hype that we are affording it." (such as yet another format in San Diego we don't need such as another women's soft pop station)

The Wires - San Diego (May 28, 2004)

Read more at Dotinga's website.

The Wires - Nationwide (May 28, 2004)

As government experiments go, the idea of low-power FM radio stations for small communities is still in its infancy, but the concept appears to be viable and has a bright outlook. Ligonier has one of these new radio stations - WNRL, located at 105.9 on the FM dial - and the station's journey from a dream to reality is being documented for a national television program. A production crew from Verite Productions, of Cleveland, Ohio, was in Ligonier last week filming interviews and doing research on WNRL and low-power FM (LPFM.) (read Advanced Leader)

All Access (registration required)
WGN-A/CHICAGO turns 80 on JUNE 1, and the station, which changed its calls from WDAP to WGN ("World's Greatest Newspaper," the slogan of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE) on JUNE 1, 1924, will be releasing an 80th Anniversary CD with proceeds benefiting the WGN RADIO NEEDIEST KIDS FUND, part of the MCCORMICK TRIBUNE FOUNDATION. The station will also launch a new website, wgngold.com, devoted to the history of WGN, with archived audio from the station's long history.

XM Radio Needs Your Help (May 28, 2004)

XM Subscriber,

XM needs your help now. Satellite radio is under attack. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the group that represents the large radio and television owners, is using its lobbyists, campaign contributions and political influence to stifle competition and stop XM from offering traffic and weather information and other valuable services to listeners like you. NAB is trying to limit XM's First Amendment rights!

XM needs you to contact the FCC and your Members of Congress to tell them that you support satellite radio. Visit grassroots.xmradio.com to learn more about the threat, and how you can respond by easily contacting the FCC and your lawmakers in Washington, DC.

Exercise your freedom of expression. Let your voice be heard, loud and clear, just like XM!

- XM Satellite Radio

Visitors to XM's online grassroots headquarters (see link in letter above) will find language more aggressive than that above, as the satellite company refers to the NAB as the "same group [that] has tried to block every innovative technology that has been warmly welcomed into AMERICA's homes and cars." Specifically, the site details the NAB's attempts to lobby for the passage of HR 4026, the "Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act," a bill which would prohibit satellite radio providers from providing local content. XM urges its subscribers to oppose the bill, and provides various points of contact (FCC, Congress, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee) to do so.

(note: SDN opposes the bill on the grounds that providing localized emergency service news is of paramount importance to the cities, but many of the local broadcasters lacking a fully-staffed news organization cannot perform sustained localized news coverage of emergencies without taking a huge financial loss to perform the public service, which is why when some cities had emergencies at 2am, none of the local stations could respond in real time to provide important news information to deal with the emergency, which is where satellite radio comes in. I see no reason why we can't have more radio stations serving a given city, and if AM and FM radio won't accomodate any more stations, then it's up to satellite radio to do the job).

The Wires - San Diego (May 27, 2004)

North County Times - Randy Dotinga
Radio kills the video star? By the time you read this, it will all be over. Garrison Keillor's career? No such luck. I'm talking about this season of "American Idol," the annoyingly addictive TV show that thrives on has-beens (hi, Paula) and humiliation. Barring some extraordinary event, one of two plucky young women will have won the title last night based on votes from millions of Americans, including countless teen girls who think Ryan Seacrest is a bit long in the tooth. Soon, viewers will stop arguing over whether racism or the Hawaiian mafia (don't ask) torpedoed several of the most qualified candidates. They'll turn to their most important job: buying quickie albums sung by their favorite idols. With one or two exceptions, just about every record released by a finalist has been a best seller. The funny thing? With one or two exceptions, these same singers have hardly gotten a drop of play on the radio, and it's unlikely the latest crop of Idols will change things. So why does radio kill the video star? Part of the answer is that today's radio scene is tightly controlled. No stations play just the top hits. Instead they play specific formats, such as hot adult contemporary (Star 100.7), adult alternative (KPRI), soft rock (KyXy) and urban (Channel 933). If stars such as Aiken or the amazing Fantasia Barrino don't fit into one of those categories ---- and they don't ---- they're out of luck.

Read more at Dotinga's website.

The Wires - Nationwide (May 27, 2004)

Stern Fan Offered Plea Bargain... John McCarthy ran onto the field at Shea Stadium holding a Howard Stern sign. His moment of fame could cost him a month behind bars.

Internet radio has now been available for 5 years, and yet only a fraction of the potential listeners are tapping into sites that are streaming some amazing programming. So, all of us who love the Internet and are "Net savvy" wonder when the huge explosion will happen for Internet radio. The delay in consumers adopting Internet-based listening may be caused by people simply being uncomfortable with computer technology, along with the general "fear of the unknown." Once the Internet becomes more than just a tool for e-mailing, and instead becomes an integral part of exploring entertainment and information needs in everyone's lifestyle, Internet radio will begin to mushroom in popularity. (read Guy Zapoleon commentary on RAIN)

Arbitron Ratings Spring 04 Period 1 Summary (May 26, 2004)

KFMB AM almost doubled its ratings to hit #1 for the first period of three, with smooth jazz KIFM taking #2. KOGO dips to #5.

KIOZ without Stern is actually up...to #10.

KSON loses another 0.1 from the last quater average to #12. Magic loses more of magic at #13. 91X at #14 leap-frogs over FM 94/9 at #16 in the alternative rock wars. KUSS tied at #16 with 94/9.

KOOL is still low at #19 and Planet-FM at #20, a rumor of a format change as it matches the 1.6 it earned in the previous quarter.

#24 is all-sports XPRS-AM, which has the Padres telecasts. Despite the Padres winning record, fewer people are tuning in XPRS overall than the last year's losing Padres on KOGO. Is it really that hard to get XPRS all over the county? Tied for #27 is sports XTRA and KNX, both out of L.A.

The Wires - Nationwide (May 26, 2004)

Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Joseph Clayton told stockholders on Tuesday the company's plans include a video service, wearable radios, and the signing of a top shock jock such as Howard Stern. "Do we want Opie & Anthony? Do we want Mancow? Do we want Howard Stern?" Clayton said, referring to some of the most popular, though controversial, morning radio personalities. "We're talking to all of them." (read Reuters)

Bits and Pieces - San Diego (May 25, 2004)

From Chris Carmichael: Channel 12 in Temecula signs on.

K12PO CA TEMECULA USA

Licensee: CHANNEL 51 OF SAN DIEGO, INC.
Service Designation: TX Translator station

Channel: 12 204 - 210 MHz Licensed
File No.: BLTTV-20040219ACC Facility ID number: 41601
CDBS Application ID No.: 978713

33° 35' 36.00" N Latitude Site in Mexican Border Zone
117° 08' 53.00" W Longitude (NAD 27)

Antfarmer, they have been authorized to move to VHF 12.
I believe the stick is at the same places as 103.3 KGBB and 94.5 KMYT-FM.

UHF 47 is "missing" from the airwaves from my location at 92056.

Also: ABC Radio and others filed a "Reason why the owner of KURS and Spanish Pacific Network should have their license revoked." http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/Bonilla_Revoke_Petition.pdf. It's horribly long and is not in HTML, so if you have the time, download and read.

Thanks to Chris SDRadio.net for posting that one.

Mexican Radio Interfering With U.S. Signals... No, not the Wall Of Voodoo song, but ramped up signals from three stations causing interference problems as far north as Chicago.

Broadcasting & Cable reports that the Mexican government is currently in violation of an 18-year-old treaty with the U.S. by allowing three AM stations to exceed their power by up to 80 times their licensed limit. [The three frequencies involved are AM stations 560, 780, and 920]

The signals are affecting ABC/Disney stations in Los Angeles (KABC 790) and San Francisco (KSFO 560).

The three Mexican signals, located in the cities of Tijuana, Tecate, and Ensenada, are reportedly so strong that listeners of at least a dozen AM stations throughout the West and Midwest can hear Spanish-language programming in the background. Infinity All Newser WBBM/Chicago is the furthest known station affected. Disney estimates about 50 million Americans are affected by the Mexican signal interference. Experts also worry that if the problem is not corrected soon, the interference could affect upcoming all-digital TV signals.

U.S. Ambassador David Gross and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps flew to Mexico City in April to meet with Mexican officials on the issue. Secretary of State Colin Powell has even gotten involved, writing letters to Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Luis Ernesto Derbez.

"The problem is of Mexican creation and they have the tools to solve it," Ambassador Gross says.

Update on New Alpine LPFM 5-25-04!

The Wires - Nationwide (May 25, 2004)

Last fall the FCC approved broadcast flags for digital television, marking a big win for broadcasters. It was only a matter of time before the RIAA would request similar treatment of radio, and according to MindJack, they're already well on their way. Broadcast flags are settings encoded in digital information streams that tell receiving devices what can be done with the stream. For example, a flag could prevent something from being recorded, time-shifted beyond a certain period, or it could modify other access-based policies. Concomitant with such flags is legislation requiring that devices made for sale in the United State be made compliant with the flags. In short, such a move will go a long way towards usherig in a time when it is no longer technically possible to record off of the radio (read ARS Technica)

Are the media starting to overplay the prisoner abuse scandal? Some critics are saying: Enough already! We get it. How many more pictures do we have to see? I don't doubt the ability of the press to overkill any story. But we're learning new information, important information, from the most recent photos, prisoner accounts and investigative reports in The Washington Post, New York Times and other papers. At the beginning, it just looked like some sexual taunting and ritual humiliation, which was bad enough. But now the media are uncovering pictures in which soldiers appear to be hitting the prisoners. Now we know that three prisoners died after interrogation, under circumstances that can only be regarded as suspicious. Now we're hearing about about prisoners forced to denounce Islam or force-fed pork and liquor. Now we're learning that Rummy ordered tough interrogation tactics for the Gitmo detainees and that some of these may have been transferred to Iraq. Now we're discovering that senior officials knew months ago about the Red Cross reports of abuse and did nothing about them (read Howard Kurtz - Media Notes)

As labels stopped issuing CD singles in recent years, the only way for fans to obtain a song being played on the radio in advance of an album release was through peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, Lime Wire and Grokster. Songs arrived on file-swapping services as soon as people could record them from radio and digitize them. "It seemed silly not to give listeners the opportunity to purchase, and for them only to have an opportunity to steal," said Amanda Marks, senior vice president of eLabs at Universal Music Group. Protests from retailers about early downloads have been minimal, she said, in part because some major outlets, like Tower Records, FYE and Wal-Mart, have their own download stores. Even with singles available early at download stores, the vast majority of music traffic online is generated by people downloading free songs (read N Y Times)

It's taken them quite a while, but the broadcasting industry has begun fighting back against the Federal Communications Commission's overly broad indecency campaign. As usual, FCC head Michael Powell has pursued a personal agenda, greatly warping and altering the agency's legitimate role as a media watchdog. Now the conglomerate media seems to have gotten its spine back. Last month a 24-member group of broadcast organizations like Viacom, Fox and the Recording Industry Association of America and artists' unions and free speech advocates filed a petition asking the commission to reconsider the ridiculous ruling that fined NBC for the one-time utterance of U2 lead singer Bono at the Golden Globes  (read Nashville City Paper)

Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein remembers radio's better days - when AM stations' news departments blanketed their communities with reporters and FM disc jockeys actually chose which records to play. "The DJ would go down to the local club and hear the music that was being played," said Adelstein, a Rapid City native. "And if they liked a band, they might throw them on the station the next day." Fast forward to post-1996 America. Looser limits in the 1996 Telecommunications Act have allowed a few giant media conglomerates to gobble up clusters of stations. National computerized playlists determine which songs get airplay, and news operations have been cut to the core, Adelstein says (read Aberdeen American News)

The Wires - Nationwide (May 25, 2004)

Backwaves: The Readers Strike Back! (May 24, 2004)

From Allen Treske: Finally, you and Randy Dotinga are saying what I'm thinking when those sick talk show hosts exploit the death of Nick Berg for their own purposes of ratings gain and monetary rewards. You're telling it like it is: there is simply no excuse to use someone else's suffering in the name of anything other than exploitation. If people want to see or hear this on the Internet, then they should do so on their own time, but if someone on TV and radio wants to shove the Nick Berg execution in front of me against my wishes, then they're going to get an ass whippin when they do so. The teachers showing this in the schools should be fired and banned from teaching forever in the state; they don't know how to educate the kids anyway without using question trickery to fail the students.

I've already heard about it more than I care to in my lifetime. Show the suffering to me again and I'll file a complaint and hope to see you suspended from broadcasting as punishment. Shame on you!

From Linda Neal (letter from the U-T) Laurence's column on the media and the recent killing of Berg sent chills through my spine. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to hear or see this man's or anyone's suffering, and the fact that a local radio yahoo aired his dying moments sickens me.

What if that radio yahoo had a wife or a child who was tortured and someone had a tape of that event? Would he be as compelled to play it in the interest of "putting it in perspective"?

I hope it never comes to that. I'm repelled by people who're working on their ratings and imbed horrific images into the minds of their radio listeners.

To those who went to the Web page to actually see the murder: Shame on all of you.

From Robert James: Thanks for putting 103x on your website. I've discovered music the way it used to sound like before Cheap Channel and 98.9 dumped the dance mix shows in favor of crap rap and boring MTV crooners. I can't believe that many drones in San Diego support this kind of junk by buying what they hear on the radio stations airing this poor idea of music. I can't stand that horrible music that has taken over every niche of this country. It's rap this and rap that. Today's kids must like this boring music. I'm 19 and think it's all overrated junk that has no meaning in my life. Why can't radio play music that sounds like music? Too many Gen-Y tone-deaf music directors running radio have ruined American music for us real music lovers. America is fast becoming the laughing stock of the world by promoting crap instead of real music such as dance, jazz, swing, rock and roll, country-western, and even electronica. Our image as a rap music nation makes me ashamed to be a citizen of the United States today.

From Glen Snow: Listen to torture such as Dave, Shelly, and Chaimsaw? Millions of San Diegans must like to punish themselves for not satisfying their wives the night before by listening to this guy ramble on and on and on and not do anything interesting like play good music or funny political parodies. Heard them for a while on and off, then I got satellite radio and don't bother to tune in morning radio anymore. Nothing's on for me except too many talkers and people trying to be funny with lame stunts and toilet humor. I don't miss it. I don't care for Bob and Tom or Howard Stern either, they just talk too much.

From Sarah (last name withheld:) What happened to Rewire on Saturday nights? It's now just rap sh**. 98.9 LESS-FM is a goner from my preset banks. Thanks for getting rid of the good music, LESS. Your station is just a follower of Z90 and 933 instead of being a leader.

From Jared Knight: I wish someone would come up with an alternative rock station that doesn't play all this emo crap, or is it country? 91 and 94 are playing too much Eagles offspring trying to sound more like a country radio station. 96.9 plays too many songs with the F-word in it. Nobody can do alternative radio right in San Diego anymore. Wonder if KSON is playing punk country today?

The Wires - Nationwide (May 23, 2004)

The Federal Communications Commission has declared a jihad against blue broadcasters. If the FCC's commissioners were sincere in their desire to make the public airwaves less vulgar, they would issue clear, precise, detailed indecency rules to radio and television stations, then duly enforce them. In spite of all the bluster and the millions of dollars in fines being handed down, the FCC still refuses to tell broadcasters like myself what (if anything) we need to do to avoid the wrath of the FCC's "holy war." "You do not want the government to write a red book of what you can say and not say," the FCC chairman, Michael Powell, recently said at a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters. Powell claimed that the ambiguity of its indecency rules gives the FCC the flexibility to consider the context of a questionable utterance. This is absurd. If Governor Mitt Romney announced a crackdown on speeding, then eliminated all speed limits so police officers wouldn't ticket fathers rushing their expectant wives to hospital delivery rooms, the result would be chaos on the roads. So it is in broadcasting where confusion, caution, and uncertainty now govern (read Boston Globe - Scott Allen Miller) read

Even with CD players and iPods, America's teens still listen to the radio. And they tune in even more when the DJs are their own age. Their unwavering devotion has meant that high school radio has managed to survive--even thrive at the margins at the low end of the FM dial. In New Jersey, high school radio epitomizes what is characteristic nationwide. WCVH, out of Hunterdon Central High School, celebrated its 30th anniversary last month. WJSV, based at Morristown High, has been broadcasting since 1971, and West Windsor-Plainsboro High's WWPH has been on the air 28 years. Other stations operate out of Atlantic City, Piscataway and Brick high schools. At 78 watts, WCVH can be heard as far as 20 miles from the school (read Atlanta J-C) read

Delphi Corp. and XM Satellite Radio are introducing the new Delphi XM "Roady2" -- an all new plug-and-play satellite radio receiver at the 2004 Home Entertainment Show in New York this weekend. The Roady2 is on average four times smaller than competing plug-and-play models. The unit also has a built-in wireless FM adapter for easy connection to any car or home radio, a sleek new metallic gunmetal colored body and a choice of seven different backlight colors. Additionally, Roady2 is the first receiver to display up to 20 customized stock quotes (read) read