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The Wires (Feb 20, 2009)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.Randy Dotinga: Longtime KyXy morning host Sonny West is back on the air after suffering a heart attack last month - Every once in a while, a really bad idea just won't go away. Case in point: The boneheaded attempts to revive the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Seattle PI: Broadcast radio still has mammoth headaches -- the collapse of advertising revenue, competition from personal music devices and the Internet, declining listenership among younger audiences -- but as it turned out, satellite radio isn't one of them. So why not? Inside Music Media: Clear Channel is getting ready for phase two of its employee firing scheme. Rumor is -- Friday. If the first one had been code-named Hiroshima, the next one will be Nagasaki -- a detonation that will continue to obliterate radio's talented population. NY Daily News: Conan O'Brien ends 16-year run in New York to take over 'Tonight Show' All Access reports that WILKES COMMUNITY COLLEGE is selling silent noncommercial WSIF/WILKESBORO, NC to ISOTHERMAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE for consideration of $1. The station received permission from the FCC to go dark in MAY 2008 and applied for an extension of that permission in NOVEMBER. The Wires (Feb 18, 2009)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.NY Biz: Sirius XM avoids bankruptcy -- Liberty Media will invest $530 Million in Sirius XM Radio. NY Times: The cellphone is the world’s most ubiquitous computer. The four billion cellphones in use around the globe carry personal information, provide access to the Web and are being used more and more to navigate the real world. And as cellphones change how we live, computer scientists say, they are also changing how we think about information. Inside Music Media: What's going on here? Can we call a spade -- a spade. The one industry that should be helped is webcasting. It is part of the digital future that has real growth written all over it. Meanwhile, Sirius XM needs to be rescued from itself because it cannot pay its debt. Satellite radio settled with the devil earlier over music royalties and by some estimates is paying 7% of revenues to the labels. Believe me, the deal they made earlier with SoundExchange is the least of their problems as satellite radio has never really become a viable business. Kurt Hanson News (Feb 17, 2009)SoundExchange and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have reportedly reached an agreement on webcast royalties for commercial broadcasters' simulcast or Internet-only online streams. The agreement, which applies to 2009-2015, requires broadcasters to pay a "per-performance" fee (a "performance" is one listener hearing one copyright song) of $0.0015 beginning this year . The rate will increase annually to $0.0025 per performance by 2015 . Reports also indicate that NAB has reached agreements with record labels to waive certain statutory format restrictions - allowing, for example, their artists to be played more often than the restrictions contained in the DMCA. Those restrictions make it illegal to stream such programming features as "Triple-Play Thursdays" or "Album Sides Weekend." We're still awaiting word of settlements between SoundExchange and various other webcaster groups, like the Small Commercial Webcasters group, religious broadcasters, and various DiMA members. There's more detail on this -- and of course, we'll continue to monitor the situation and report any new developments, in RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter, at http://www.kurthanson.com/
Radio-Info News (Feb 17, 2009)WSJ: Sirius is "poised" to cut a rescue deal with DirecTV The Wall Street Journal says DirectTV parent Liberty Media would invest several hundred million dollars in Sirius XM - thus averting a possible Chapter 11 filing ahead of Tuesday's $175 million debt payment. Liberty would eventually control about 50% of Sirius XM. The Journal cautions that there's nothing signed yet, but that the two sides are now "in negotiations over the final details." If the deal's announced between a satellite TV company and the only satellite radio operator, it might undergo close scrutiny by the Obama DOJ. Read more at Radio-Info.com
The Wires (Feb 17, 2009)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.Broadcasting and Cable: President Obama Signs June 12 Dtv Conversion Bill. As widely anticipated, President Barack Hussein Obama has signed the bill extending the mandatory analog TV cut-off date from February 17 to June 12. Of course, many of the nation's TV stations have elected to switch early, on February 17, as permitted by the new legislation. Berkeley: Funeral set for analog TV on Feb. 17 at Berkeley, CA. Radio World: Muzak, elevator-music creator, files for bankruptcy. Reuters: Shock jock Howard Stern dismissed the financial troubles plaguing Sirius XM Radio Inc as "growing pains" and said he believes satellite radio will be a successful business. NY Times: A movement is afoot by chip makers big and small to spur a new generation of TVs with full browser capability, like a personal computer. In October, Intel released its own TV-centric chip, and many other semiconductor designers and manufacturers are doing the same, industry analysts said. But perhaps the most surprising thing is not how long it is taking to get the Internet on TV but that, to some degree, that slow pace is deliberate. Television manufacturers simply do not seem to want it Top 5 Headlines of the Week (Feb 9-15, 2009)5. Valentine's Day was Saturday. Nothing in it for me.4. Friday the 13th. Need I say more? 3. No number 3. Nobody I talked to cared about last Sunday's Grammy awards! 2. Sirius XM Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy 1. Cold and Rain in San Diego. Yucch! But we need it!
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