Don't Forget To 'Spring Ahead' This Sunday (March 7, 2009)

Unless you enjoy being teased -- or late for your airshift -- mark this Sunday, March 8th on your calendar so you don't forget to change your clocks the night before.

March 8th marks the beginning of Daylight Saving Time.

The SPRING/FALL time change began during World War I, put into effect to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April And October. It was reinstituted during World War II for the same reason. It's now begun four weeks earlier.

Time officially changes at 2am., the hour chosen because it seemed least interruptive to schedules.

Older VCRs will have to be manually adjusted to Daylight time by switching them from AUTO to MANUAL time modes.

Saturday, the 1pm Mountain Time Cactus League games air at 12pm in San Diego and Mexico on the radio stations that carry the Padres. Sunday, when DST takes effect, the games will start at 2pm Mountain Time, but 1pm in Arizona since they don't do DST. Tijuana will stay on Standard time so the games will be at 12pm. San Diego and the rest of the West Coast will have the games start at 1pm. Sonora, south of Arizona, doesn't do DST so that it can keep in sync with Arizona year round.

The Wires (March 7, 2009)

Gary Lycan: "KABC is the only real talk station left," Tim Conway, Jr. said Wednesday night as the former KLSX-FM talk host settled in to replace Al Rantel while the latter recovers from hip replacement surgery

The Nielsen Company: More than 20% of people over age 12 in the Lexington, KY market use cell phones as their sole form of telecommunications and listen to substantially more radio than homes with landlines, The Nielsen Company found in a pilot study of radio use in Lexington, KY. Using Address Based Sampling for sample recruiting Nielsen was able to identify and gain cooperation of these listeners to form a single sample that for the first time truly represents the full market (read more - The Nielsen Company)

Hear 2.0: Broadcasters still seem to feel their biggest competitive threat is each other. It's not. Instead, it's the ever-growing category called "other." "Other" is where the advertising dollars are headed (to the degree that they're heading anywhere but back in the pockets of our clients). "Other" is not and never will be recorded by Arbitron ratings, which is why the importance of ratings in general and Arbitron in particular will decline over time

The Wires (March 6, 2009)

All Access: Citadel Closes At 1 Cent; Most Radio Stocks Fall. CITADEL now has a total market cap of just $2.70 million.

Inside Radio: In its second round of downsizing, Emmis laid-off 7.5% of its workforce today. That includes 91 fulltime and 14 part-time positions across all divisions. The company says the "turbulent economy" is to blame. Employees get "generous" severance packages.

Tom Taylor of radio-info: Some laid-off Clear Channel staffers still haven’t gotten their personal stuff back. One emails T-R-I to say that “some employees laid off on Black Tuesday [January 20] are having difficulty getting their personal possessions. We are told they will be mailed or messengered to us. But Clear Channel will assume no liability if anything is missing or damaged." This person says "In my market, we were not allowed to take anything out with us” on the day the firings occurred. That phrase “in my market” is really important to this story, since I’ve heard a wide range of variations at the local level. In some cases, there were horror stories about cold treatment at the termination interview and a brisk escort out of the building. But in other places, there were reports of hugs and goodbyes, with people allowed to pack up their offices on that day, or to come back over the weekend.

The Wires (Mar 5, 2009)

NY Daily News: Jimmy Fallon took NBC's late-night slot for his first test drive Monday, and it needs a little tuning up - On the brighter side, Fallon's rather traditional opening monologue wasn't bad, especially the line about U.S. troops in Iraq telling Obama they'll just stay there because "the economy is better" (read more - David Hinckley - NY Daily News)

Inside Radio: Rush to Obama: "Debate me." Premiere Radio Networks could end up with a ratings bonanza if President Obama accepts Rush Limbaugh's offer today to debate his policies on the air. By way of his radio show, Limbaugh told Obama, "We can question each other in a real debate." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs calls the idea "counterproductive," and told reporters he doesn’t own a radio.

ZDNet: Glary Registry Repair 3. Problems with the Windows registry are a common cause of Windows crashes and error messages. Glarysoft Registry Repair allows you to fix your registry and optimize your PCs performance with a few simple mouse clicks. License: Free. Platform: Windows.

Tom Taylor of radio-info.com: But Clear Channel did not quite “lose $5 billion” last quarter. That was one headline wafting around the Internet yesterday. Another story said the company had lost $4 billion. Truth is, CC is still profitable on an operating basis, more than most U.S. businesses. It did take a $1.7 billion impairment charge on the value of its radio licenses and outdoor permits. And it recorded twice that amount - $3.6 billion – as a writedown on its goodwill. Those are non-cash paper charges. Plainly put, that means the company is already worth billions less than Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners paid for it, just last Summer. You can expect another kind of charge when San Antonio reports this current quarter of January-March – severance expenses from the January 20 mass layoffs. Even for last year’s Q4, it reports $52.5 million worth of severance expenses in radio.

Radio-Info: Gores buys Westwood One. The Gores Group is pumping millions into Westwood One as it buys stock and helps the company refinance $241 million in debt. Gores essentially buys Westwood One, as it takes a 73% stake in the company. If the restructuring is approved by regulators, current stockholders' stake will fall to less than 3%.

Top Five Headlines of the Week (Feb 23-Mar 1, 2009)

4. Mahoney Pink Slipped at 91X.

3. No number 3. Still can't get KFMB and KGTV's digital channels at my house without an antenna.

2. Equimas Shopping Season Began on Feb 27.

1. Heatwave in February in San Diego? Huh?

The Wires (Mar 4, 2009)

The Roger Hedgecock Show starts this week on KXL, Portland (M-F, 10p-Midnight) and KDOX, Las Vegas (M-F, 3p-6p)

Tijuana Channel Has Free HBO Boxing? (March 3, 2009)

They're on Televisa XEWT-TV/DT (from Galavisi=n) and on Tv Azteca XHTIT-TV/DT (from Azteca 7)

But you need to check listings because not every saturday broadcasts boxing and they focus more on matches involving mexican boxers.

Stay Tuned Items (March 3, 2009)

Will 91X get a new morning show partner?

Will we get to hear the regular season Padres on Walrus 105.7 FM this year?

Could Clear Channel radio be thinking about radiothons for itself?

Would Hilary, a midday 94/9 jock, stop making that awful tsk sound every time she talks? It's sloppy and unprofessional. It's so annoying that it makes me flip to Jack!

Didja Hear? (March 3, 2009)

Idea for The San Diego Chargers (March 3, 2009)

The Wires (March 3, 2009)

L.A. Times: Now known as 97.1 Amp Radio, CBS describes the station as an "on-air, online, on-site and mobile audio destination." It plays music by artists such as Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Ne-Yo. DJs have not yet been hired; for a while at least, the music will play itself. If you're wondering what I'm wondering, like a) what is a "mobile audio destination"? and b) how can you have a radio station without disc jockeys?, you are the reason CBS made this format change. You, and I, are officially old.

Canada: Human voices are a big part of why I don't listen to commercial radio (its corporate playlist being the other), and choose Internet radio instead. While I realize the strength of having a great DJ, they are so rare that I'm perfectly happy having uninterrupted streams of music spat at me by jukebox software. Once wireless Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, Internet radio and its hundreds of niche stations will become the behemoth satellite radio purported to be.

Seattle Times: Local radio took a big hit with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That piece of legislation allowed for massive consolidation of radio. The result was that most towns were left with a couple big conglomerates owning most everything transmitted over the airwaves. Congress can help give radio back to listeners by dedicating these unused airwaves to local producers. The new voices can only strengthen communities.

Inside Music Media: Broadcasting moved away from the wisdom that gave Paul Harvey longevity in a business that increasingly makes it difficult to survive. There are many appreciations of this great man being done this morning -- one seemingly more impressive than the next -- but I want to make different point. One of my readers emailed me over the weekend to say, "At least he won't be fired because of too much talent, too much money, too many listeners (the three seem to go together) as so many other of our Radio brothers and sisters have recently been".

All Access reports that CC Media Holdings Posts $5 Billion Loss.