Radio Wires (Dec 11, 2010)

TV Technology: FCC to Take Up Retransmission Reform. NPRM expected in first quarter of 2011.

TV Technology: Rediscovering Off-Air Television. There is increasing evidence that the number of people using off-air TV has stopped declining and is now increasing.

Radio World: Coleman Asks: Whither Streaming? A recent study of Internet audio stream listeners, "Successful Audio Streaming Strategies," completed by media research firm Coleman Insights, had a number of interesting takes for radio broadcasters.

December 9 was indeed the date for some Clear Channel back-office layoffs. TRI wrote about this in November, that Clear Channel has decided to take a big step toward using a hub-and-spoke approach for business support services. Yesterday I heard from two regions of the country, where TRI readers said "Well, it happened." In one Midwest market, a traffic job was cut on Wednesday and two more happened yesterday, including an engineering position and somebody working in HR/payroll - just the kind of job CC believes can be consolidated to save money. In the East, at least one business manager and some other support folks were sidewalked. While a poster on the San Diego Board at Radio-Info.com says "At least five folks in the accounting and office area were shown the door today." In a separate initiative, TRI has told you that there's an effort to go even more hub-and-spoke with news, perhaps closing some hubs and enlarging others. The net effect would a shrinkage of the companywide news force by perhaps 40 or more bodies. (This is the case where somebody goofed and left the PowerPoint up on the Clear Channel Exchange intranet for most of a day.) That may be phased in through January. Year-end brings unpleasant decisions to companies, and Clear Channel, as the biggest and the one with perhaps the heaviest debt load, has more of those decisions than anyone.

Howard Stern's new five-year deal equals $2,008 a minute, says the Daily Beast. Peter Lauria reports that two people "close to the situation" say Stern's getting $80 million a year in cash. Lauria works the math from there - "after accounting for Stern's eight weeks of vacation and 10 standard federal holidays, the shock jock will only be working 498 hours per year." There's also the possibility that Stern, like the Tonight Show's Johnny Carson in his later years, won't work as many days. Lauria says Stern doesn't keep all the $80 million, but that perhaps $20 million goes to "production costs for the show and staff salaries." So Howard's seeing more like $60 million a year. Just looking at on-air time, that's $120,482 per hour and $2,008 a minute. Not bad. Sirius XM will eventually need to disclose at least some outline of the deal, since it qualifies under SEC rules as a "material event." Analyst Barton Crockett of Lazard Capital, quoted by CNN, says that historically, Sirius XM has been spending $350 million annually on programming costs. Stern's about one-quarter of the entire budget. Many folks seem to think that his new deal is similar to the expiring one in terms of cash - about $80 million. But that it doesn't include the additional stock that Sirius paid him in the deal which took effect in January 2006. Speaking of stock - Sirius XM ("SIRI") finished up about 6% yesterday at $1.39, presumably on the Stern renewal. Check the Daily Beast story here.

Gary Lycan: KKGO/105.1 FM "Go Country" has Ginny Harmon now hosting the 6-10 a.m. weekday program along with Ashley Paige, who does traffic and also a Classic Country show at 8 a.m. Sundays + Jay Leno is a fan of Phil Hendrie and he called in to Hendrie's 7-10 p.m. Saturday show on KFI 640 AM to talk about rail service - and that so-called "train to nowhere".

Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton has inked a new two-year contract extension to continue at Sports XEPRS-A (XX 1090)/SAN DIEGO. The 'SAW, in his 24th year covering SAN DIEGO sports on the radio, currently hosts 10a-2p on XX 1090. He also continues to write about sports at SANDIEGO.COM and has been hosting weekend shows on XM SATELLITE RADIO's MLB RADIO as well as handling football play-by-play for COMPASS MEDIA NETWORKS.

Other Wires (Dec 11, 2010)

Twice: FLO TV: Consumers Get Money Back. FLO TV has begun offering a rebate to cover the full purchase price, excluding taxes and shipping, of FLO TV products that receive the company's consumer-direct service. In October, FLO TV announced it would shut off its direct-to-consumer service because of the slow adoption pace and the high cost of marketing, customer service, product development and customer acquisition.

Multichannel News: Baker to FCC: Publish Net Neutrality Draft ASAP. Federal Communications Commission commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker called on the agency to immediately make public the chairman's draft of proposed network neutrality rules. A senior FCC official countered that the issue has been thoroughly vetted and it is time to "move forward.

Radio Wires (Dec 10, 2010)

TV Technology: Rediscovering Off-Air Television. There is increasing evidence that the number of people using off-air TV has stopped declining and is now increasing.

Multichannel News: FCC To Issue Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking On Retrans. The Federal Communications Commission plans to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on retransmission-consent negotiations, according to sources inside and outside the agency

Multichannel News: Fox News Channel Seeking Higher Fees: Carey. News Corp. is looking to increase subscriber fees for Fox News Channel in a new round of negotiations with distributors

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: 'Pony Exce$$', 'Lombardi' spice up Saturday night viewing. Saturday is the worst night of the week for prime-time television, nothing but reruns and cooking shows. This Saturday is a little different, though, with a pair of sports-related programs on the bill. The last of ESPN's "30 for 30" series -- "Pony Exce$$" -- airs at 6 p.m. following the Heisman Trophy presentation on the network. ESPN has the Heisman Trophy presentation at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Coleman Study: Almost Half Of Streaming Audio Listeners Don't Use Over-The-Air Broadcasts.

Other Wires (Dec 10, 2010)

Multichannel News: Kerry Won't Proceed With Retrans Legislation. Senator Backs Away In Deference To FCC's Proposed Rulemaking

FCC Daily Digest Dec 1: Topics cover opening TV spectrum to new wireless broadband services, an upcoming "Open Internet" proceeding, and more.

Time Wrner Cable unveils a new product that we won't announce here because it's a thinly disguised advertisement.

Long Island Business News: FCC exploring role in TV programming disputes - Broadcasters have been demanding more for their signals as advertising revenue has dropped off.

Radio Wires (Dec 9, 2010)

Multichannel News: Patriots Shoot Down Jets Before 16.5 Million MNF Viewers

TV Technology: New 3D Backward-compatible Broadcast DTV System Launched. Compatibility for regular 2D sets allows broadcasters to transmit to both 2D and 3D users without having to double the amount of bandwidth required for transmissions.

Inside Radio: Talk turns to new wave of consolidation. For now it’s just two offers and a pair of “no thank yous.” But speculation that Citadel and Cumulus could merge has many wondering whether the long-predicted second wave of industry consolidation may be about to arrive. Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey’s hunt for a deal to buy Citadel Broadcasting may have only just begun. While not confirming reports his company has made two separate offers to acquire Citadel, Dickey says similar types of deal speculations suggest one month of negotiations rarely brings a finale. Does that mean another offer is coming?

Radio World Online: ‘Radio Over IP’? Internews Taps Cell Network.

Howard Stern throws a tantrum about not taking a “[blankety-blank] pay cut.” Things are getting tense at the McGraw Hill Building, where Stern reacted to Monday’s UBS Media Conference quote from Sirius XM about having to possibly accept a pay cut to renew his deal – and he did a half-hour harangue at the start of yesterday's show. You can guess that Stern didn’t stick around very long after the show. He’s only got a few more live programs to do, under the five-year $500 million deal he signed in Fall 2004. Just a quick history lesson, about what happened at least once during Stern’s time with Infinity radio. He split for his normal late-December vacation without signing a renewal contract. That might happen again this time with Sirius XM. Stern agent Don Buchwald’s like an aggressive sports agent, willing to hold out his guy for the maximum leverage. Right now, Howard’s being pretty aggressive himself when he says “I’m not taking an f-ing pay cut.”

Don’t forget Bubba the Love Sponge, amid the Stern melodrama. It’s not that Bubba’s automatically going where Stern does, post-Sirius-wise. And Bubba’s already got a steady day job with a morning show syndication effort based at Cox Radio’s Tampa operation. But it appears that Bubba’s contract with Sirius XM expires around the time Stern’s does. And if there’s no Howard channel on Sirius XM, Bubba’s status will change in some fashion.

Randy Dotinga: Question time in radio column land. It's that time again, when the illustrious but humble North County Times radio columnist takes a look at queries from readers along with questions he just made up. As always, the answers are real.

Other Wires (Dec 9, 2010)

Multichannel News: Smit: Comcast Won't Impose Usage Charges.

Multichannel News: Comcast Agrees To Online Access Condition For Unaffiliated Nets

TV Technology: Congress Pushes for Conditions on Comcast-NBC Merger. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman details conditions in letter to FCC chairman.

Multichannel News: FCC To Issue Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking On Retrans. The FCC plans to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on retransmission-consent negotiations, according to sources inside and outside the agency.

Rolling Stone: John Lennon's Last Days -- Audio clips from Jonathan Cott's 1980 interview with Lennon, plus video, photos, playlists and more.

Jacobs Media: The Internet has taken its toll over the last 15-odd years on all sorts of businesses, saving companies money, but also changing the nature of jobs, industries, and efficiencies. And smartphones are in the process of doing the very same thing.

Radio Wires (Dec 8, 2010)

Other Wires (Dec 8, 2010)

RAIN 12/7: RAIN reviews CBS Radio's just-released Radio.com iPhone app. CBS Radio yesterday announced the launch of its brand-new Radio.com iPhone app, and we've already reviewed it for today's issue! RAIN associate editor Michael Schmitt writes, "the app organizes its stations nicely by genre and location, in addition to 'favorites' and 'history' tabs. But unfortunately Radio.com does not offer search. Besides that, Radio.com is an enjoyable, easy-to-use app... on the same level as Clear Channel's iHeartRadio."

Radio Wires (Dec 7, 2010)

RAIN 12/6: ISPs charging content networks for traffic could set dangerous precedent for Net radio. In a story that's captured headlines for days, Comcast allegedly demanded additional fees from Level-3, a content distribution network and exclusive U.S. provider for Netflix. While the story primarily concerns bandwidth-hogging video, a new article from Radio Survivor ponders possible implications for Internet radio. "A victory for Comcast in this matter might cause the company to start looking to hit up services like Pandora or Last.fm."

Mobile music listening keeps growing. The number of Americans who say they've listened to music on their smartphone continued to grow during the third quarter. ComScore says 15.4% of mobile subscribers report listening to streaming radio or downloaded music, up from 14.5% in the second quarter

Harker Research: "So can we call Internet radio mainstream yet?" The question, recently posed by an internet radio supporter, is an interesting one. Has internet radio become mainstream? Maybe one day, but it looks a long ways off.

Star Telegram: Dallas Cowboys legend and ABC Monday Night Football star Don Meredith dies at 72.

Major League Programs: In addition to soaring TV ratings for live sports events, sports radio stations have generally increased their collective audiences over the past few weeks as well. Maybe it really is each feeding off the other.

CBS RADIO Alternative KROQ/LOS ANGELES moves "LOVELINE" from 12-2a back to its original time slot of 10p-mid.

Other Wires (Dec 7, 2010)

Multichannel News: Viacom: YouTube Ruling Protects Content Thieves. Viacom filed an opening brief Friday in its appeal of a federal judge's June decision that Google and YouTube are protected from the media company's copyright-infringement claims by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, arguing that if upheld it would "immunize from copyright infringement liability even avowedly piratical Internet businesses."

Chicago Tribune: When Cubs radio analyst Ron Santo died Friday at age 70, it triggered a memory of an old "Seinfeld" rerun.

Fast Company: Facebook rolled out a series of enhancements to the user Profile page on Sunday that seemed design to increase "signal" in what has become an increasingly noisy environment. Until now, the Profile has included basic information about a user.