Would You Give This Candidate Free Airtime?

10-21-14

This plea for free airtime comes from Republican incumbent Clayton Fiscus who says because his opponent John Pulasky reads the weather on KATL-AM in Miles City, he deserves an equal amount of time from the station to campaign. KATL station manager Donald Richard told the Billings Gazette it's not going to happen. "It might be possible to receive faint audio of KATL 770 AM?s signal in Billings, but Billings isn?t part of the area in which KATL provides ?city-grade? service, neither is the legislative district for which Fiscus and Pulasky are competing. If you look at the line, what we consider our city-grade line, we?re 30 miles, 40 miles from Billings. The FCC sets up protections for radio stations.? The Gazette reports Fiscus cost Pulasky his job at Northern Broadcasting five months earlier, where he did the weather for 24 years.

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If This Was Your Station, What Would You Do?

4-16-14

Hartford Courant reporter David Owens took to his Facebook page to complain about Angela Dias of WTIC-AM in Hartford, who Owens claims was reading his news stories on the air without giving any attribution. "Imagine my surprise (not really) to hear Angela Dias of WTIC radio reading my story to me this morning and not giving The Hartford Courant credit. She also read another story I wrote, again without attribution, about an awful assault on a baby in Hartford." Owens has a much bigger concern, that broadcasters steal from newspapers. Do you?

Owens went on in his post. "People love to put down newspapers and newspaper reporters. They say we're dying, and that they get their news on the Internet. Folks, here's the deal: Newspaper reporters continue to do the heavy lifting of daily journalism. We do most of the digging and most of the reporting of original information. And our competitors on the electronic side rob us blind. Cut out the middle man. Read the newspaper. It will be good for both of us."

Responding to some of his readers, Owens also posted what he called a standard disclaimer. "There are many WONDERFUL TV and radio reporters and they know who they are. They do good original work every day. But the broadcast news business has a dirty secret. It steals A LOT from newspapers and does not give credit. I've called their news director in the past. It obviously didn't do any good. They don't seem to care."

As of late lat night we could not reach anyone for comment at WTIC in Hartford.

(4/17/2014 4:21:19 AM)
Exactly as Ronald says - send them an invoice. (Show an 'attributed' rate and the 'non-attributed' rate).
(4/16/2014 7:23:44 PM)
Send her an invoice. That always gets my attention.

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Pandora Would Be Number 17, Not Number One

2-21-14

Clear Channel says there are now 43 million registered iHeartRadio, an increase of 84% from the end of 2012. Without specifying how many listener hours iHeartRadio had, the company reported total listening hours were up 29% over 2013, with approximately 300 million downloads and upgrades. Mobile represented 54% of iHeartRadio total listening hours during the fourth quarter of 2013.

Earlier this month Pandora reported 1.58 billion listener hours for January. Pandora also reported it was approaching 9% of total radio listening, which Clear Channel CFO Richard Bressler said is impossible if you just do the math, and don't take Pandora's word for it. Pandora self-reports that number.

Bressler said comparing Pandora to radio is not comparing apples to apples: "They claim to be number one station in some radio markets. It's statistically impossible. Today, less than 40% of people stream their music. Radio makes up 92% of listening according to Nielsen. That leaves all other digital providers 8%. It's mathematically impossible for them to be number one in any market. If you added up all the Pandora streams in New York, they would be around number 17."

Bressler said, "We [Clear Channel' are radio first. Pandora is a playlist, a feature. With 3,000 salespeople, he said, "We have not seen any impact on sales from Pandora."

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What Would You do if This Happened at Your Station?

8-14-13

It's day two of the Shane Spencer fallout for Sports Talker WTMM in upstate New York and this one could prove to be an interesting case study for stations all across the country. With programming staffs being slashed, how prepared are your local jocks and talkers at preventing fake callers from getting on the air and doing serious damage by telling lies? That's exactly what WTMM and host Mike Lindsley are dealing with today.

Somehow a caller pretending to be Spencer got on the air and confessed to taking steroids while playing for the Yankees. Steroids are the hottest negative topic in Major League Baseball today. The problem, which Lindsley discovered 30 minutes later, is the caller was a fake, but the information was already out there, and Spencer caught wind of it. Obviously he was outraged. As Spencer works to get his reputation back, Townsquare Media is trying to track down the man who hoaxed WTMM. Albany Times Union Sports Media columnist Pete Dougherty is putting the pressure on. He wants the station to take responsibility and what he says he's hearing is silence.

On his show, according to Dougherty's column, Lindsley said, ?It was under our understanding that an interview was scheduled. And it was. We came to the conclusion around 1:32 or 3 that Shane Spencer was going to be unable to do this interview, and a rescheduling of the interview was going to happen. At 2 o?clock we received a hoax call from someone who claimed that he was Shane Spencer. It was a complete dupe on us. It was a complete dupe and hoax on Shane Spencer. It?s completely unacceptable. This is bad for baseball, it?s bad for us, it?s bad in general. It does nobody any favor by having a hoax person saying they are Shane Spencer.?

Dougherty doesn't really accept what Lindsley said and wants more from him and the station. He asks, "Didn't Lindsley get suspicious at some of the answers he was hearing from the fake Spencer, who admitted steroid use? Did the fake Spencer use the private number, which usually is given to call-in guests, or was it on the public line? Did Lindsley tell his audience that Spencer hadn?t called in, perhaps giving the prankster an opening to pull off this stunt?  Stephen Giuttari, the operations manager at WTMM, also has not returned calls from yesterday and today, although he did send an interesting email at 1:41 a.m. ? that?s past my bedtime ? with the subject heading, ?Pete ? we wanted you to have this immediately ? we did an interview with Shane Spencer about 3? hours ago.?
Well, so much for immediacy. In the meantime, the audience deserves more answers than what WTMM is giving."

Read Doughterty's full column HERE
If this happened at your station how would you handle it?

(8/15/2013 12:18:14 PM)
A tough call for many a radio station. What to do?

I hear this in market after market on a more frequent basis than I care too in large, medium, small and micro-markets.

Part of it is "laziness" -- the other part is "economic" -- the last part is "common sense."

1. Do you know how many stations from all over the country fly by the seat of their pants with no delay? Way too many. Not having call screeners is bad enough, but not having a delay for those "F-Bomb attacks" and fake calls such as this is just plain dumb.

2. Never have a guest call in. Always extend the courtesy to call the guest or his/her agent, whatever. Won't do? Blow off the interview. Nothing beats an embarrassing situation like this one. Nothing is that important to put your station in litigation. Won't give a phone number due to "lack of spontanaity"? Get over yourselves and make it happen in pre-planning. It won't stop it completely, but it lessens the odds in your favor.

3. Do your homework. "Show prep" is important. Be prepared. Yes, it takes times and expense of time. Nothing beats doing it right. That's not a Fisher-Price Telephone you're using -- it's a potential lethal weapon. You have enough problems with regular callers pranking, let alone special guests. Concentrate on all of it and be prepared.

4. Nothing beats "being first" than "being right." Ask the people at Cox / KTVU about that with the plane crash incident and fallout weeks after the fact in San Francisco. They can help you learn a most valuable lesson. Watch it on YouTube.

5. Know, if you can afford a call screener, that they are qualified and not just playing radio screener or producer. It only takes one eff-up like this to make fools of everyone. No matter how "cutting edge" you may be on-air, remember -- the consequences still rest with you for your laziness or pressing the envelope too far. It doesn't have to take away from your spontanaity to be prepared.

6. Book good guests. Shane Spencer?

(8/15/2013 8:31:38 AM)
The hypocrisy here is hysterical - the "not funny" kind.
Jocks all over the country have always been making phone calls pretending to be somebody else. And we all know where that can go.

This is the nature of real-time broadcasting. If somebody's bonafides are in question, is the on-air personality going to dump the call - just in case?

I mean, all kinds of things and people get smuggled through customs. S**t happens. Next.

(8/15/2013 7:06:07 AM)
Who was the call screener? Why wasn't more time put into researching the caller? It's like asking someone with a fake ID what year they were born. Before that caller hit the air... the call screener should have put them through a test of experience. If there was doubt. It should have been a signal to leave them out.

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Would Rick Buckley Have Sold WOR?

8-13-2012

When we asked Buckley CEO Joseph Bilotta if he thought Rick Buckley would ever sell WOR, he said he's asked himself that question 365 times over the last 365 days. Rick Buckley died unexpectedly just about one year ago (July 31, 2011) after suffering a brain embolism on Long Island. On Monday, it was announced that the call letters so closely associated with the Buckley brand would soon become property of Clear Channel.

Bilotta told Radio Ink, "Rick always said to me you never get possessed by a possession." Bilotta says the deal to sell WOR to Clear Channel was approved by the Buckley family and the board of directors and they were unanimous that they wanted to sell it to Clear Channel.

Bilotta said the price was fair and he handled the negotiations directly with Clear Channel's John Hogan. There was never a broker. Billotta says he and the late Rick Buckley walked into the station 23 years ago and wound up buying the station for $22.5 million. "We bought it and had one hell of a run. We did very well." Bilotta spoke about the specific challenges the small company faced. "In 1996, when everyone started building up and we didn't have the resources, we survived. When 9/11 hit, that had an impact on the economy and we survived. Then the downturn in 2008, we survived."

Billota also said this was a one-off deal and there is not discussion about shedding other Buckley Broadcasting assets. He was calling all his managers Monday afternoon to assure them that was the case. Clear Channel will start LMA'ing the station on Wednesday. Bilotta says Clear Channel has told him that it will be business as usual at the station and they are behind the spoken word format.

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Smulyan: "We Would Have Done The Talk Format if We Could."

As the sale of three stations to Emmis became official, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan told Radio Ink he wanted to flip to talk years ago. "It's always hard to be a seller. If you love this business, it's hard to sell. The fact we could keep a significant interest is helpful. We love the idea of this format. If our capital structure had been different we would have done that format a while ago. We believe in the format. We believe in Randy and Walter's ability to execute it, we have no doubt about it."

The sale of  WKQX-FM (Chicago), WLUP-FM (Chicago) and WRXP-FM (NY) from Emmis to Merlin Media (GTCR and Randy Michaels) is now official. Emmis gets about $120 million in cash from the sale of the stations, net of transaction expenses, and owns $28.7 million of preferred equity and 20.6% of the common equity interests in Merlin Media. The net cash proceeds were used to repay approximately 38% of the company's term loans under its senior credit facility.  Merlin has been in LMA mode since July 15, 2011. 

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Would You Like A Cigar With Your Cool Tunes?

Do you like cigars? If you do you are in a club of cigar smokers that includes Michael Jordon, Rush Limbaugh, Gordon Gecko and Arnold the Governator. Pictures of these high profile stars are featured on www.thecigarstation.com, an Internet radio stations programmed for cigar smokers and "lovers of good life." The site was created by Ken Anthony Moniz, President of Radio Think Tank and Jim Robinson, President of Radio Brandcasting who, we're guessing, also smoke cigars. Moniz and Robinson have over 60 years of radio industry experience.

The live stream of music features a mix of Classic Rock, Smooth Jazz, Blues, Acoustic and Lounge genres. Moniz and Robinson say "all the music on The Cigar Station has been carefully hand-selected to fit the cigar smoker?s lifestyle." The site also features daily cigar content including Cigar History, Tips and Tales, Cigar Industry News, Cigar Reviews and Interviews with Famous Cigar Smoking characters from around the world.

Visit the site at www.thecigarstation.com
and on Facebook

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