Category Archives: Radio

Net ad spending to overtake radio in 2008

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Zenith Optimedia Group has revised it’s global ad spending outlook and now predicts the Internet will overtake worldwide outdoor ad spending next year, and will catch up with radio (which will have a 7.9% share, down from 8.5% in 2005) in 2008.

If you’re a radio station manager, you a) do not believe this forecast for one minute; b) think it might be true but have no clue what to do about it; c) don’t care if it’s true or not because you plan to retire in a couple of years anyway. [Radio Business Report]

Cardinals giving away free XM Radios

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The St. Louis Cardinals plan to offer 50,000 fans a free radio that can pick up the broadcasts via XM Radio – which carries all major league games via satellite transmission. The catch is that to get the radio, a six-month subscription for the service must be purchased – and that sells for about $13 a month. The move is being made to try to appease those who have lost access to the broadcasts because of the club’s move from KMOX (1120 AM) to KTRS (550 AM) as its flagship station. KTRS’ signal has a much smaller reach at night, when most of the games are played, than does KMOX. [STL Today via XM Ben]

XM adding seven regional news and talk channels

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“XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. announced a new channel lineup Monday, expanding the number of channels by a dozen, adding several new music and news channels while deleting some others. XM will also add seven regional news and talk channels, bringing its new channel total to 176 from 164. In the fall, XM is also launching a channel with talk show host Oprah Winfrey.” — MercuryNews.com

I remember hearing about the Oprah channel but somehow missed the “regional news and talk channels” item. Uh, I think our company does regional news.

Where did you get the news yesterday?

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Pew_news

Interesting answers to that question in the latest PEW study (PDF). For those of us with broadband, 49% got yesterday’s news from the radio…while 43% got it from the Internet. Will there come a time when more people get the news from the Internet than radio? If so, what does that mean for News/Talk radio? What does that mean for regional news networks like ours? [via Radio Marketing Nexus]

Radio host fired for “racial epithet”

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I don’t know about this one. KTRS (St. Louis) talk show host Dave Lenihan was immediately fired after he used the word “coon,” a racial slur, instead of “coup” in describing (Condoleezza Rice’s) attributes for the post of NFL commissioner.

“She’s been chancellor of Stanford. She’s got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She’s African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that.”

I don’t know about this one. It sounds like a one-time, slip-of-the-tongue. Fruedian? Maybe. But there appears to be no history of bias or racial slurs. Anybody that’s been on the air knows that –eventually– something slips. You have to look at intent here. If Mr. Lenihan is a racist… it’s probably not hard to tell that. Read the transcipt and tell me if I’m wrong here. Why not ask the listeners? Not just the folks that grabbed the phone and called to complain, but a reasonable sample. If there’s a clean concesus that his remark was intentional, he’s gone. If there’s even a possibility it was a slip, with no malice… keep him on. I think I might have taken Mr. Lenihan off the air…had a long talk…maybe talk to members of the community…and then make a decision.

Nobody panics when Rush Limbaugh refers to “these people,” clearly referring to people of color. But Rush is bringing home the bacon. Sounds like Mr. Lenihan was new enough to be expendable.