ABA E-NEWS
January 17, 2006 Issue #06-03
For Sale By Owner...
(From cnnmoney.com)
NBCU Selling Four Small-Market TV Stations
Katy Bachman
JANUARY 11, 2006 Looking to refine its station portfolio, NBC Universal has put four of its
smallest-market TV stations up for sale. The sale could bring in an estimated
$600 million.
The four owned-and-operated NBC stations put on the block this week are:
WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio; WJAR-TV in Providence, R. I.; WNCN-TV in
Raleigh, N.C. and WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Ala. Combined, the stations
reach 2.9 percent of total U.S. TV households.
The sale, which would leave NBCU with 10 owned-and-operated NBC
stations, is part of a broader strategy at the TV group to focus on larger
markets, seek out duopoly opportunities and acquire stations in the fastestgrowing Hispanic markets. Last year, the group purchased KBLR, the
Telemundo affiliate in Las Vegas from Summit Media Limited Partnership,
giving NBC its 15th O&O Telemundo station.
In Phoenix, the group is swapping signals to put its Telemundo station on a
stronger signal.
"And the survey says...."
The NAB's community service survey was mailed to all
commercial television and radio stations across the
country recently. We know that 2005 was a year of exceptional
giving for our industry. The NAB is documenting that in the
state and national community service reports which will be
released in June. In addition to the census, public service
stories are gathered through interviewing stations about their
community involvement.
As in the past, NAB is available to interview stations about their
community service work. If you would like to talk to the NAB
directly, please respond to the ABA (stinsley@al-ba.com)
immediately. They would like to begin the interview process as
soon as possible.
Otherwise, information you provide in the survey you received
or information you provide to the ABA will be used in
the National Report. Below is a list of questions about your
community service. Please assign someone on your staff to
respond in writing to these questions or let us know you want to
be interviewed over the phone by the ABA or the NAB.
Questions about your public service:
1. Tell me about your station’s top three public service initiatives in
calendar year 2005 (include only non-paid campaigns).
2. Which organizations were the beneficiaries of these initiatives?
3. What was the result in terms of money raised, food collected, pints
of blood donated, etc?
4. Were the activities on-air, off-air or both?
5. Did your station receive any awards for these public service
efforts?
Questions about crisis/disaster situations:
1. Were there any local or regional disasters or crises that your station
responded to—including weather situations, fires, etc.? What did
you do?
2. Do you have any extraordinary stories of broadcaster heroism
from the disaster or crisis?
3. Did your station participate in relief and recovery efforts connected
to the 2005 hurricane season? What did you do?
Questions about recognition of public service:
1. Are you willing to share any illustrative audio or video about your
efforts, photos, testimonials, etc?
2. Could you provide the names and contact information of
community leaders and/or beneficiaries of your station’s public
service that we could use for follow-up interviews?
Also from the NAB...BROADCAST LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
DIGITAL TELEVISION
The Budget Reconciliation bill includes DTV provisions, including a
February 2009 hard date, that were supported by NAB. The Senate
passed that legislation, however, Senate Democrats raised a “point of
order” on a non-broadcast policy issue. That parliamentary maneuver
slightly altered the legislation from the previously House-passed
measure, thereby requiring the House to revisit the bill. By all
accounts, the House will likely pass the legislation.
The Senate Commerce Committee and House Commerce Committee
will begin examining DTV cable carriage issues this year.
Broadcasters support a multicast must-carry rule and properly crafted
cable “down conversion” provisions that do not penalize broadcasters
or consumers.
SATELLITE RADIO
95 House Members have cosponsored H.R. 998, legislation aimed at
keeping satellite to the terms of its national-only licenses.
BROADCAST FLAG
HD-Radio continues to offer the radio industry a promising answer to satellite
and other digital competitors. Congress may get involved in this matter as it
considers legislating a radio “broadcast flag” to prevent digital piracy.
Broadcasters will work with Congress to prevent digital copy protection
proposals from being overly broad and slowing the HD Radio rollout.
VIDEO OVER BROADBAND
The House and Senate will seek legislation to enable the Bells to enter
the video market. The accelerated deployment of Video Over
Broadband will provide much needed competition to the cable
monopolies and broadcasters are therefore generally supportive of this
advancement. However, the new video market entrants should be
governed by the same rules as cable operators when it comes to their
relationship with broadcasters.
Specifically, Congress should ensure that the mustcarry/retransmission consent regime applies to the new Bell video
providers. Congress should also craft legislation that respects network
non-duplication and syndicated program exclusivity rights.
Establishing this type of framework will ensure that local television
broadcasting remains vibrant in the Internet video age.
Welcome to Craig Marrs who will be the new General Manager at
WHNT-TV. He's scheduled to be on board at the end of January.
NCSA NEWS: SHORTER ARMY NATIONAL GUARD RADIO SPOTS
AVAILABLE ON ABA WEBSITE...
Thanks to the kind folks at Citadel in Tuscaloosa (Gigi South) and the folks at
Qantum of Auburn (Jim Powell, Bill Morgan), we have additional Army
National Guard spots. Sgt. Ricky Matthews and Sgt. Mit Rice who appear in
the TV spots are now featured in our own radio spots. Ricky went to the
Citadel studios and Mit worked with Qantum to cut what was previously
provided as "live reads" on our website. As you might recall, the Guard only
sent a produced :60. As of tomorrow morning (1/18), you can go to www.alba.com and download :30s and :15s. There are versions featuring each
soldier, dry and with a music bed. We have given them ABA codes to help
identify them on your affidavits.
More NCSA News: The ABA has committed to our NCSA partners to report
airings on a monthly basis. This change in procedure came as a result of a
request from the Army National Guard to all state broadcast associations.
Since we will be doing so for them, we'll do this for all ABA NCSA
participants. It is more important than ever that you send affidavits in a
timely manner. We appreciate your committment to the association. Please
call or write (stinsley@al-ba.com) if you have any questions.
Local Paper to Feature Local Radio...
Check out the Sunday edition of the Times Daily from Florence
this week. Reporter Ty West is writing a feature on the future of
broadcast radio. The feature will be the cover story of the
Business page. You can see the story at www.timesdaily.com if
you don't have access to the paper.
DEAF and HARD OF HEARING (HOH) ARE WATCHING...
(Sharon Tinsley, ABA Executive Director)
I was invited several months ago to join the Committee for Emergency
Information for the Deaf and HOH in the Wiregrass area. Administrators
from the regional facility of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind put the
committee together to address the need to better communicate emergency
information to the large number of hearing impaired people in the region.
Because the AIDB has a facility in the area, there is a large number of these
folks in the seven county Wiregrass. They are aware of the captioning rules
for television and expressed concerns about captioning in the first couple of
meetings. One of the major concerns to come out of the meetings is that
sometimes station crawls overlap each other. Please remember when
placing your captioning on screen to watch out for other crawls you might
have on at the same time.
Most of the meetings have focused on organizing a program to send alerts to
the hearing impaired over pagers. A plan is coming together and a pilot
program may be in place by June 1st. All the EMA Directors from the region
are among the participants and will be the sources of emergency pages.
They already have a similar plan in place for first responders and volunteers.
WTVY-TV has been working closely with the committee.
"On the road again..."
(Sharon Tinsley, ABA Executive Director)
I put on miles and pounds last week as I traveled across parts of
south Alabama. I managed to eat my way across the state as I
visited with ABA members. On Wednesday evening (1/11) I
had the pleasure of dining with associate member Terry Duffie,
Sharon, their son and his girlfriend in Dothan. On Thursday
morning, I had breakfast with J.R. Wilson (WAGF-AM/FM,
WJJN-FM) and his wife Marthie dropped by. I stayed at J.R.'s
hotel Wednesday night. He owns the Sleep Inn on Hwy 231 in
Dothan and I highly recommend the hotel for anyone traveling
through the area.
After a meeting with the Committee for Emergency Information
for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (see previous "story"), I had
lunch with Pat Dalbey of WTVY-TV in Dothan. Pat is ABA's
Immediate Past President and one of the hardest working men
in show business. I drove from Dothan to Selma where I visited
the Reynolds "compound" and had dinner with Mike and Lisa
Reynolds (WHBB and WDXX) and their lovely daughter
Lindsay. Mike arranged for me to stay at the historic Saint
James hotel. You should stop in for a look around even if you
are only passing through. The hotel is now under the charge of
a former Ritz-Carlton manager who has whipped things into fine
shape.
On Friday morning, I visited Scott Alexander's stations(WALX,
WMRK, WJAM, et al!). Scott, his wife and son took me to the
renovated Pancake House for breakfast. I think they go by
every morning to sample the waffles. From there, I drove back
up to Montgomery where Hoyt Andres (incoming ABA
President) took me to the Montgomery Country Club for lunch. I
had the famous bread pudding AND the banana pudding.
You thought I was kidding about the pounds... not so. Everyone
was doing well and I appreciate all the hospitality. I'll be in your
neighborhood soon!