A study from The Media Audit shows that radio station web sites actually increase the reach of a radio group in local markets. Conducted in 84 U.S. cities between Spring, 2005 and Winter, 2006, The Media Audit’s study found 12 percent of adults in Daytona Beach, FL, visited one of Clear Channel’s radio station web sites in the last 30 days, ranking it as the highest-rated radio web site cluster in the U.S.According to study, 23.1 percent of adults in Daytona Beach listen to a Clear Channel station “most often.” When combined with web users, the cluster reaches about 27 percent of adult listeners. The incremental reach of the web site is nearly 18,000 adults.

The Americans and the Japanese decided to engage in a boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance levels. On the big day they felt ready. The Japanese won by a mile. The American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action.The consultant’s finding: The Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering; the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering.

The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts.

Allowing a monopolistic merger is bad public policy

• When the FCC authorized two satellite radio operators in 1997, it specifically prohibited the nationwide systems from merging. Nothing has occurred in the 10 years since to warrant changing the rules for XM and Sirius.
• XM and Sirius are unique in their ability to provide portable radio service on a nationwide scale. Clearly a merger between these two satellite radio giants would create a monopoly.
• Companies who make bad business decisions, such as spending hundreds of millions of dollars to secure talent, should not expect a government bailout. If that’s the case, the floodgates will be open to bailout the more than 30,000 companies that filed for bankruptcy in 2006.
• The precedent is clear based on the FCC’s action in the DirecTV/Echostar proposed merger ? the FCC prohibited that merger, finding that even if they considered the merger in the context of the whole market, they could not find the merger” in the public interest.”
• The FCC has a long history of promoting competition, not monopoly, in the services it authorizes.
• XM and Sirius have a history of blatantly disregarding FCC rules. For example, the companies put devices into the marketplace that violated the FCC’s equipment power limitations, causing numerous consumers to experience interference on their car radios. These devices have never been pulled from the marketplace.
• Because of its monopolistic nature and the companies’ bad track record with FCC compliance, this merger should be rejected.

The merger will hurt consumers

• While this merger may help line the pockets of financiers and corporate executives, it certainly doesn’t benefit the public interest or subscribers’ interests.
• If the merger is approved, allowing for zero competition in the satellite radio market, can consumers expect their subscriber prices to rise as they are held hostage to a monopolistic giant?
• A merger between the only two satellite radio companies is a guaranteed headache for consumers. There are sure to be hidden costs and confusion. XM and Sirius may try to tell subscribers that a merger will mean access to more programming, but given the two different technologies ? which have never been interoperable ? that is likely to be costly.

I was recently asked the question… “Creative… what does it mean… to you… to your clients?”

It’s funny how my viewpoint on Creative continues to grow and change. Creative to me means everything from the conceptual work to the production aspect and eventually the final output. The act of being creative for a purpose. To the majority of clients and salespeople, “creative” means “anything to fill the airtime”. The word is used as a general catch-all noun to refer to the audio product.

It’s so much more than that.

To me, it means that I do indead “Create”. It’s not a boiler-plate… it’s not banged out… it is indeed something that time and effort went into. Creative is done with the purpose of providing something that is both entertaining and enticing to the listener; ego-satisfying (and contract renewing) to the person paying the invoice; and professionally acceptable by the person doing the “creating”.

“And make it really good…”

Here to Help!

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group Marketing