Archived News and Articles - September 2006
Archive Date - September 29, 2006
COURT APPROVES SONY BMG ROOTKIT SETTLEMENT
All Access
An ONTARIO court approved a settlement deal today that has SONY BMG offering hundreds of thousands of Canadian customers burned on the company's much-maligned rootkit disaster $8.40, a replacement CD and free downloads of selected CDs. Details on eligibility and benefits are allegedly available at www.sonybmg.ca, but the site was down when ALL ACCESS attempted to visit.
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Archive Date - September 29, 2006
RADIO HOLDS AUDIENCE DURING COMMERCIAL BREAKS
All Access
Radio ratings data from ARBITRON’s Portable People Meter and commercial occurrence data from MEDIA MONITORS indicate that the lowest rated minute during an average commercial break is 92% of the size of the audience before the spots began, according to a new study by ARBITRON, MEDIA MONITORS and COLEMAN.
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Archive Date - September 28, 2006
NAB DEMANDING SATELLITE RECEIVERS BE RECALLED
All Access
NAB Pres./CEO DAVID K. REHR told the keynote audience at the NAB RADIO SHOW THURSDAY morning that the organization has sent letters to XM SATELLITE RADIO CEO HUGH PANERO and SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO CEO MEL KARMAZIN insisting that the satellite companies recall all non-compliant receivers with FM emissions that exceed FCC Part 15 standards.
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Archive Date - September 28, 2006
COMMERCIALS: GET OVER IT
Mark Ramsey – hear2.0
Why do we as an industry feel we need to apologize for commercials? Now granted, too much of a good thing is a bad thing, and spot-load has certainly fallen into that category. But once you reign in the spot-load you need to recongize some fundamental truths:
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Archive Date - September 28, 2006
RADIO RETAINS ITS POSITION
Largest-Ever Diarykeeper Pool Reveal Comprehensive Reach Across Age, Income Level, Education and Listening Locale
Arbitron
Radio retains its position as a mainstay medium, reaching more than 230 million listeners in a typical week, according to the latest total radio listening estimates compiled by RADAR ®, the radio network and national audience measurement service of Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB).
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Archive Date - September 27 , 2006
CAB TO ADDRESS BROADCAST EXECUTIVES SOCIETY
CAB Release
CAB President and CEO Glenn O’Farrell will address the Broadcast Executives Society on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 12 pm at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.
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Archive Date - September 25 , 2006
CBC CHAIR QUITS OVER FUROR
Bestiality, defecation remarks at issue
Bizarre end to rocky one-year tenure
Murray Whyte – Toronto Star
Guy Fournier, the chair of CBC's board of directors, resigned yesterday amid a growing furor over his remarks about the joys of defecation and the legality of bestiality in Lebanon.
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Archive Date - September 22 , 2006
NATIONAL RADIO SALES THRIVE
Broadcaster
Radio is remarkable - at least, its sales are, and commercial spending continues to thrive in Canada.
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Archive Date - September 22 , 2006
PROBE OF FCC AFTER SECOND REPORT SURFACES
All Access
Sen. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA) says she's uncovered another report that the FCC allegedly suppressed, this one on radio ownership. BOXER has sent a letter to FCC Chairman KEVIN MARTIN telling him that she has been sent a copy of a draft version of the 2003 "Review of the Radio Industry" which shows a 5.9% increase in the overall number of stations between MARCH 1996 and MARCH 2003 but a 35% decrease in the number of station owners.
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Archive Date - September 22 , 2006
SIRIUS' SHARP STILETTO
The satellite radio company offers an early glimpse at the features it hopes will set its newest portable music player apart from the pack
Olga Kharif - Businessweek
Steve McCallion taps a few keys on his laptop to open a presentation on the Sirius Stiletto, a new portable satellite radio. He calls up a page that displays photos of pocket transistor radios from the 1950s, knobby dials and all. "At the end of the day, it's just a radio," says McCallion, a creative director at the company that designed the Stiletto, twirling the device in his fingers.
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Archive Date - September 21 , 2006
SOFTWARE STREAMS MUSIC WITH PC OFF
New Software Allows Access to Rhapsody Streaming Music Service Without Turning on a Computer
May Wong – Yahoo! Finance
Music lovers can sample songs over the Internet without turning on a personal computer in a first-of-a-kind offering that could help popularize the concept of streaming music.
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Archive Date - September 21 , 2006
STERN, SIRIUS DENY RETURN TO TERRESTRIAL RADIO
FMQB
Reacting to a New York Post article that cites a radio industry web site report about rumors of his return to terrestrial radio, Howard Stern has once again denied that such an occurrence will happen. Stern maintains that he is perfectly happy at Sirius Satellite Radio, stating, "This is a new phase in my career. I'm taking my celebrity. I'm taking what I did for 25 years and I'm bringing my audience over to a new medium... I've been brought into a new company to bring people over and be a front man for an entire industry."
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Archive Date - September 20 , 2006
PROMO ONLY LAUNCHES LEGAL ONLINE MUSIC SERVICE
Broadcaster
After establishing itself as the industry standard in digitally delivering new music releases over the Internet to radio broadcasters, Promo Only Canada and Destiny Media Technologies, today launched Canada's first online commercial music service, Promo Only Digital Download Service using the MPE security. This is the first and only commercial online music service to be approved by the Canadian Audio-Video Licensing Agency (AVLA), which represents virtually every Canadian record label including Universal Music Canada, Warner Music Canada and EMI Music Canada. PODDS will include rare remixes, extended mixes and other hard-to-find content from major and independent labels that is often required for commercial and industry professionals.
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Archive Date - September 20 , 2006
TORONTO FM TAKES RADIO WIRELESS AGAIN
Daniel Mcswain - Rain
Toronto's rock radio fans will have a new way of getting their tunes on the go, as well as a chance to test their city's new free wireless Internet service, as a local FM broadcaster aims to "take radio wireless — again" in the city.
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Archive Date - September 20 , 2006
CANADIAN RADIO SPENDING CONTINUES TO THRIVE
IMS Release
The 2006 broadcast year, ending August 27th, was remarkable for radio in Canada. Specifically, between January and July of this year, national radio sales in Canada were up 10.4% over last year, a stark contrast to the United States which experienced marginal growth of 1.0% during the same time frame.
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Archive Date - September 20 , 2006
HOWARD STERN "VICTIM OF A SMEAR CAMPAIGN"
FMQB
Reacting to recent reports of his alleged demise, Howard Stern stated today that he is "the victim of a smear campaign" by terrestrial radio that is trying to "discredit" his Sirius Satellite Radio gig. Stemming from a post by Bill Tancer of Hitwise titled "Did Satellite Kill the Radio Star?" which cites a decline in Web traffic for howardstern.com, media outlets have picked up on the allegations and started reporting that Stern's career is in decline.
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Archive Date - September 19, 2006
COMING ZUNE: MICROSOFT'S MUSIC PLAYER
In spite of new features like Wi-Fi and sharing, don't expect Microsoft's new player to clobber the iPod in the near future
Business Week
When it comes to digital music, there's a lot that puts Apple (AAPL) ahead of the pack. Microsoft (MSFT) plans to use people-power to narrow that lead. On Sept. 14, the software giant offered the most detail yet on its upcoming Zune digital music player and service (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/6/06, "Microsoft Singing Its Own iTune"). The company drew special attention to capabilities that let users share music with buddies, hoping those will set Zune apart from Apple's iPod.
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Archive Date - September 19, 2006
CANWEST AWARDED SECOND FM LICENCE IN UK
Broadcaster
CanWest Global Communications Corp. was today awarded a commercial radio licence to launch a second FM radio station in the UK. The new station, Original 106-FM will be located in Bristol, a major coastal commercial centre west of London. Bristol is the eighth largest city in the UK and will provide the new station with a potential audience of approximately 500,000.
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Archive Date - September 19, 2006
BROADCAST HEARING CRTC 2006-507
CRTC Release
2006-507 Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation, Wasaga Beach, Ontario. APPROVED – English-language commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Wasaga Beach. The licence will expire 31 August 2013.
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Archive Date - September 18, 2006
RADIO LISTENING HABITS ARE UNCHANGED
FMQB
A new Omnitel/American Media Services (AMS) study finds that despite the multitude of new media options, most people are still listening to radio in the same amount as always. Approximately 27 percent of those surveyed are listening to less radio than they did five years ago. Just over half said their listening habits are unchanged, with 21 percent saying they now listen to even more radio.
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Archive Date - September 15, 2006
CANWEST, CORUS SAY MORE MERGERS INEVITABLE
Globe and Mail
CanWest Global Communications Corp. is on the hunt for a major media deal in the wake of Bell Globemedia's purchase of CHUM Ltd. and has no plans to oppose that takeover in regulatory hearings, chief executive officer Leonard Asper said yesterday.
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Archive Date - September 15, 2006
BELL GLOBEMEDIA COMPLETES TAKEOVER BID FOR CHUM
Broadcaster
Bell Globemedia Inc. and CHUM Limited announced today that approximately 8,200 additional common shares and approximately 1 million additional non-voting Class B Shares of CHUM have been deposited pursuant to BGM's offer to purchase all of the outstanding Common Shares and any and all of the outstanding Class B Shares. The Offer, which was extended on September 1, 2006, expired at 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) today.
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Archive Date - September 15, 2006
PPM THAT CAN TRACK UNENCODED STATIONS
FMQB
Arbitron is field testing a Portable People Meter (PPM) that is equipped with an audio matching capability that would allow the device to track listening to radio stations even if their signals are not encoded. The dual-function meter is capable of identifying a radio station using two methods of detection. First, a dual-function PPM can detect inaudible codes in the audio of stations that are equipped with the Arbitron PPM encoder, and it also can collect audio signatures for other radio stations, which are later matched to signatures collected by an in-market monitoring system. Furthermore, Arbitron downloaded updated versions of audio-matching software into the current generation PPMs that are already in the hands of the 50 former PPM panelists who are participating in the dual-function field test.
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Archive Date - September 14, 2006
NIELSEN TALKING ABOUT TRACKING RADIO
Katy Bachman - Mediaweek
Arbitron may get even more competition for its portable people meter electronic ratings service. In a surprise move, Nielsen Media Research Monday said it is in talks with Clear Channel’s electronic ratings committee about measuring radio listening. If Nielsen gets serious about entering the radio ratings business, the company could pose a serious challenge to Arbitron’s PPM and increase its stronghold on the entire media ratings business.
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Archive Date - September 14, 2006
LIVE RADIO MAY BE JUST A CELL PHONE CALL AWAY
By Bill Virgin – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The day when your cell phone doubles as a radio is getting closer. Clear Channel Radio and Cingular Wireless said this week they are launching a service that will provide live streaming of broadcasts, as well as on-demand delivery of podcasts.
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Archive Date - September 13, 2006
IMPALA OBJECTS TO VIVENDI, BMG PUBLISHING DEAL
FMQB
After it was announced that Vivendi's Universal Music will purchase BMG Music Publishing for $2.1 billion, making it the largest music publisher in the world, independent label trade group Impala has lashed out at the deal. Impala, the group that also appealed the Sony BMG merger, feels that the sale would hurt competition in recorded music, facilitate the existing collective dominance in publishing and would fail to win regulatory approval. Impala is reportedly considering an official objection to the proposed sale.
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Archive Date - September 13, 2006
BGM COMPLETES FINANCING FOR CHUM SHARES
Broadcaster
Bell Globemedia Inc. announced today that it has completed its financing to pay for the take-up of the shares of CHUM Limited ("CHUM") as announced on August 31, 2006.
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Archive Date - September 12, 2006
BMG MUSIC SOLD TO VIVENDI FOR $2.09-BILLION (U.S.)
David Rising - Associated Press
BERLIN — German media company Bertelsmann AG has signed a “definitive agreement” to sell BMG Music Publishing Group to Vivendi for $2.09-billion (U.S.), the companies announced Wednesday.
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Archive Date - September 11 , 2006
Z-100 REACHES OUT TO PHONE AUDIENCE
Jeffrey Yorke – Radio and Records
Clear Channel's zippy CHR/top 40 WHTZ (Z100)/New York is calling out to the Cingular Wireless crowd beginning Wednesday (Sept. 6) by streaming the station live via cell phone and offering a host of new features that includes delivering on-demand content.
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Archive Date - September 8 , 2006
CAB FILES FACT FINDING SUBMISSION
Broadcaster
In its submission filed with the CRTC (Public Notice CRTC 2006-72), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters examined the new realities of Canadian broadcasting and painted a clear picture of a broadcasting industry facing change in many different areas: consumers with increasingly demanding expectations as to how content is received and accessed; a technical infrastructure that needs to be upgraded; and a traditional business model that must adapt to the unprecedented challenges of a new competitive landscape.
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Archive Date - September 8 , 2006
BGM ANNOUNCES TAKE-UP OF CHUM SHARES
Broadcaster
Bell Globemedia Inc. and Chum Limited announced today that BGM has been successful in its offer (the "Offer") to acquire CHUM Limited.
and outstanding Class B Shares.
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Archive Date - September 6 , 2006
SPRINT RADIO LAUNCHES
All Access
SPRINT has launched SPRINT RADIO, a service of over 50 channels of streaming audio and video provided by mSPOT, The service is priced at $5.95/month and is available to SPRINT POWER VISION, SPRINT VISION, and NEXTEL customers. SPRINT is also adding enhancements to its SPRINT MUSIC STORE that include personalized recommendations, the ability to re-download accidentally deleted songs, and, on select phones, the ability to fast-forward, rewind, pause, and skip songs.
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Archive Date - September 6 , 2006
BROADCAST HEARING CRTC 2006-458
CRTC Release
MZ Media Inc., Toronto and Cobourg, Ontario. APPROVED – Acquisition of the assets of the English-language specialty radio programming undertaking CFMX-FM-1 Toronto, its transmitter CFMX-FM Cobourg and of the English-language transitional digital radio undertaking CFMX-DR-1 Toronto.
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Archive Date - September 6 , 2006
BCE ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF BGM TRANSACTION
Broadcaster
BCE Inc. today announced that following receipt of all regulatory approvals, the transaction involving Bell Globemedia (BGM) announced on December 2, 2005 has been completed. Consistent with the ownership structure outlined at that time, BCE
will continue to be an important shareholder, holding a 20% interest in BGM,down from 68.5%. As part of the transaction, BCE retains certain important rights and has entered into a commercial agreement with BGM to have access to existing and future content.
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Archive Date - September 5 , 2006
BGM DEAL CLOSES, APPOINTS NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Broadcaster
Bell Globemedia (BGM) announced today that it has completed the closing of its new ownership structure after meeting all regulatory requirements.
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Archive Date - September 1 , 2006
ARBITRON RELEASES FIRST WEEKLY RADIO RATINGS
Katy Bachman – Mediaweek
In an industry first, Arbitron has released weekly radio ratings data from its Portable People Meter trial in Houston. The ratings are based on a panel of 2,000 installed persons, age 6 and older, unlike the diary ratings service, which measured persons 12 and older. The ratings report also includes non-commercial radio station listeners.
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Archive Date - September 1 , 2006
BYRNESMEDIA CLIENT'S STAFFER TO RUN FOR COUNCIL
Mix 97 Release
The long-time voice of the Belleville Bulls of the OHL is hoping to jump from the hockey arena to the political arena this fall. 52-year veteran sportscaster Jack Miller has filed his nomination papers for a city council position in Belleville. He was named Belleville's citizen of the year in 1997 and has been involved many committees and commissions over the years. He's a previous winner of the Howard Caine award from the Association of Ontario Broadcasters for his community work. Miller has been the play-by-play announcer for the Bulls since they entered the OHL in 1980. He's currently vice-chair of the Belleville Police Service Board.
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