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Volume 6, Issue 2
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Media Consolidation: The Future
of Broadcasting?
by Martha Sharan
On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications
Commission voted to give media conglomerates the green
light to buy up hundreds of media outlets and have greater
control over what the American public sees on television,
hears on radio and reads in newspapers.
Under the new rules of media ownership:
one company can own both a broadcast station and a newspaper
in all but the smallest markets; one company can own
as many as three television stations in the largest
markets; and control the flow of information to 45%
of the nation's viewers. Naturally, critics of consolidation
fear the elimination of diversity, localism and competition.
Nowhere is the impact of consolidation
more evident than in the radio industry. In 1996, for
example, before Congress relaxed radio ownership limits,
Clear Channel Communications owned 43 radio outlets.
Today, it has grown into the largest radio company in
the nation with roughly 1,238 stations, reaching 110
million listeners a week, according to its website.
Its closest competitors are Cumulus Media with 258 stations,
Citadel Communications owning 206, and Viacom with 183,
according to the Center for Public Integrity. What that
means is just a few companies control the programming
delivered to more than half the radio audience in America.
This type of consolidation is affecting
everything from the playlist of individual radio stations
to local news reports to public relations professionals
pitching stations, presenting PR professionals with
unique challenges as they try to book interviews or
place stories for their clients in local newscasts.
As an illustration, let's look at what's happening in
Denver.
Clear Channel owns eight radio
stations in Denver with varying formats, but has only
one news department serving all eight stations. The
result is what's being called "homogenized" or general
audience news. This is where public relations professionals
must remember to keep their pitches as general as possible
and adjust those pitches to meet the needs of a larger
umbrella of listeners, instead of information relevant
only to a specific demographic.
In Seattle, the broadcast landscape
is a bit different. Three major companies own a collection
of radio stations, but the programming is specific to
each station. The result: more opportunity for placement
and more targeted information and variety for listeners.
In each case, however, strong contacts,
persuasive, well thought out pitches, and tenacity are
still the steadfast, primary ingredients for success.
Other areas of interest regarding
consolidation are free speech and excessive media power.
Earlier this year, the Dixie Chicks spoke out against
the President and his decision to go to war in Iraq.
As a result, Cumulus Media executives put a ban on the
band's music for their country music stations for one
month. Seven radio stations owned by Cox Broadcasting
did the same.
Public safety could also be at
risk, where staff sizes have been drastically reduced.
Last winter, in Minot, North Dakota, a train derailed
carrying ammonia, and more than 200,000 gallons spilled.
Emergency personal tried to get word out by calling
Clear Channel, which owns six of the seven commercial
radio stations in Minot. However, the stations were
on autopilot, run by a computer. The catastrophic incident
went unreported for several, critical hours.
One aspect of media consolidation
that can be a boon to PR professionals is that with
one pitch on a compelling issue, a story may get multiple
hits on the sister stations of the consolidated family.
This means less time is spent pitching individual stations
but gaining larger listenership figures from just one
pitch.
So where do we go from here? The
answer seems to be Congress. Proposals are in the works
to support "live, local and in the interest of serving
the public" through diverse media voices, greater competition
and the production of more local and specialized programming.
A federal appeals court has placed the new rules on
ownership on hold, and on September 16, 2003, the U.S.
Senate voted to undo FCC regulations governing ownership
of media outlets. The measure now goes to the House.
In the meantime, we recommend PR
professionals use the same tried and true methods of
pitching: have strong stories; keep your pitch short
and to-the-point; and use extra creativity and flexibility
when contacting the newly consolidated radio programming
departments.
News
that Richard Nixon Personally Ordered Watergate Break-In
Generates More Than 50 Million Gross Impressions on
Radio Across the Country
by Lynn Harris Medcalf
The
greatest political scandal of our time began when burglars
were caught in the Watergate Democratic Party headquarters
and ended with the collapse of a presidency. On Wednesday,
July 30, a PBS documentary Watergate Plus 30: Shadow
of History offered a radically new answer to the question:
"What did the president know and when did he know it?"
Fueled
by the breaking news of Jeb Magruder's allegation that
former president Richard Nixon personally ordered the
Watergate break in, media coverage for WATERGATE PLUS
30: Shadow of History exploded. Magruder's allegation
emerged as the top news story on Monday, July 28, 2003
after Greenwich, Connecticut firm Kelly & Salerno released
the news exclusively to the Washington Post and provided
it to AP for its wire on Sunday, July 27, 2003. An audio
news release for radio stations featuring a soundbite
of Magruder from WATERGATE PLUS 30, helped the story
dominate a 48-hour news cycle on Monday, creating awareness
and interest in the documentary premiere on July 30,
2003.
Kelly
& Salerno Communications, which represented the PBS
documentary, worked with News Generation to prepare
an audio news release offering a sound bite of the Magruder
allegation. The audio news release reached almost 50
million (49,668,975) listeners nationally, attributing
the news to the documentary premiering on PBS. This
was the highest volume usage for any audio news release
produced and distributed by News Generation to date
this year.
More
than 8,000 stations and network affiliates aired the
segment on July 28 and July 29, many airing it multiple
times over a 24-hour period for a total of 27,190 airings.
The segment aired nationally on Associated Press Broadcast,
Metro Source, ABC News Network, USA Radio Network, CNN
Radio, SRN News, and Bloomberg Network. Metro area networks
and top news and talk stations in the top-25 markets
broadcast the segment repeatedly including the #1 news
stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia,
Dallas, Washington D.C., and Pittsburgh.
Colby
Kelly, principal of Kelly & Salerno Communications said
"Our strategy was to leverage media interest in coordination
with the exclusive we had provided to the Washington
Post and the AP wire and an ANR was the perfect vehicle."
Radio Stations Per State
by Susan J. Matthews
With the political climate heating
up for the 2004 elections, politicians will be looking
to gain access to potential voters in crucial areas
for both national and local elections. Getting to key
listeners makes utilizing radio a natural fit since
there are more than 13,000 radio outlets and 33 different
station format types. Each is a potential way for candidates
to reach voters regarding relevant and hot issues in
particular geographic and demographic segments.
There are 10 states in the United
States that are home to more than 400 radio stations.
In order, they are California (893), Texas (845), Florida
(546), New York (523), Pennsylvania (477), Illinois
(431), North Carolina (416), Michigan (414), Ohio (411)
and Tennessee (402).
For more state specific information
to use on your next radio project, please visit http://www.newsgeneration.com/radio_resources/by_state.htm.
Events for Fall of 2003
by Susan J. Matthews
Events
that raise awareness or celebrate months, weeks or days
to commemorate an event can sometimes give PR people
a good nail to hang our hat on to make a story relevant
or timely. Presenting one of these events in a pitch
can turn a story that would otherwise be an evergreen
one into one that airs with a sense of immediacy.
Study
and survey releases also present timeliness to stories
that might otherwise be looked at as a trend piece that
has a shelf life of three months in the "this sounds
good, maybe I will get to it tomorrow" file. Feedback
we consistently get from stations for pitches is to
make sure information is timely, newsworthy and really
has an impact on their listeners.
For
a list of events happening between early October to
the end of the year, please visit: http://www.newsgeneration.com/radio_resources/events.htm#oct
Tuning In newsletter is produced and distibuted bi-annually. The goal of the newsletter is to educate clients on radio trends and industry tips, as well as highlight case studies and release survey information.
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