<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?><rss version='2.0' xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'><channel><atom:link href='http://www.theradiojournal.com/headlinefeed.asp' rel='self' type='application/rss+xml' /><title>Radio Journal Headlines</title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com/</link><description>Lastest Headlines</description><lastBuildDate>Mon, 12 May 2008 01:17:17 GMT</lastBuildDate><language>en-us</language><item><title>More storms in the midwest - and some silent time for a major AM. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| The tornadoes that ripped through Missouri and Arkansas on Friday didn`t take down any broadcast towers, as best we can tell, but they took one of Kansas City`s biggest AM stations off the air at the height of the storms. KCMO (710) talk host Chris Stigall lost the front porch of his house to a twister - and he was broadcasting to only the station`s Internet audience for most of morning drive on Friday. The Cumulus talker`s AM signal was off the air from 2:30 until 10 on Friday morning, just a day after unrelated power problems at the KCMO transmitter site took it silent for an hour of Thursday morning drive.]]></description></item><item><title>Analysis shows ``drive through`` license renewals are more fiction than fact. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| From Congress to the FCC there have been complaints the license renewal process has become too lax, requiring little more than a postcard. In comments at the FCC`s localism hearing last June in Portland, commissioner Michael Copps told the crowd, ``These days getting a license renewed is pretty much a slam dunk. It`s not called postcard renewal for nothing.`` But D.C. communications lawyers Joseph Di Scipio and Frank Jazzo of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth say that`s urban legend, not reality. Their NAB-funded analysis shows during the past renewal cycle, 8.1% of all renewal applications either were not granted, have yet to be granted, or were granted with a fine or admonishment. The actual form is also far from a postcard - running 38 pages, not including two additional forms the FCC requires to be filed as part of the renewal process. Included in the NAB`s filing on the proposal, the pair points out ``Far from being a rubberstamp, the FCC review process is rigorous and thorough.`` Their analysis finds it took the FCC about six months to review the applications.]]></description></item><item><title>Endgame for a big Nashville FM shuffle. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It took about two years, and nine frequency and city-of-license swaps as far north as Kentucky, but Cumulus has finally pulled off an upgrade of its Nashville-market FM sports station, moving WNFN, Belle Meade, TN (106.7) to outskits of Nashville, Millersville, TN, and upgrading the station from class A (1.1-kw/774`) to C3 (2.95-kw/964`). ``The Fan`` made the move from the WSMV-TV tower just west of downtown to the WZTV/WUXP on the north side of Nashville last week, at the same time three other Nashville-market Cumlus FMs swapped cities of license to complete the shuffle.]]></description></item><item><title>Yes, officer, I meant to put the transmitter over there. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| There must have been some head-scratching going on when FCC inspectors visited WNBN, Meridian, MS (1290) in January. Not only did they hear no sign of a power-down at sunset, when the station is supposed to drop from 2500 watts to 330 watts - they saw no sign of a broadcast facility at WNBN`s licensed coordinates. Station owner Frank Rackley, Jr. told the inspectors he was manually powering the station down at 9 o`clock each night (sunset in Meridian in January is at 5:15). And he says the coordinates on the license were for a site where he originally intended to build the station, but that it has transmitted from its present location a few miles away ``for years.`` The Commission proposed an $8,000 fine - but reduced it to $1,500 when Rackley presented evidence he was unable to pay the full amount.]]></description></item><item><title>An unlucky lottery ad for an Arkansas FM station. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| There aren`t many things you can`t say on the radio these days, one of them is ``lotto`` when it`s an advertisement on a station licensed to a state that doesn`t conduct its own lottery. There are just eight of those - Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. So in 2004, when Saga`s KDEZ, Jonesboro, AR (100.5) broadcast a remote from a convenience store in nearby Cardwell, MO in which the jock mentioned ``a whole Lotto luck,`` that started the ball rolling on FCC action. A competing broadcaster, American Heritage Media, sent the FCC tapes of the lottery remote, and of an ad for Hooters that referred to ``Hooters Tees`` in a way that made it clear the discussion wasn`t about shirts. Four years later (after a format and call change that turned KDEZ into KEGI), the FCC finally ruled - saying the double-entendre in the Hooters ad didn`t run afoul of its indecency rules, but the lottery mention did. That`s a $4,000 fine for Saga, and a reminder for border-station states to pay close attention to the lottery rules.]]></description></item><item><title>He`s not my business partner, he`s just my brother. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| That`s the argument Clay Holladay`s Radio Monroe made to the FCC when it wanted to acquire KNOE-FM, Monroe, LA (101.9) from the Noe family, the station`s founders. A competing broadcaster, Opus Broadcasting, objected to the assignment of the KNOE-FM license. Opus argued that KNOE-FM should count against the ownership cap of the market`s other big cluster, Holladay Broadcasting, owned by Clay`s brother Robert Holladay. Robert`s company already owns the maximum four FMs and two AMs in the Monroe market (including the former KNOE(AM), which it recently purchased from the Noes.) Opus pointed to past business ties between the two brothers, including their co-ownership of New South Radio`s stations in Mississippi and the $1 sale of KRVV-FM from Clay to Robert Holladay. The FCC didn`t agree. It says the relationships between Clay and Robert Holladay are to be expected from two brothers who grew up in the business, and that there`s no evidence Robert Holladay has any attributable business interests in Clay`s operations.]]></description></item><item><title>Korean programming can`t stop a license renewal. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It`s been a rough few years for WNYH, Huntington, NY (740; formerly WGSM). The station spent time off the air before being sold to WIN Radio Broadcasting, which has filled its airtime with an automated oldies format while seeking leased-time clients. Along the way, it drew some complaints from a former programming supplier, who filed a complaint at renewal time that alleged the station lacked a proper main studio and that it ``abandon[ed its] English language/music based format … to play a solely Korean language religious service for the entire Sunday broadcast day.`` That may not make for great radio, but it`s not grounds to deny a renewal. Nor was another complaint alleging that the station was operating overpower at night. WIN says it hasn`t operated WNYH at night at all since it took over.]]></description></item><item><title>Short-term renewal for a snakebit AM in American Samoa. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| South Seas Broadcasting has had a challenging time keeping WVUV, Leone, AS (648) on the air. When the company bought the station in 2000, it was off the air because of a transmitter fire the year before, and since then it`s been on and off the air from two temporary sites while it searches for a new permanent site, something WVUV says is ``extremely difficult`` because of local land-use laws. But the FCC says not all of that temporary operation - and not all of the station`s long periods of silence - was properly authorized under Special Temporary Authority. But WVUV says the Commission lost its request for an STA back in July 2000 - and it has a date-stamped receipt to prove it. While the Commission says the facts provide a ``close case`` in demonstrating that the station has served the public interest and merits license renewal, it`s willing to give South Seas a little more time. So it`s proposing an $18,000 forfeiture, and renewing WVUV`s license for an unusual two-year term while it conducts further review of the case and figures out what to do next.]]></description></item><item><title>First fruits of the big noncom FM window. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It will be years before the FCC`s finished sorting through the thousands of applications it received in last year`s window for new signals on the noncommercial FM band. But for some of those applicants lucky enough to score ``singletons`` - uncontested applications that could be granted quickly - the path to air has been a quick one. Big South Community Broadcasting put WJBE, Five Points, AL (88.5) on the air with a ``Country Legends`` format in mid-April, just four months after its CP was granted. And Tri-State Public Communications received its CP in December, putting WHDD-FM, Sharon, CT (91.9) on the air two weeks ago. Both stations benefited from ties to existing AM stations - WJLX, Jasper, AL (1240) and WHDD, Sharon, CT (1020), respectively - that allowed them to use existing studios and programming personnel.]]></description></item><item><title>LPFM compromise brings new service to a big markets. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| In Providence, RI, a share-time deal among three local churches has settled a dispute over the lone LPFM channel available whereby the largest market of a 100-watt LPFM can be squeezed in under the current spacing rules. Casa de Oracion Getsemani, Zion Bible Institute and Ephese French SDA Church will share time on 96.5, bumping two other applicants - Brown Student Radio at Brown University and Providence Community Radio - out of the picture. BSR had thrown a kitchen sink`s worth of objections at the church applications, including an allegation that Zion plans to sell its Rhode Island campus and move to northern Massachusetts, making it ineligible for the ``local applicant`` criterion in the Commission`s point system.]]></description></item><item><title>Shortwave fades away, even domestically. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| With the growth of the Internet as a worldwide audio transmission medium, venerable shortwave broadcasters have been feeling the pinch. The Voice of America shut down its West Coast transmitter facility at Delano, California last November, and the BBC pulled the plug on its last remaining shortwave transmissions to Europe in February, noting that ``increasing numbers of people around the world are choosing to listen to radio on a range of other platforms including FM, satellite and online, with fewer listening on shortwave.`` (The last BBC shortwave transmissions to North America went away last year.) Even the religious broadcasters that dominate the shortwave dial in the US are feeling the pinch. Trinity Broadcasting Network recently shut down its shortwave transmitter in Salt Lake City, KTBN, and it`s put the transmitter property up for sale. A bit of history - the Salt Lake site was built in the eighties as KUSW, an ambitious attempt to put a commercial rock station on the shortwaves ``from the West to the world.`` Owner Ralph Carlson, who had been successful with local Salt Lake stations KRSP AM/FM, couldn`t make a go of it, and KUSW was sold to Trinity after just a couple of years on the air. The other big attempt at a commercial shortwave signal, New Orleans` WRNO, lasted a few years longer, but it too eventually flipped to religion.]]></description></item><item><title>Canada This Week &mdash; No big-city relay for a vacation island broadcaster. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| CFRM, Little Current, ON (100.7) told the CRTC that many of the vacation homes on scenic Manitoulin Island, where it`s based, are owned by residents of much bigger Sudbury, 60 miles or so to the east. It argued that it should be granted a relay transmitter (also on 100.7) in Sudbury to bring its programming there. But the CRTC disagreed. It says there`s not enough in common between Sudbury and Manitoulin to merit the extra transmitter.]]></description></item></channel></rss>