Radio Dustup! CBS Radio Sues Stern for Contract Breach

Rumors circulating today of a possible CBS Radio lawsuit against former long-time employee Howard Stern became reality today, claiming $500 million in “compensatory and punitive damages for multiple breaches of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment, and misappropriation of CBS Radio’s broadcast time. It further seeks damages from Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. for unfair competition and tortious interference with Stern’s CBS contract” as well as Howard Stern’s production company One Twelve Inc, his agent Don Buchwald and his agency.

Looks like yesterday’s announced major ratings losses (the first new ratings since Stern left) was all the evidence CBS Radio needed to show damages.

After quietly and respectfully taking it on the chin for the months leading up to Stern’s departure in mid-December, looks like CBS is hitting back. Now this story could get very nasty and get tied up in courts for years. CBS filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York. If Anna Nicole Smith can get her 10-year lawsuit to the Federal Supreme Court, maybe this CBS/Stern battle will eventually end up there, too, after both sides exhaust appeal decisions.

Among the complaints are that Stern unjustly used CBS Radio (then known as Infinity Broadcasting) airtime during his show to promote Sirius during the remaining 22 months of his contract, which ultimately helped deliver a $200 million mega-bonus Sirius payout to Stern in January for exceeding new subscriber goals once Stern began his new satellite show.

Stern has a completely different view. In a press conference late this afternoon, Stern discussed the pending lawsuit just before it was officially delivered. In his words: “I’m offended. I really do think this is a personal vendetta. Les (Moonves, CBS CEO) has had it in for me for a long time. I don’t deserve it.”.

To read the 43-pages of legal complaints filed by CBS Radio, click here;; or here; or here.

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

The New Apple iPod Hi-Fi — Love it!

The new Apple Hi-Fi docking stereo unit….just released today. Crystal-clear, audiophile-quality sound in a clean, compact design.

Learn more about iPod Hi-Fi.

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

The Goal of Googlizing Old Media Advertising

Google thinks there is a better way to connect advertising with consumers using traditional media like radio, magazines, newspapers and even TV. And they may have something.

We all know how annoying it is to see or hear ads that have zero value. I’m not shopping for feminine hygene, ED/Disorder/Big Pharma or AARP products; if I see an ad for them, it’s noise (or what is often referred to as “clutter”). It makes me turn the channel, turn it off or tune it out. However, if I see advertising for products I want, need or aspire to have, I’m much more likely to pay attention to it.

Google’s AdSense algorithms linking ads to keywords in search as well as metatags contained within visited websites makes advertsing more effective. Can this thinking work for traditional media as their various audiences splinter into more refined niches?

Google hasn’t talked much publicly about its TV ambitions, but television is clearly part of the company’s long-term strategy to expand its ad kingdom beyond the Internet. Nearly all of Google’s $1.4 billion in 2005 earnings came from ad sales. Escalating its advertising strategy is one way to try to keep up the growth.

How Google is attempting to stretch ad sales:

*Print. In April, ads based on Google’s auction-style pricing will appear in some 26 magazines, including Martha Stewart Living, Car and Driver and PC World. How it works: Google buys ad space directly from publishers and auctions the space to its clients. Google profits if advertisers offer more than Google paid. The first auction closed Friday. Google will announce the winning bidders, via e-mail, this Friday.

In a newspaper trial, Google is testing small text ads in the business and sports sections of the Chicago Sun-Times. The ads look similar to search ads that appear online — small, 10-word messages that direct readers to websites and say “Ads by Google” at the top.

*Radio. In January, Google purchased dMarc Broadcasting, which specializes in using computer technology to fill otherwise unsold airtime. DMarc also offers advertisers real-time reports on when and how often an ad has aired on a particular station, something that used to take months to receive and now gets done on nearly 5,000 stations using its automated system to replace unsold inventory with ads at the click of a mouse.

*Television. Google’s new online video store (video.google.com) sells reruns of shows from CBS and PBS for viewing on Internet-connected PCs. It hopes to bring its advertiser network to television. TV set-top boxes could become a key tool for Google to learn more about demographics and viewing habits — and serve up tailored ads.

Cable, satellite, telephone companies — they are all putting devices in the home that make it possible for Google to find targeted customers and deliver advertising from products people actually want.

Google still has a lot to learn trying to bring their new media ad model to resistent old media operations. If Google pulls it off, it will be a historic shift in the way the traditional media advertising industry conducts its business.

related article here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

A Test For Free FM Replacing Howard Stern: Pushing the Snooze Button Instead of the Ratings Button

New morning DJ (and former Van Halen splitman) David Lee Roth is on holiday this week (after less than 2 months on the job). Interestingly, it’s also the week his first ratings are being released for markets across the country. Sounds like a Bush strategery.

Keep in mind, these are just monthlies and not full quarterly ratings…but they are indicators, especially considering it spotlights Howard Stern’s replacements.

On many East Coast CBS Radio station, DLR got Stern’s gig while LA-based Man Shower Adam Corolla got Stern’s slot for much of the West Coast.

The first batch of Winter 2006 Phase One Arbitrend ratings were released Monday by Arbitron, and, based on the results, New York’s 92.3 Free FM (Roth) and LA’s 97.1 Free FM (Corolla) both reflect what the public already knows: a sharp decline in ratings post-Stern combined with a relative ho-hum yawn and pressing of the snooze button.

According to radio industry trade newspaper Radio & Records, in New York, Hot Talk WFNY (formerly alternative WXRK) dropped as an entire station to one-third its previous ratings for the month of January among all listeners 12 and older. While Stern was #1 in New York before he left, Roth was only 18th in his first month, despite a huge amount of media curiousity and New York Post gossip about his chances. Among the prime sales demo of 25-54 year olds, Roth’s ratings are one-third Stern’s. Among 18-34 year olds, ratings are 10% Stern’s numbers last year. Again, these numbers are just for one-month, not the more stable full quarterlies, which don’t come out till April.

Across the country in Los Angeles, Adam Carolla’s show attracted a paltry 0.7 share in January, making KLSX the lowest-rated full-signal commercial FM in the market during the month. Not much Man Show testosterone in those ratings at all.

Keeping some perspective, though, ANYONE replacing Stern more than likely see a drop in ratings. CBS Radio executives think it could take up to two years, and they say they are committed to letting Stern’s replacement shows develop and slowly gain listeners.

Of course, the bigger question as the iPodization of America continues, what will morning radio look like in 2 years?

By the way, in my opinion, Free FM/NYC’s JV + Elvis (who do middays after Roth in New York, but were historically successful — and funny — morning show DJs prior to now) are filling in this week in mornings for Roth while he’s away…and they sound so much better, in my opinion. Ironically, despite the big ratings drop, Free FM actually is a better station overall than its preceeding alt rock format K-Rock these last few years in New York, especially with JV + Elvis middays and with the Radio Chick for afternoons. Maybe Roth will study those shows for inspiration.

related story here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

The Colbert Report Seeks Truthiness in Congress

At a time when surveys show younger voters turning away from the mainstream media in favor of blogs and late-night television, politicians and their strategists recognize that “The Colbert Report” is a powerful way to reach a swath of Generation Y.

Congress has long suffered an inferiority complex, a sentiment that has only worsened under President Bush, who has flexed his executive muscles by keeping lawmakers out of the loop on matters ranging from eavesdropping to foreign control of American ports.

So, in an era where there no longer a true mass media, politicians are looking more micro. And “The Colbert Report” has become a hot spot must-visit. Tongue firmly in cheek, Stephen Colbert’s “Daily Show” spin-off is on a truthiness quest to interview — or lampoon — all 434 members of the House. (The man who held the 435th seat, the disgraced California Republican Randy Cunningham, “is dead to me,” Mr. Colbert declared.)

UPDATE 3/1: Stephen Colbert made special point leading the show tonight to correct the New York Times weekend story, saying they got it wrong. It’s not Randy Cunningham (“The Dukester”) that “is dead to me”….it’s California’s 50th district that really “is dead to me” for letting down the Dukester. The 50th is SO dead to Colbert on The Colbert Report, he no longer thinks the 50th exists. He wanted to make sure that correction was made and expects the Times to acknowledge it. Now that is commitment to truthiness.

As he assembles a dupes’ gallery, Mr. Colbert is showing a national audience what veteran Congress-watchers already know: politicians are idiots just like us.

At the same time, the show reveals an essential truth about Washington: being humiliated on national television can be better than not being on national television at all.

The rest of the New York Times article here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

The Latest On How Women and Men Use the Internet

I’m fascinated with search.

As a market researcher, I seek for opportunities based on data detailing consumer behaviours and preferences. As a radio personality, I sought ways to entertain and inform the largest amount of people by viewing pop culture in my own way. As a student, simply learning in a classroom or devouring a book wasn’t enough; I needed to spend extra time asking questions and seeking answers to my complex questions with teachers and professors over coffee for hours on end. Reading about Rome or Paris or Bogota or Munich or Santiago’s history wasn’t enough; I needed to go there and experience it for myself.

For me, search is a deep, exploratory thing. And I love it.

I’ve always been labeled as a curious soul, someone always asking questions, trying to connect dots, to find meaning in data, observations, history, scenarios or concepts. Of course, that’s not an exclusive label. We are all searching, consciously or unconsciously. It’s why a song like U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” resonates so deeply with people across the globe, regardless of culture or language.

Search is mankind’s fuel for its holy grail: true knowledge. It is search that drives us for understanding and for innovation. Yet, we are not all the same when it comes to search. Especially on-line.

A recent PEW Internet study exploring how men and women use the Internet points out some interesting differences between the sexes. It’s more than just men searching for porn and women searching for shoe porn. Or is it? This study caught my attention because it’s fascinating to see how millions of years of conditioning and the differences in our respective genetic wiring affect our use of new technology. The PEW study echoed many stereotypes we think exist in the other gender off-line.

Men like the experiences the Internet offers while women like the new communities they form. In essence, women are more “chatty” (heavier use of IMs, two-or-more web cam conversations for the tech savvy, much more detailed emails exchanges and attracted to web portal sharing communities) while men are more blunt and one-way (shorter to-the-point online posts and emails, quick [if any] IMs and more one-way info gathering), preferring to get what they want as fast as possible, quickly moving on the next task. Women will linger longer while searching; men tend to focus on the top results, get it, and move on.

Sounds like a typical exercise in shopping at a mall.

PEW study here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

How much content from search engine results are sponsored vs organic?

Want to know how much content on a search engine is sponsored vs. organic? So did this academic from Syracuse University in a study published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (2005).

His goal for the study was to gain a better understanding of the amount and type of advertising presented to search tool users compared to natural organic information.

Among his thoughts, he thinks:

Searchers should add an additional synonym to their queries. This will greatly reduce the number of sponsored links and serve to help the search tool provide better results.

Searchers need to be aware that many of the results displayed on the first screen of results will be sponsored, and they need to scroll down and see the entire page (and even to continue on to other pages of results) before abandoning a search term.

Research pdf report here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

What is Podcasting? Your Friendly Neighborhood Ninja Explains…

Video Podcasting is still misunderstood quite a bit. Who does them? Why watch them? What are these fools thinking anyway when they make them?

YouTube.com — which launched in December — has quickly become a prime location on the Net to view cutting edge independent videos and video podcasts.

(note: another good new grassroots viral video location is the iFilm/VH1 VSpot of web junk; VH1 even makes a weekly show out of the Top 20 video web “finds”)

To help you better understand podcasting, why not have a ninja teach you? Somebody thought it was a good idea. Here Mr. Ninja explains podcasting even 12 year olds would understand. Well, especially 12 year olds would understand. Is this a new media superstar in the making?

YouTube Ninja podcast here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

Say Goodbye to 8am Classes with iTunes U

Where was the iPod when I really needed it? As a college student! With my iPod podcasting the day’s lecture which I downloaded from the campus secure server, I could have “gone to class” on my time when and where I wanted…instead of some schedule decided by the Registrar’s office or, heaven forbid, my professor. Rodney Dangerfield surely would have approved when he went “back to school”.

Not my reality then…but it is for coeds todays. Thanks to Apple’s new testing concept called “iTunes U”, college students access course lectures and other educational materials through iTunes. Apple has been testing the program with six schools, including Stanford University and The University of Missouri, which had offered podcasts of its lectures through its school network before becoming an Apple pilot school. Each school is able to decide whether to make its materials available to certain groups or the general public.

As one university professor said, “iTunes is the interface most of our students are already familiar with.” Glad they’re paying attention now…but they sure didn’t like our walkman’s in class in the ’80s!

Hmmm, time to get my MBA program to podcast. First, though, let me get back to watching my Van Halen “Hot For Teacher” video on my iPod, back when David Lee Roth actually mattered…

related story

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

Official from Apple: One Billion Legal Downloads

Wow, one BILLION iTune downloads. Apple just announced they reached that amount of total downloads today. The winning song? Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound” from the “X&Y” album, downloaded by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Remember that for future Trivia Pursuit editions.

Coldplay? Isn’t it just a little ironic lead singer Chris Martin’s baby is named Apple? Did he and Gwyneth know something we didn’t?

Still…a billion legal downloads from around the world in just 3 years. That is astounding.

The iTunes Music Store now features a selection of over 3,500 music videos, Pixar and Disney short films, a variety of hit TV shows, 35,000 podcasts, 16,000 audiobooks and more than two million songs from the major music companies and independent record labels.

According to Apple, the iTunes Music Store is also the world’s most popular video download store with more than 15 million videos purchased and downloaded.

Read the press release here.

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy