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MID WEEK Top 40 UPDATE BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERSBOARD.BIZ/NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 28, 2013 | PAGE 1 OF 10 INSIDE EDITED BY MIKE STERN [email protected] Promote Your Station In Just Six Seconds Finding The Boundaries PAGE 3 Is ‘By The Radio hasn’t exactly been putting its best foot forward lately. acceptable on air. The world has vastly changed since the days Numbers’ Here in the United States the industry’s biggest headlines of Howard Stern attacking his competitors with reckless aban- have come from Todd Schnitt’s lawsuit accusing Todd “Bubba don, but just what is allowed, who sets the standards and what Top 40 Still A the Love Sponge” Clem of defamation. Schnitt is suing over re- it means for radio isn’t easy to understand. Listener Draw? marks Clem made about his wife and, even though the trial is over PAGE 3 and Schnitt lost, the saga may not be finished, as he’s reportedly YOU CAN’T SAY THAT—OR CAN YOU? considering an appeal. In the Schnitt/Clem case it’s important to realize that, as opposed Radio, Records Overseas, two Australian hosts made the news when they to many of the other restrictions broadcasters work under, the Rally To Help called a hospital in England while Princess Catherine was being rules governing the situation aren’t coming from the Federal Com- A Place Called treated for severe morning sickness. They got private informa- munications Commission (FCC). In the case of defamation, ex- Home tion about her condition from plains David Oxenford, a partner her nurse by impersonating at the law firm Wilkinson, Barker, PAGE 5 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Knauer and author of the Broad- Charles. Not only was Bucking- cast Law Blog, the matter is in the Baauer ham Palace furious, soon after- hands of the civil courts and is Remains Atop ward Jacintha Saldanha, another governed by state law and First Hot 100 nurse who was fooled by the Amendment considerations. PAGE 6 prank and transferred the call, He explains that when talking committed suicide. It turned an about a public figure you have already touchy situation into a more leniency than with a pri- Ke$ha Returns tragedy and created a whole new vate individual who hasn’t put To Top 10 dimension of public outrage and themselves in the public light—a PAGE 6 not-so-positive media coverage. point of contention with Schnitt, Situations like these are CBS Radio talk WPHT/sports WIP-AM&FM Philadelphia who claims his wife shouldn’t be operations manager Andy Bloom (left) and Beasley rhythmic top 40 bound to leave broadcasters WRDW (Wired 96.5) Philadelphia morning show member Steve considered a public figure. questioning what is and isn’t Tingle are voices of reason during a crazy time for radio hosts. If she is a public figure, Ox- BILLBOARD TOP 40 MID-WEEK UPDATE FEBRUARY 28, 2013 | PAGE 2 OF 10 ford explains, to prove defamation, the plaintiff is required to show that not only were the statements false but that Clem aired them knowing they were untrue or with a reckless disregard for the truth, meaning he had reason to believe what he was saying wasn’t true but chose to say it anyway. If she’s a private figure, the burden of proof is much lighter. Schnitt would only have to prove the statements were false and that he and his wife were damaged by them. But while this courtroom drama plays out, Andy Bloom, operations manager for CBS Radio news/talk WPHT and sports talk WIP-AM & FM Philadelphia, says that in most cases today the on-air rhetoric would never get that far, and he should know. He’s seen it all. Bloom is the PD who brought Stern’s show to classic rock WYSP Philadel- phia in 1986, launching the celebrity host into syndication. Stern responded by going after his biggest rival in Philly, WMMR morning host John DeBella, with a merciless campaign that culminated in a public funeral for the host when Stern passed him in the ratings. Five years later Stern undertook a similarly aggressive campaign against classic rock KLOS hosts Mark & Brian when he was syndicated to Los Angeles, a move that was also engineered by Bloom. At the time, Bloom says nearly anything went. “Back then, in terms of going After Capitol recording artist Emeli Sandé cleaned up at the Brit Awards on Feb. 20, it seemed like a good time to revisit her recent appearances in the United after someone, if it wasn’t illegal we did it. It was all about how much we could States, such as this shot of her with Journal Communications mainstream top 40 annoy somebody.” Now, he says the atmosphere of the broadcast industry is KHTT (106.9 K-Hits) Tulsa, Okla., operations manager Jet Black. different. “At that time most everybody had been OXENFORD through a good old-fashioned radio war and it was until the last three or four years. the norm. Now it is not the norm.” FCC regulations require that before recording any call made from the radio Since radio station ownership has become big station for the air you must get the consent of the party at the other end of the business, companies don’t view that type of con- line. “If you record them saying ‘hello’ before you get consent, you’ve violated tent the same way. “At the time I was working for the rule. Even if they give permission later on in the conversation you’ve vio- someone who saw the humor in it. Today, for the lated the rule by not asking before you started running the tape,” Oxenford says. most part, the companies running these stations Beasley rhythmic WRDW (Wired 96.5) Philadelphia morning show member would rather not engage in that type of behavior, Steve Tingle, whose “Clairissa Jenkins Phone Checks” are heard every morn- and there is a smaller pool of other potential em- ing on the show and are available on a syndicated basis from Envision Radio ployers if you lose a job.” Networks, says prank calls are popular because the audience laughs at the crazy Bloom says the heightened sensitivity extends things he says to the victim, and they get to hear the person being pranked in to content about other such controversial areas as religious and racial humor. the raw. “They are amazed that the person hasn’t hung up or at how they are “There used to be more of an ability to do it with certain precautions and limi- reacting. It’s drama.” tations. Now I don’t think you can do it at all. Humor in any of those areas is Neither the FCC nor anyone else have had any problems with his calls. “I’ve going to blow up on you. Companies don’t want to deal with the community never had anyone call the station upset about what I did to them,” because interest groups that complain about them.” after more than 15 years he’s refined his approach. It starts with obeying the FCC regulations by mimicking what many businesses already do. “When I’m TAPS, SCAMS AND PRANKS: FUN ON THE PHONE calling and posing as a shop or a business I say, ‘For quality control purposes Prank phone calls are some of the most popular bits in radio, but recently they this call is being recorded,’” Tingle says. More importantly, after the reveal, he have become much more difficult to execute effectively. According to Oxenford, never airs a call where the person being pranked is upset. “I don’t put it on the while the rule about getting a caller’s consent before you record them has been air if they are not happy; I just hit delete. Every phone call I use they are all laugh- on the books for upwards of 20 years, the FCC hadn’t aggressively enforced it ing at the end. That’s the secret to a great phone call: Everyone is having fun.” BILLBOARD TOP 40 MID-WEEK UPDATE FEBRUARY 28, 2013 | PAGE 3 OF 10 It also helps that Tingle gets all his victims from listener suggestions, which THE CHRONICLER RICH APPEL [email protected] lessens the blow when he lets on that the call is a prank. But, even with that extra safeguard, he’s incredibly careful about the subject matter. “I’ve gotten calls from people saying, ‘My friend Mike is cheating on his girlfriend and you got to bust him.’ Why would I do that? So this person can get mad and come down to Has Top 40 Got the station and kill me?” Instead, he avoids anything that could get someone in trouble with their fam- Your Number? ily or at work, and illegal activities are completely off limits. After the call he edits out any personal information divulged during the conversation or com- ments the person might later regret. “People think [having someone pranked] Probably Not. is fun, but they don’t realize how it could be damaging to that person. It could really screw them up.” While they might not want to admit it, there are programmers reading this whose back-in-the-day radio listening was all about catching the chart OUTSIDE INFLUENCES: WALKING THE VINE number of every song on every station. Each week in Outside Influences we share a piece of advice you might not have seen Top 40 was literally built on numbers: When it ruled AM and later when because it’s from someone outside of the world of radio and records.