FOCUS on Canadian Gay Marriage Law

With a Congressional vote on a bill to legalize gay marriage in Canada upcoming, religious groups in America are not sitting tightly waiting for the gauntlet to fall. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of support have been crossing the borders to our northern neighbors in an effort to stimulate grassroots opposition to the bill. Knights of Columbus in Connecticut recently paid $80,782 to have two million postcards distributed to Canadian Catholic churches, saying there is no limit set on how much his group will offer... "Whatever it takes," he said. "The family is too important." James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, recently aired a radio show as a paid broadcast to 130 stations in Canada stating, "It is clear here in the United States that the American people do not want same-sex marriage. I would hope that Canadians who also do not want same-sex marriage would be encouraged by what has happened down here."... Roger Robins, a professor at Marymount College in California who has studied the role of religion in U.S. politics, said few leaders of the religious right wield as much clout as Mr. Dobson... "It's huge. James Dobson may be one of the most important religious right figures in America right now."... If James Dobson calls attention to an issue and urges people to write about it, [legislators] are inundated."... Same-sex marriage supporters worry the involvement of powerful U.S religious groups risks tipping the balance in the debate... "We simply have no way to protect ourselves against an American invasion by the religious right," said Alex Munter, national co-ordinator for Canadians for Equal Marriage... "In terms of resources, we're just not equal on that basis."...

Radio show shames adulturers

Womanisers and man-eaters all over Soweto in South Africa now live in fear of being exposed on a popular weekly show called Cheaters... Two women sit in a darkened studio glaring at each other. Mpho Nanazo, the wronged wife, is furious. She says that she's been left at her home night after night with her small son, while her partner, Veli, has been having an affair with a schoolgirl... The "schoolgirl" is actually a 21-year-old in a track suit and a ponytail... She doesn't seem very repentant and answers questions in a sulky monotone... Ten minutes into the show, all hell breaks loose when Mpho calls the younger woman a slut and slaps her hard across the face... As security guards separate the women, Veli, the man they are fighting over, sits silently examining his fingernails... Scenes like this are broadcast every Thursday night on one of South Africa's best-known community radio stations, Jozi FM... Based in Soweto, the station grew out of the struggles against apartheid and was first granted a licence nearly a decade ago... Today it is the focal point of this Johannesburg suburb of two million people. Jozi is the place where residents can make their voices heard on issues like education, fighting corruption and street crime...

Radio station owner making waves

Local radio station owner Ed Perry is suing the former owners of the Hanover Mall, claiming his civil rights were violated when he was arrested at the complex in Sept. 2002 while covering a potential breaking news story... Perry claims a Hanover Mall security officer and local police officer wrongfully arrested him while he tried to get details concerning a reported car-jacking at the complex on Sept. 9, 2002... "My purpose for being there was to report on an incident that had potential for impacting public safety," said Perry, who owns WATD 95.9 FM in Marshfield. "That is what we (reporters) are supposed to do. When a business tries to prevent that from being done by a threat of arrest, that is a violation of a public trust."... Perry said he tried to interview witnesses to the car-jacking, but was prevented from doing so by mall security officer David Tharp and Hanover police officer Stephen Moar... "The mall officer said to me I was trespassing and to get off the property," said Perry. "I then said I'd like you to tell me that for the record on my tape."... Perry said Tharp balked at making a statement... "He said I don't want my voice recorded and he then felt I recorded him illegally," said Perry. "The police officer (Moar) then mentioned to him what I did was illegal."... Perry said Tharp then grabbed his tape recorder and a small scuffle ensued between them. Moar arrested Perry seconds later, charging him with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and trespassing. All of these charges were eventually dismissed by court officials...

Clear Channel: Ad cuts a success

In the "Less Is More" initiative, launched in mid-December, many of the company's available ad spots have been cut to 30 seconds or 15 seconds from 60 seconds, and the number of commercial minutes aired per hour is down to 11 to 12 minutes from around 20 minutes... Results from two independent studies commissioned by San Antonio, Texas-based Clear Channel (CCU: news, chart, profile) show that listeners notice the greater amount of music and enjoy it, and that they tend to remember those commercials that do air better than they did before, the company said... In its study, research and consulting firm Burke Inc. concluded that over time, "fewer commercials and more music are likely to improve listener loyalty."... Cincinnati-based Burke, which conducted the study across nine Clear Channel markets and a variety of radio formats, also found that the effectiveness of an ad doesn't depend on its length, and that creative spots were easily remembered by listeners... A separate study, by Atlanta-based Naviguage, found that with shorter commercial breaks featuring four or fewer ads, about 80 percent of the audience was still listening after the second commercial, and around 70 percent after the third spot... Naviguage also discovered that the first 30-second spot kept more of its audience than a first-position 60-second spot, regardless of how many spots were included in the commercial break...

Urban Radio Listeners Are Big Spenders

Urban radio listeners are big spenders in many significant retail categories, including automotive, sports apparel, wine, and wireless services says a recent study by Scarborough Research... The report outlined that when it comes to automotive, one of the top advertising categories for radio, Urban radio listeners are 52 percent more likely than all U.S. adults to plan to purchase a luxury vehicle during the next year. This accounts for more than one-quarter (27 percent) of intended luxury vehicle purchases nationally during the next 12 months... Urban radio listeners also demonstrate purchasing power when it comes to sports apparel accounting for more than one-third (35 percent) of consumers who spend $500 or more on athletic clothing yearly. In the sports league and team apparel category, listeners are more than twice as likely as all consumers to have purchased NBA apparel and 37 percent more likely to have purchased NFL apparel in the past year. In addition, listeners who purchased athletic shoes during the past year spent an average of $142 on these shoes, versus the national average of $123...

1,000 Radio journalists face layoff

Jobs of over 1,000 radio journalists in Nepal have come under threat as a result of the censorship on independent media by the royal government after the imposition of emergency in the country... The scribes, including 500 newsroom staff and an equal number of reporters, working in over 40 FM stations across the country, are facing layoffs... The government has issued a notice saying that private radios can only broadcast entertainment programmes. They cannot air news, comment and opinion, The Kathmandu Post, which also runs an FM station, said... "We have become jobless after the government cracked down on independent press," said a reporter at Kantipur FM, affiliated to The Kathmandu Post... Five to seven army personnel were deputed inside the newspaper office after the emergency was imposed on February 1, he said on condition of anonymity...

Classical Radio Personality Karl Haas, 91, Dies

Karl Haas, 91, a radio personality who for more than half a century shared his love of classical music with listeners around the world, died Feb. 6 at William Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak. No cause of death was given... Mr. Haas's syndicated program, "Adventures in Good Music," for many years attracted the largest audience of any classical music radio program in the world and was carried by hundreds of stations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Panama and on Armed Forces Radio... In Washington, WGMS (103.5 FM) carried "Adventures in Good Music" until the mid-1990s. Program director Jim Allison said it was the station's most popular program through about the mid-1980s... "It's still our highest-rated program," said Robert Conrad, president of WCLV-FM in Cleveland, which began syndicating the program in 1970... "Karl Haas had the unique knack of being able to convey his love and knowledge of classical music to an audience that, for the most part, wasn't all that familiar with it," Conrad said. "But instead of bringing the music down to them, he brought them up to the music. He was like Leonard Bernstein in that respect."... Mr. Haas, a native of Speyer-on-the-Rhine, Germany, began taking piano lessons from his mother at age 6. A few years later, he formed a piano trio with boyhood friends. He fled Nazi Germany in 1936 and settled with his family in Detroit, where he taught piano and commuted to New York to study with the renowned pianist Arthur Schnabel. He also founded the Chamber Music Society of Detroit in 1944. From 1967 to 1971, he served as president of the Interlochen Academy of the Arts in Interlochen, Mich... His broadcast career began in 1950 at WWJ in Detroit, where he hosted a weekly program previewing concerts by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In 1959, station WJR, also in Detroit, debuted "Adventures in Good Music," an hour-long program in which Mr. Haas played the music he loved and, in a warm and distinctive German-accented voice, talked about the music with his listeners... Conrad, who had met Mr. Haas in Detroit in 1962, moved to Cleveland and helped him get his program syndicated at WCLV in that city. He said listeners enjoyed not only Mr. Haas's vast knowledge of music but also his punning program titles, including "The Joy of Sax," "No Stern Unturned" and "Baroque and in Debt."... Conrad said a farmer once told him he listened to the show every day on his tractor. Mr. Haas stopped doing new shows two years ago, but the program airs in reruns on about a hundred stations in the United States and Australia. Conrad said WCLV will continue to distribute the program...