Convention Best Ever

The lights are out at the Italian Street Festival, the signs are down and the convention is over for another year. We are proud of the fact that we had the largest attendance ever for a Mid Atlantic States Conference.  Attendees who took photos with Caesar and his entourage will cherish them forever. The FCC’s Roy Stewart spent the entire day going over the soon to be released FCC ownership rules. The owners of many of the states broadcast stations attended that meeting and had lots of “what if” questions for Roy. All of the other topics of discussion were thrown out the window and the day was spent on the rules. In the programming area, we had to add chairs to an already standing room only event as rapt attention was paid to Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Zoo Crew as they shared their morning drive secrets.  At the Best of the Best Luncheon, New Jersey 101.5 won more awards than any other station and Millennium Radio announced the establishment of a scholarship program to honor Erik Van Ness, who passed away at the age of 29 years old.  Paul Weyland did an outstanding job of Sales Training and Tom Asacker was incredible as our keynote speaker. The event was a total sellout. Both the Best of The Best Luncheon and the Hotel itself were oversold. Next year the convention will be held June 7-8, 2004 at the new Borgata in the Atlantic City Marina Area. Make your reservations now. Don’t get left standing in the hall or sleeping on the beach! 

FCC Votes On New Ownership Rules

Monday, June 6, the FCC voted 3-2 along party lines to change the ownership rules in broadcasting and newspapers as applied to broadcasting. As far as the rules themselves, they have not yet been released to the public. Nothing can happen as the FCC just froze the granting of any license transfers until the OMB approves the new forms, which could take a month or more.  As far as New Jersey is concerned, there probably won’t be any changes in the short term.  In the long term, perhaps the Atlantic City Press or Asbury Park Press would be interested in buying some radio and/or TV stations in their markets. In fact, just such a rumor was circulating at the NJBA Convention in Atlantic City, with several staffers at South Jersey Radio expressing concern about the sale of the old Green Group.  When specifically asked, no management person at the meeting would deny the possibility.  Most said, “we’ll see what happens.” 

June Job Fair

The NJBA has announced a date has been set by the NJBA and The New Jersey Army National Guard to hold an EEO Job Fair at the Guard Armory in Somerset, New Jersey. All stations that participate in the NJBA EEO Program are expected to participate. The date is Saturday, June 21, from 8:00am until 3:00pm and will follow the same format as previous NJBA Job Fairs. All attendees will be required to fill out an application for employment and watch the video, “Jobs In Broadcasting”. Then they will have the opportunity to visit each stations booth at the event. There's no charge for stations to participate. 

        Get QuickNews via E-mail. It’s Fast and Free. E-mail njba@njba.com and in the subject line put the words “subscribe QuickNews”. That’s all there is to it.