Jim Winston

As Executive Director and General Counsel of The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, Jim Winston has his work cut out for him. On top of the fact that just around 2% of all commercial broadcast licenses are owned by African-Americans (compared to comprising 14% of the general population), minority broadcasters are usually the last to enjoy the fruits of any economic rebound. Throw in the looming clouds of a possible performance royalty and PPM ethnic sampling issues and there's little or no doubt that NABOB has a full plate. Here's how Jim Winston plans on getting things done.

What are NABOB's highest priorities today, issue-wise?

The biggest issue is one that the entire radio industry shares ... and that's the performance royalty legislation, which could be very devastating to music stations. The next pressing issue is the fact that we have a number of stations suffering because of the recession and large bank debt. Many stations took on debt under one market condition, then the whole industry changed. Now they're struggling to restructure loans to banks, pay off their debt and not go into default. That's an issue we're working with Congress on, to eliminate this fundamental flaw in the system. Most of the banks got bailed out by the TARP program, but they're not turning around and doing anything to help their customers, which was the whole purpose of the deal - to help their customers restructure their debts, but they're refusing to do that.

What we would like to see is some legislative action that would address this issue. There are ways the government could guarantee our debt so banks would be more inclined to restructure the loans; the government could even make SBA loans directly available to stations. There are a couple of different ways the government could be involved. Either way, I look for an industry solution to the situation.

Yet there's a strong undercurrent against any more government bail-outs. How can you overcome that?

The anti-government sentiments are being expressed by a very vocal but small minority of the electorate. The Tea Party has gotten a great deal of press in relation to their numbers. I think it'll be a tight election; I don't think there will be wholesale changes in Washington; we believe the policies that benefit our industry, as well as other industries in need, will still be available after the election

Will the mid-term elections have a negative impact on your Congressional lobbying?

Even though there could be big differences with the elections coming up, there are several things the government could do to foster a better business climate by giving stations a chance to restructure the loans. We're having conversations with Congress about that now and we expect to have more of them after the election.

What's your take on the royalty compromise that has been floated by the NAB, which mandates a FM chip in mobile devices?

Like any compromise, we have to see what the final compromise will look like. From what see so far, there are still some issues we have with it. We've been working with the NAB to create a unified position; we're continuing to conference with them to fine-tune some of the issues, but in general we support where the conversations are going.

What's your reaction to the stations that are threatening to flip formats if a royalty becomes a reality?

It's interesting; there are a number of stations that are talking about going to a News/Talk format if the compromise goes through and they find themselves with exorbitant royalty obligations. I believe that it's more likely that stations will be able to meet somewhere between going News/Talk and continuing on with business as usual with a royalty.

I see some movement between the parties that could persuade some record companies to make some sort of financial contribution in exchange for airplay. A lot of people don't know that getting paid for airplay is perfectly legal ... as long as it's announced on-air as a sponsorship. There's no impediment for radio stations and music companies to adopt such an arrangement.

Right now, the concept of a royalty is too theoretical for a lot of people to grapple with. I've heard some off-the-cuff comments of people going News/Talk as sort of a visceral reaction, but it's a little early to respond to that in a business sense.

Are you satisfied with what Arbitron has done to address the concern of minority and ethnic broadcasters with the PPM?

Yes. We negotiated a settlement with Arbitron and they announced various changes that in our view are improvements, which they will be implementing over a period of months and years. It's obviously too early to tell how well these improvements in samples will impact the actual ratings. I am optimistic that improvements in sampling will generate more realistic results. I am pleased with what Arbitron is doing to implement them.

NABOB and the Hispanic radio interests seemed to work quite well together in persuading Arbitron to put more effort into ethnic sampling with the PPM. Would you like to see more of this kind of collaboration on other issues that impact you?

Your description of the PPM process was accurate; we had a great coalition on the PPM and we created some new friendships in the process. We have had some conversations with them on some other issues; I'm sure there will be other things to work together on in the future.

Are you at all concerned that in its efforts to fine-tune the PPM, Arbitron is ignoring any lingering issues over diary sampling?

People have complained about the diaries for years - and they have gotten improvements from those complaints. We realize they're never going to be perfect, but the dairies have gotten better. We're pleased about the changes they have made to improve the samples.

Is NABOB also interested in investing in new air talent?

At our recent NABOB conference, there was a lot of discussion about developing talent. Because so many stations run syndicated programming, the amount of new radio talent being developed is way down from where it used to be years ago. People expressed some concern about that, although nothing was resolved in terms of how to look at developing new on-air talent.

One interesting thing we did discuss was the five years we have spent developing new sales talent. We've run the Media Sales Institute at Florida A&M University; it's a training program where graduates are placed in the business. There has been an increase in the number of minority salespeople in the industry as a result of that program.

The problem for us is that it's a lot more difficult to develop an effective on-air talent training program, but at least on the sales side, we have a program that's up and running.

Is the economic climate, along with a more realistic ascertainment of what radio stations are worth, made it at least a little bit easier for minority broadcasters to buy stations these days?

Unfortunately, when the lenders are currently taking a very dim view of the entire radio industry ... and we've got NABOB members who are still restructuring debt just to maintain the current situation, there's very little activity on the acquisition front. The banks are not taking a long-term view. We think there are opportunities out there for good, strong acquisitions, but financing in the industry right now is not being made available to those who are interested.

So what's your take on the future? Will minority broadcasters enjoy the modicum of revenue growth that pundits are predicting for the industry at large?

Historically, the minority consumers are the last to benefit from a recovery. However, with the demographic shifts in the country, the census data will start showing African-Americans and other minorities as a growing part of the economy. Mass-market retailers will realize that targeting African-American with their advertising dollars - when they start to advertise again - could give them an immediate shot in the arm.

What kind of revenue boost are you expecting for NABOB members?

On that front, I have to watch the economists giving their predictions. Their consensus seems to be moderate growth for the near future and little chance of dramatic growth for the foreseeable future.

How does NABOB combat the perception that radio is a "dying industry"?

That perception has certainly been impacting us as much as other stations. That train of thought has been talked about it for several years now. But people predicting the death of radio have had it all wrong. Radio is still the most effective way of reaching a large audience quickly and effectively, because it captures the attention of people on the go. That ability will continue unabated. When you reach people on the Net or through texting, it still requires someone to stop whatever they're doing to read something. You don't have to do that with radio. It's a definite advantage that radio doesn't interrupt what you're doing; that will ensure radio's long-term survival, even though there will be more challenges in the future.