x If you're attending this year's NAB 2007 in Las Vegas, we hope you include the RAIN Las Vegas Summit '07 in your plans. This year, our lauded annual Summit will be all day Monday, April 16th, (with our customary cocktail hour following), just steps from the Las Vegas Convention Center at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel. (That's the Convention Center on the left in the photo above.) Over the next few weeks, we'll announce the meeting agenda and give you a run-down of scheduled guest speakers. We hope you can join us! xx

From David Oxenford's Broadcast Law Blog: "At the NAB Broadcast Leadership Conference in Washington today, Congressman Ed Markey, Chairman  of the House of Representatives Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, announced that the subcommittee would hold hearings on the state of radio. 

"These hearings would examine not only over-the-air radio, but also Internet radio, HD radio, satellite radio and other related businesses...

"A comprehensive hearing on radio issues could end up providing Congress with the information that could send it in several directions — perhaps weighing in on multiple ownership issues or on the digital radio transition, and could even prompt Congress to review any action taken on Internet radio royalties. 

"As we've  written before, the Copyright Royalty Board is expected to release its ruling on the royalties for 2006-2010 in the next week.  The direction of this Congressional hearing, when it occurs, will be worth watching."

Read the entire blog post at the Broadcast Law Blog.

To read more about the NAB State Leadership conference, click here or simply read on to the bottom of today's issue.

From the Washington Times: "Rivals XM Satellite Radio Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., whose plans to merge face regulatory review, have an 'abysmally low' share of the radio market.

"Or at least that's how XM Chairman Gary Parsons characterized the 3.4 % share of all radio listening that satellite-radio channels accounted for last fall during an Arbitron sampling period.

"In its first survey asking listeners about satellite and Internet radio — in addition to traditional AM and FM stations — Arbitron culled data from 468,786 listeners who kept diaries of their listening preferences between Sept. 21 and Dec. 13. About 5.6 % of those surveyed said they listened to satellite radio...

"In an interview, Mr. Parsons cited the Arbitron data in his defense of the proposed merger, which the National Association of Broadcasters, whose members include traditional AM/FM broadcasters, has criticized as a would-be monopoly...

"For example, those who said they listen to satellite radio spend more time listening to the radio overall — including AM and FM stations — an average of  33 hours a week, compared with 19 hours a week for those who listen only to AM/FM.

"Satellite-radio listeners spent 14 hours listening to terrestrial radio versus 10 hours and 45 minutes spent listening to satellite. Internet radio occupied the remaining 8 hours and 15 minutes."

Read the entire article at the Washington Times.

From Radio Ink: "Delivering the luncheon address at yesterday's NAB State Leadership Conference in Washington, Rep. Greg Walden urged broadcasters to take advantage of the access they have to policymakers to educate them about the challenges the industry faces.

"'Members of Congress, you will be shocked to know, don't understand our industry,' Walden quipped,... 'Because lawmakers don't understand [what] broadcasters do despite your best efforts all these years. Given the diversity and complexity of the marketplace today, it's your job to educate policymakers about the differences and the similarities,'...

"Walden... lambasted the satellite radio industry — and the proposed merger of XM and Sirius — for trying to skirt the FCC's rules.

"'It should come as no surprise that XM and Sirius want to merge,' he said. 'Just as they snuck around the prohibition on local programming, now they want to run over the FCC's prohibition on the two similar services merging."

Read the entire article at Radio Ink.