• by December 9, 2003

TEN BLOCKS IS A LONG WAY TO RUN IN THE SLUSH - Count the Riff as among the unenthusiastic regarding the scheduling of two weeklong Wall Street media conferences, one by UBS Warburg and the other by Credit Suisse First Boston. Both began Monday at the same time, UBS at the Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street near Grand Central Station and CSFB up Fifth Avenue at Central Park South. Both will conclude Thursday and many companies will present at both. But Riff, tired of having to be between two and three places at once, wishes each could have their own weeks. They're both that good.

INFINITY'S '04 AD GOALS ARE, WELL, INFINITE - While the Riff has no doubt they're up to the task, don't count on Viacom giving Infinity Broadcasting executives any slack in 2004. Viacom President Mel Karmazin, who knows something about radio, recounted a meeting two weeks ago with 450 Infinity sales executives. Karmazin pronounced that radio should not lag overall advertising growth, and intimated that he wouldn't take anything less than that. "I've heard every excuse imaginable [for why radio is under-performing]. I have yet to hear a good one," Karmazin told a standing-room only crowd who came to hear him speak at midday.

DIALING UP ANOTHER TOUCHY RADIO ISSUE - If Karmazin doesn't want to hear excuses about radio, Clear Channel executives don't seem to want to hear anything more about what critics say they're doing to radio. Lowry Mays and Randall Mays bristled at an audience member's suggestion that Clear Channel's programming was homogenized. Randall Mays said that Clear Channel has 110 million listeners every week and that considerable resources were devoted to making sure they're satisfied. "We play what people want to hear," Randall Mays said. He also said it was a misperception that Clear Channel programming wasn't local, in response to another audience question. He noted that much effort was generated to make the programming local and specific to the individual listener. Mays said that had increased, not decreased, over the last several years.

UP-TO-THE-MINUTE WITH JON MANDEL - Jon Mandel, co-chief executive officer of New York-based MediaCom, made yet another pitch for minute-by-minute ratings of TV programs. He criticized the methodology of the "monopolists at Nielsen," who don't credit a change in viewing if, for instance, one viewer tunes in from 8-8:17 and another viewer tunes in at 8:17. He wanted to see Nielsen provide minute-by-minute ratings that agencies could sink their teeth into - Riff's cliché, not Mandel's. He said what Nielsen has so far come up with is "not quite usable in our jobs every day."