March 2008

MERELY LISTENING ON PHONE SHOWN TO DISTRACT DRIVERS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Rita Rubin]
Simply listening to a cellphone distracts drivers, a study concludes. The finding raises questions about the effectiveness of laws that ban only the use of handheld devices while driving. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Washington, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands prohibit drivers from using handheld cellphones, but no jurisdiction bans hands-free phones, says Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state and territorial highway safety offices. Allowing hands-free phones "really gives drivers a false sense of safety," Adkins says. He adds that he has seen no evidence that bans on handheld phones have prevented accidents. Neuroscientist Marcel Just, director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, agrees. Just studied 29 volunteers who used a driving simulator while inside an MRI brain scanner. The volunteers steered a car along a virtual winding road undisturbed or while deciding whether a sentence they heard was true or false. Listening while driving led to a "significant deterioration in driving accuracy," Just and his co-authors write in the latest issue of the journal Brain Research. The drivers hit the guardrail and veered out of the center of the lane more often while listening.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20080310/d_cellphone10.art.htm

MEDIA GENERAL SELLING KY STATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Michael Malone]
Media General is selling its ABC affiliate WTVQ Lexington (KY) to Morris Network for an undisclosed sum. Subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to be completed in the second or third quarter. Last October, Media General announced its intention to sell five stations in the Southeastern U.S. in an effort to reduce debt. The remaining outlets are WCWJ Jacksonville, WMBB Panama City (FL), KALB/NALB Alexandria (La.) and the independent WNEG Toccoa (GA). Savannah-based Morris Multimedia is the parent of the five-station group Morris Network. Morris Multimedia Chairman/CEO Charles H. Morris said the company will continue to grow.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6539687.html

* Media General Sells WTVQ to Morris Network
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/03/07/daily.11/

The FCC's Advisory Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age meets today at 10am (Eastern), visit http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/ for a webcast of the meeting. For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar/2008/3

CABLE FIRMS JOIN FORCES TO ATTRACT FOCUSED ADS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tim Arango]
In an effort to slow Google’s siphoning of advertising dollars away from television, the nation’s six largest cable companies are making plans for a jointly owned company that would allow national advertisers to buy customized ads and interactive ads across the companies’ systems. Quarterbacking the initiative — code-named Project Canoe to emphasize that the companies must all work together — has been Stephen Burke, president of Comcast, and Landel C. Hobbs, the chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable. Getting the right advertisement to the right person, based on that individual’s own tastes and lifestyle, has been the promise of cable television for years and the reality of the Internet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10cable.html?ref=todays...
(requires registration)