Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Nov. 27, 2003, edition 1 / Page 15
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mmmm mmm m 7C STRICTLY BUSINESS/tE^e CEwtlotte $oft Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Radio stations get Christmas spirit early Continued from page 8C see who would go all- Christmas first. Last year, WSNI - Sunny 104.5 — became Philadelphia’s first station to try a full month of Christmas songs, and was rewarded with a ratings bonanza. This year, rival WBEB- FM, one of the city’s most lis- tened-to stations, was deter mined not to be left out. Both stations went all-holiday within a few hours of each other on Nov. 12. “I probably spent most of the first six months of this year wearing out a pair of shoes kicking myself in the rear end for not doing it last year,” said Blaise Howard, vice president and general manager of WBEB, which is also known as BlOl. In Kansas City, KUDL-FM and adult contemporary rival KSRC-FM both flipped the all-Christmas switch on Nov. 14. San Francisco’s KBAY-FM and KOIT-FM made the change on Nov. 18, as did WLIT-FM and WNND~FM in Chicago. New York’s WNEW-FM started on Nov. 13, with rival WLTW-FM expected to fol low soon. As might be expected, the changeovers haven’t pleased everyone. Nancy Esbensen, of Havertown, Pa., posted a protest petition on the Internet after the two Philadelphia stations made their switch. “By the time Christmas gets here, we are going to be sick and tired of hearing ‘Blue Christmas’ on the radio. And that would be a shame,” she said. “There is a time and a place for every thing, and Thanksgiving is the cutoff.”- Two New Orleans stations, WCKW-FM and rival WLMG-FM, jumped to the all-Christmas format early this week, but switched back when listeners complained. Philadelphia’s WBEB and WSNI both acknowledged that they received many complaints that they started too early. “In all my years of pro graming, Tve never had to handle such a polarizing issue as Christmas music,” Check said, although he quickly added that similar criticism last year melted by early December. The phenomenon does beg the question: how early wiU the stations go? One Charlotte station, WSSS-FM, started playing Christmas music at the stroke of midnight on Halloween. Tom Taylor, who edits the daily industry newsletter Inside Radio, said the trend may continue as long as peo ple keep feehng the need for an emotional lift. “There’s the economy. There’s the war. A lot of peo ple could probably use a lit tle smile, and what gets peo ple smiling more than Christmas?” On the Net: W S N 1 - F M ; http:/Avww.sunny}045. com/ W B E B - F M : http://www.bl01radio.com/ Sunny 104.5 petition: http://www.petitiononlme. com/su nny25/petition.html Economists predict strong growth in ‘04 Continued from page 8C the economy fell into reces sion from March through November 2001 and has been struggling to mount a sustained rebound. Much of the current strength is coming from tax cuts Bush pushed through Congress in May and low interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve, which is expected to keep holding its key benchmark rate at a 45-year low of 1 percent for some time to come. “We just have an unprece dented amount of economic stimulus coming from Washington to boost eco nomic activities,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. “That is going to keep economic activity at very high levels.” Asked why unemployment was not expected to come down any faster given the strong economic growth, the NABE analysts cited the expected continued drive by businesses to boost produc tivity, the amount of output per hour of work, in a tough competitive environment. The NABE forecasters pre dicted that productivity would rise by 4.1 percent this year and a smaller but still strong 3.7 percent in 2004. Strong productivity growth, while depressing job creation, has acted to keep inflation under tight control because companies can boost their profits without having to raise prices. The report predicted con sumer inflation to rise a moderate 2 percent this year, when measured from the final quarter of 2002, and an even slower 1.7 percent next year. The nation’s twin deficits are projected to worsen, with the merchandise trade deficit forecast to hit a record $525 billion this year and set a new mark of $545 billion in 2004. The federal budget deficit, which reached a record $374 biliion in 2003, will climb to $462.8 billion for 2004, the NABE panel said. With economic growth rebounding, it said, interest rates will rise at a moderate pace. The 10-year Treasury note, a key determinant of mortgage rates, was project ed to climb from to around 5 percent by the fourth quar ter of next year, up from around 4.2 percent now. That would mean that 30- year mortgages will likely rise to around 6.6 percent by this time next year, from 5.83 percent currently. That increase wdi dampen housing demand, but only slightly, the report said, It predicted that housing con struction will total a still robust 1.7 million units in 2004, down 5 percent from an expected 1.79 million units this year. Survey: 31 percent of Americans tech-sawy By Brian Bergstein THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK - Ttechnology geeks, unite. There are more of you than you might have realized. A study released Sunday found that 31 per cent of Americans are “high ly tech-sawy” people for whom the Internet, cell phones and handheld orga nizers are more indispens able than TVs and old-fash ioned wired phones. John Horrigan, author of the report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, said the size of this “tech elite” was somewhat surprising. And while this group is predominantly young, the Pew researchers found plenty of baby boomers and seniors who are equally ardent about using technology. The difference, though, is that techies in their late teens and 20s are more like ly to create onUne content, like Web logs, or “blogs.” . So are you part of the “tech elite’? Consider these other Pew findings about how they Uve: • They spend, on average, a total of $169 a month on broadband Internet service. satellite or cable TV, cell phones and Web content. That is 39 percent higher than the national average, $122. • Some 29 percent of them have broadband connections, compared with 17 percent of everyone else. • About 7 percent of tech nology aficionados have can celed their landline phone and gone all-wireless. Scty Yes To Success! Dr. Carl Arrington, Licensed Presenter “Dr. Arlington is a recognized Fast- Start Distributor ' with EcoQuest International. He has spent years help ing othei's reach their pei-sonal and professional dreams. Life Is Not An Emergency How many times have you been in a situation in which it seemed that the outcome was a make it or break it situation? Many of us live our lives in such a way that almost every thing we do is a crisis or a reaction to a crisis. We are on our way to a meeting and we are running late. As a result, we break the speed limit trying to get there, only to discover that the meeting has not yet started. Perhaps, some one told you that thy really needed something from you. You went all out to get it to them, only to discover later, that what the person needed turned out not to be a necessity after all. There are countless examples that we could cite of situations that we thought were emergencies when in fact they really were not. Along the road to success you will discover that there are actually vety few real emergencies. Those situations that keep us running at break neck speed or that we get excited and anxious over are really only emergencies in our minds or those who project them onto us. In order to enjoy the journey to success, learn to take life in stride. When we relax and take a longer perspective of all that is going on in our lives, it is easier to see that perceived emergencies are usually the result of our not taking adequate time to plan. You will often discover that many things that we thought were emergencies were not as bad as we thought they were. I know someone who tells me that whenever family members call him, they always leave frantic messages for him to return their calls because of an emergency. However, they rarely state what the emergency is. Once he returns the calls he discovers that these are not emergencies at all. He has now gotten to the point that he takes his time returning the calls. How desperate our lives would be if most every thing we did was an emergency. To enjoy our journey along the road to success, let us learn to live in ways that show to us that life is not an emergency, but a gift to be enjoyed. When we put forth our be.st efforts. Life seems to work things out in the end. Learn to minimize the number of emergencies in your life. Your heart will love you for it! NEED MONEY? START YOUR OWN SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS? Go to tvww.maximumsuccess.comlcla Contact Dr. Carl Arrington for details. f]\/[a?qmuin TotentiaC Call: 704-591-1988 Street Address_ City _Zip Code_ Home Phone_ FAX: _Work Phone_ Don’t Delay, Call Today! students & parents want to learn more about financial aid? we can help. Some companies offer "free" financial aid presentations and then ask you to pay a fee or buy a product. College Foundation of North Carolina provides all the information you need at no cost! CFNC can help you: Understand the college financial aid process ' T ^ Find information on scholarships and grants ' Collegl^^® Foundation ^■1 of North Carolina ^ Find low-interest student and parent loans with benefits . to save you money i ^ And our services and help are free Helping You Plan, Apply, and Pay for College Visit our website or call our toll-free number today to speak with V a financial aid specialist. www.CFNC.org — 866-866-CFNC (tonfree) Se Habla Espanol A senice of the Stale of North Carolina ©College I'oundation, Inc. 200.^
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Nov. 27, 2003, edition 1
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