{"id":13249,"date":"2017-01-24T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=13249"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:21:27","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T23:21:27","slug":"dear-mr-feder-cease-desist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2017\/01\/24\/dear-mr-feder-cease-desist\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dear Mr. Feder: Cease and desist\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stop<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, it\u2019s been my practice to report on the annual revenues of Chicago radio stations.<\/p>\n

Around this time every year, I update readers on \u201cChicago radio\u2019s cash register,\u201d<\/a> listing the annual revenues of the top 30 or so local stations and comparing their year-to-year sales figures.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the best way I know of to gauge the strength of the market overall and the relative success of radio groups, stations and formats.<\/p>\n

Over the years the accuracy of my reports has never been questioned because the figures are supplied by the stations themselves. Chicago broadcasters voluntarily provide monthly sales totals to the accounting firm of Miller Kaplan Arase,<\/a> which compiles the data for its clients.<\/p>\n

But this year, regrettably, I won\u2019t be able to share the facts that people inside the business already have.<\/p>\n

On Monday I received a letter from a law firm for Miller Kaplan Arase threatening to sue if I published \u201cany parts of its reports, including any revenue figures which you may obtain, regardless of source.\u201d According to the letter, my \u201cwrongful dissemination of this information may have a negative impact, for which you will be held responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In case the message wasn\u2019t clear enough, the letter concluded: \u201cYou are to cease and desist from using MKA data and reports forthwith. \u00a0Judge yourself accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted to post the entire letter here, but the company\u2019s lawyer would not give me permission. \u201cWe chose to keep the matter between you and us and not to handle it publicly,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0\u201cWe would prefer that you not republish our cease and desist letter, though you certainly can state that you received one from MKA's counsel, if you like.\u201d<\/p>\n

This all came about, I\u2019m told, because one of the Chicago radio market managers objected to my report last year, which correctly noted that his group\u2019s revenues had declined from the previous year. \u00a0Although I obtained the figures from sources outside of Miller Kaplan Arase, the disgruntled manager pressured the accounting firm, which in turn, threatened me.<\/p>\n

As much as I\u2019d hoped to publish the figures this year, I don\u2019t see how I can. Without the deep pockets of a newspaper or other news organization to back a fight, I have no recourse but to acquiesce.<\/p>\n

Just wanted you to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  For as long as I can remember, it\u2019s been my practice to report on the annual revenues of Chicago radio stations. Around this time every year, I update readers on \u201cChicago radio\u2019s cash register,\u201d listing the annual revenues of the top 30 or so local stations and comparing their year-to-year sales figures. It\u2019s the... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13249"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13259,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions\/13259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}