After 20 Years, Still No Rest for R

When Radio & Records Inc. marked its 20th anniversary last year, the past looked a lot brighter than the future.

The trade publication’s core business, providing radio airplay information to record companies, had been undercut by new competition. It was also swept up in the financial problems of its owner, Westwood One, which surrendered R&R; to Westinghouse Credit Corp. in November as payment of a $20-million loan.

Over the next three months, R&R; languished in the nether world of debt properties. But sources say Westinghouse is now close to an agreement to sell the publication to Perry Partners, a New York-based arbitrage company.

The deal, which could be announced as early as this week, is said to be valued at $12 million to $15 million. Perry Partners’ Richard Perry could not be reached for comment. But others close to the talks say R&R;’s management, including Publisher Bob Wilson, will remain on board as part of the sale.

An industry source last week said Perry is committed to reinvigorating R&R;, possibly in preparation for a quick resale. Wilson has told colleagues that the publication is close to introducing an on-line monitoring program that can compete with BDS, the computerized system used by rival Billboard magazine.

If the R&R; sale goes through, it will be remembered as one of the major markdowns of a well-known media property. Many sources in the industry say the trade publication could have fetched $40 million just two years ago.

While R&R; still reaches about 60,000 people through its circulation of more than 8,000, industry executives say it has fallen behind technologically. R&R;’s method of collecting airplay statistics by sampling selected stations is considered outmoded compared to the automated BDS, which revolutionized airplay sampling much the way Soundscan changed the way retail sales are measured.

“People still take it seriously, but mainly for historic reasons,” said one senior-level music executive. “BDS has changed everything.”

Airplay statistics--while irrelevant to most listeners--are important to the industry in helping to shape advertising and promotional strategies, a job that’s increasingly complicated in today’s fragmented radio world. Radio programmers also use the reports to determine what’s hot in other markets.

R&R; can still be found on most record and radio executives’ desks, though largely for its stories on FCC rulings, ratings and radio station personnel changes, as well as its insider brand of gossip.

In the mid-1970s, R&R; was known as the last word on airplay. One executive says he considered it the “dominant trade publication.”

Westwood One bought R&R; in 1986 for a reported $18.5 million. Sources say that Westwood One turned down an offer of $40 million from a European publisher two years ago, because it valued R&R; at $50 million.

But soon Westwood One sustained a string of big losses. As part of his reorganization, Chairman Norman J. Pattiz sold off radio stations KQLZ in Los Angeles and WYNY in New York. He subsequently made a complex agreement with Infinity Broadcasting Corp. that gave Infinity operating control of the combined companies.

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Pattiz put R&R; on the block last April, about six months before the Infinity deal. A report prepared for prospective buyers by investment bankers Lazard Freres & Co. described R&R; as “the preeminent information source for the radio and music industries’ key decision makers.”

The report also made the point that R&R;’s revenue rose from $11.7 million in fiscal 1989 to $14 million in fiscal 1992, a compound annual growth rate of 6.3%. But it went on to acknowledge that advertising revenue had “consistently declined” since 1990 and that revenue was expected to remain flat in 1993.

Pattiz last week declined to comment on R&R;’s current value other than to confirm that Westinghouse took it as collateral for the $20-million debt. Others say Pattiz and Westinghouse both shopped it to several prospective buyers and that Wilson tried to line up his own investor group before Perry came along.

People differ on R&R;’s prospects. Some are skeptical of its chances of matching BDS’ advanced airplay measuring system. But supporters say R&R;’s program may even improve on BDS.

R&R; also retains strong support within the music industry. “It can still survive. The one question is whether it can reach the same heights,” said one executive.

Another says he firmly believes R&R; will come back. “It’s in vogue now to knock it,” he said. “But for the longest time it was the Bible of the industry . . . and they’re going to be on top again.”

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Britain-bound: The Guardian, a British newspaper, is reporting that filmmaker Roger Corman plans to relocate to England. Corman, known as the king of the B-movies for efforts such as “Death Race 2000” and “Big Bad Mama,” recently told The Times that he is close to a deal to sell his film library. The sale is expected to gross about $18 million. The Guardian quotes Corman as saying he plans to continue making his brand of low-budget movies in Britain.