Morning Report - News from July 16, 2002

POP/ROCK

McCartney Leads the Pack in Ticket Sales

A survey by trade publisher Pollstar found that, recessionary times notwithstanding, concert ticket prices have risen more than 11% from last year to an average of $50.81. Perhaps as a result of the spiraling costs, sales for the top 50 music acts are down by 3% from last year and a hefty 18% from 2000.

Still, the biggest stars are raking it in. Paul McCartney, with an average ticket price of $129.59, is the top earner, with ticket sales of $52.8 million. He is followed by the double bill of Billy Joel and Elton John ($44.4 million), veterans Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ($34.9 million) and the boy band ‘N Sync ($33.2 million).

Ticket grosses for 2002, however, could end up surpassing last year, given that Bruce Springsteen hits the road in August, followed by the Rolling Stones in September.

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MUSIC

Lackluster Response Halts ‘Turandot’

Tibor Rudas, the impresario who brought us “The Three Tenors,” had planned to bring a lavish $7-million production of Puccini’s “Turandot” from the Chinese National Opera on a 14- city tour of North America this fall.

Funded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, the opera was billed as the first all-Chinese rendition of the Italian-language work. The story of a young prince determined to capture the heart of a princess is set in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

Due to insufficient demand, however, the tour has been called off. Anaheim’s Arrowhead Pond had been among the sites considered by the promoters, who blame the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the ailing American economy.

“This ambitious project was conceived in the summer of 2001, when the world was a very different place both politically and economically,” Rudas said. “Even then, it was going to be challenging to meet the deadlines involved in creating a mammoth production and bringing a company of 150 performers to the West.”

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RADIO

More Bad News for the Classical Format

Finding Bach, Brahms or Stravinsky on the radio dial is an increasingly rare phenomenon. And the situation is getting worse. According to a recent Arbitron survey, 34 of the nation’s top 100 markets don’t have a classical music station.

New York’s public radio station WNYC has slashed its music programming in favor of more music and talk. And, earlier this year, Miami’s WTMI became the latest casualty when its new owner, Cox Communications, switched it to a dance format.

Insiders blame the fact that the profit margins for commercial stations playing classical formats are lower--a deterrent in the eyes of owners seeking to recoup their investment.

One holdout is Saul Levine, owner of the successful Los Angeles classical music station KMZT-FM (105.1). He bought the frequency for a song in 1958 and has been offered as much as $400 million for it. Still, he’s having more trouble with his classical station, also named KMZT, in San Francisco. Last month, he switched it to a country format--prompted, he said, by the fact that the city no longer had a country music station.

“I’m a broadcaster, not a guy who only likes to listen to classical music,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

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TELEVISION

Lawmakers Send Warning to PBS

Sesame Workshop, producer of the children’s program “Sesame Street,” says it has no intention of introducing an HIV-positive character to the show in the U.S., as it plans to do for the program’s South African co-production, “Takalani Sesame.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and five other committee members sent a letter to PBS on Friday expressing concern that such a character could be inappropriate for the show’s 2-to-4-year-old audience. They also reminded PBS President Pat Mitchell that they have budgetary oversight of public broadcasting.

The Tauzin letter gave PBS until Friday to answer questions about the issue and the show’s public funding; PBS said it would respond today.

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QUICK TAKES

Robert Goulet, who is starring in “South Pacific” at the Wilshire Theatre, came down with the flu Friday and missed five performances over the weekend. Doctors confirm that he has recovered sufficiently to return tonight....Film editor Anne Thompson will host a conversation with producer Robert Evans tonight at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, after a 7:30 screening of “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” a movie based on his autobiography.... Diahann Carroll will join Phylicia Rashad in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Charles Randolph-Wright’s “Blue,” the story of an affluent African American family in rural South Carolina. The play, directed by Sheldon Epps, opens on Aug. 30....In the wake of its recent disclosure that a pledge of almost $7 million from a board member has not been met, the Museum of Contemporary Art has announced that Leonard Nimoy and his wife Susan Bay Nimoy have donated $1 million to present the work of emerging artists.... Drummer Max Weinberg, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band since 1974, is taking a leave of absence from “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” to tour with the group, starting Friday. Jimmy Vivino, guitarist for the Max Weinberg Seven, will be the temporary bandleader.... Twentieth Century Fox TV will release the first season of its real-time drama “24” on DVD on Sept. 17--the first time a full season of a network show will be put on sale in that format before the series has been sold into syndication or canceled, Variety reports. The six-disc set will feature an alternate ending to the season’s finale.... In its first major foray into the horror genre since “The Blair Witch Project,” Artisan Pictures will remake “Scanners,” the 1991 David Cronenberg thriller, about people with extraordinary telepathic abilities trying to take over the world, Variety reports.