Radio Networks

County supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to authorize $425,000 to buy hand-held radios for probation officers using the county's new 800-MHz communication system. Probation officials said they asked for 102 extra radios to ensure that officers in new and expanded programs can call for help in an emergency.

CBS Corp.'s Infinity Broadcasting Corp. and other radio station owners sued to overturn a U.S. Copyright Office ruling that requires thousands of broadcasters using the Web to pay fees for playing music. The broadcasters sued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to overturn the decision that record companies are entitled to royalties when a station transmits music programming on a Web site. An arbitration panel will set the exact amount.

Think of the Low Power FM radio controversy--potentially the medium's biggest revolution since the arrival of FM itself in the 1960s--as a packed dance floor. The way opponents describe it: The room would be so crowded you could barely hear the words of your partner or the sound of the music, or move to the beat without getting entangled in someone else's feet.

It was an unconventional pitch to NBC's Lindy DeKoven, executive vice president of movies and miniseries: "No one knows him. He's a meaningless name to people. He died in obscurity." Yet that's how Frank Von Zerneck described Alan Freed over an informal lunch in February with DeKoven and his partner and co-executive producer Bob Sertner.

Internet radio may be grabbing listeners and generating a lot of excitement, but is anyone actually making money? Not yet, say industry experts. But the promise of future payoffs is driving companies to invest now. In June, America Online picked up Spinner Networks and digital audio software company Nullsoft in a $400-million, all-stock deal, creating an audio powerhouse by combining AOL's more than 17 million subscribers with Nullsoft's 15 million WinAmp users and Spinner's 1.

Lyn Gerry's house begins near where the pavement ends on a hilltop overlooking Highland Park. The road is narrow, flanked by leafy green trees and handsome wooden houses. A worn white Honda, dotted with bumper stickers, is parked out front near a jumble of firewood, dozens of empty plastic bottles and a rain-speckled placard that reads, "Bill Clinton = War Criminal." It's a harsh assessment. But then again, in the eyes of the Clinton administration, Gerry is something of a criminal, too.

It is late afternoon, but here in the studios of Radio Free Asia, Jenny Choi is reading the 7 a.m. news--to North Korea. Speaking softly in Korean, she and a co-anchor report on long-running Korean negotiations, an upcoming visit by an American envoy and discuss the mysterious deaths of 71 cattle shipped to the famine-stricken nation. Every story is about North Korea. "Today we have so much news!" program director Jaehoon Ahn says happily.

Infinity Broadcasting Corp., a unit of CBS Corp. and the second-largest U.S. radio network, plans an initial stock sale today that could raise $2.8 billion. Infinity, whose stations carry the Howard Stern and Don Imus shows, expects to sell 135 million shares at $19 to $22 each, making it the fourth-largest IPO by a U.S. company this decade. The sale would give Infinity a total market capitalization of about $17.

A new Catholic talk radio network won't begin broadcasting until at least next month in Southern California and nine other major markets, but already the privately financed company has stirred controversy and concerns among church leaders here. The San Diego-based network would double the Catholic presence in a religious broadcasting field dominated by 1,600 Protestant evangelical outlets.

Next month, the Hispanic Radio Network will set a milestone. The Washington-based network will launch a call-in program broadcast to all Spanish-speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere, except Cuba. Mundo 2000 is a one-hour weekly program about science, technology, health care and the environment.