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24 January 28, 2013 Arkansas Business Reason #11 Fly Smarter. Fly Charter. No Plane Changes Travel on Your Schedule Land Closer to Your Destination Arrive Relaxed and On Time Since 1939 1501 Bond Ave | Little Rock, AR | 72202 | 501.975.9329 | central.aero 4.791” x 2.8” 1/8 page horizontal Arkansas Business DOWNLOAD ARKANSAS BUSINESS LISTS AS SPREADSHEETS. Visit ArkansasBusiness.com/lists. To view the free digital edition, visit ArkansasBusiness.com and click on the Book of Lists icon! Harding University’s American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series presents stephen moore “How America Can Get Its Mojo Back” Stephen Moore joined The Wall Street Journal in 2005 as a member of the editorial board and senior economics writer. He splits his time between Washington, D.C., and New York, focusing on economic issues including budget, tax and monetary policy. Over the years, Moore has served as a senior economist on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, as a budget expert for the Heritage Foundation, and as a senior economics fellow at the Cato Institute. He was a consultant to the National Economic Commission in l987 and research director for President Reagan’s Commission on Privatization. Moore’s most recent book is Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status. Open seating — no tickets necessary. February 7, 2013 7:30 p.m. | Benson Auditorium Co-sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation HARDING UNIVERSITY AMERICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE Neal Moore Goes Solo Neal Moore, a founding partner of Little Rock ad agency The Communications Group, is venturing out on his own with a company called NealMooreCreative. Moore, 59, is continuing to work with The Communications Group as a consultant, but is offering public relations, advertising, voice-over and marketing services through his own business. “I’m excited about it,” Moore said. “There does come a time in your life when you kind of want to have flexibility.” Moore was creative director for The Communications Group more than 25 years. The Communication Group’s ownership transition should take three years, Moore said. Dane Cowling, another of the agency’s founding principals, is interim director of creative services for The Communications Group. New Publisher at The Courier The Saline Courier of Benton has named Steve Boggs publisher. During the first week in January, . Boggs replaced Terri Leifeste as publisher of the daily newspaper. Boggs came to The Courier from a job in Neosho, Mo., where he served as group publisher of five GateHouse Media newspapers in Missouri and Kansas. Boggs is a native of Leflore, Okla., and Fall Arbitron Numbers Fall Fall Station Format Owner 2012 2011 Change KSSN-FM (KSSN 96 FM) Country Clear Channel 10.0 9.6 +0.4 KMJX-FM (105.1 The Wolf) Classic Country Clear Channel 7.5 7.4 +0.1 KLAL-FM (Alice 107.7) Contemporary Hit Music Cumulus Media 6.2 5.6 +0.6 KABZ-FM (103.7 The Buzz) Talk/Personality Signal Media 5.9 5.5 +0.4 KKPT-FM (The Point 94.1 FM) Classic Rock Signal Media 5.9 5.6 +0.3 KURB-FM (B98.5) Adult Contemporary Cumulus Media 5.3 3.8 +1.5 KIPR-FM (Power 92) Urban Contemporary Cumulus Media 4.8 6.3 -1.5 KDJE-FM (The Edge 100.3) Rock Clear Channel 4.5 4.4 +0.1 KARN-FM (News Radio 102.9) News/Talk Cumulus Media 3.7 3.7 0 KHLR-FM (Heartbeat 106.6) Rhythm & Blues/Oldies Signal Media 3.7 3.4 +0.3 KHKN-FM (94.9 Tom-FM) Adult Hits Clear Channel Media 3.1 4.3 -1.2 KHTE-FM (kHits 96.5)* Pop Contemporary Hits Capital City 1.7 0.7 +1 Broadcasting KKSP-FM (Fresh Talk 93.3)** News/Talk Capital City 0.6 0.7 -0.1 Broadcasting KCNY-FM (Y 107.1) Country Crain Media Group 0.6 0.9 -0.3 KOLL-FM (La Zeta 106.3) Spanish Vega Broadcasting N/A 0.9 N/A KARN-AM (The Sports Animal) Sports Cumulus Media N/A 0.6 N/A KAAY-AM (1090 AM) Religious/Southern Gospel Cumulus Media N/A 0 N/A *KHTE switched to news and talk programming this month. The fall ratings period was Sept. 13- Dec. 5. **KKSP switched to an all-sports format this month. Source: Arbitron Outtakes Kate Knable KKnable@ABPG.com has nearly 30 years of newspaper experience. Fall Arbitron Results The fall radio ratings from media and marketing firm Arbitron of Columbia, Md., were released this month for the Little Rock metropolitan area, which includes Faulkner, Lonoke, Pulaski and Saline counties. The metro area has a population of 578,800 people. Arbitron aggregated the radio listening habits of 1,681 people in the Little Rock metro who were surveyed during the ratings period of Sept. 13-Dec. 5. Radio stations that do not subscribe to the Arbitron ratings are not included in the share data Arbitron releases publicly. The Outtakes chart contains the average quarter-hour share data of listeners 12 and older, 6 a.m.-midnight Monday through Sunday. Each share point equals 1 percent of total radio listening in the market. n
Arkansas 24/7 Business Your weekly Arkansas Business habit is now a daily addiction. On the web, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Today’s THV and in your inbox, Arkansas Business keeps you informed with up-tothe minute Arkansas business news. Follow Arkansas Business personalities on Twitter. Get breaking business news and analysis with a personal touch. Leaders Follow Most Read Stories of the Week 12,800 Twitter followers and growing! Join the conversation with @ArkBusiness on Twitter. Get breaking news headlines and links to the latest news and commentary on business in Arkansas. Plus: Like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/ArkansasBusiness. ArkansasBusiness.com’s most popular stories for the week ending Jan. 24: Rick Watkins 1. Update: AT&T U-Verse Blames Server for ‘Limited’ Outage Thousands of customers across southern U.S. without internet, cable. 2. Game & Fish Vice Chair Rick Watkins Arrested in Lonoke County Accused of being intoxicated, fi ring pistol. Term ends in 2014. 3. Bass Pro Shop Site in Little Rock Rings Up $3 Million Transaction Store slated to anchor 29-acre Gateway Town Center near Otter Creek. 4. Atlantic Tele-Network to Sell Alltel Business to AT&T for $780M Unclear what deal means for Allied Wireless’ Little Rock headquarters. The 89th General Assembly ArkansasBusiness.com goes inside the state Legislature with daily coverage from the Associated Press and Arkansas Business editors -- all of it available free at ArkansasBusiness.com/ARLEG. Includes daily news stories, blog posts and roundups of the latest developments. Where the Living is Easy Go to ArkansasBusiness.com’s front page and fi nd this week’s of the Largest Retirement Communities. Search the archive for past lists while you’re there and download a PDF version for free or get a spreadsheet version. Plus sign up for the weekly Real Estate and Health Care eNewsletters at ArkansasBusiness.com/eNews. The Whispers Blog Editor Interactive Editor Gwen Moritz Lance Turner @gwenmoritz @LT Arkansas’ breaking business news blog, with news and commentary from the Arkansas Business staff . On the blog right now: Razorbacks’ $3 million coaching staff includes former Hogs quarterback, and Little Rock Central’s band joins inauguration ceremonies in DC and appears on NBC Nightly News. Always With You On the Go ArkansasBusiness.com is now optimized for smartphones and tablets. Stay in touch with the latest breaking business news with our easy to scan news feed. All at ArkansasBusiness.com on your mobile device. Reform Spurs QualChoice’s New Products QualChoice of Little Rock will begin offering dental, vision and short-term gap health insurance this spring, which is one of several changes it’s making in response to national health care reform. President and CEO Michael Stock said QualChoice is adding the lines because profits are limited under its large group and small and individual health insurance lines. Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, health insurance companies must spend at least 85 percent of the premium they collect on health care for customers in large group policies and 80 percent on small group and individual policies. (A small group policy is up to 100 employees.) If the health insurance company spends less on health care costs under those plans, the difference could be refunded to policyholders. Stock said it’s difficult to operate under the medical loss ratios because of the limit placed on how much money can be kept to cover administrative expenses. Before the law took effect in 2011, if the large group line suffered a loss, then the profits from the small group line could subsidize those. But not anymore. “Every product has to be profitable and hit the loss ratios,” Stock said. To add more revenue, QualChoice started selling Medicare supplemental insurance coverage and life insurance products in 2011. To trim administrative expenses, in the summer of 2011 QualChoice reduced the amount of commission it paid on first-year sales for individual lines from 15 percent to 8 percent. Company revenue for the first three quarters of 2012 was $110.5 million, a slight decline from $110.9 million for the same period in 2011, according to its filing with the Arkansas Insurance Department. However, it reported a loss of $3.3 million, compared to a $22,589 profit Michael Stock, president and CEO of QualChoice. Arkansas Business January 28, 2013 25 Health Care Mark Friedman MFriedman@APBG.com for the same period in 2011. And by the end of 2011, QualChoice had a loss of $4.6 million. The company had a 2010 profit of $2 million. Stock said “a lot of the loss” in 2011 was tied to the implementation costs associated with health care reform. The company also had high-cost claims that year. The 2012 loss through Sept. 30 stemmed from “high claimants,” Stock said, with one claim over $2 million. In the coming months, QualChoice is expected to officially announce its participation in the state health insurance exchange. In October, the exchange is expected to start enrolling individuals and employees of small businesses for policies that go into place Jan. 1. It’s estimated that more than 200,000 Arkansans will be buying insurance through the exchange, and some of those will certainly buy from QualChoice. “Any business likes new customers,” Stock said. But, he said, there are still a lot of unknowns about the exchange, including what it will cost policyholders and the insurance companies. “The question is, what’s the price have to be to offer coverage to those people? And what’s the cost of providing care to them going to be? And can you do it profitably?” Stock said he also is unsure what the demand for health care services will be for those who currently don’t have insurance. “Are there diabetics that haven’t been managed?” he said. “Those could be high-cost patients.” The health care reform law prohibits insurance companies from turning people down for coverage based on preexisting conditions. Stock said he thinks the price of a health insurance policy in the exchange will be higher than traditional coverage today. Still, the federal government will provide a subsidy to the policyholders to buy the insurance in the exchange. The amount of the subsidy will be based on the policyholder’s income. One of the goals of health care reform is to lower health care costs, but Stock said he hasn’t seen prices fall since the health reform law was passed in 2010. n
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