By David Hatfield

Inside Tucson Business

Catching up on various topics:

This isn’t the kind of stuff that is likely to sit too well with Arizona Daily Star employees dealing with cutbacks – especially the nine employees who were laid off last month – but the newspaper’s parent company, Lee Enterprises, says its strong cash flow right now has prompted the board of directors to approve buying back up to $30 million of the company’s stock.

Mary Junck, chairman and CEO, said the buyback won’t significantly affect debt repayment or other possible uses of free cash after dividends. Lee reduced net debt by $135 million in its 2007 fiscal year and by $179 million in 2006.

Names in news

• Two departures from the newsroom at KGUN 9: veteran reporter Sal Quijada and Mark Horne.

• Cost-cutting takes another victim: Long-time radio program director Alan Cook – known as "A.C." on the air – is out at Clear Channel’s Tucson radio operations where he oversaw news-talk KNST 790-AM and oldies station Cool KWFM 1450-AM.

• Tucsonan Gina Murphy-Darling has figured out some creative and fun ways to live green and she’s passing along the info on a new radio show that airs at noon Saturdays on KNST 790-AM.

Quick takes

• Two new features were introduced with the January issue of Arizona Highways: The Journal, a quick-read section at the beginning of the magazine covering a range of topics, and a guide for exploring the state and brief biographies on contributors. In the January issue, the Journal section looks at the historic Rock Springs Café 45 miles north of Phoenix and the pies that make it famous, has a celebrity interview with TV host Hugh Downs and previews an upcoming photography book. The guide section features 25 weekend getaways. Also new starting with the January issue, the magazine is offering brief biographies on its contributors. As noted previously in this column, the state-owned magazine is looking at ways to boost revenues. One idea that is already in effect Hickman’s egg cartons are now featuring Arizona landscapes from the magazine.

• Arizona Public Media is the new name under which the University of Arizona’s various media platforms are now operating. Formerly known as the KUAT Communications Group, the new name went into effect. Jan. 7. "Our organization currently offers six streams of television content and three streams of radio content in addition to our online and community outreach activities," said General Manager Jack Gibson in a statement explaining the name change. Despite the fact the operation is on the UA campus, the operations remain editorial independent. Arizona Public Media entities consist of TV stations KUAT-TV 6 and KUAS 27 and their digital channels PBS Kids, V-me and Create; radio stations classical music KUAT-FM 90.5-FM/89.7-FM, National Public Radio KUAZ 89.1-FM/1550-AM and BBC Mundo KUAZ 89.1-FM HD2. Two changes that go along with the new name are a new website – http://AZpublicmedia.org – and a new membership publication, Preview magazine, published every other month that will also go into Tucson Lifestyle magazine starting in March.

• The Jolt KJLL 1330-AM has made some changes to its weekday schedule as a result of John C. Scott taking his local talkshow over to the Voice KVOI 690-AM. In keeping with it efforts to try to air talkshows live, Stephanie Miller now airs 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., followed by Ed Schultz 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Dr. Laura Schlessinger from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Most of the time between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. is now turned over to brokered shows – translated that means the hosts generally pay the radio station to air their shows. As noted earlier in this column, Scott, whose show aired from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jolt, moved over to the Voice as of Jan. 7 where he is on from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.

• Tucson’s largest poker tournament, held in November at Casino del Sol, will be nationally televised by the Heartland Poker Tour. Locally it is scheduled to be shown in two parts, at 10 p.m. May 10 and 17 on CW affiliate KWBA 58/cable 8. There were 141 players in the tournament, including several touring poker professionals. Arizona residents took all six spots in the final tournament. The finalists were Chuck Weaver, Seth Kranse, Ray Yee, Todd Lundwall, Don Siulstad and Andreas Fouliaa, who was the first-place winner of $56,313.

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.